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4- 



?6) 



HISTORY OF 

KERN COUNTY 

CALIFORNIA 



WITH 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 



OF 



The Leading Men and Momen of the County Who Have Been Identified 

With Its Growth and BeveloprneAt From the Early 

Days to the Present 



HISTORY BY 

WALLACE M. MORGAN 



ILLUSTRATED 
COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME 



HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY 

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 

1914 



maiA 



J 



J ^2 






/^ 



ls>V^ 



CONTENTS 



Introductory ..: 17 

Kern County of Vast Size — Great Natural Wealth — Rapid Increase in Val- 
uations — Necessity of Large Capital — Early Indians Within Borders of 
County — Clash Between White and Red — First Mining, in 1851 — Yellow 
Aster Mine — Land Patents and Water Rights — First Oil Developed in 1899 
— The High Point in the County History. 

CHAPTER I. 

A Description of Kern County jO 

Area of County — Boundaries — North Line 136 Miles in Length — South Line 
102 Miles Long— View of the Kern Valley— The West Side Oil Fields— 
Buena Vista Gas Belt — Recent Activity in the Oil Fields — Reclaimed Swamp 
Land — Miller & Lux Alfalfa Fields — Irrigation Canals Radiate from Bakers- 
field — Broad Belt of Irrigated Land — Citrus Mesa Skirts the Sierras — Begin- 
nings of Orange Culture — Water for Pumping Abundant — Cheap Power 
Available — Pumping Plants in Other Sections — Great Land Holdings — Kern 
River Oil Field — The Mountain Sections — Early Mining Country — Mountain 
Farming Districts — Rancho El Tejon — The Desert Triangle Again — Bakers- 
field the Commercial Center. 

CHAPTER II. 

Indians and the Tejon Ranch..... 29 

Remains of a Prehistoric Village — Early Indian Tribes — The Yokut Indians 
— Living the Simple Life — Specimens of Indian Handicraft — Elaborate 
Ceremonials of the Race — Tribal Names and Characteristics — Distribution 
of Tribes — Civilizing the Indians — Plans of Lieutenant Beale to Protect 
and Prosper Indians — Renegade Indians — Serranos— The Tejon Ranch — 
Sold to Southern California Syndicate. 

CHAPTER III. 
Gold Mining from 1851 to 1875 35 

Rush in 1851 to Kern River — Quartz Mining at Keysville in 1852 — Mining 
the Kern River Placers in 1853 — Discovery of the Keys Mine in 1854 — The 
First Quartz Mill Hauled from San Francisco — Keys and Mammoth Mines 
— Town of Keysville — The Fort — Big Blue Mine and Whiskey Flat — Growth 
of Kernville — Founding of Havilah — Its Most Productive Mine — Fondness 
of Early Miners for Gambling — Other Mining Districts. 

CHAPTER IV. 
Beginnings of Agriculture and Stock-Raising 43 

First Comers were Sojourners Only — Trip Made by Audubon in 1849 — 
The South Fork Pioneers — Dangers of Early Days — The Mason & Henry 
Gang — South Fork Valley — Early Settlers on the Kern Delta — The Immi- 
grant Road of the '50s — Site of Bakersfield in 1859 — Beginnings of the 
County's Cattle Industry — Some of the Very Old Timers — Beginning of 
the Sheep Industry — The Mexican Settlement — Catching Wild Horses as 
a Business — Stories of the Outlaw Vasquez — The Barnes Settlement. 

CHAPTER V. 
Floods and Swamp Reclamation 54 

Act of 1857 for Reclamation of Swamp Land — The First San Joaquin 
Valley Canal Project — The First State Highway — Attempts to Interest 
Capitalists — How a River in Flood Reclaimed a Swamp — Then the Drought 
Helped, Too — Baker Gets His Patent — Montgomery Patent Annulled — 
The State Did Not Get the Land — Beginnings of Bakersfield — First Settlers 
— First Cotton Crop — First Schools — Freight Hauled from Los Angeles — 
Architecture in 1863 — The Flood of 1867-68 — Avalanches form Lakes — Flood 
Reaches Bakersfield — Reclamation Work Completed — Patent Granted to 
Colonel Baker. 



VI CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VI. 
Organization of the County 61 

County Created from Tulare and Los Angeles — First County Seat at Havilah 
— First County Officials — First Court House — First Election Precincts — 
First Election in the County — The Vote for Governor — Officers Elected — 
First Swamp Land District Organized — Agreement with Colonel Baker — 
Changes in the Swamp Land Laws — A Sheep Worth More Than an Acre 
of Land — The First ^lountain Roads — Ferry Charges — Purchase of Toll 
Roads by the County. 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Coming ot" the Capitalists 66 

Era of Large Enterprise Begins — Bakersfield as it Was in 1870 — Sources 
of Ready Cash — Early Captains of Industry — Cotton Growers' Association 
Formed — Livermore and Redington Interests Sold — Kern County News of 
1871-73 — Havilah Residents I\Iove to Bakersfield — Death of Colonel Baker 
in 1872. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Bakersfield Becomes the County Metropolis 72 

History of Bakersfield a Story of Hope Deferred — Yet Always the City 
was Full of Life — Contest for County Seat Assumed Final Form in 1873 — 
Contest over Election — Bakersfield Made County Seat in 1874 by 22 Votes 
— Contract for Court House — First Incorporation of Town — First Officers 
— The First Hope Deferred — Delano Founded — The Story of Johnson's 
O.x-Team — Xews Notes of 1873-75 — Bakersfield Disincorporated in 1876 — 
The Town Marshal Then Retired. 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Contests Over Water Rights Begin 80 

Large Negotiations by Capitalists — Withdrawal of Redington — Decline of 
Livermore and Chester — The Largest Plow Ever Built — Fertile Causes of 
Litigation — First Great Fight Over Water Rights — Purposes of Haggin and 
Carr — Carr's Dealing with the Ditch Companies — Plans to Gather in the 
Desert Lands — Enter Miller and Lux at Rear of Stage. 

CHAPTER X. 
A Collection of Disconnected Stories 89 

The Drought of 1877 — Disastrous in Its Effects — The Town of Tehachapi — 
Its Pioneers — Moving of Old Town to Railroad — First Apple Trees Planted 
About 1880 — Delano Making Progress — The Last of Old Clubfoot — Lynch- 
ing of an Outlaw Gang — The Tehachapi Train Wreck — Importation of the 
Negroes— News Notes of 1886-93. 

CHAPTER XL 

The Great Lux-Haggin Water Suit 98 

Involving Some Picturesque Characters, a Supreme Court Decision, Two 
State Irrigation Conventions, a Special Session of the State Legislature 
and an Historic Agreement — Some of Miller's Chief Lieutenants — Leaders 
of the Carr and Haggin Forces — Heads of the Rival Literary Bureaus — 
Julius Chester and Richard Hudnut — The Kern County Echo — The Great 
Water Suit — Kern River Plays Another Prank — Supreme Court Decides 
for Riparianists — Irrigators Everywhere Protested — Governor Calls Legis- 
lative Session — State Senate Deadlocks on Water Bills — The Miller-Haggin 
Agreement Ends Litigation. 

CHAPTER XII. 
First Attempt .\t Colonization 110 

Haggin Decides to Colonize — Carr Gives Place to Fergusson — Many Plans 
for Progress — Fire Wipes out Business Section — Bakersfield Quicklj'^ Re- 
builds — Colonization on a Large Scale — Scions of Nobility Make Things 
Hum — An International Romance — Journalistic Exigencies Aid Cupid — 
Causes for Dissatisfaction in Rosedalc Colonj^ — Another Swamp Land Con- 
test — The Jastro Administration. 



CONTENTS VI 1 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Important Events op a Decade, 1890-1900 117 

Desert Mining Booms — Traces of Early Prospectors — Discovery of the 
Yellow Aster — Other Famous Desert Mines — The Town of Randsburg — 
Discovery of Tungsten Mines — The Anialie District — Other Important 
Events — Gas and Electric Plants — First Street Railway — The First Levee 
Canal — The Great Railway Strike — Coxey's Army Comes and Goes — Twin 
Towns Incorporate — Company G Responds to Duty — News Notes 1895- 
1900. 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Development of Oil Fields 126 

Discovery of Great Oil Fields That Have Made the County Famous — Early 
Development at McKittrick — First Drilling Unsuccessful — Operators Move 
to Sunset — Refinery Established in 1891— McKittrick Railroad Built — Oil 
Boom Strikes West Side — Discovery of the Kern River Field — The Elwoods 
To be Credited with Discovery — The Great Boom — Sunset Railroad Built 
— Building of Pipe Lines Begun — Associated Oil Company' Formed — In- 
dependent Agency Organized — A Democratic Concern — Varying Prices for 
Oil — Gushers Swamp the Market — The Boom of 1910 — Developments at the 
Marketing End — More Pipe Lines Built — Getting the Markets Organized 
— Efforts to Check Over-Production — Oil Land Withdrawals — The Pickett 
Bill — The Yard Decision — Smith Remedial Bill — Asphaltum and Oil Refin- 
ing — Natural Gas Production — Natural Gas in Bakersfield — Making Gasoline 
from Gas — Some of the County's Famous Oil Gushers — Gushers Start 
Boom of 1910 — Lakeview Comes In — Product Swamps Pipe Line — The 
Consolidated Midway — A Procession of Gushers — North Midway Gushers 
— Effect on the Oil Game — The Lost Hills Field — The Discovery Well. 

CHAPTER XV. 

Progress of the County from 1900 to 1913.. .• 148 

Development of Pump Irrigation — Experiments at Wasco and McFarland — 
Development of the Citrus Belt — Pumping Plant Extension in 1912 — 
Planting Apples at Tehachapi — Status of Fruit Growing in 1913 — Bakersfield 
in 1904 — Good Times Return — Building Boom of 1909-10 — Activity in 
Home-Building — Raising the Civic Standards — Consolidation of Bakersfield 
and Kern — Bakersfield Paves Her Streets — Bonds for County Roads — 
Public Buildings of 1900-1913 — Church Building — Progress of Schools — The 
Rescue of Lindsay B. Hicks— News Notes 1899 to 1910. 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Brief Histories of Kern County Towns 173 

Bakersfield in 1859 — Coming of Colonel Baker — Kern County Created — 
Bakersfield Formally Laid Out — Bakersfield Wins the County Seat — Bakers- 
field is Incorporated then Disincorporated — Another Era of Progress — The 
Big Fire — Colonization of Rosedale — Public LTtilities in 1889-90 — Kern River 
Oil Boom — Present Prospects — West Side Oil Field Tow^ns — Maricopa — 
Taft — Fellows — McKittrick — Lost Hills — Towns of the Valley Farming 
District — Delano — Wasco — Famosa — McFarland — Rio Bravo — Button willow 
— Shafter — Rosedale — Edison — Towns of the Mountain Section — Tehachapi 
— Glennville — Woody — Kernville — Isabella — Weldon — Onyx — Havilah — Ca- 
liente — Towns of the Desert — Randsburg — Johannesburg — Mojave — Rosa- 
mond. 



INDEX 



A 

Abels, Fred ..: 1506 

Ackerley, C. H 1111 

Adams, G. F 1505 

Adams, James *S 1260 

Adams. Verne L 1518 

Albrecht, Albert W 1418 

Aldrich, G. J 1363 

Alexander, Calvin B 596 

Alexander, Ford 1299 

Alexander, James 1085 

Allardt, Hu?o F 472 

Allen. Charles E 1319 

Allen. Louis 921 

Amour. Augustine 1223 

Amourig, August 1202 

Andersen, Barney A 764 

Anderson, C. V 232 

Anderson, Frank 1476 

Andre, Andre 992 

Andre. Cjrille 494 

Annette, James L 1326 

Ansolabehere, Michel 1460 

Ansolabehere, Michel 1139 

Apalatea, Francisco 1377 

Applegarth, Clark 1276 

Ardizzi. Beneditto 1435 

Argy, Michael 1538 

Armstrong, William E 1368 

Arp, James H 446 

Ashe. Eliott M 1530 

Atkinson, Benjamin M 1377 

Atkinson. Thomas W 1376 

Atwell. Joe M 798 

Augsburger. John H 1332 

Avila. Mrs. Mary J 861 

B 

Bach, Philip 1323 

Bailev, E. W 1398 

Bailey, John E 857 

Bailey. Joseph L 857 

Baker, James L 1380 

Baker, Lynn W 1344 

Baker, R. T 872 

Baker. Col. Thomas 722 

Baker, Thomas A 460 

Bakersfield Brewing Co 1282 

Bakersfield Ice Delivery 472 

Baldwin. Frank H 1460 

Ball, Herbert G 663 

Ballagh, C. E 748 

Ballagh, E. E 1093 

Ballagh, Herbert A 730 

Bandettini. Almando 1508 

Bangsberg, O. C 1063 

Banks, Henry F 1504 

Baptista, Christian and Margaret.... 763 

Barker, E. J 1405 

Barker, Vining E 1262 

Barlow, Hon. Charles A 207 



Barnett, Floyd H 1305 

Barr, James A 1280 

Barrett, Parker 1285 

Bates, J. W 1085 

Bates, Luther A 1551 

Batz, John B 231 

Bauman, Jacob 865 

Baumgartner, Joseph 1282 

Beardsley, Lewis A 1232 

Beck, Charles G 1392 

Becker, H. E 674 

Bemus, Erskine 1225 

Benjamin, Ernest V 1243 

Bennett, A. V 1374 

Bennett. Charles F 506 

Bennett, J. A 1399 

Bennett, John F 1312 

Bennett, Hon. Paul W 634 

Benson, Clarence D 738 

Benson, Millard D 1365 

Berges, Alexander 868 

Bergsten, Albion R 1451 

Beringer. Milton D 629 

Bernard, Francois 1432 

Bertrand, Jean E 944 

Bess. R. W 582 

Bewley, R. L 1434 

Bidart. John 801 

Bimat, Bernard 901 

Bimat, Leon 741 

Birchard, S. C 1385 

Blacker. Ezra N 537 

Blacker. Robert E 1417 

Blackball. Alexander R. M 1021 

Blaettler. Peter 1378 

Blair, Frank E 1060 

Blanc, Eli 1475 

Blanck. Ernest L 867 

Blankenship, Phil 1418 

Blodget. Hugh A 883 

Blood. Daniel H 1003 

Blood, E. K 1224 

Boese, Rev. John H 1494 

Boggs, William S 360 

Boggs, Willis W 270 

Bohna, Henry 388 

Bolstad, Fred P 747 

Borda, Domingo 812 

Borel. Jean 1235 

Borgwardt, Henry L 772 

Bostaph, C. A 1371 

Bowles, P. E., Jr 1123 

Bowman, Charles 1379 

Bramham, Virginia 1025 

Brandt, Henry J 1388 

Bratt, Frank O : 857 

Bresson, Joseph ^ 1297 

Breuch, William 642 

Brinkman, John J 677 

Brite, Charles R 1335 

Brite, Jesse D 1361 

Brite, John B 1331 



INDEX 



IX 



Brite, Lucas F 281 

Brittan, Edward F 1225 

Britz. Nick 1333 

Brockman. Fred C 702 

Brooks, Thomas A 283 

Broom, Mrs. Margaret M 1524 

Brower, Celsus 1037 

Brown, Andrew 213 

Brown, Edward S 1097 

Brown, Granville L 320 

Brown, H. H 1205 

Brown, James F 1385 

Brown, L. T 1491 

Brown, Newell J., M.D 1257 

Brown. Thomas W 751 

Browning, William J 1106 

Bruce, James L 897 

Brundage, Hon. Benjamin 1012 

Brundage, Benjamin L 1245 

Buchanan, Lewis R 955 

Buckreus, Franz 330 

Bumgarner, G. M., M.D 1018 

Burge, E. D 1448 

Burke, Daniel 722 

Burke, Walter J 560 

Burkett, George E 1539 

Burnes, Andrew A 1235 

Burnham, E. L 1371 

Burns, F. J 1364 

Burton, Robert 996 

Burubeltz, Jean 1335 

Busby, Harry C 1305 

Bush, Jonathan M 1485 

Byrns, Frank A 1211 

c 

Caldwell, George 1347 

Caldwell, James R 809 

Caldwell, John E 809 

Calhoun, George 1237 

Call, George W 1308 

Campbell, E. B 985 

Canaday, John W 1441 

Canfield, W 1454 

Cannell, Thomas A 577 

Capdeville, Jean B 1195 

Carlock, Francis M : 645 

Carlock, Howard W 1429 

Carlton, Eugene R 995 

Carroll, J. P 1193 

Carter, David 931 

Carter, J. B 729 

Carver, Alexander 1435 

Carver, Mrs. Louisa J 1251 

Cassady, Forrest A 1462 

Castro, Albert H 879 

Castro, Domitilo 737 

Castro, Emilio C 1341 

Castro, Epifanio P 853 

Castro, Leonides 1168 

Castro, Perfecto C 1550 

Castro. Thomas C ,— 1202 

Cattani, Peter 1544 

Cayori, Chris 1304 

Chadwick, Chessman J 633 

Chastan, Octave 846 

Chatom. Paul 756 

Chauvin, Alphonse 1279 

Chavez, Gabriel 1467 

Chinette, John P 918 



Chittenden, James E 760 

Christensen, Claus P 668 

Claflin, Hon. Charles L 1250 

Clar, Miss Anna 1477 

Clark, Fred C 1446 

Clark, James A 1021 

Clark, Orville L 216 

Clark, Samuel R 1236 

dayman. John H 256 

Clegg, William F 1471 

Clement, Fred 1378 

Clickard, John 1466 

Cline, Christian W 1338 

Clotfelter, Less 1341 

Cochran, Joseph A 1542 

Coffee, Dave 927 

Coffee, George W 1105 

Colby, C. B 342 

Coleman, Harry L 1477 

Colm, W. W 743 

Colton, Francis G 1545 

Condict. Henry F 694 

Cook, D. B 1180 

Cook, F. S 1435 

Cook, L. R 1471 

Cook. W. H., M.D 294 

Coolbaugh, Mrs. Elizabeth 865 

Coombs, Leslie D 926 

Cooney, Joseph P 1521 

Cooper, Charles E 705 

Coppin, Thomas C 1311 

Cornish, Thomas J 948 

Corsett, Frank H 1543 

Corti, Paul 1157 

Coulter, Joel W 687 

Coulter, L. D 1363 

Cowan, Marshall R 973 

Coyne, Martin .- 1324 

Craghill. Edward W 430 

Craig, Fred W 1143 

Craig, J. N 1463 

Grain. Mrs. Alice A 1390 

Crawford, Clinton B 1343 

Crawford, James R 1533 

Crichton, Dave 482 

Crippen, Fred N 1412 

Crippen, S. G 1423 

Crites, Angus J 336 

Crites, Angus M 1045 

Crites, Arthur S 1244 

Crites, Mrs. Louesa M 1046 

Croft, J. H 655 

Cromwell, Alexander H 603 

Cross, Asa A 1300 

Cross, John 1370 

Crow, Lewis B 793 

Cuda, Joseph 134? 

Cuddeback, John P 353 

Cuddeback, William N 347 

Cummings, Clarence C 1531 

Cummings, Edward G 1531 

Cummins, Thomas L 659 

Cuneo, P. J., M.D 1075 

Cunningham, W. L 341 

Curran, James 407 

Curtzwiler, Charles W 1246 

D 

Daggett, Charles E 1552 

- DaiJey, Charles A 1301 



INDEX 



4- Dalton, Archibald E 13U6 

Daly, Charles 1413 

Darnul, John J 767 

^; David, Edward A 1467 

Davis, Elonzo P 609 

-w Davis, George 1516 

Davis, Ira B 896 

Davis, Philip M 1511 

Davis, Walter E 1303 

Dawley, C. H 743 

Day. Charles E , 420 

Dearborn, Judge Elias M 816 

Delfino, George 1157 

^ Demsey, Cyrus F., M.D 1047 

Denio, John B 315 

Dennen, LeRoy A 1513 

Derby, George W 1433 

^ Deuel, J. J., Sr 1214 

Deuel, J. J., Jr 501 

Devenney, Henry F 1220 

-^ Dickey, C. L 1425 

Dickinson, Charles 1278 

Dickinson, James E 482 

Dixon, Archie H 828 

/f Dixon, Ola G 836 

Dodge, R. M 1386 

Doherty, William J 887 

Dooley. Joseph P 1368 

Doran, Peter 1510 

Dougherty, Dixon 324 

Dover, H. J 1553 

Dowd, Adolphus 1447 

Drader, Charles 356 

Duhart, Pierre 965 

Dumble, Herman S 1184 

Duncan, Eugene B 350 

Duncan, M. A 434 

Dunlap, Henry C 1261 

Dunlop, Samuel J 1312 

-i- Dunn, John M 1307 

Dunne, Cornelius 1139 

Durnal, J. A 1527 

Duschak, Simon '. 1528 

E 

Eardley, W. A : 244 

Echenique, Miguel 944 

Echenique, Tomas 827 

Echols, A. B 1516 

Eckert. Mrs. Belle C 1394 

Eckhofif, Frederick J 1253 

Edmonds, Reuben A 367 

Edwards, E. T 252 

Edwards, George B 403 

Edwards, J. G 1328 

Ehlers, Fredrick 1381 

Eiland. Edward F 858 

Ellis, Katharyn W., M.D 344 

Elwood. Harry M., M.D 956 

Emerson. Charles 1369 

Emmons. E. Carroll 1398 

Emmons. Hon. E. J 1500 

Enas, John 529 

Endert, Joseph F 811 

Engelke, W. A 1454 

Engle, William H...: 1374 

Erb, E. J 1315 

Erickson, Henry 1322 

Espitallier, Joseph 1548 

Espitallier, Marius M 1372 



Estribou, Jean B 1214 

Etcheverry, Fernando 1191 

Etcheverry, Peter 842 

Etzweiler, Harry A 1194 

Evans, Joseph L 563 

Eyraud, August P 589 

Eyraud, Jean 1549 

Eyraud, Joseph 921 

F 

Fairchild, Charles H 521 

Fairchild, Margaret H 522 

Farmer. Milton T 891 

Farris, Hamilton 418 

Fechtner, Paul R 1537 

Fenneman, Henry H 850 

Ferguson, Andrew 1124 

Ferguson, W. A 803 

Fergusson, Reginald A., M.D 3iS 

Fether, Frank A 1026 

Fether, Harry D 1072 

Filben, Arthur B 1274 

First National Bank of Taft 450 

Fishell, Roland R 1489 

Flournoy, George 581 

Fogarty, Thomas H 1357 

Fogg, E. S., M.D 1224 

Follansbee, William G 706 

Forbes, A. D 348 

Forker, William N 1094 

Forsyth, Donald H 1420 

Foster, Edwin L 1249 

Foust, Andrew J 1457 

Foust, Levi E 651 

Fox, C. A 957 

Fox, J. Frank .• 778 

Frazier, William W 1523 

Freear, Charles H 906 

Freear, Henry T 683 

Freear, Horace R 475 

Freear, James A 214 

Freear, John A 209 

Freear. Joseph P 498 

Freeman, Albert W 277 

Freeman, Hon. James W 1212 

Freligh. Andrew 433 

Fry. Cliarles H 1384 

Fry, John A 1000 

Fry, Joseph B 752 

Fuller. Rev. Edgar R 969 

Fultz, Thomas S 1542 

G 

Galbraith. G. H 961 

Gallman, John J 366 

Galloway, Ralph E 262 

Galtes, Paul 307 

Gardette, Peter 197 

Gardner, John A 368 

Gardner, J. E 1048 

Gates, N. M 1367 

Geddes, Charles E 1426 

Geiger, Felix 1487 

General Hospital of Taft 373 

Getchell, C. E 718 

Giboney, C. L 1325 

Gilfillan, Adam W 417 

Gill. John L 810 

Gillespie, J. E 819 



INDEX 



Gillespie, Patrick 1056 

Gillette, Edward D 623 

Gilli. Peter 541 

Girard, Joseph "JT] 

Girard, Jules 1539 

Giraud, Cyrille 1524 

Gist, Jabez R 981 

Glanville, Oscar 565 

Glenn, Mrs. Sarah 1330 

Goode, Albert S 489 

Goode, O. P 1416 

Goodman, H. S 1277 

Gormley, F. B 673 

Gould, Bert E 1353 

Graham, James T 1404 

Grant, James C 1431 

Gray, Jonathan E 453 

Green, A. B 1339 

Green, Bernard G 1372 

Green, Bert 1041 

Green Brothers 1041 

Green, Clarence S 678 

Green, John L 1041 

Green, John T 429 

Greer, Jefferson M 1483 

Gribble, Fred L 1450 

Grimaud, Stanislaus 1269 

Grogg, E. A 1326 

Guiberson, Lorraine P 463 

Gunderson, Robert 1445 

Gundlach, Max, Jr 1554 

Gunn, William W 1541 

H 

Haberfelde, George C 1167 

Haberkern, Charles F 374 

Haese, Otto 1011 

Haimes, Reginald F , 1150 

Hall, Hon. Fred H .' 219 

Halloran, John 1465 

Halter, Joseph J 1273 

Hamilton, E. M 999 

Hamilton, John E 278 

Hamilton, Truman W 1497 

Hamlin, Francis A., M.D 313 

Hanning, Cecil H 1215 

Harbaugh, Isaac W 1176 

Harding, Jack 1119 

Hardisty, Charles 1407 

Hare, Frederick E 1445 

Harman, Lane S 269 

Harmon, William 1052 

Harrington, Albert L 578 

Harris, Witten W 868 

Hart, Charles M 1356 

Hart, John 1175 

Harvey, John H 1428 

Harvey, Thomas N 234 

Hastings, George 1045 

Hatfield, George W 1346 

Hath, H. J 1329 

Hay, George 225 

Hayden, James M .*.... 756 

Hayes, Emmett L 1147 

Heard, J. W , 1500 

Heasley, William E 1470 

Heck, E. P 341 

Heck, O. C [,'Z. 341 

Heldman, Charles H 1078 

Helm, Lesrey G 1440 



Helm, Thaddeus W TZZ 

Henderson, George D 1278 

Henderson, Lawrence 1526 

Henderson, William L 1534 

Hendrickson, John J 842 

Hern, J. J 1415 

Herod, Clarence L 1247 

Herod, James 744 

Hickey, John 637 

Hicks, J. W 1459 

Hiemforth, Peter 1188 

Higley, E. D 1320 

Hill, Fred A 718 

Hill, F. F . 349 

Hill, Paul C 1011 

Hill, Roland G 510 

Hill, William H 207 

Hilliard. Wesley W 1210 

Hillman, Earl 1527 

Hirsch, L. A 1334 

Hitchcock, Charles D 1064 

Hoagland, Arthur E 1427 

Hochheimer, Ira 1165 

Hoenshell, David L 1266 

Holden, Rev. John P ;. 566 

Holland, W. J 569 

Holmes, Calvin H 1336 

Holmes, Fred S 1488 

Holmes, IMyron 268 

Holson, Dell J 1213 

Holtby, Robert M 564 

Holthe, Oscar A 1396 

Hopkins, Harry A 355 

Hopper, Leonard 748 

Hopper, Thomas 797 

Hornung, Paul 1051 

Hosking, Henry 1201 

Hougham, Edward L 438 

Houser, William M Z^^ 

Howell, William A 293 

Hubbard, John E 875 

Hudson, Hon. R. J 295 

Hughes, H. Guy TdZ 

Hughes, R. C 1388 

Hunt, R. R 1529 

Hunter, Alva 1325 

Hurst. Willis E 1528 

Hutchins, V. G 837 

Hydron, James F 380 

I 

Illingvvorth. Carlos G 862 

Irwin. Hon. Rowen 263 

J 

Jackson. Charles W 446 

Jackson, David A 1120 

Jacobs, A. Neal 1415 

Jacoby, Abraham 973 

James, J. B 1495 

James, Walter 394 

Jameson, John M 476 

Jasper, Mrs. Harriet 693 

Jastro, Harry A 1230 

Jastro, Henry A 195 

Jensen, H. P 1215 

Jessup, John R 507 

Jewett, Mrs. Catherine A 1296 

Jevvett. Frank C 1314 



Xll 



INDEX 



Jewett, Philo L 222 

Jewett, Solomon 1292 

Jewett, S. Wright 1059 

Johndrow, Louis F lOlS 

Johnson, Charles F 812 

Johnson, Charles W 922 

Johnson, John 595 

Johnson, John P 1042 

Johnson^ J. Thomas, M.D 424 

Johnson, Mrs. Melvina 1505 

Johnson, Richard A 1517 

Johnston, Charles N 545 

Johnston, George K 837 

Johnston, H. D 1056 

Johnston, Lucius 689 

Jones, J. A 1554 

Jones, Joseph G 1410 

Jones, Paul R 1390 

Jordan, Judson H 467 

Jorgensen, George 1532 

Joughin, William D 1133 

Judd, Frank S 709 

K 

Kaar, Charles S 1161 

Kaar, Jacob F _ 1162 

Kaar, John ^^^ 

Kammerer, George 672 

Kamprath, Otto R 514 

Karns, Ernest 1097 

Kaye, W. W 203 

Kean, Michael T 1116 

Keene, Arthur M 1483 

Keester, Lloyd P 1048 

Keleher, T. P 1456 

Kellermeyer, Edward C 872 

Kelley, Franklin C 1318 

Kelley, George C 1317 

Kelley, Jesse L 1082 

Kelly, John W 1495 

Kelly, W. W 789 

Kerr, Charles 1075 

Kersey, Joe D 1530 

Kersey, Mrs. Lizzie 1467 

Kidd, A. M 1313 

Kimball-Stone Drug Store 233 

King, George W 1384 

King, Layton J 674 

Kingston, Thomas S 1376 

Kinton, Miss Ella B 1459 

Kirsten, A. C. Julius 891 

Kitchen, Charles E 1071 

Kizziar, William L 902 

Klingenberg, August 1477 

Klipstein, Henry W 385 

Klipstein, Thomas E 909 

Knight, Harry S 958 

Knoke, J. C 1425 

Knowlton, Kent S 962 

Koch, John 1438 

Kosel, Peter 1550 

Kramer, Otto 1409 

Kratzmer, August 978 

Kueffner, Rev. Louis 550 

Kuehn, George W 1268 

L 

Lafont, Valentin 1339 

Laird, Rollin 1253 

Laird, William H., M.D 569 



LaMarsna, Gerard C 1515 

Lamb, Patrick 1284 

Lambert, Peter 771 

Lapsley, James T 1529 

Larsen, Christian P 1289 

Larson, Lewis H 1140 

Lavers, Frederick 768 

Lavers, William A 755 

Leake, W. R 419 

LeGar, Keith B 1401 

Leieritz, E. H 781 

Lewis, Edwin T 797 

Lichtenstein, M. M 1081 

Lieb, Edwin P 1473 

Lierly, W. S 308 

Lightner, Abia T 227 

Lindberg, M. A 1442 

Lindgren, Charles J 1231 

Lindgren, Otto P 1302 

Little, C. C 987 

Little, Lindsey B 1301 

Lock, J. R 1333 

Long, E. R - 1282 

Long, Samuel C 570 

Lonstrom, Axel 1456 

Lopez, Jose J 880 

Lorentzen, Paul 288 

Lovejoy, George W 1525 

Lowell, Alexis F 619 

Lowell, William H 660 

Lowell. Wilmot 1243 

Lueschen, Alvin G.. M.D 296 

Lufkin, Harry R 210 

Lugo, Jose M 1412 

Lutz, Emil T 1348 

M 

McCaffrey, James 1400 

McCaffrey, John :... 1541 

McCall, L. A 1370 

McCarthy, Jeremiah 943 

McCarthy. William J 1125 

McCausland, George W 1440 

McClimans. John J 1449 

McClintock, H. H 690 

McClure, William H 1475 

McCombs, Albert J 1101 

McCoy, Charles H 895 

McCullouch, Benjamin F 1239 

McCullough, Harvey N 876 

McCutchen, Edmund W 267 

]\IcCutchen, George W 261 

McCutchen, James B 249 

McCutchen, Preston S 243 

McCutchen, P. J 1300 

McCutchen, Robert L 275 

McCutchen, V. D 1107 

McCutchen, W. C 255 

McDonald, Dan 1332 

McDonald, J. C 1034 

McFarland, James B 442 

McFarlane, Peter J 1501 

McGill, R. W 1453 

McGovern, Thomas H 505 

McGuire, Robert R 1041 

McKamy, James 671 

McKee, Milo G 684 

McKenzie, M. K., M.D 314 

McKinnie, Carle T 555 

McLean, George A 888 



INDEX 



Xlll 



McMahon, Edward T 656 

McManus, Terence B 2)72 

McMillen, John H 549 

McMurtry, H. A 1452 

McNamara, Thaddeus M., M.D 546 

McNamara, Thaddeus M 221 

McNew, Hugh L 342 

Maddux, David W 1078 

Maddux, William A 1089 

Maguire, James T 1196 

Mahon, Hon. Jack W 319 

Maio, John F..... 1479 

Mannel, Frederick E 1327 

Mansfield, James H 1380 

Marek, Joseph F 1345 

Marion, Albert W 555 

Marley, John C 706 

Marsh, Fred J 910 

Marsh, Judson D 1209 

Marshall, Joseph J 433 

Martin, David E 1029 

Martin, Miles R., Jr 1206 

Martin, Richard J 781 

Martin, S. H 1321 

Martinto, Jean P 1350 

Massa, Harry G 1474 

Mathews, Sarshel V 1429 

Matlack, William V 238 

Mattly, Christian 335 

Mattly, Peter 1365 

Mattson, Frank S 574 

Maurel, August 1086 

May, Mrs. Amelia H 1112 

May, Charles A 1342 

May, George S 1264 

Mayou, Pierre 1501 

Maze, Frederick S 697 

Means, Thomas A 371 

Menzel, William 490 

Mercy Hospital 895 

Metcalf, Thomas A 437 

Meudell, A. Y 533 

Mier, Jose 1410 

Mikesell, Mrs. W. M 698 

Miles, J. A. C 1323 

Millard, Edward F 1166 

Millard, Stephen W 1383 

Miller, Daniel R 1478 

Milliff, Frank A 1405 

Minor, Theodore H 413 

Molidor, George 428 

Mon, Vincent 1535 

Monroe, W. P 573 

Montgomery, James 738 

Montgomery, Richard D 1480 

Moore, Raleigh A 802 

Mora, Frank J 1401 

Morgan, Alvin E , 1258 

Morgan, Rev. Edward 1436 

Morgan, James A 1295 

Morgan, Wallace M 614 

Morley, Joseph V 1395 

Morris, Clark D 1205 

Morris, John F 1387 

Morris, Myron W 1503 

Morris, R. R 1555 

Morrison, Charles V 1419 

Mortenson, Capt. Paul 1408 

Morton, A. S 1101 

Mosher, Herbert C 329 



Moss, A. L 1535 

Moss, H. G 849 

Moynier, Jean 901 

Mull, P 1350 

Mull, Robert J 1366 

Munzer, Francis G 316 

Murdock, Harry F 624 

Myers, Jasper 1422 

N 

Neff, J. R 526 

Neill, John 1381 

Neill, Robert 502 

Nelson, Christian 1352 

Nelson, David W 1240 

Newell, Daniel B " 630 

Newsom, Edward F 1443 

Newton, Frank H 1469 

Nicolas, Maurice 1270 

Nicoll, John 1524 

Niederaur, Jacob 251 

Nighbert, George T 1297 

Nixon, Andrew 1369 

Noel, Fritz C 1255 

Noriega, Faustino M 1286 

Norris, Edward G 258 

Norris, James N 296 

Norris, Robert T 820 

Northrop, Earl 1055 

Nunez, Max 1093 

o 

O'Boyle, Thomas J 337 

O'Donnell, Mary 832 

O'Hare, Peter 534 

O'Meara, P. J 1444 

Ochs, Oscar R 1298 

Odeman, Gus 1216 

Off, Charles F 397 

Ogden, James A 441 

Olson, Anthony B 293 

Orcier, Romulus 374 

Orr, Frank 1465 

Osborn, Walter 240 

Oswald, John S 537 

Overall, Joseph W 1511 

Owen, Erwin W 1230 

Owen, Josiah 1234 

Owen, Ray 1464 

Owens, Thomas E 1546 

Owens, Troy M 1484 

P 

Palmer, Robert 1198 

Palmer, Walter 1038 

Parish, George W 530 

Parker, James H 1242 

Parsons, Horace G 626 

Pascoe, M. W., M.D 215 

Pauly, Leo G 379 

Payne, J. C 701 

Payne, Mahlon 1406 

Peacock, Harrison R '. 479 

Peairs, Howard A 853 

Pearl, M. J 1323 

Pearson, Mordecai F 1537 

Peck, William B 542 

Pemberton, George N 815 

Pensinger. James H 742 



INDEX 



Pensingcr, William W 1120 

Perry, William C 1348 

Pesante, Mrs. Adeline 1362 

Petersen, Niels P 497 

Petersen, Peter 1176 

Petray, Mrs. Pauline D 656 

Petroleum Club, The 1437 

Pettus, Martin N 1358 

Petz, George J 1105 

Peyton, L 1391 

Pfost, Joseph F 925 

Phelan, Harry B 1130 

Philipp. Jean 1549 

Philipp, Jean L 1378 

Pickle, John A 1226 

Pierce, Charles C 1209 

Pinnell, Thomas W 1296 

Pippitt, George H 1359 

Plaugher, John P 1153 

Polhemus, A. B 1421 

Posch, Gustav , 468 

Pourroy, Jean 1496 

Pourroy, Seraphim 486 

Powell, Francis M 1319 

Powell, H. G 1392 

Powers, Sidney 1077 

Preble, Mrs. Margaret H 1192 

Premo, George W 1154 

Prendiville, Rev. J. J 1165 

Prouty, Herbert V., M.D 309 

Q 

Quails, Oliver 1411 

Quincy, Charles H 457 

Quinn, Harry 327 

Quinn, Margaret 832 

R 

Ragesdale, J. W 838 

Raine, Arthur E 982 

Rambo, Harry C 1108 , 

Ramsey, John C 591 . 

Randolph, E. W 1274 

Randolph, E. W 1532 

Raney, James /\ 1487 

Rankin, LeRoy 1315 

Rankin, Walker 1473 

Ranous, R. E 1498 

Ratliff, William T 1008 

Raymond, Jean B 1393 

Raymond, John A '. 1303 

Real, C. E 836 

Rechnagel, Charles 977 

Redlick, Joseph 1067 

Rees, R. B., M.D 525 

Rench, Arthur W 1129 

Rhea, E. S 1397 

Richard, George J 1553 

Richart, Joy J 1493 

Rinaldi, Otto F 835 

Ripley, John 458 

Ripple, Jacob N 1497 

Ritzman, Conrad 957 

Roberts, Col. E. M 201 

Roberts, James C 310 

Roberts, James E 1464 

Roberts, John E 1187 

Robinson, Alonzo B ' 741 

Robinson, J 583 

Robinson, Percy L 1211 



Rodgers, Warren 932 

Rodoni, A 1340 

Rogers, Jesse R 1144 

Rooks, William J 1149 

Ross, Harvey L 1126 

Ross, Lyman C 1349 

Rowlee, Charles W 928 

Ruby, Mrs. Amanda 600 

Ruedy, Christian 365 

Rufener, Jules 392 

Rupp, Alfred 350 

Rupp, J. G 1191 

Russell, J. Kelly 951 

Russell. William P 590 

s 

Sabichi, George C, M.D 1217 

Saffell, J. M 1259 

Said, Bellamy K 652 

Salis, Peter 1133 

Sallee, George H 1208 

Samuelson, John P 1098 

Sanguinetti, Henry 1331 

San Joaquin Hospital 832 

San Joaquin Light & Power Corp... 1402 

Sanzberro, Agustin 1180 

Sartiat, Pierre 651 

Savoie, Adlore 1492 

Schaffnit, Henry R 509 

Schamblin, Gustavus 359 

Schiefferle, Charles 529 

Schneider, E. J 1422 

Schneider, Karl 1004 

Schultz, William J 613 

Schutz, Herman H :.... 1015 

Scofield, Fred N 1298 

Scott, Marion J 599 

Scott, M. P 1277 

Scott, Robert L 608 

Scott & Goodman ,. 1277 

Seager, Carey L 257 

Sears, Charles H 1220 

Sears, Charles N 284 

Sedwell, George W 1550 

Seibert, Benjamin F 1187 

Seinturier, Hippolyte 373 

Sellers, C. H 574 

Seran, Joseph 1004 

Seymour, W. S 1514 

Shackelford, Dick 1540 

Shackelford, Rowzee F 1018 

Shaffer, George W 1284 

Shannon, Phares H 1513 

Shearer, George W 1256 

Sheedy, David 1397 

Sheffler, H. Roy 1430 

Sherman, Charles H 684 

Sherwood, Edgar E 1509 

Sherwood, Fred C '... 1455 

Shields, Jeremiah 1086 

Shively^ Delbert A 583 

Shurban, Charles H 1461 

Siemon, Alfred 1223 

Silber, William G 1396 

.Sill, B. H 898 

Silver, Andrew C 378 

Simpson, R. N 1439 

Simpson, Hon. William E 1229 

Sloan, A. A 591 

Smartt, Samuel G 538 



INDEX 



XV 



Smetzer. Charles C 687 

Smith, Bedell 393 

Smith, Charles D 1450 

Smith, Charles H 481 

Smith, E. C 1316 

Smith, Frederick 1025 

Smith, Fred L 1366 

Smith, Henry E 966 

Smith, Mateo 1263 

Smith, Mel P 1022 

Smith, Hon. Sylvester C 299 

Smith, Thomas H 620 

Smith, Thomas S 939 

Snider, George L 1033 

Snow, Francis M 1375 

Sola, Jose 1221 

Sowash, Charles 846 

Spach, Thomas M 1503 

Spears, H. H 1352 

Spencer, James A 1544 

Sproule, George C. - 638 

Sproule. William A 1017 

Stahl, John G 943 

Stapp, Mary E. M 1433 

Star Soda Works 1339 

Stark, Jesse 1295 

Stephenson, W. W 510 

Stevens, James M 910 

Stevenson, J. H 289 

Stier, Joseph P 1341 

St. Lawrence Oil Co 706 

Stockton, Isaac D., M.D 1290 

Stockton, Robert L 287 

Stone, James E 233 

Stroble, G. F 1183 

Stutsman, Grant 1414 

Suiter, Benjamin F. and Mayme B.... 803 

Sullivan, Timothy P 471 

Sumner, Hon. Joseph W 237 

Sweitzer, Samuel 1547 

Swett, John L 1373 

Swofford, Alfred 1171 

Sybrandt, Mrs. Emeretta C 1247 

T 

Talbot, William G 871 

Tam, Hon. Joseph H 245 

Taussig, Nathan W 607 

Taylor, Albert M 936 

Taylor, Charles C 1382 

Taylor, Charles L 1207 

Taylor, Charles S 1457 

Taylor, George E 1424 

Taylor, John T 427 

Taylor, Orrin R 838 

Taylor, Walter C 1555 

Taylor,' William H. D 1309 

Teague, J. J 1508 

Templeton, Charles, Jr 824 

Templeton & Co 824 

Thomas, Burt 1452 

Thomas, Marcus B 1512 

Thomas, William H 1241 

Thomas, W. 1468 

Thompson, E. J 1310 

Thompson, L. T 734 

Thompson, Ralph H 1275 

Thompson. W. N 1030 

Thomson, David E 1281 

Thorand, Anton 610 



Thornbcr, James H 710 

Thornburgh, George P 1463 

Tibbet, Mrs. Rebecca 1076 

Tibbetts, Charles B 1474 

Tibbetts, Frank C 917 

Timmons, William B 1228 

Todd. George H 349 

Tomaier, Charles 1522 

Tough, Frederick B 1294 

Tracy, Mrs. Ellen M 785 

Tracy, Ferdinand A 667 

Tracy, William 517 

Tracy, Mrs. William 518 

True, Henry B 987 

Truesdell, Edward M 914 

Tryon, S. G 1543 

Tschurr, Nicklas 1034 

Tuculet, Peter 1362 

Tyler, William '786 

Tyrer. John 1355 

u 

Underwood, Vernon L 717 

Underwood, William E 641 

Union Ice Company 472 

Upton, John V 1261 

Upton, William 713 

Urie, George W 1458 

V 

Vaccaro, Joseph 1361 

Vandaveer, Mrs. Emma L 1161 

Van Epps, Franklin L 1470 

Van Meter, William E ■. 1415 

Van Norman, Harvey A 454 

Van Orman, Mrs. Harriet 246 

Vaughn, Benjamin C 55^' 

Vaughn. Fred B 1337- 

Verdier, Eugene 1304 

Vieux, Andre 1067 

Villard, Amo.oise ... : 786 

Villard. Pierre 1268 

Vrooman, Charles M ... 759 

w 

Wagy, J. 1 827 

Waldon, Pinkney J 1227 

Walford, Herbert W 1272 

Wallace, William 1148 

Wallen, Frank W 1196 

Waller, George 668 

Walser Brothers 906 

Walser, Daniel W 940 

Walter, Jacob 782 

Walters, E. W 1172 

Walters. Raymond 1 1520 

Wangenheim. Albert L 1351 

Wanner, Rev. Joseph 592 

Warren, Amos E 408 

Warren, Arthur R 1521 

Wasson, John L 646 

Watkins, Francis M 1391 

Watson, Gordon W 423 

Weaber, Arthur 1238 

Weaver, A. M 1337 

Weaver. William H 404 

Weedall. Albert 1358 

Wcferling. Herman A 1334 

Weichelt, Christian 823 



XVI 



INDEX 



Weichelt, Gaudenz 1360 

Weichelt, John 831 

Weit, Edward 1375 

Weitzel, M. L 1134 

Wells, Hyman B 1090 

Weringer, Joseph 913 

West, Henry D 947 

West, Rev. James S 714 

Whaley, J. H 1038 

Whelan, Roger 939 

Whitaker, Charles 1519 

Whitaker, E. H 584 

Whitaker, George E 1267 

Whitaker, William F 1055 

White, C. LeRoy 1472 

White, James M 1481 

White, Richard E 1449 

White, William G 551 

Whittier, Charles G 599 

Whyte, J. M 1507 

Wible. Simon W 323 

Wilhelm, W. S 198 

Wilhite, Richard T 603 

Wilkes, W. Perry 1354 

Wilkins, George M 1007 

Wilkinson, Nathaniel R 1502 

Williams, E. S 1492 

Williams, Hibbard S 1221 

Williams, John R 1287 

Williams, Nicholas J 935 



Williams, Percy A 365 

Williams, Samuel A 552 

Williams, William A 556 

Willis, Frank T 955 

Willow, E. L 387 

Wilson, Mark 1394 

Wilton, John 1514 

Winney, E. E 832 

Winser, Philip 1271 

Wirth, Christian A 1490 

Wirth, Wilhelm A 1384 

•Wiseman, Thomas B 793 

Withington, Robert W 1294 

Women's Improvement Club 688 

Woodson, Daniel B 1536 

Woody, Elmer H 485 

Woody, Stonewall A 401 

Worley, J. S 1112 

Worthington, Frank M 98B 

Worthington, Lewis C 1248 

Wright, Fred 445 

Wright, Mrs. Walter 372 

Wynn, Charles H 1530 

Y 

Yancey, George A 1179 

Yancey, Joseph E 729 

Yarbrough, Ernest E 824 

Young, Thomas M 493 




'^^£a>^<ui^ ^, 




^^Lyl^ 



HISTORICAL 



INTRODUCTION 

To read Kern County's history aright, to understand its motive forces, 
to get in harmony with the spirit of its people and to know why certain 
otherwise inexplicable events and conditions came to pass, it is necessary 
to keep in mind several things. First of all, there always has been some 
big thing doing in Kern County. It is a county of vast size, and its treasures 
of natural wealth are wonderful in their richness and tremendous in their 
variety, range and magnitude. Think of 200,000 acres of swamp land, worth 
from $50 to $100 per acre now and soon to be worth twice these amounts, 
selling within the memory of men now living for fifty cents to a dollar per 
acre and to be acquired from an easy-going state for even less than this. 
Think of the great expanse of desert lands almost as cheap and almost as 
valuable. Think of great oil wells flowing from ten thousand to twenty 
thousand barrels of oil per day and leagues on leagues of oil lands to be had 
for the going and taking. Think of such manifest richness as this and under- 
stand what dreams the pioneers indulged in, what cupidity and greed of 
gain were fostered, what clashes of strong, aggressive, resourceful men the 
scramble to possess these bounties of nature brought about. 

Remember, then, that all these riches, lying about with such apparent 
abandon, were chained fast and locked tight with locks that golden keys 
alone could open. A penniless man could squat on a piece of government 
land, but it would cost several hundred or possibly several thousand dollars 
even to provide water for irrigating it and otherwise bring it to a point where 
the homesteader could make a living from it. A man with $30 or $40 could 
locate an oil claim, but it might cost from $10,000 to $50,000 to get enough 
oil to prove the land and secure a patent. 

Add to these reflections an appreciation of the pioneer's character — the 
daring, the resource, the gift of prophecy that enables him to see in faith 
the things that may not be realized for generations to come, the lack of 
perspective that deceives him into reaching out his hand to grasp these things 
that are a century beyond his time ; the genial hospitality, the never-failing 
sense of humor, and the buoyant optimism that covers every loss and every 
defeat with a hope and assurance of better success next time. Understand 
and remember all these things while I touch, first the high places, the 
epoch-making events, in the history of Kern county, and then recount the 
tale with greater circumstance. 

The Story in Outline 

Long before either the American or the Spanish occupation, the territory 
now comprised within the borders of Kern county was the home of many 
Indians of different tribes. They were not of a high order of intelligence, 
even for savages, and they left few traces save their rude weapons and 
utensils and their bones, lying in shallow graves or strewn whitening on 
the plain where some pestilence had descended upon a village and left none 
with strength or heart to bury the dead. 

The early Spaniards established no missions in Kern county, but expe- 
ditions sent out by the padres in search of savage souls to save crossed the 
mountains and carried back with them numbers of the younger braves to the 
chapels, farms and workshops where they got some inkling of the forms of 



18 HISTORY OF KERX COUXTY 

religion, learned a little of how the white man works, came to know and 
practice some of the white man's vices, and found out that there were better 
thing's to eat than acorns and grass seed pounded in a mortar. So when 
the white man came, these 3^oung Indians, having returned to their tribes, 
knew^ how to work for him and how to steal from him and how to kill and 
eat his cattle. 

When the inevitable clash betw^ecn the whites and the red men came, 
Lieutenant I'.eale. placed in charge of Indian affairs in the state by the 
U'ashington authorities, gathered the tribes at El Tejon under a patriarchal 
form of government patterned in part after the methods of the mission fathers 
and in part after the customs and practices of the United States army. 

The first white men who sojourned in the county were hunters, trappers, 
small stockmen and farmers who lingered beside the old immigrant trail and 
raised a crop of corn on the rich Kern delta or sought out the fat mountain 
meadows for their herds. But the fame of what is now Kern county did not 
spread abroad until the eager, restless swarms of gold hunters had worked 
their way down the Sierras from the north and found the first shining, 
yellow lum])s that the Kern river placers yielded up. This was in 1851. The 
great rush to Kern river was in 1853-4. In the latter year Richard Keys 
discovered the Keys mine, and Keysville became one of the foremost goals of 
the fortune hunters. In 1860 Lovely Rogers chipped a chunk of ore from the 
Big Blue ledge and started the stampede that developed the roaring mining 
camp of Whisky Flat where the pleasant town of Kernville now stands. 

Flavilah's wealth was uncovered in July, 1864, and within ten or a dozen 
years thereabout — before and after — Long Tom, Greenhorn, Sageland, Piute, 
Claraville. Tehachapi. AA'hite river, AVoody and a score of lesser names 
became familiar in the lexicon of the gold miners, and every gulch and canon 
from White river to Tejon had been searched out by burros and bearded 
men with picks and pans and packs of beans and bacon. Since those years 
mining in Kern county has seen its ups and downs, but always it has been 
going on, and always there has been the lure of possible sudden wealth 
'down to the day when F. M. Mooers woke from a deep and heavy slumber 
in a desert gulch to see a myriad of tiny yellow eyes winking down at him, 
fas he lay there drowsily on his back) from the ledge that afterward made him 
a millionaire and made millionaires, also, of his partners. Burchard and Sin- 
gleton of the world-famous Yellow Aster. Then came the tungsten mines, 
the silver mines of Amalie. the copper ledges barely touched, and all the other 
later mines of the mountains and the desert. 

Even before 1857 far-sighted men had seen that the great, enduring 
wealth of Kern county lay in its magnificent agricultural and horticultural 
possibilities, and in that year the legislature passed an act providing for the 
reclamation of all the swamp and overflowed land within the county's present 
borders and extending north beyond Tulare lake, half a million acres, or so, 
all told. AA\ F. Montgomery. Joseph Montgomery, A. J. Downes and F. W. 
Sampson were given the franchise to reclaim all this land, but their rights were 
acquired by Col. Thomas Baker, founder of Bakersfield. and Harvey S. Brown. 
Baker w^as the active member of the partnership, and inaugurated the reclama- 
tion and irrigation enterprises that later engaged the efforts of some of the 
largest and most powerful corporations in the west and brought on a legal 
battle over water rights that focused the attention of the entire state. 

Floods and droughts combined to help Colonel Baker in his tremendous 
task of reclamation, and he got patent to 89.120 acres of the choicest land 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 19 

in the state. Later the patent was annulled by the district court, and new 
patents were issued to others who had bought lands from Baker and passed 
through the forms, at least, of reclaiming them. Livermore and Chester 
succeeded Colonel Baker as the dominant factor in the county's development, 
taking over his projects and enterprises as the fact developed that Baker 
had not the financial resources with which to carry out his plans. By the 
same inexorable law of the survival of the financially best fitted, Livermore 
& Chester gave way to Redington & Livermore, and Redington & Livermore 
retreated before the superior financial strength of Haggin & Carr. 

Then came the battle royal between Haggin & Carr (really Haggin, 
Tevis & Carr) and Miller & Lux ; a contest that involved a supreme court 
decision on the subject of riparian rights, called two great state conventions 
of irrigators and water appropriators, occasioned a special session of the 
legislature, and finally ended in an historic compromise that left the honors 
even between the two giants and paralyzed for unknown years the efforts to 
give the state'laws that would fix and determine the ownership and control 
of irrigating waters for all time to come. 

Running through the story of the contest over the disposition of the 
waters of Kern river is the story of the acquisition of the desert lands included 
in the county, and the acquisition by the same parties of many thousands 
of acres of railroad and other land, all of which were included in the present 
magnificent holdings of the Kern County Land Company. The water contests 
settled, there was launched the great plan of colonization of the Haggin 
lands, a project the path of which was strewn with wrecked hopes and 
general failure, not on account of the land, not on account of the water, not on 
account of the colonists or the colonizers, but because of a thousand incidental 
errors and difificulties. and most of all because all the necessary ingredients 
of success, abundantly present, got improperly mixed. \\'ith an expensive 
lesson to reflect on and with complaints and accusations sounding everywhere 
in their ears, Haggin and his associates retired from the colonization job as 
far as they could get, and made an immense grain, alfalfa and stock farm out 
of the principality that some day (together with the other principality that 
is held in similar fashion by Miller & Lux) will furnish homes for tens of 
thousands of people and make Kern county an agricultural empire, the 
superior of which has never flourished. 

Then came the development of the great Kern county oil fields. Pros- 
pected in a tentative, ineft'ectual manner since the days of the Civil war, the 
real exploration and exploitation of the oil fields did not begin until after the 
country at large had recovered from the financial panic of 1893 and had 
looked about with new courage and eagerness for new outlets for its returning 
energy and vigor. Development began in other fields of the state, but soon 
spread to the west side of Kern county, where the oldest drillings in the 
San Joaquin valley had been made. Then, in 1899 the Elwoods dug the little 
shaft that uncovered the great oil measures of the Kern river field, and 
started the first great oil excitement in the history of the west. The only rival 
of the rush to the Kern river field in 1899-1900 was the rush to the west 
side fields in 1910. The development of the Kern river field made Kern county 
the center of the oil industry of the Pacific coast ; the development of the west 
side fields, spreading now over a territory seventy-five miles in length and 
containing some of the greatest gushers that the world ever saw, furnishes an 
ample guarantee that no other section ever will wrest the honor from her. 

These are the high points, the landmarks in the history of Kern county. 



20 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Woven all through the story are the incidents of county and community 
life, the development of towns, of society and of homes, the building up of 
enterprises, the making of individual fortunes — the things that are common 
to all histories. But in the large the history of Kern county so far has been 
the story of the staking out of the land, the marking of nature's treasure 
houses for future exploration. In no sense and in no particular is the county 
developed. The rough plans have been drawn, prospect holes have been 
sunk, the oil measures have been tapped here and there, experiments of a 
thousand kinds have been made, but so far as development and use are con- 
cerned, as these terms are understood in older countries, Kern county is a 
virgin field. Perhaps there will be less romance in the county's history in 
the future, but there will be more profit and less labor and hardship for the 
men who take up the work at the present point and carry this fair empire 
forward to the glorious future that awaits it. 



CHAPTER I 
A Description of Kern County 

One of the several differences between history and romance is that 
whereas romance may be the more entertaining by reason of a pleasurable 
suspense and anxiety concerning the final fate of the hero, history is best read 
with a full knowledge of the ultimate issue of the events recorded. Believing 
that all the pages that come hereafter will thereby be fuller of meaning and 
that all the incidents in the narrative they contain will range themselves in 
a truer perspective, I am giving in this initial chapter of the history of Kern 
county as clear and comprehensive a picture as I may of what the county 
is today and of what the people of the county are looking forward to in the 
development of the next few years. 

A map of the county shows at a glance its general geographical form 
and character, an area of 5,184,000 acres, in form a rectangular parallelo- 
gram with the southwest corner hacked ofif by a jagged line which con- 
forms roughly to the crest of the Coast range mountains that separate 
Kern from its neighbor, San Luis Obispo, on the west. The north line of the 
county, one hundred and thirty-six miles in length, stretches due east and 
west nearly half the distance across the state and forms the southern boun- 
daries of Kings and Tulare counties and a little more than twenty miles 
of the southern boundary of Inyo county. This same line projected to the east 
constitutes the boundary between Inyo and San Bernardino counties, and 
to the west constitutes the boundary between San Luis Obispo and Mon- 
terey. It is practically identical with the sixth standard parallel line south, 
and moreover it forms the only straight line of political subdivision across 
the map of California. For the latter reason this line marks the place where 
the advocates of sej^arate statehood for Southern California would draw 
the knife were they given permission to carve the Golden State in twain — an 
event of which the small prospects of realization are not likely to be increased 
by the sentiment of the present population of Kern county. 

The south line of Kern county, lying sixty-six miles south of and parallel 
to the north line, is one hundred and two miles in length, and forms the 
northern boundaries of Ventura and Los Angeles counties. The county's 
east line cuts north and south through dry salt lakes, dead, forgotten ranges 



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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 21 

of hills, and great wastes of level, barren sands, slicing ofif from San Ber- 
nardino county for the benefit of Kern a great triangle from the western edge 
of the Mojave desert with its lonesome wildernesses, its bewildering mirages, 
its mocking, brackish waters, its great beds of coarser chemicals, and its 
recklessly strewn treasures of gold and tungsten. The base and altitude of 
this triangle, which fits into the southeastern corner of the county, are approx- 
imately sixty miles each. Its hypothenuse is roughly marked by the eastern 
slopes of the Sierras, where the great range near its southern end curves 
westward toward the sea. In the history of Kern county this desert triangle 
was the last and least to be appreciated, therefore we get its description first 
out of the way. 

A View of the Kern Valley 

For our view of the valley portion of the county — the place where the 
oil fields and alfalfa pastures are and where the orchards and vineyards and 
groves of oranges and olives are coming to be — let us take ourselves to one 
of the round-topped treeless, grass-carpeted mountains that form the eastern 
sentinels of the Coast range. From such a point — near the middle of the 
western line of the county — spreading out before us we would see a great 
sweep of valley, open at the north but closed in by the Coast range on the 
west, by the Sierras on the east and on the south by a cross range that meets 
and joins the two great ranges and forms a mighty horse shoe of mountains 
that walls in the intervening plains and mesas and protects them from 
winds and storms and gives them the warm and equable climate that the 
vegetable kingdom loves. 

From the point where the west side mesa begins to slope down to the 
floor of the valley to the point where the east side mesa melts into the foot- 
hills of the Sierras, the distance is close to fifty miles, and from the upper 
edge of the mesa that lies along the northern side of the cross range northwest 
through the center of the valley to the north county line it is approximately 
sixty miles. From the great area thus enclosed, an area every foot of which 
will one day be watered and tilled, or made productive through the extrac- 
tion therefrom of oil or other valuable minerals, a new state like Delaware 
could be carved out, and of the scraps left over a new Rhode Island might be 
pieced together. 

In reality the haze of dust and distance covers all this land as one 
might see it on a summer day from the summit of the Coast range hills, 
and even in the clearer air of winter little of the prospect could be seen except 
the nearby mesas, a great sea of light hiding the valley beyond, and far away, 
floating in the thinner strata of the upper air, the rugged, snow-capped peaks 
of the high Sierras rising, as Mrs. Mary Austin says, "like the very front and 
battlements of heaven." 

But let us suppose the dust and haze are swept away and our eyes 
can search out the objects in the valley. Then something like this great 
panorama of industry and natural wealth would be laid before our view. 

The West Side Oil Fields 

Down below us in the foreground is the great sweep of the west side oil 
fields, beginning near the San Emidio ranch in the southwestern corner of the 
county and following northwest with the trend of the hills through Sunset, 
Midway, McKittrick, Temblor, the great, problematic reaches of the Lost 
Hills and Devils Den districts to the northwestern corner of the county and 
on thence to Coalinga. The whole distance prospected with more or less profit 



22 • HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

or promise is not far from seventy miles within the county. Wildcat drilling, 
as yet without result, extends eastward of San Emidio fifteen miles farther. 
In width the proven or prospected strip varies from two to fifteen miles. 

Only the merest fraction of this vast territory is as yet commercially pro- 
ductive — a thin line, a mile and a half to three miles in width drawn diagonally 
across five congressional townships represents it. Yet out of this small frac- 
tion of the county's west side oil territory were taken in the year 1910 not 
less than 24,680.000 barrels of oil. equal in fuel value to between eight and 
nine million tons of good coal. Two branch railroads and four pipe lines 
connecting with tide water have been built to furnish an outlet for this oil, 
and a great electric transmission line has been completed to furnish current 
for light and other purposes for which it may be needed in the fields. Three 
towns, large enough and permanent enough to aspire to incorporations — 
Maricopa. Taft and McKittrick — are the fruits of the local business activity 
of these oil fields, and three or four other towns are in process of building with 
varying reasons to hope for the future. 

The Buena Vista Gas Belt 

Just beyond the line of the producing oil fields lies the great gas belt of 
the Buena Vista hills, where wells estimated to produce from ten to fifty 
million cubic feet per twent3^-four hours have been brought in within the 
past two years. Already this gas is piped to Bakersfield and to the different 
parts of the west side oil fields for cooking and lighting and for use in fur- 
naces, and a great trunk line is now carrying it over the mountains to Los 
Angeles and other Southern California towns. In addition to this use an ex- 
tensive plant recently has been installed for extracting gasoline from the 
natural gas by means of' compression and cooling after a process similar in 
many respects to the making of liquid air. 

If we search the fields from our hypothetical point of vantage we may see. 
perhaps, anywhere trom one to half a dozen great oil wells spouting their inky 
fountains of oil and gas from two hundred to four hundred feet in the air. 
Great pillars of smoke rise from where waste oil and refuse are burned from 
the sump holes, and if it were night and the chance served we might see the 
towering torch of some burning gasser lighting the sands and sage brush 
on the surrounding dunes. 

Recent Activity in the Oil Fields 

The past few years have witnessed a tremendous activity on the west 
side. The older fields of Sunset and McKittrick have been widened and 
extended, the greatest oil gusher in the history of the industry being brought 
in in the former field, and Midway, lying between Sunset and McKittrick, 
sprang from the least to one of the largest of the oil fields of the valley. 
The Buena Vista gas fields were first tapped in 1909. At the present time 
prospectors are drilling with tireless energy in the northward extension of 
the McKittrick field, and all over the Lost Hills district that extends from 
McKittrick to the north county line, wild-catters are hopefully working, and 
occasionally a productive well of light gravity oil is brought in at the marv- 
elously shallow depth of 500 to 1000 feet. 

In Devils Den. close to the hills in the northwestern corner of the county, 
a few drills are dropping, and strung along the foothills from Devils Den 
southeast to Temblor are a few prospectors' derricks, miles apart and accom- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 23 

plishing- little as yet save to demonstrate the faith of their owners that the 
oil measures lie beneath in an unbroken belt. 

For the rest the foreground is filled with low. rolling hills and gently 
sloping mesas, covered in spring with short grass and bright wild flowers, 
but dry and brown throughout the summer and fall, with only the wandering 
dust pillars of the ^yhirlwinds, the heat shimmer, the straggling growth of 
dwarf sage brush, the lonesome derrick of the wildcatter and the lonesomer 
cabin of the lease herder to vary their desolate monotony. 

Reclaimed Swamp Land 

These rolling hills and sloping mesas (all of which may some day be 
oil- or gas-bearing) fill a strip of country at the base of the Coast range 
from ten to twenty miles in width. Then comes the western edge of the 
county's agricultural land, its limit clearly defined by the line of the ancient 
swamp that filled the trough of the valley with a width of two to a dozen 
miles before the waters of Kern river that fed it were diverted into a great 
irrigation system, that waters 250.0CO acres of land. 

Just to the east of the Midway oil fields is Buena \'ista lake reservoir, a 
body of water covering thirty-six square miles, formerly a natural depression 
in the swamp and now enlarged by means of levees oh the east and north 
for the purpose of storing the waters of the river for irrigating the reclaimed 
swamp lands to the north. From this lake extending northwest along the 
western edge of the former sv/amp is a canal, one hundred and fifty feet in 
width, built for the combined purpose of distributing irrigation water and 
carrying away any excess of water that may come down the river in time of 
flood. This great ditch, known as the Kern Valley Water Company's canal, 
runs through lands now belonging to Miller & Lux, and that corporation 
is now extending it northward, by means of the largest steam dredger ever 
brought to the interior of the state, with the ultimate purpose of completing 
an artificial water way from -Buena Vista to Tulare lake. The canal will be 
of a size to serve as a means of transportation, but whether it is used for 
such a purpose remains to be determined by the demand, the disposition of 
the owners and the availability of the water at all times to fill it. 

Lying along this canal to the east, in the bed of the ancient swamp, fed 
by the deep, black tule lands, are the fat alfalfa pastures of Miller & Lux. 
the first expanse of perennial green that greets the eye as we look eastward 
from our perch on the Coast range mountain. The Miller & Lux alfalfa and 
grain fields reach to the northward from Buena Vista lake for something more 
than twenty-five miles. Beyond that the old swamp, dry except in unusually 
wet years, extends to the northern limit of the county untilled and unpeopled. 

Irrigation Canals Radiate From Bakersfield 
Twenty miles northeast of Buena Vista lake is Bakersfield, at the eastern 
edge of a great, nearly level plain that extends from the old sw^amp to the 
point where the land begins to rise again in an upward slope to meet the 
foothills of the Sierras. Just northeast of Bakersfield Kern river leaves a 
deep furrow of a mile and a half in width which it has plowed for itself 
through the hills and mesas to the eastward, and enters the flat, alluvial 
lands of the valley. From Bakersfield the channel of the river runs in an 
approximately direct line to Buena X'ista lake, but the river waters are taken 
out in a series of canals, heading above and below Bakersfield and spreading 
fanwise to the northwest, west, south and southeast. 



24 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

This system of ditches covers roughly a territory twenty miles wide 
and forty miles long, beginning at the southern end of the valley where the 
mesas slope up to Tejon and San Emidio, and extending northwest within 
twelve or fifteen miles of the north county line. Only the circumstance 
that the water is all used on nearer lands prevents the irrigation system- 
reaching the northern boundary of the county, but the shortcoming of the 
canal system is supplemented by the presence of an artesian belt in the 
north part of the county, bordering on the eastern edge of the swamp, where 
flowing wells are obtained at a depth of 500 to 1000 feet, and by the existence 
of abundant water strata at depths varying from twelve to forty feet in 
depth from which water may be pumped for irrigation. 

These facilities for irrigation make of the middle distance of this vast 
panorama spread out before us, a belt of country twenty miles in width 
(exclusive of the swamp land heretofore described) and fifty-five miles or 
so in length, every foot of which can be irrigated, either from canals, from 
artesian wells or from shallow pumping \vells. Close to Bakersfield this land 
is tilled to fruit, alfalfa and dairy pastures. Farther south and northwest 
it is utilized for great grain fields or pastures for beef cattle. All of it is 
suitable for similar purposes. 

Beyond this belt of cheaply irrigated land lies the great mesa that skirts 
the western foothills of the Sierras. In width and length it is only a little 
less than the great belt of land just described, and along its lower edge the 
cost of pump irrigation is but a little greater than on the lower valley lands. 
This mesa forms the county's citrus belt — as yet, for the main part, potential. 
But while the county's orange and lemon production is yet in the future, 
so far as any great commercial results are concerned, the capacity of the 
soil, the abundance of the water and the perfect adaptability of the climate 
have been demonstrated past all doubt. Oranges grown on the San Emidio 
ranch, already referred to in the description of the west side oil fields, have 
made a name and fame for themselves in the most critical markets of the 
state. At Tejon, in the hills some twenty miles east of San Emidio, oranges 
of equal size and flavor are grown, and scattered all along the mesa north- 
westward to the north county line are smaller groves that prove the whole 
of the great thermal belt. 

Beginning of Orange Culture 

At the present time near Edison, eight miles east of Bakersfield, the 
Edison Land & Water Company is beginning the cultivation of orange 
groves on a considerable scale, and is making all its improvements in the 
thorough-going fashion that promises the fullest success. Smaller ventures 
in citrus culture have been launched in the wide stretch of mesa land that 
reaches south from Edison and other centers of development have been 
established at Delano, McFarland and Jasmine, in the northern part of the 
county. The development around the latter places is really the southern 
extension of the orange districts of Tulare county. The great success of 
citrus culture around Porterville has tempted the planting of similar lands 
farther and farther to the south, and the result is expected to be the 
gradual closing of the gaps between Ducor and Jasmine and Edison and 
between Edison and Tejon. 

Under all this mesa land water for pump irrigation is found at depths 
that vary almost directly as the height of the surface above sea level. Along 
the lower parts of the thermal belt water may be found at a depth of forty 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 25 

feet or less, while near the hills the depth may run above two hundred feet. 
There is an immense body of land, however, on which water is to be had in 
abundant quantities with a lift of less than one hundred feet. 

In addition to the possibilities of the mesa lands for the growing of 
oranges and lemons, they are famous for their early fruits of the deciduous 
kinds and for vegetables. The mesa soil for the most part is an admixture of 
sand, gravel and clay that is easily tilled, very fertile and sufficiently porous 
to insure the best results from irrigation. In places the thermal belt is 
almost frostless, and tomato plants live the year round. This means that 
it is possible to have strawberries and a great range of vegetables at Christ- 
mas time, and grapes, apricots, melons and other delicacies that capture the 
high prices of the early markets may be supplied in great quantity and 
perfect quality. 

Cheap Power Available 

For the further development of the mesa lands great things are expected 
because of the abundance of cheap fuel for the generation of power. In 
addition to the power that may be developed from steam plants run by 
crude oil or from gas and gasoline used direct in engines, the San Joaquin 
Light & Power Company, which has recently entered the field with electric 
power and which has now completed a transmission line circling the valley 
portion of the county, announces that it will encourage the use of electricity 
in pumping water by extending its service lines where there is any hope 
for a market. The Lerdo Land & Water Company, which is a kindred cor- 
poration to the San Joaquin Light & Power Company, is preparing to 
lead the way in the use of water pumped by electricity by sinking wells and 
installing pumps on a tract of several thousand acres which it has purchased 
recently and which lies along the Southern Pacific railroad beginning about 
seven miles northwest of Bakersfield. 

At Wasco is established another center of pumping plant irrigation, and 
the practicability of raising deciduous fruits and raisins by this means is 
being fully demonstrated. At Rio Bravo, south and west of Wasco and 
nearly due west of Bakersfield, farmers are proving that it pays to pump 
water on the lower land for alfalfa and grain. At Semitropic, due west of 
Wasco and thirty-five miles northwest of Bakersfield, a combination of 
pumping plants and artesian wells is solving the problem of irrigation for 
general farming and dairying. Just at the eastern edge of the swamp land 
in what is known as the Goose Lake slough country is a thriving settlement 
that depends wholly on artesian wells to mature its crops. 

Beside the ventures in orange culture around Delano, Jasmine and 
McFarland, many pumping plants have been installed in the northern part 
of the county for the growing of deciduous trees and vines, and for growing 
alfalfa for dairy cows. North of Delano, along the county line, pump irri- 
gators have been especially active. At McFarland within the past three years 
a rose nursery of one hundred and sixty acres has been established for 
the growing of rose bushes for the New York market. 

Along the foothills and out on the mesa as far as Delano dry wheat 
farming has been the main industry from the time of the settlement of the 
country until the present time, but it is considered now but a matter of 
a few years before the pumping plant will make the land too valuable to 
be longer farmed to grain. 



26 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Great Land Holdings 

As for the great area of country under the irrig^ation system already 
referred to, the bulk of it is held by the Kern County Land Company, a 
corporation that figures largely in the story of the county. Scattered among 
the company's holdings are many small farms, where all kinds of fruits, 
alfalfa, corn, vegetables and the usual agricultural crops are raised and where 
dairying is carried on with handsome profit. The Land Company's great 
fields are devoted to wheat and barley or are fenced into huge alfalfa pastures 
for the fattening of beef cattle raised in the mountains or shipped in from 
other parts of California or from other states. Whole townships of the finest 
garden soil are farmed in immense wheat fields or form rough pastures for 
Arizona steers. The almost equal Miller & Lux holdings, equally desirable, 
are farmed in about the same manner. 

If we were sitting on the top of the Coast range in reality instead of 
metaphorically we could see that the county's agricultural possibilities have 
not yet approached the stage of realization. Rut a thorough knowledge of 
the facts and the possibilities is necessary to gain any conception of how 
far short of realization the present falls. There is no finer body of land 
in the state than this great valley, and there are few so well watered. .With 
the breaking up of the large holdings of land and the coming of small farmers 
in numbers adequate to till the soil in thorough fashion, Kern county will 
become one of the chief sources of food supply in the west. At the present 
time agriculture is so far overshadowed by the oil industry that a greater 
imm])cr of farm products are shipped into the county than are shipped out. 

The Kern River Oil Field 

Before we leave the valley for a brief survey of the mountains we must 
take note of the Kern river oil field, averaging throughout its history the 
greatest single producing field of the state, although Coalinga, Midway and 
Sunset have each, at different times forged past it. Thirty miles from the 
nearest of the other oil fields, on the other side of the valley and with no 
apparent connection with the west side oil measures, Kern river holds a 
place alone and needs a wholly separate description. The field lies across 
Kern river to the north of Fjakersfield, sloping from the water's edge up 
to the top of the mesa. It covers approximately eleven sections of land, 
under all of which the drill has found a great pool of oil. First drilled in 
1899 and pumped ever since to the limit of the market demand, in 1910 the 
field produced 13,700,000 barrels of oil, and a large part of the i)roveh territory- 
is yet untouched. 

It was the Kern river field that gave the county its first oil boom, and 
made the people of the county forget for the time their long demand for 
agricultural expansion. The field has been the best dividend-payer in the 
state, despite the fact that none of the spectacular gushers which have given 
fame to the Midway and Sunset fields have had a ])arallel in Kern river. 
The drilling has been easy and certain, the ])ercentage of loss has been small, 
and even the limits of the field were established so earh- that little money 
has been spent in fruitless prospecting about its borders. That the field 
may not be extended in the future is not assumed. In fact, recent drilling 
to the north and northwest has met encouraging indications, and many i)eoj)le 
believe that some day oil derricks will be scattered along the east side 
mesas as they now are scattered along the Coast range. Prospect holes 
are now being drilled due south of the Kern river field about twenty-four 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 27 

miles, and due iKirtli of the field almost an equal distance. Both these new 
prospective districts are near the Sierra foothills, but the results of their 
exploration must remain for a later writing'. 

The Mountain Sections 

The description of the mountains is quickly written, although one might 
live there many years and wonder at the freshness of their charm and interest. 
It is because of the impossible task of a full description that little can be 
said. The Sierras fill in between the desert and the valley a great barrier, 
thirty to fifty miles in width, built out of lofty peaks, rugged, pine-clad ridges 
and shoulders of earth, timbered slopes, fertile valleys, streams that tumble 
down rocky cascades and flow gently along level reaches, great ledges that 
carr)^ treasures of gold, silver, copper, and lesser minerals of many sorts. 

Suppose we desert our Coast range mountain top for an airship, pre- 
ferably a dirigible, and sail slowly over the tops of the Sierras from the north 
county line southward. On the western slope of the range in the northern 
tier of townships is AA'oody, named for one of the county pioneers and not 
for the big oak trees that cover the hills and fill the little valleys. A little 
farther east and a little higher up is Glennville, in the fertile Linn's valley, 
named for William Lynn, but spelled with an "i" in later years. Cedar creek 
and a number of other little streams water the country hereabout 
and while stock-raising is the chief industry all down the western slope of 
the range, not a little general farming and some fruit raising is carried on 
in the little valleys and fertile meadows about Glennville. To the south 
of Glennville are Granite station and Poso Flat, both small centers of stock- 
raising. 

Over the Greenhorn mountains from Glennville and Linn's valley is 
Kern river flowing at times through narrow caiions, and elsewhere through 
wider valleys where the stream is bordered by fertile bottom lands. It 
was along Kern river, at Keysville, about eleven miles south of the north 
county line, that the first important mining camp in the county was estab- 
lished. Keysville was about three miles below the junction of the north and 
south forks of Kern river. Whiskey Flat (now Kernville) is about the 
same distance above the junction, on the north or main branch. 

Above the junction the South Fork flows through the South Fork" valley, 
a fertile strip of bottom land that forms the most important of the mountain 
farming districts. All this valley, about twenty miles in length, is irrigated 
and farmed to alfalfa. Weldon and Onyx on the South Fork, Isabella at 
the junction. Palmer and A'aughn a little to the south from Isabella, form 
the centers of the sparse population of the northern mountain section. Havi- 
lah, lying in a little valley, hardly more than a gulch, a little farther still, 
was once the metropolis and county seat of Kern, but its glory and greatness 
long since have faded. 

The mountains over which we have sailed so far are rugged and beautiful, 
stretching away in purple vistas, clad on their summits with pines and cedars 
and on their lower slopes with oaks, madrones and chaparral. To the south 
of Flavilah. forming the water-shed between Kern river on the north and 
Caliente creek on the south, is ]\Iount Breckenridge. a handsome, broad- 
topped mountain, rich in lumber pine that in earlier days was sawed and 
hauled to Bakersfield. The mill is still there but it has not been operated 
for some years. 

At the southern foot of Mount Breckenridge is Walker's basin, another 



28 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

of the cradles of Kern county's early civilized life, and farther on is Piute 
mountain, the scene of some of the earlier placer mining; Amalie and Paris 
on Caliente creek, centers of a later and more permanent mining development; 
Tehachapi creek, up which the Southern Pacific winds its difficult and tortuous 
passage; Bear mountain, rising to the west some seven thousand feet, one 
of the most conspicuous of the landmarks to be seen from the valley about 
Bakersfield ; the pleasant and fertile mountain valleys that bear the names 
of Bear, Brites, Cummings and Tehachapi; then the saddle at the crest, 
the crow's nest, in which the town of Tehachapi sits. 

On the western slope of Bear mountain is the Rancho El Tejon, one of 
the early Spanish grants, woven closely with the history of the Indians in 
this part of the state, and forming now, with the Alamos, Castac and La 
Liebre grants a magnificent mountain and valley stock range — the third large 
land holding in the county — soon, it is hoped, to be subdivided for more 
intensive use. 

Beyond Tehachapi and the Tejon ranch is a great procession of broken, 
tumbled and unappreciated hills which lead the traveler at last to the wonder- 
ful southland where even a sand dune with a cactus growing on it is a para- 
dise of health and beauty and greatly to be desired at so much per square 
foot. 

The Desert Triangle Again 

Before we bring our airship down let us sail again over the great tri- 
angle of desert with which this description of the county began. Skirting 
the base of the hills at its western edge is the Los Angeles aqueduct, a great 
tube of concrete through which the people of the southern city hope to lead 
the waters of Owens river to fill their faucets, sprinkle their lawns and irrigate 
some thousands of acres of garden land in what are now the suburbs, but 
which undoubtedly the city will soon annex. The Southern Pacific, the 
Santa Fe and the Nevada and California railroads all cross this triangle of 
desert in different directions, all meeting at Mojave, which is both a mining 
and a railroad town. To the northeast are Randsburg, Garlock, Goler and 
Johannesburg, all of which figure in the history of the desert mines, and still 
farther north, Indian Wells and Salt Wells valley, where venturesome pros- 
pectors would find still another oil field, and Inyokern, a new settlement of 
farmers in the northeast corner of the county. 

Bakersfield, the Commercial Center 

The center of all Ivern county's commercial activity and the point around 
which the greater part of the county's history revolves, is Bakersfield. Lo- 
cated where Kern river enters its delta ; the spot whence the irrigating canals 
diverge ; the place where the railroads add the helper engines for the heavy 
haul up the mountain ; the place whence the branch railroads lead to the 
west side oil fields ; at the door of the great Kern river field, where the citrus 
mesa meets the lower valley land, Bakersfield is in close and constant touch 
with all the greater resources and activities of the county. Even the roads 
from the mountain mines converge here. Only the mines of the desert are 
far removed by distance and association, from the county seat. 

The federal census of 1910 gave Bakersfield a population of 12,727, as 
against 4836 ten years before. The county census for 1910 was 37,715, and 
for 1900, 16,480. The great gain was mainly due to the development of the 
oil fields, although a slow but steady gain in the valley farming sections was 
evident, and this gain also assisted the growth of Bakersfield. The five banks 



BASKETS MADE BY KERX CULXTV IXDIAXS 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 29 

of Bakersfield on December 31, 1910, showed a total of deposits amounting 
to $5,679,000, a g-ain of more than two million dollars in the twenty months 
just previous to that date. The postal receipts for the city in 1910 were over 
sixty thousand dollars. Close to a million and a half dollars was spent in 
building in Bakersfield in 1910, and the cost of the new residences constructed 
in that period ranged up to seventeen thousand dollars each. The assessed 
valuation of Kern county in 1910 was over fifty-three million, making a per 
capita wealth according to the very low estimates of the assessor of $1350 
for every man, woman and child within the county's borders. 

These figures give some fair idea of the prosperity and financial stability 
of the city and county at the present time. The prospects for the future were 
never brighter. 



CHAPTER II 

Indians and the Tejon Ranch 

On the top of Black mountain, northwest of Oarlock, among the ranges 
of dead, forgotten hills that stand sentinel over the dead and forgotten wastes 
of desert in the far eastern part of the county, were found in the 'SOs the 
remains of a prehistoric village which may have been occupied many centuries 
ago by the same race of men that built the extinct and buried cities of Arizona 
and Mexico. 

In a hollow between two ridges of the mountain are the ruins of two 
parallel walls, two hundred- feet in length, with shorter walls extending from 
them at right angles. . From the size and form of the building to which the 
walls seem to have belonged it is doubtless permissible to assume that it 
may have been a temple, a fort or some other public building. Down a little 
way on the northern slope of the mountain stand the ruins of what appears 
to have been a dwelling. What is left of the walls, standing two or three 
feet in height, form almost a perfect circle. On the east was a door, and carved 
on the inside of the walls are hieroglyphics identical with those found on 
the famous Poston butte near Florence, Arizona. The rocks, also, are very 
similar to those of the Poston carvings. One of the characters is described 
as not unlike the astronomical sign for the planet Mars. The evident size 
of the work and the character of the carving indicate that the ruins are 
not those of a building erected by any of the more recent Indian tribes, and 
the decay and discoloration of the rock show that the carving was done 
centuries ago. 

A circumstance that gives these ruins still greater interest to the visitor 
is the old, dead aspect of all the country around. The dead, barren hills, 
the gray reaches of desert, the dry wind, the solemn, cloudless sky, the 
blazing, unobscured sun, the inefifable silence brooding everywhere, all remind 
one, the travellers say, of the Holy Land, and of the old cradles of dead 
races in Asia and Egypt. 

There is not a little in Kern county for the archeologist to unearth, but 
even of our immediate predecessors, the Indians who possessed the land 
before the white men came, we know comparatively little. There is reason 
to suppose that at somewhat earlier dates California was peopled by a more 
heroic race of redmen than was found here when the first gold seekers began 



30 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

to explore the Sierras for placer mines. The descriptions of the Indians left 
by the first historians disag-ree widely as to the size, appearance and general 
character of the tribes that inhabited the state and there seems to be an 
equal discrepancy in the measurements of the bones exhumed from the Indian 
burying places. When Kit Carson first visited California in 1829 he found 
the valleys swarming with large and prosperous tribes. About that date it 
was roughly estimated that the number of Indians in the state was upward 
of lOO.COO. In 1859 Carson again visited the valley and found that the tribes 
he had knowm on his former tour had wholly disappeared and that the people 
living here at that time had never heard of them. In 1863 the Department 
of the Interior counted 29,300 Indians in the state. 

Between Goose lake in Kern county and Tulare lake was found, years 
ago, the remain-s of an old Indian village with the ground about it strewn 
with skulls and bleaching bones as though some pestilence had descended 
upon the tribe and mow^ed it dowm so swiftly and relentlessly that none 
were left with strength tt) bury the dead. Early records tell also of epidemics 
of smallpox and other diseases that decimated the Indian tribes. 

In his researches into the history and habits of the Indians, E. L. AIcLeod, 
who gathered one of the finest collections of Indian baskets in the state, 
fell upon an interesting clue to the origin of the Kern county tribes who were 
known quite generally by the name Yokut. Spending a day in Hanford, 
Mr. McLeod saw- a number of Indians squatting along the curb of one of 
the streets, and as was his custom when the opportunity served, he went 
to talk with them. Presently down the street came a runaway team, and 
thereafter the usual crowd of people gathered. 

"Yokut! Yokut!" exclaimed one of the Indian women, pointing toward 
the sudden assemblage. 

Mr. McLeod scented the clue and at once inquired what the wM:)men 
meant bv the exclamation. 

"They come everywhere," was the explanation forthcoming, and com- 
bining this new knowledge wnth what he had formerly known of the Yokut 
Indians, Mr. McLeod reached the conclusion that the name did not indicate 
an homogenous tribe but that the Yokuts came from everywhere. 

The average Indian found here by the earliest settlers Avas not a par- 
ticularly noble specimen of manhood. He reared no temples and built no 
monuments. For a dwelling he hollowed out a little circle in the earth, 
raised above it a cone-shaped framework of poles or brush and thatched it 
with bark, grass or rushes. As late as 1874 many of the old men wore no 
clothes save a breech clout, summer or winter. In cold weather thev huddled 
in their huts, scurrying out into the wet or snow, stark naked, when need 
required, to gather a little w^ood for the fire that smouldered in the center 
of their dingy, smoky homes. Meat formed but a very small part of the 
diet of the Kern county Indians of the earlier times. Those who lived 
by the valley lakes caught clams, and squirrels and smaller game fell victims 
to their arrows. But the main staples of their larder were acorns, juniper 
berries, pinons, the few wald fruits and nuts, the edible roots and seeds of 
wild grasses that grew along the foothills ])efore the foxtail usurped their 
place. 

Through the mountains ever}-\vhere are found in broad, flat rocks the 
clusters of hollowed holes where the village women gathered to pound the 
acorns and grass seeds into the dough from which they baked their bread- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 31 

In tlie \alleys are found the portal^le stone mortars and pestles, which the 
squaws had to carry about with them 1)ecause no native stones were to be 
found by the valley villag^es. These mortars and pestles, sinkers which were 
cleverly fashioned from granite for the fishermen, the spear and arrow heads 
which were chipped out by touchinq; the heated stones with a piece of wet 
wood, and the handsome and artistically woven baskets which served a 
multitude of purposes, are practically the only specimens of the handicraft 
of the Indians that remain. 

Anthropologists, particularly Dr. C. Hart ^Nlerriam of Washington, D. C, 
have been fairly successful in gathering information concerning the customs, 
religion and language of the Indians of this part of the state, and Prof. 
George H. Taylor, now of Fresno, but for many years a resident of Bakers- 
field, after months of effort got one of the remaining tribal singers to sing into 
a phonograph one of the more elaborate ceremonials of her race. Into the 
very striking music of the ceremonial is woven all the pathos, all the mystery, 
all the fear and all the struggling hopefulness, that this childlike people 
gained from the great Mother Nature of whom they understood so little 
and with whom they lived in such daily, intimate contact. The music of 
the ceremonial has not yet been transcribed. It will be a pity, indeed, if 
it is not reduced to some enduring form, for it is one of the few legacies 
of a fast-dyiiTg people that later races may profitably preserve. 

In some of the Indian mounds in the valley between Buena \'ista and 
Tulare lakes the bodies of the dead seem to have been buried in a sitting 
posture, but inquiry does not develop that this was always the case. Many 
of the burying grounds in the lower lands have been disturbed by floods, 
however, and the bones and whatever articles may have been buried with 
the bodies have been scattered and recovered with deeper or shallower 
washings of mud and sand. Some of the remains in the valley mounds had 
been wrapped in blankets or cloth of some coarse texture, and quite recently 
T. W. Stockton dug up and forwarded to the Smithsonian Institution the 
bones of an Indian that had been buried in a sitting posture in the bank 
of Kern river not far from the Kern river oil field. This body had been 
covered with reeds in the form of a coarse basket. 

Tribal Names and Characteristics 

From C. Hart ]\Ierriam's "Distribution of Indian Tribes in the Southern 
Sierra and Adjacent Parts of the San Joaquin Valley, California," the fol- 
lowing is condensed : 

"South of the INIuwa, and ranging from Fresno creek to Kern lake and 
Tehachapi basin, are tribes of two widely dift'erent linguistic families — the 
Yokut and Paiute. These tribes are arranged, in the main, in parallel belts, 
the Yokuts occupying the lower and more westerly country, the Paiutes the 
higher and more easterly. But there is this important difiference : The Yokut 
tribes are more numerous, and untilthe confiscation of their lands by the 
whites their distribution was continuous, while the Paiute tribes are few 
and their distribution is, and always was, interrupted by broad intervals. 
Powers recognized the general facts that the Indians of this part of Cali- 
fornia belonged in the main to the Yokut and Paiute stocks; that the Yokut 
tribes were a peaceful people and were the earlier occupants of the region ; 
and that the Paiute tribes were more powerful and warlike and entered at a 
later period. He states that bands of Paiutes, leaving their desert homes 



32 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

east of the mountains, had pushed through the passes of the Sierras, invaded 
certain valleys of the western slope, and driven out the Yokut people. 

"Tribes of other linguistic families inhabited the hot Tulare-Kern basin 
and the region to the west and southwest, but they do not come within 
the scope of the present paper. In the area south of Fresno creek I have 
obtained vocabularies of eighteen tribes, of which nine are of Yokut origin 
and nine of supposed Paiute of Shoshonian origin." 

Of the nine Yokut tribes which Dr. Merriam enumerates, the Taches 
lived around Tulare lake in the lower Sonoran zone, and the Yowelmannes 
inhabited the Bakersfield plain and thence to Kern lake. But a few of either 
tribe remain. Of the Paiute tribes the Pakanepul are found on the South 
Fork of Kern river, and the Newooah center about Paiute mountain. Dr. 
Merriam states that the languages of the two tribes last mentioned differ so 
greatly from each other and from the supposed common Paiute stock as 
represented by the Owens Valley Paiutes that if they really are of Paiute 
origin they must have crossed the mountains at a very remote date. The 
chief and almost only resemblance in the languages is in the numerals, and 
Dr. Merriam says that this may have arisen through contact rather than 
through common heredity. 

The word Yokut, Dr. Merriam says, means "the people," as also does 
the tribal name Newooah, and a number of other family and tribal names 
by which the Indians referred to themselves. 

The Paiute tribes inhabited the cooler Ponderosa pine belt of the moun- 
tains, while the Yokuts lived in the hot San Joaquin valley and rarely pushed 
their way so high as the Digger pine belt. 

Civilizing the Indian 

While no Spanish missions were established in the territory now com- 
prised in Kern county, the Indians found here had been to some extent in- 
fluenced b}^ the civilization of the padres through the fact that many of the 
young braves from the different tribes were taken to the missions and kept 
there under the teaching of the fathers for longer or shorter periods, and 
also because tribes that had been driven from the older parts of the state 
by the encroachments of the whites migrated to this end of the San Joaquin 
valley or to the mountains round about. 

There were no Indian wars worthy the name in the history of the 
state, but in 1850 the Indians from White river to Kern lake made an appar- 
ently concerted attack on the white miners and settlers, and the fear of danger 
more than the actual harm the Indians inflicted prompted che President 
in 1850 to appoint a peace commission consisting of Redick McKee, G. W. 
Barbour and O. M. Wozencraft, Indian agents, to make peace with the 
tribes. These emissaries decided that the Indians had been forced to 
steal from the white men and had been justly angered into attacking them 
by having been driven from their ancient hunting and fishing grounds to 
the less hospitable mountains and desert plains. The peace commission 
recommended that the Indians be made allowances of food and given reserva- 
tions on the plains. On June 10, 1851, it is recorded, treaties were made with 
eleven tribes around Kern lake. 

But after the apparent habit of Indian agencies, jealousies interferred 
with the smooth working of the plans of the peace commission, and the 
three commissioners soon divided the territory into three jurisdictions, Bar- 
bour taking charge of the San Joaquin valley. About the same time charges 




o 

Pi 



P4 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 33 

of s^raft and mismanagement reached Washington, and in the spring of 1852 
Lient. E. F. Beale was made superintendent of Indian affairs in California. 

Beale had very well formed ideas concerning Indian management and 
he proceeded to put them into eft'ect, concentrating his main energies at 
Tejon. In brief his scheme was a mixture and adaptation of the methods of 
the army and the missions. He adopted the plan of communal farming, pro- 
vided instruction under the supervision of resident agents, and established 
forts with garrisons of soldiers both to protect the Indians and to keep them 
within bounds and under proper discipline. The plan was working admir- 
ably, but the government authorities thought that the expenditures were out 
of proportion to the number of the wards of the nation provided for, and 
Beale was replaced by Col. T. J. Henley. 

Henley established three other reservations at once, and later increased 
that number, the reservation on Tule river being one. In addition many 
farms and branch reservations were equipped. Soldiers from the forts and 
visitors to the reservations carried word to Washington that too much graft 
was going on under cover of aid to the California Indians, and G. Bailey 
was sent to make an investigation. Further changes followed, the allowance 
for Indian agencies was reduced, the Fresno and Kings river farms were 
abandoned, and in 1863 Tejon was given up and the Indians in this part of 
the state were concentrated on the Tule river farm. In 1873 the Tule 
farm was abandoned, and the Indians were moved to the reservation on the 
south fork of Tule river, back in the mountains. 

Such is a bare outline of a very interesting chapter in the history of the 
nation's dealings with the aboriginal tribes. J. J. Lopez, for many years 
in charge of sheep and cattle at the Tejon ranch, supplies from memory and 
tradition something of the local color and interest. Many years ago, Lopez 
relates, the mountains around Tejon were a harbor for renegade Indians from 
the coast and southern missions. xA.n Indian that had been taken to the mis- 
sions, baptized, taught the taste of meat and the pains of hard labor and 
who had gone wild again was a worse Indian than one who had remained 
in his savage and ignorant state, and when the original Spanish grantors of 
the land now included in the Tejon ranch came to take possession they found 
the Indians so troublesome and the bears so numerous and aggressive that 
they relinquished their plans. 

Next to the renegade Indians, who were specially adept at stealing, the 
most troublesome of the savages were the Serranos, who in the '50s had 
their hunting grounds in Inyo county and the ]\Ionache meadows and drove 
off cattle wherever they could find them through the mountains from Tulare 
to Los Angeles county, and the Tecuyas, a tribe of warlike Indians that 
migrated from the coast and took up their abode a little to the west of the 
mouth of Tejon canon. It happened that the hills betw-een Tejon canon 
and San Emidio had long been the hunting grounds of the Pescaderos, who 
had their village on the border of Kern lake, and the result was perennial 
w^arfare between the new comers and the old. 

The Serranos, the Pescaderos and the Tecuyas together with the peace- 
able Tehachapis and other tribes from the mountain valleys, all were gathered 
at Tejon, and they seem to have gotten along fairly well under the restraint 
of the soldiers and the influence of Lieutenant Beale's patriarchal govern- 
ment. But when the tribes were moved north the Tecuyas and Castacs elected 
to return to the coast, not caring to associate with the other clans. A large 



34 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

number remained at Tejon, and after Beale had bought the grants and estab- 
lished his farming and stock-raising industries there he gave such of the 
Indians as cared to stay tracts of four or five acres each to farm for them- 
selves and employed them as herders, shearers and farm laborers. About 
one hundred and fifty Indians, mostly Serranos, now live on the Tejon 
ranch, and their presence there links the Tejon of the present with the primi- 
tive days before the white man came, as no other part of the county is linked. 

The Tejon Ranch 

What is generally known by the name of the Tejon ranch includes the 
rancho el Tejon (the ranch of the badger), rancho Castac (the lake ranch), 
rancho Los Alamos y Augua Caliente (the ranch of the cottonwoods and 
the warm water), and rancho la Liebre (the ranch of the jack-rabbit), com- 
prising in all upward of 150,000 acres of mountain, valley and mesa land 
along the western slope of the Sierras reaching from the middle of the county 
to its southern border. 

General Beale bought the old Spanish grants which the different ranches 
represent from the original owners, who were unable or indisposed to do 
anything with them, and following the removal of the Indians he made the 
great sweep of fairly well watered land into a magnificent stock ranch. In 
the very early days Colonel Vineyard ran sheep on the ranch, selling out 
his flock to Solomon and Philo Jewett when the latter first came to the county 
in 1860. The drought of 1864 was the indirect cause of the formation of 
the partnership of Beale & Baker, which figured as the owner of great flocks 
in the early days of the county's history. Baker had been in the sheep 
business near what is now Burbank, in Los Angeles county, but the shortage 
of feed drove him north into the mountains, and he entered into a partnership 
with General Beale. For about seven years the partnership continued, the 
flocks of sheep growing meantime to 100,000 or 125,000 head. Indian herders 
and shearers were employed then as at later dates in the history of the ranch. 
In 1874 W. J. Hill, Dave Rivers, and State Senator John Boggs, comprising 
the firm of Hill, Rivers & Co., leased the ranch. About that time the stock 
kept there included 60,000 head of sheep, 10,000 head of cattle and 200 horses. 
Hill, Rivers & Co.'s lease expired in 1880, when General Beale bought the 
stock. J. J. Lopez, who was in charge of the sheep under the Hill, Rivers 
& Co. regime, recalls that they used to get fifteen to thirty cents for the 
wool in those days, delivered at Los Angeles, and it took about ten days 
to haul it there in wagons. Wethers were worth from $2.50 to $3 per head, 
very much more than an acre of land. The dry year of 1877 and the termina- 
tion of the lease to Hill, Rivers & Co. determined the policy of reducing the 
number of sheep on the Tejon ranch, and in 1879 Lopez was sent to Montana 
with 16,000 head of sheep. The drive consumed six months, led through 
mountains, over deserts, by long trails where the way was unknown and 
the water bad and far to find, and where treacherous Indian tribes demanded 
all the diplomacy to which Don Jose's Castilian blood had made him heir. 
The long drive is famous in the annals of the Kern county sheepmen, few of 
whom are strangers to the long trail, and as a reward for his efficiency, when 
Lopez returned he was placed in charge of both sheep and cattle. For about 
eighteen years R. M. Pogson was general superintendent of Tejon ranch. 
J. G. Stitt following him. 

Truxtun Beale followed the methods of his father in the treatment of 
the Indians at Tejon. and the great ranch with its unsurveyed acres, irregular 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 35 

lines, Indian homes beside the ranch house and the patriarchal air that broods 
over the place continued until 1912 to furnish a picturesque and romantic 
reminder of another age in the midst of a state and a county that are rapidly 
becoming the most aggressively modern in the world. But Truxtun Beale, 
shortly before the closing of these pages, sold the Tejon ranch to a Southern 
California syndicate that now is engaged in testing the water supplies with 
the ultimate intention of irrigating so much of the land as possible and 
devoting it to more productive cultivation. 



CHAPTER III 
Gold Mining From 1851 to 1875 

Authentic records of mining in what is now Kern county date back to 
1851. In the early '60s a shaft opened in the Tehachapi valley showed 
evidences that the ground had been worked over many years before, and in 
1870 J. C. Crocker, then a cattleman with headquarters at Temblor, reported 
to the Kern County Courier the finding of a tunnel driven in solid rock in 
the Coast range west of Bakersfield which was proven by a tree growing 
in its mouth to have been dug long before the country came into the posses- 
sion of the Americans. Nothing remained in either case, however, to show 
by whose hands the work had been done, except that in the case of the 
tunnel, marks of a pick or other steel instrument seemed to furnish conclusive 
evidence that it was driven by civilized men. 

In 1851 occurred the first rush to the Kern river placers. Indians car- 
ried vague reports of golden sands to the placer miners in the mountains 
farther north, and the surging tide of fortune seekers that swept over all the 
state in the days of '49 sent a little stream of prospectors to search out 
the new field. They found little, however, and little record was left of their 
adventures. The statement is made by early chroniclers, also, that some 
quartz mining was going on in 1852 at what was later Keysville. 

But the real history of mining in Kern county dates from 1853, when a 
lump of gold, said to have weighed forty-two ounces, was dug out of the 
sands in one of the gulches between Keysville and Kernville. Word of 
the find spread rapidly through the camps of Mariposa and throughout the 
state, and Kern river took a foremost place among the numerous El Dorados 
that attracted the feverish crowds of gold seekers. Running out from the 
main bodies of ore farther back in the hills were little stringer veins from 
which the free gold washed down with the sands into French gulch, Rich 
gulch and all the other gulches and canons leading into Kern river between 
Keysville and Kernville. Into these gulches the stream of prospectors poured. 
The placers were easy to work, and there was plenty of water. Very soon 
Kern river was one of the best known camps in the state, although but a 
little while before it was wholly unknown save to the few trappers, explorers 
and stockmen who had wandered through Walker's Pass and over Greenhorn 
mountain. 

In 1854 Richard Keys discovered the Keys mine, and the working of 
the quartz ledges began. The road to Kern river, so far as there was a 
road, lay through Visalia, and during the year no less than 600 miners 
passed the Tulare county capital on the way to Kern river. In this year 



36 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

A. T. Lig-htner. Sr.. came to Keysville from San Jose, and his son, A. T. 
Lightner. jr., gives a graphic account of the latter part of the journey, after 
all semblance of a wagon road had been left behind. Such wagons as were 
brought into the new district followed the gulches or the backbones of the 
ridges, the teamsters clearing the way with axes when necessary, some- 
times using as many as fourteen horses to haul one wagon up an especially 
steep place, and trailing felled trees behind the wagons to assist the brakes 
in going down hill. 

For the most part, however, the first miners brought their outfits and 
supplies by pack animals. Even the first quartz mill machinery was packed 
in, and nowhere in the mountains did the fine art of balancing heavy and 
bulky loads on mule and burro back reach a higher degree of perfection. 
When Lightner hauled, or rather lowered, his first wagon down the mountain 
side into Keysville, the route he had by chance selected took him directly 
over the Keys mine. 

The First Quartz Mill 

Lightner brought the first quartz mill to Keysville in 1856, hauling it 
from San Francisco, via San Jose and Visalia, by wagon. He set it up by 
the banks of Kern river a short distance below Keysville, where the gulch 
that ran through the camp met the stream, and built a flume to carry water 
to his wheel. Meantime he had engaged in mining, and was the owner of 
the Garnishee mine, later known as the Mammoth, which, with the Keys mine, 
yielded the best and largest part of the gold produced from quartz in the 
district. The Lightner mill crushed rock for the Keys mine, also, and Light- 
ner, the younger, although he was a small boy at the time, says he clearly 
remembers the old tin bucket in which Richard Keys used to carry his round 
balls of bullion back from the mill. 

The vein of ore tapped by the Keys and Mammoth was traced for 
over two miles, and many lesser mines were opened into it. A legend noted 
by Stephen Barton, one of the later pioneers of the upper Kern river country, 
says that Richard Keys went back to his old home in 1861 with the laudable 
intention of making all his relatives rich, and when he came back he found 
his mine caved in and full of water — hopelessly out of commission. Years 
later Stavert Brothers ran a drainage tunnel at a level of 350 feet below the 
old Keys tunnel, and the rehabilitated mine yielded some $65,000 in gold. 

Stephen Barton describes an old Chilean quartz mill he saw in the 
Keysville district as consisting of "two large wheels hewn from solid granite, 
seven or eight feet in diameter and a foot and a half thick, each weighing 
three or four tons," and both in good repair as late as 1888. The worn-out 
stamps which had carried wooden stems, and the cast-iron slabs that had 
lined a wooden battery box, continues Mr. Barton, were modelled after those 
used by Lord Sterling (General Alexander), north of Morristown in the 
reduction of iron ore in preparing solid shot for Washington's army. 

For years the washing of the sands in the placers went on side by side 
with the quartz mining. At first the more fortunate of the placer miners 
made as high as $16 to $60 per day and more, but a larger number had to 
be content with $5 to $8, and many others panned out much less than this. 
Finally, when the white men had gleaned the gulches of their richest treasure, 
the Chinamen came, and these little men. content with small wages, shovelled 
and washed the sands over and over till they were clean and white to the 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 37 

bedrock. For the Chinamen, the aftermath of the Kern river placers con- 
tained fabulous wealth. 

The Town of Keysville 
The placers began to lose their charm for the white miners about 1857, 
and at that time the quartz mines of Keysville probably were at their height. 
Between the discovery in 1854 and 1857 or '58 the town of Keysville had 
no apologies to offer to any mining camp in all the length of the Sierra Nevada 
mines. The town lay in a little cove where the southern slope of Greenhorn 
mountain melts into a flat at the edge of a short, rocky gulch. There were 
no streets. Marsh & Kennedy's store, the blacksmith shop and the office 
of Gen. J. W. Freeman, then justice of the peace and later district attorney 
of Kern county, stood near the center of the little semicircular flat. A little 
way up the slope of the hill to the west of the flat were the residences, 
grouped informally, as houses may well be where all travel is by foot or 
horseback. 

The size of the townsite is well illustrated by a story told by Mr. Lightner. 
General Freeman slept in his office, which, as stated, was near the center 
of the flat, or "business section," and took his meals with the Lightners, 
who lived in the semi-circle of residences on the hillside. That was before 
the days of the handy alarm clock, and it was one of the early morning duties 
of Mr. Lightner's older brother to step out in the front yard and heave 
a small rock down on the roof of the courthouse to waken the slumbering 
justice to his breakfast. 

But if Keysville was small in the amount of space it covered its gamblers 
could pile as many gold pieces on the table as those of many larger places, 
and no man's costume was complete without two Colt's revolvers and a 
bowie knife strapped about him. After four or five years when the towai 
grew older and more conservative, the knife and guns were worn more as an 
ornament than otherwise, but up to the time of the Civil war no well dressed 
man, after he had shaved and put on his clean shirt on Sunday morning, 
forgot to buckle the big, and fully loaded, fire arms about his waist. 

William Weldon and J. V. Roberts, among the first settlers in Walker's 
basin, supplied the Keysville miners with beef, but the bulk of the other 
supplies were brought in from Los Angeles by pack animals. This lasted up 
to 1857 or '58, when the pack trains began to be succeeded by ox-team 
freighters. In the days of the pack train its arrival in camp or the sight of 
it winding over the hills in the distance was the signal for universal rejoicing, 
for it nearly always happened that the stocks of provisions w^ere getting low 
before the new supplies arrived. 

The Keysville Fort 
Rumor of an impending attack from the Indians caused the Keysville 
miners in 1855 or 1856 to erect the fort which still stands on the point of a 
ridge running out to the gulch just below the town. The point of this 
ridge is higher than the backbone that joins it to Greenhorn mountain, so that 
a garrison occupying it could look down upon an enemy approachmg from 
any quarter. The fort, which was built of brush gathered from the chaparral 
and covered with dirt from the hollowed-out center, was shoulder high and 
large enough to accommodate 200 persons. As the Indians of those days 
were armed only with arrows the fort was considered almost as impregnable 
as Gibraltar, and its location on the gulch leading from the river to the camo 



38 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

was almost as good from a strategic standpoint. W. R. Bower, afterward 
sherifif of the county, and Frank Warren were among the leaders in the 
building of the fort, but it proved that their labors were but an excess of 
caution, for the Indian war of 1856, exciting enough in Tulare county and 
farther north, never reached so far back in the mountains as Keysville. Some 
sixty of the Keysville miners were summoned by John W. Williams of 
Visalia and William Lynn of Linn's valley to assist the settlers along White 
and Tule river in the Tule river war. This war, or so much of it as has 
anything to do with Kern county, is dealt with in connection with the gath- 
ering up of the Indian tribes from the valley and foothills and their concen- 
tration at the Tejon and other reservations. 

Meantime the early gold seekers began to search the other hills and 
ranges both above and below Keysville. General Freeman and others mined 
on Greenhorn mountain in 1855 or a little later. In 1856 Major Erskine had 
a stamp mill on what is now the Palmer ranch in the lower end of the Hot 
Springs valley, and was crushing ore for many miners thereabout. Later 
Major Erskine moved away, but his sons Thomas and M. E., remained, and 
Erskine creek was named in their honor. 

The Big Blue Mine and Whiskey Flat 

One day in I860, it is related, the mule of "Lovely" Rogers, a Keysville 
miner, wandered away and "Lovely," being a true prospector, when he had 
picked up the trail and found that it led off up the river, tucked his pick 
under his arm and followed. Whether he recovered the mule or not, is a 
matter to be only presumed. What is more important, he brought back a 
piece of rock from the place where the Big Blue mine is now located. That 
was the beginning of Kernville, first known as Whiskey Flat. 

Rogers' sample assayed well, and he returned to the place where his 
wandering mule had led him and began to uncover the ledge. Shortly after 
he sold his mine to J. W. Sumner. Sumner moved to the new camp, followed 
by many others, among the first being Adam Hamilton, who stood two 
barrels of whiskey on end, laid a plank across the top, and began to dispense 
the stimulant necessary to the proper development of a new mining camp. 
But Hamilton's bar was in too close proximity to the residences of Sumner 
and Caldwell, and he was ordered to move his whiskey down on the flat, 
a mile below, a circumstance which may or may not have suggested the 
name for the new town. 

Hamilton opened a store as well as a bar. Kittridge & Company were 
among the early merchants in Whiskey Flat, and Lewis Clark was another 
of the pioneer saloon keepers. The Sumner mine, also the property of J. W. 
Sumner, the Jeff Davis, the Beauregard, the Nellie Dent, named for the 
wife of General Grant by William Ferguson, its owner, the Lady Belle and 
the Sarah Jane were among the early Kernville mines, and most of them 
were on the same ledge with the Big Blue and were later consolidated under 
that name by Senator John P. Jones, the bonanza king, and E. R. Burke. In 
1867 Kern county was considered the most important of the mining counties 
in the southern part of the state, and Kernville was the most important 
mining town in the county. There were upward of a dozen important quartz 
mines, within a length of a couple of miles, and several extensive mills 
were in operation. At that time the entire county contained some seventeen 
quartz mills, and about 1200 people engaged in mining. 

Senator Jones took over the Big Blue mine from Sumner in 1875, and at 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 39 

once increased the activity of tlie Kernville district. Burke was the manager, 
and under his direction the most efficient mining methods of the time were 
employed. He imported a large number of Cornish miners, employing about 
200 miners all told. The mine was equipped with an 80-stamp mill, and 
about 100 tons of ore were taken out and crushed daily. 

In 1870 there had been but little doing in Kernville, and there were 
less than a score of people in the town. In 1876 there were six or seven 
stores, four saloons, a brewery, three hotels, a livery stable, and other busi- 
ness and private establishments in proportion. 

The operations in the Big Blue went on swimmingly until 1879, when the 
bottom dropped out of certain of Senator Jones' Nevada mining stocks, and 
he ordered the work at Kernville shut down. Ed Cushman, who had been 
book-keeper for Jones, secured a lease on the Big Blue, and worked it for 
about a year. Then Jacoby and Michaels leased it, ran a drainage tunnel under 
the mine at the river level, and took out a large amount of very profitable 
ore. They carried their workings down to the level of their drainage tunnel 
and quit. 

Founding of Havilah 

Long before the glory of Whiskey Flat began to fade, the restless 
advance guard of prospectors had passed on and was exploring all the gulches 
and hillsides for many miles to the south and east. One of the prospecting 
parties about the last week in June or the first week in July, 1864, went down 
Kern river and up Clear creek and found the first color of gold at Havilah, 
the third famous mining camp of Kern county, and a little later, when the 
county was organized out of portions of Tulare and Los Angeles counties, 
the first county seat. 

It is recorded that Benjamin T. Mitchel, Alexander Reid, George McKay 
and Dr. C. De La Borde, the "French Doctor," composed the discovering 
party, but to a man by name of Harpinding goes the honor of giving the new 
camp its name. Harpinding was one of the few early miners who seem to 
have carried Bibles in their kits, or his memory served him well with recol- 
lections of his boyhood days in a more pious land, for he turned to the second 
chapter of Genesis and found it written in the tenth, eleventh and twelfth 
verses that "A river went out of Eden to water the garden ; and from thence 
it parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison ; that 
is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And 
the gold of that land is good ; there is bdellium and the onyx stone." 

The first camp of the prospectors was in a gulch just below the spot 
where the town was afterward located. A month later the Clear creek 
mining district was organized, with Havilah as its focal point, and the latest 
diggings rapidly assumed first rank in interest if not in importance among 
the county's mining towns. 

The first company of prospectors called their mines the Havilah, and 
organized the Havilah Mining Company. They were prospectors rather 
than miners, however, and soon dissolved their partnership and continued to 
search for new leads on their individual accounts. Dr. La Borde and August 
Gouglat located some thirty-six claims in the Clear Creek district, among 
them being the Dijon Nos. 1 and 2, the Cape Horn, the Alma Nos. 1 and 2, 
the Rhone, Eagle, Rochefort, Navarre, Nievre, Lyon and Marengo. A little 
later, in October, La Borde and Gouglat sold their claims for $50,000. 

The most productive mine in the district was the Delphi, located by 



40 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

H. McKeadney and known also as the McKeadncy mine. The Tyrone and 
Lexington also were McKeadney's property. Nicewander (or Nyswander), 
Park & Co. were among" the early locators. 

The first mill in the Clear Creek or Havilah district was broug^ht by 
Joseph H. Thomas, from the Coso district, where it had been operated by 
the Willow Springs Mining and Milling Company, and the first rock crushed 
was from the Dijon mine. It yielded ^37 per ton. In January, 1865, Gen. 
J. W. Freeman moved his 4-stamp mill to Havilah from his mine on Green- 
horn mountain. The first rock he put through the mill was from the mines 
of Nicewander, Park & Co., and out of twenty-seven tons of ore $5000 in 
gold was saved directly from the battery. The same week rock from the 
Rochefort ledge yielded $230 per ton. and a run of Delphi ore netted $180 
per ton. 

These fabulous returns, considering the crude facilities at hand for 
extracting the gold, served to fan the interest in the Havilah mines to a fever 
heat, and the little gulch was soon resounding by day to the sound of blasting 
powder and stamp mills, and by night to the golden clink of coin on the 
gambling tables. According to the graphic account of a woman whose home 
in those days stood on the hillside just below one of the gambling resorts, 
the sound was as though someone were continually pouring twenty-dollar 
gold pieces out of a tin pan. By day the interest in the gambling tables 
was only a little less absorbing. A man who had occasion to search the 
county records some years later said he always had to wait till a poker game 
was finished before he could drag an unwilling official away long enough to 
unlock the archives and give him access to the few and fragmentary docu- 
ments on file. 

The Relief mine, or the Rand, as it was also known, was the property 
of Col. Arnold A. Rand, who bought out the locations of Nicewander, Park 
& Co. The prospectors generally were succeeded by men of larger capital 
who began the development of the mines, and when the county was organized 
in 1866 there was no settlement in all the territory embraced that could 
put forward a rival claim against Havilah for the county seat. 

A writer in 1867 states that there were at that time thirty stamp mills 
in Kern and Tulare counties, twenty-five of them being in Kern county and a 
majority of the latter number being in the Clear Creek district. Throughout 
this district were found many veins of ore ranging from two to six feet in 
thickness, and most of them were worked with marked success. Speaking 
generally of the quartz mines of the county, the same writer says that above 
the line of permanent water the ores carried mostly free gold and the early 
miners extracted it readily. When they reached the sulphureted ores, how- 
ever, so much difficulty w-as experienced that in 1865 and 1867 not more 
than one-quarter of the mills were in operation, and the production of 
bullion had decreased proportionately. 

Other Mining Districts 

So early as 1861 prospectors had drifted over the hills fifty miles south- 
east of Havilah and twenty miles from AX'alker's pass and opened the Milligan 
mine in El Poso district. They had sunk a shaft to the depth of 175 feet 
and penetrated a ledge that yielded from $57 to $150 per ton. 

In 1868, according to the Havilah Courier, the Sageland district was 
attracting so much attention as to make things a little dull at Kernville. The 
Sageland district is on the eastern slope of Piute mountain, skirting the desert 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 41 

and is filled with broken ranfjes of dry, cactus-covered hills. The St. John, 
Hortensia, Burning- Moscow and other quartz mines scattered through these 
hills yielded good quantities and qualities of ore, and justified, in the belief 
of the discoverers of the district, the pleasing- name of the New Eldorado. 
Tom Bridger was one of the pioneers of the Sageland district. 

In the early sixties, also, Henry and Deitrich Bahten were exploring 
the free gold ledges and placers on Piute mountain. The old Piute and 
Big Indian mines were among the best known producers in this district. 
Robert Palmer and Wade Hampton Williams discovered some very rich 
placers on Piute, and the thriving camp of Claraville was the result. 

Some years later, about 1876, the Bull Run silver mine, located on Bull 
run about five miles above Kernville, was credited by contemporary writers 
with being one of the richest silver mines in the world. 

In October, 1870. a Kernville letter to the Kern County Courier stated 
that forty men were employed about the Kernville mines, mostly working on 
shares and doing well. Three men in one month cleaned up $500. Ore 
from the P]ig Blue was paying about $25 per ton. 

About the same time it was reported that Burdett and Tucker had struck 
a new lead in the Long Tom mine, the scene later of one of the memorable 
tragedies in Kern county history. 

An optimistic correspondent of the Courier in 1870 wrote that the Joe 
Walker mine in Walker's basin was doing better than ever since new pumping 
machinery, recently installed, had enabled the miners to reach the lower 
ores. But water trouble finally caused the abandonment of the mine. Stephen 
Barton states that the last efifort on the Joe Walker was made by Judge Colby 
with a Cornish pump that was warranted to throw 100 miners" inches of 
water 400 feet high. When the lift had reached 290 feet the pump was labor- 
ing very hard, and there was more than 100 inches of water to be handled. 
"A week of strain terminated the life of the pump, and the mine was per- 
manently closed." 

A report from the Kern river mines to the Courier by C. Schofield, 
June 3, 1871, said that the Big Blue was in steady operation and keeping a 
16-stamp mill going. The mine had been worked with an open cut to a 
depth of thirty or forty feet and about seventy feet in width across the 
vein. A drift had been run about thirty-six feet in the direction of the 
hanging wall, but neither wall had yet been seen. The ore was running 
$17.50 to the ton. About two years before there were thousands of tons of 
dump rock, but all of it had then been worked. A shaft w^as sunk sixty 
feet below the bottom of the cut, and a drift run, but the water was so 
troublesome that work had to be abandoned on the lower level. The Sumner 
ledge, the northeasterly half of the Big Blue, was then owned chiefly by 
A. Staples & Co. From the bottom of an 80-foot shaft, ore running as 
high as $75 to the ton had been taken out, together with immense quantities 
of a lower grade. The hanging wall had been barely touched, and the foot 
wall had never yet been seen. A black, massive, sulphuret rock was the best 
producing ore, but with the facilities at hand a large part of the sulphurets 
were lost. 

Next in importance to the Big Blue at this time was the Bull Run, which 
had been worked to a depth of 200 to 300 feet with an engine and hoist, and 
from which several hundred thousand dollars had been extracted. Only 
two small companies, working on shares, were taking out ore at the time, 



42 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

and these were working near the east end of the ledge on a vein about two 
feet in width which yielded ore running about $20 to the ton. 

The Beauregard, which had paid well at the surface, was not worked at 
that time. Two small companies were taking ore from a narrow but very 
rich ledge, the rock paying $75 to $100 per ton. All these mines had been 
involved in litigation which interfered seriously with their development. 

In 1873 a Tehachapi note in the Courier says that Green & Henderson 
had just cleaned up $1438 in their hydraulic mine near that place. 

For some time past the Owens river mines had been an indirect means of 
revenue to Kern county, most of their freighting being via Tehachapi and 
Bakersfield to the end of the Southern Pacific railroad, then being built 
down the valley. On November 9, 1872, A. Cross arrived in Bakersfield 
with three teams bringing 335 bars or 30,000 pounds of bullion from the 
foot of Owens lake, to which point it had been brought by steamer from 
the furnaces on the opposite side. It took ten days to make the trip from 
the lake to Bakersfield. The trip from the lake to Los Angeles consumed 
considerably more time, and as a result the railroad officials were hopeful 
of getting all the Owens river trade via teams to the end of the track, then 
nearing Tipton. 

In 1873 mention is made of the fact that Temple, Boushey & Weston 
were about to begin work on their mine near San Emidio, and expected 
to ship about 500 tons of ore per month over the railroad to San Francisco 
for treatment — provided it paid to do so, as apparently it did not. 

During the eight days ending June 7, 1873, 1000 bars, or 45 tons of 
base bullion passed through Bakersfield from the Cerro Gordo mines in Inyo 
county to the railroad terminus, and the trafific to and from the mines 
appeared to be increasing. The next month the Kern & Inyo Forwarding 
Company was advertising for fifty mule teams to haul between Owens lake 
and Tipton, and was guaranteeing full loads both ways. 

A letter from the Panamint mountains in November, 1873, tells of a 
little ball of silver being taken from the Dolly Varden lode by Edward Hall. 
The ledge was three feet in thickness and looked good to the prospectors. 
R. C. Jacobs is mentioned as one of the discoverers of the Panamint mines. 
About a year later the Panamint excitement was at its height. 

In December, 1874, E. R. Burke, who was managing the Big Blue for 
himself and Senator Jones, is quoted as saying that the average run of the 
ore paid $15 and cost $5 to handle. The season was an active one in the 
Long Tom mines. 

In 1875 a newspaper note said that the Kernville ledges had been ex- 
plored for twenty-five miles. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 43 

CHAPTER IV 
The Beginning of Agriculture and Stock-Raising 

When the first farmers arrived in Kern county is more a matter of 
tradition than of history. In the early '40s an old immigrant- trail came 
through Tejon canon from the south, skirted the hills below Bear mountain, 
wound over the mesa northward, crossing the present line of the Southern 
Pacific between Bakersfield and Edison and forded Kern river, or Rio Bravo, 
as it was then known, a short distance above the present bridge between 
the China grade and the Kern river oil fields. There is reason to believe that 
sons of men who pioneered the virgin forests and prairies of Tennessee, 
Kentucky, Arkansas and Texas, driven westward and westward by the 
hereditary wanderlust, paused on their way to the older sections of the state 
to feed their stock and let their children stretch their legs among the trees 
and grassy hills around Tejon and along the fertile banks of Kern river 
where Bakersfield now stands. Back in the Tejon hills in the earliest days 
were gaunt mountaineers of the Tennessee stock, and the first known set- 
tlers on Kern Island tell of predecessors or signs of predecessors. 

These first comers, however, or those, at least, who paused in the 
valley, were sojourners only. At most they may have hunted and fished for 
a season and replenished their stores of corn with a crop grown on the quickly 
responding soil of the Kern delta where it was necessary only to drop the 
seed and cover it with a little earth scraped up with the foot. Then they 
passed on, and the next flood or the next sand storm wiped out all trace 
of their habitation. 

John Woodhouse Audubon, in his Western Journal, says that when 
he passed through what is now Kern county he saw one party of settlers 
preparing to make permanent homes. Audubon came up from Los Angeles 
through Tejon canon in the latter part of November, 1849, with ten men and 
forty-six mules. Coming through the pass they had to wade knee deep in a 
torrent of water that poured down the trail. The mountain tops about were 
covered with snow, and when they emerged on the plain they were greeted 
with a blast of hail in their faces, swept on by a wind that uprooted cotton- 
wood trees at the canon's mouth. The plain was wet and boggy, and the 
party skirted the hills and made long detours to keep on fairly solid ground. 
Audubon also saw an Indian village and many scattered huts where the 
natives were grinding acorns and fanning grass seeds for their winter larder. 
The Indians, he says, were friendly, but he does not undertake to fix the 
location either of the Indian village or of the settlement of whites. A Lewis 
woodpecker, Stellar's jay and a new hawk with a white tail were objects 
that fixed Audubon's attention to quite as great a degree as did the beginning 
of civilization upon the Kern delta — if that is where the settlers he mentions 
were pitching their tents. 

The first settlers who came and stayed were those of the South Fork, 
Walker's basin, and other mountain districts contiguous to the early mines. 
Mr. Seibert is said to have first located in South Fork Valley in 1846. Frank 
Barrows about 1857 established a claim on the South Fork on the site of the 
present home of P. T. Brady. John Nicoll came about the same time. William 
Scodie and Thomas H. Smith settled in the upper end of South Fork valley 



44 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

in 1861-62, and the latter resides there to this day. In 1857 W^illiam Weldon 
settled in Walker's basin, moving thence to the South Fork. Weldon anC 
J. V. Roberts in connection with their stock ranch, ran a butcher business 
and supplied most of the beef consumed by the Keysville miners. In 1858 
A. T. Lightner, Sr., sold his mining and milling interests at Keysville and 
bought a settler's claim in Walker's basin for $1600. \\'itli the claim went 
certain farming implements and a band of 100 to 150 head of Spanish cattle, 
little and lean and wild. 

Other settlers of the South Fork valley were William W. Landers; 
George Clancy, who came in 1861 ; and J. L. Alack, who arrived about 1864. 
John AlcCray, who had lived with his parents for a few years on Kern Island 
about 1859-60 and later around \^isalia, went to the South Fork as a boy in 
August, 1870, and worked for W. W. Landers until he had acquired cattle and 
land of his own. Landers was one of the largest stock men of the mountain 
section, running about 2000 head in the early days and as high as 10,000 
head in the '90s. 

The raising of hay. vegetables and beef constituted the chief occupation 
of the early mountain farmers, and all their produce found a ready market in 
the mining camps. Lightner sold hay at Keysville for $40 to $50 per ton, 
and a little later hay delivered to the soldiers at Fort Tejon brought, some- 
times, as high as $60 per ton. It was while hauling hay to Havilah in 1867 
that Lightner lost his life. The morning was cold and frosty, and while going 
down a hill his foot slipped from the brake and he was thrown forward under 
the wagon wheels. 

Farming in the mountains in these early days was not without other than 
purely pastoral interest. In the very earliest times there was more or less 
danger from Indians and bear as well as white marauders and renegades, 
and on the breaking o^it of the Civil war the division of sentiment in the state 
between Union and Confederate was made the excuse for the organization of 
guerrilla bands, the real object of which was only theft and pillage. Neither 
the organized bands nor the individual marauders appear to have inflicted 
any serious harm on the settlers, but they helped to keep their nerves at 
tension by not infrequent visits. The three Kelso brothers, for example, 
often demanded the hospitality of the Lightner home, and always, of course, 
were entertained. They slept on the floor with their clothes all on, their 
feet toward the hearthstone and their heads on a pile of murderous gims. 
A. T. Lightner, Jr., had a toy revolver made of the barrel of an abandoned 
gun with a handle whittled out of wood and thrust into the breech. One of 
the Kelso brothers, seeing this one night, secured it and while his youngest 
brother slept, stealthily placed it under his head and drew away one of the 
small cannon that comprised the desperado's armament. The youthful owner 
of the toy was a fearful witness of the prank, and his opinion of the desperate 
character of the youngest Kelso was not changed when the latter awoke 
and cursed and glowered for hours over the trick that had been played 
upon him. 

The Mason and Henry gang was one of the bands of murderers and horse 
thieves organized under the cloak of patriotism. About the time the war 
broke out Mason and Henry called a meeting on Cottonwood creek a short 
distance south of the mouth of Kern river caiion. for the stated purpose of 
organizing a company of men to join the Confederate army. A large number 
of Confederate sympathizers, among them W. R. Bower, afterward sheriff 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 45 

of the county, respc)nded, but the real character of the gang soon becoming 
known, Bower and many others withdrew. Later Bower saddled his horse, 
rode it through to Missouri and served four years under the southern flag^ 
returning to Kern county after a wound in his ankle had put him out of the 
fight. 

The outlaw gang, either before or after the meeting mentioned, built a 
stone corral or fort, as they called it, on the banks of Cottonwood creek, 
where remains of it are to be seen to this day. Mason and Henry formerly 
were employes of the stage line at Elkhorn station and started on their career 
of crime by stealing so many of the stage animals as they thought they 
needed. They acted a notable part in the drama of outlawry played out in the 
San Joaquin valley in the early days of its history. 

The South Fork Valley 

The South Fork valley is about twenty miles in length and from one to 
three miles in width. Despite its elevation and the stream that flows through 
it, it was practically a desert when the first settlers arrived. The ground, 
very fertile when water was applied, was covered in its virgin state with 
high sage brush and was suitable for nothing but a rough range for cattle. 
The very earliest of the settlers cleared about ten acres each about their 
homes and devoted their energies to herding their cattle up and down the 
river. From 1861 to 1881 the construction of irrigation ditches to carry 
water over the valley progressed with more or less industry until finally 
the whole of the level land was watered and the valley became one of the 
most productive areas of the state. 

John A. Benson surveyed the valley in 1875, charging the settlers at the 
rate of $150 per quarter section, and such an artistic and satisfactory job 
did he do. it is said, that hardly a settler was obliged to move more than a 
few rods of the fences built on section lines run out by instinct and the polar 
star. 

The distribution of the water occasioned a little more difficulty. A number 
of suits were brought between settlers to determine their respective rights, 
but few were carried to a conclusion, and to this day there has not been a 
court decision covering the South Fork irrigation rights generally. About 
1899. however, owners of the dififerent ditches drew up and signed an agree- 
ment, setting aside to each quarter section 150 miner's inches of water and 
establishing the right of precedence according to priority of location. 

In 1885 South Fork failed fully to supply the irrigation ditches, and the 
waters of Whitney creek w-ere diverted from the North Fork to the South 
Fork through a tunnel six feet high and six feet wide, driven 350 feet 
through a hill. The tunnel caved in, and Jefif Gillum was given a contract to 
make the tunnel an open cut for $1000. He failed to get the cut down to 
grade, and in the suit over the settlement expert witnesses said that the 
job could not be done under $3500. The farmers paid the bill, and put a 
dam across the creek to force the water through the unfinished cut. 

In 1895 Miller & Lux and the Kern County Land Company with their 
affiliated canal companies filed a suit asking for an order of the court enjoining 
the farmers of the South Fork from using the water they had appropriated, 
claiming a prior right to all the w^aters of Kern river and its affluents. 
The suit was never pressed to a trial, however, and a similar suit filed 
by the same parties some six years later followed a similar course. In 1908 a 
third suit was filed and is still pending in the early stages. It is stated that 



46 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the plaintiffs have no expectation of depriving the South Fork irrigators of 
their w^ater, but desire a court decision fixing the amount they are entitled to 
divert. 

Very recently a government agent made a careful inspection of the 
South Fork irrigation system and gathered data regarding the suits that 
had been filed, but the purpose was not given out, and no further develop- 
ments as yet have indicated what action, if any, the government may have in 
view. 

The height of the cattle business in the South Fork valley was in 1890 to 
1899. From then on the restrictions of the Federal Forest Reserve have 
curtailed the free range which the stockmen previously enjoyed, and the 
herds accordingly have been reduced to what may be kept on the owners' 
lands and pastured to the extent permitted within the limits of the reserve. 

The revival of activity in the Big Blue mine in 1875 gave farming in 
the South Fork valley its first great stimulus, and beside the cattle, large 
quantities of hogs, grain, vegetables and other products were delivered to 
the mines. In 1872 the culture of alfalfa was begun in the valley by an 
Englishman named Jack Waterworth on the present home ranch of William 
Landers. Gradually the growing of alfalfa took the place of wheat raising, 
and now alfalfa is the principal farm product of the South Fork. 

Early Settlers on the Kern Delta 

John McCray, now a resident of Bakersfield but best known over the 
county as a large stock raiser and rancher of the South Fork valley, carries 
the story of farming on the Kern river delta back a little farther than anyone 
else the writer has been able thus far to find. John McCray, Sr., with a 
party of west-bound pioneers under the leadership of Capt. Johnny Roberts, 
drove a band of 1000 Durham cattle across the plains from Missouri in the 
early '50s, and John IMcCray, Jr., was born on the journey, somewhere near 
Donner lake. The family settled first in Tuolumne county, and went from 
there to Centerville. on Kings river. At the latter place they were troubled 
so much with malaria that in 1859 they came to the Kern delta, establishing 
themselves about three miles south of the present boundaries of Bakersfield. 
In passing it is to be mentioned that from then until 1864, when the McCrays 
moved to Visalia to give their children the benefit of schools, not one of the 
family had a chill. 

In 1859 the overland or immigrant road entered the valley through Tejon 
pass, going from the fort east of Adobe and then drifting westward and 
northward and crossing the old south fork about eight miles south of what 
was later the Poindexter place. From there it followed about the course of the 
present Kern Island road to what was then the Walker Shirley place and 
what is now the Lowell addition to Bakersfield. The road ran through the 
present townsite and crossed the river about where the old Jewett avenue 
bridge formerly stood. From the other side of the river the road followed 
the present road to Poso creek, past Mon's place and Willow Springs, crossed 
White river at Irish John's place, and thence past Fountain springs to Porter- 
ville and Tulare. 

The old Butterfield stage road followed the same route from Visalia to a 
point near the Kern river oil fields, where it headed down a canon to a point 
iust above the present China grade bridge, where a ferry was operated by 
Major Gordon between 1861 and 1864, and previously, according to some 
accounts, by a man named Gale. Major Gordon had an adobe house by his 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 47 

ferry, and a pile of dirt remains to this day to mark the spot. From the ferry 
the stage road turned east along the flat between the river and the bluffs and 
sought an easy place to scale the latter some distance up the stream from the 
bottom of the present China grade. The old road is still in use to some extent, 
about a mile and a half above the bridge. Out east of the Southern Pacific 
round house a few miles was the first stage station south of the river. Twelve 
miles farther south there was another, and at Rose station there was another. 
They changed teams every twelve miles on the entire route, 2888 miles from 
some place back in Texas through New Mexico and Arizona close to the 
present route of the Southern Pacific railroad, through Yuma to Los Angeles, 
thence via Fort Tejon, Kern river, Visalia, Pacheco pass and Gilroy to San 
Francisco. Between stations the horses went at a gallop, dragging the lum- 
bering Concord stage with its twelve passengers (and more if the traffic 
demanded) and the United States mails. They got letters through to San 
Francisco from St. Louis via El Paso in twenty-four days, and the govern- 
ment paid the company $600,000 a year subsidy. The cancelled stamps 
amounted to about $27,000. On the breaking out of the war this mail route 
was discontinued, and transcontinental letters came via the northern route 
only. 

In 1858 the Pacific and Atlantic Telegraph Company started stringing 
its wires along this stage route, and in 1860 the line was completed to Los 
Angeles, where the work, planned to continue east, was halted. Later the 
Western Union consolidated all the telegraph lines of the coast. 

Site of Bakersfield in 1859 

The present site of Bakersfield was not, as some reports would make it 
seem, in the least like a swamp in the '50s. The main channel of the river was 
down what later came to be known as Panama slough, leaving the present 
river channel a little way west of the point of Panorama heights and crossing 
the present intersection of Nineteenth and B streets. It was not a deep 
channel, although occasional deep holes were bored out of the soft, alluvial 
bed by the swirling current. 

The south fork, flowing a little way west of the present course of the 
Kern Island canal, was the second largest of the channels that divided the 
waters of Kern river. It was narrower than the Panama channel, and the 
banks were steep in most places, making it necessary to choose a place down 
which a horse could be ridden and often to swim the animal down stream to 
find a place where he could scramble out on the other side. Lesser sloughs 
and channels of that day were unimportant except as they encouraged the 
growth of willows on their banks and tules in their beds and helped the process 
of sub-irrigation which caused sunflowers, cockleburs, tumble weed and 
other riotous wild vegetation to grow to fabulous heights over all the inter- 
vening land. 

Beginning of the County's Cattle Industry 
The McCrays brought their Durham cattle, between 150 and 200 head, 
to their new home, and are entitled to the distinction of bringing the first 
blooded stock to Kern county. About the only other cattleman in this end of 
the valley at that time was Don David Alexander, who had his headquarters 
at San Emidio about 1861, and whose 20,000 or 25,000 head of wild, Spanish 
cattle ranged all over the San Emidio hills and around Kern and Buena 
Vista lake and the lower reaches of Kern river, Alexander bought all of 



48 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

IMcCray's bull calves and gradually built up the (|uality of his herd. Cattle 
were marketed then in San Francisco, and the herds of beeves were driven 
up the valley to the bay with as little concern for the long journey as many 
a farmer feels now in driving his stock to the nearest railroad station, six 
or a dozen miles away. 

It was later on that the Crockers, J. C. and Ed. established themselves 
at Temblor and went into the cattle business on a large scale in connection 
■with Henry ^liller. J. C. Crocker was an important figure in the stock 
business for a score of years following his arrival at Temblor. He acted as 
Miller's agent in the purchase of both cattle and land, and helped to build 
up the immense property of Miller & Lux in the San Joaquin valley. It is 
reported that at the end of twenty years of loose, indefinite partnership with 
Miller, Crocker asked for an accounting. Miller discouraged the idea and 
wanted to know what was the use, but Crocker insisted that he was getting 
on in years and would like to know how much money he was worth. Finally 
Miller sent him to the book-keepers at the San Francisco office, where 
Crocker was informed, after due search of the ledgers, that he owed the firm 
a hundred thousand dollars. Despite these discouraging figures, however, 
Crocker soon became the owner of one of the finest of the Miller ranches in 
the Kern delta, long known as the Crocker ranch, and later as the Balfour- 
Guthrie ranch near Panama. In addition to his renown as a cattle man, Jim 
Crocker was known throughout the length of the valley as a hunter of out- 
laws. He was one of the leaders in the successful expedition against Joaquin 
Murietta, and helped also to mete out summary justice to other evil doers 
of less unenviable fame. 

By 1868 there were many cattlemen and many herds both in the valley 
and in the mountains and hills. In 1870 John Funk had succeeded Alexander 
at San Emidio, and was the possessor of great herds. 

Meantime the cattlemen were well established in the valleys about 
Tehachapi, in Walker's basin, in the South Fork valley, around Poso Flat 
and Granite and in Linn's valley, where Staniford & Dunlap made their 
headquarters and ranged their herds all through the mountains and foot- 
hills from Porterville to Tehachapi. ^leantime, also, the Jewett Brothers had 
launched the sheep industry of the county from the Rio Bravo ranch on 
Kern river, midway between the Kern river oil fields and the mouth of the 
canon. 

Some of the Very Ofd Timers 

Getting back to the Kern delta in 1860-61, the settlers besides the Mc- 
Crays included the Shirleys, the Wickers, the Daughertys, the Gilberts, and 
a little farther south and west toward Buena Vista lake, Tom Barnes and 
Jim and JefT Harris. Where Walker Shirley lived (where the Lowell addi- 
tion is now) was a large thicket of willows growing along the banks of the 
south fork. Similar thickets were scattered about in the low places where 
the water frequently overflowed, and the general landscape, viewed from the 
present center of Bakersfield, was dotted with large cotton wood trees, a con- 
siderable number of which still remain, not so very much larger than they 
were fifty years ago. John Shirley lived close to where the Chinese burying 
ground south of D street is now located. R. M. Gilbert lived where the old 
race track was built later, at the north end of Chester avenue. 

Quite a number of Indian families lived about the present townsite, 
hunting the deer and antelope and other wild game that abounded, and 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 49 

fishing for the trout that swam in lower Kern river at that time. Also 
they farmed a little and worked, on occasion, for the whites. Mrs. Van 
Orman, who was formerly Airs. Gilbert, says the Indians used to jab a sharp 
stick into the earth, drop a few kernels of corn therein and close the opening 
with their heels. Later on they harvested the crop, doing little meantime 
save fish and hunt. The white settlers farmed little more thoroughly, for 
the crops grew anyway, and what was the use? The Indians built their abodes 
almost wholly of tules. The whites used willow poles for the frames of 
their buildings and thatched both sides and roof with tules and flags. When 
they got to feeling more settled, they built walls of tules and mud, reinforced 
with willow poles stuck in the earth outside and inside at intervals to keep 
them from falling over. The most pretentious residences were built of 
adobes. The floors were invariably of the native earth, raised a little for 
drainage. There was no lumber, and not even the making of good puncheons. 
The Gilberts had a well some six or eight feet deep with earthen steps leading 
down an incline to the water. They walked down and dipped it up instead of 
using a rope and windlass. 

Nobody bothered about titles to land then. They squatted where they 
pleased, and if their first location did not suit them moved next week or 
next year as their fancy dictated. People who were not in the cattle business 
exclusively like the McCrays and Alexander, kept a few cows, a few hogs 
and maybe a few chickens. It was the easiest place in the world in which to 
make a living, says Mrs. Van Orman. Bill Daugherty was the pioneer hog 
raiser of the county, and many tales are told of his ability and prowess not 
only as a handler of tame swine but with the wild ones that flourished in 
droves about Buena Vista and Kern lakes. Among his other accomplishments 
it is stated that Daugherty could grunt so alluringly that the infant porkers 
would leave their mother's side and run squealing to his outstretched hands. 
Not only Daugherty but many others of the early settlers used to hunt wild 
hogs around the lakes. Dogs were specially trained to trail the swine and 
hold them at bay by barking and nipping their heels until the hunters arrived. 
No number of dogs, it is said, could kill a large wild boar. Sometimes they 
chewed his ears to rags, but in the end when the dogs were tired out the hog 
would rip great gashes in them with his tusks. An unverified legend is to the 
efifect that some of the wild hog hunters, having corralled a bunch of the 
beasts, would sew up their eyes and using tame hogs as pilots, would drive 
them to the mountain mines. As a general thing, however, the Buena Vista 
porkers were better handled in the form of hams and bacon. 

Wild cattle and wild horses added to the resources available to the early 
settlers in the Kern delta. In dry seasons when the early cattle raisers on 
the coast had not enough feed to keep their stock from starving, they used 
to drive a portion of their herds over a range into this valley and leave them 
to shift for themselves until the next rains replenished the home pastures. 
Before their owners returned to seek them, many of these cattle had wan- 
dered too far to be gathered together. 

Beginning of the Sheep Industry 

Conspicuous figures in the history of the sheep industry of Kern county 
are the Jewett brothers, Solomon and Philo D., who, as related in a former 
chapter, bought out the flocks of Colonel Vineyard at Tejon; Gustav Sanger; 
the Troys ; Harry Quinn, pioneer of the northern Kern foothills whose camp 
at Rag gulch was known as a landmark and a hospitable watering place since 

3 



50 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the early '70s ; Peter Lambert of Long Tom ; A. Pauly of Tehachapi ; L. C. 
Flores, who kept a store and shearing camp at San Emidio in the 70s when 
there was Mexican settlement at that place and many sheep in the hills 
thereabout; the Borgwardts, who ran sheep on Poso creek; Jesse Stark, who 
was out at Tejon in the early days, and later on Ardizzi-Olcese Company, 
who were headquarters and outfitters for the itinerant French sheep men ; 
F. M. Noriega, M. Cesmat, J. B. Berges, A. P. Eyraud, all of whom made 
enough money in the sheep business to launch them in other ventures ; Andre 
Vieux and Faure Brothers of Delano ; Pierre Giraud, "Little Pete", and 
scores of men less famous who followed their bands to the mountains and the 
wide ranges beyond in summer and came back to Kern county's warm mesas 
for the February lambing and shearing time. 

The Jewetts have been shepherds for three generations. Solomon W. 
Jewett, fatlier of Solomon and Philo, the Kern county pioneers, was a sheep 
and wool grower of Vermont, and Philo Jewett, one of the sons of the second 
Solomon Jewett, is today one of the largest owners of flocks in Kern county. 
After they had purchased Colonel Vineyard's sheep in 1860, Solomon and 
Philo Jewett established themselves on the Rio Bravo ranch about a dozen 
miles up Kern river from Bakersfield. Later they acquired land adjoining 
the townsite of Bakersfield and west of Bakersfield in what is now the 
Rosedale country. On some of the latter land Philo Jewett now has his 
shearing camp, but the Indians who sheared the fleeces from his father's and 
uncle's sheep in the days before the Civil war have given place to men with 
shearing machines driven by a gasoline engine. 

Next to the Jewetts in point of years and permanence of location is 
Harry Quinn, who first came to spy out the land in 1868 and came to settle 
permanently in 1874, bringing 8000 or 9000 sheep belonging in part to him and 
in part to Archibald Leach. A few years later Quinn bought out the band, 
and increased his flocks and his acres until he had eventually some 20,000 acres 
of land and one of the largest bands of sheep in the county. Quinn is now 
closing out his sheep and has sold part of his range for orange land and leased 
most of the remainder for possible oil land. Young & Riley and W. L. Smith 
on White river and Templeton on Rag Gulch are among the other pioneer 
sheep men of the northern part of the county. 

While his varied career makes him hard to classify, Capt. John Barker 
figures quite prominently in the early sheep industry of the county, having 
run large bands on Kern river in the same vicinity as the scene of the Jewett's 
first ventures. 

The setting apart of a very great area of mountain land as a federal forest 
reserve and the exclusion of the sheep men from the free ranges which they 
had formerly enjoyed therein, was the cause of curtailing to a considerable 
extent the sheep industry in the county, particularly afifecting the wandering 
shepherds, the Frenchmen and Basques who own little or no land and depend 
on leasing cheap ranges and driving their flocks from section to section to 
meet the changes of the varymg season. 

Whether the total number of sheep in the county will again increase is 
doubtful. The cheap ranges are being put to more profitable purposes, and 
it will soon be a matter for the shepherds to decide whether or not it pays to 
raise sheep inside good pastures where beef cattle and dairy cows will thrive. 

The Mexican Settlement 

W'hat was known in the early days as the Mexican settlement where 
Panama now is, was founded in 1865 or thereabout, by Dolores Montano, 
who settled on section 26, 30-27. Ventura Cuen came about the same time 
and settled on section 23, 30-27, both of which places were later a part of 
the Panama ranch of ]\[iller & Lux. Montano went back to Sonora, ]\Iexico, 
to die, but Cuen still lives a short distance south of the cemetery on Union 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 51 

avenue with his daughter, Mrs. Joseph Sunega. Tomas Castro, patriarch of 
the present Castro clan, came here in 1868 from Magdalena, Mexico, where 
he had been driven from his home by the floods of 1867-68, as severe in 
Mexico as they were in California. Castro located on the Montano place, 
later moving to section 12, 30-27, where he took up a homestead and reared 
his family of eight sons and one daughter. 

Among the other early settlers at Panama were Encarnacion Padres, 
Averon Sierras, Guadeloupe Gonzoles, Tomas Noriega and Jesus Noriega, 
his son. 

After Miller bought the land included in the Panama ranch, most of the 
settlers there moved to Saletral, about a mile and a half northwest of Panama, 
so named on account of a certain excess of alkali in the soil thereabout. The 
first store at Panama was kept by Lesser Hirshfeld, one of the family of pio- 
neer merchants whose name figures conspicuously in the early trade of Bakers- 
field and Tehachapi as well. Panama w-as about five or six miles east of the 
old Barnes settlement. Just east of Panama, Howard Cross had a ranch in 
1870 or thereabout, but farther east than that in the valley there was prac- 
tically nothing up to something after that da te. ^ 

Tomas Castro built the Castro ditclflnlSTO and 1871, and both he and 
his neighbors engaged in general farmii^ and stock-raising along the same 
line as the other pioneers. Dom Castro, son of Tomas, tells of catching and 
partially taming the wild Spanish cattle that used to roam the lowlands of 
the valley. They used to lie in wait for the cattle as they would come from 
the willows in what is now the Lowell Addition to Bakersfield, lasso and 
brand them and take them to fenced pastures where they were kept with 
other cattle until they grew tame enough to be herded or driven in bands. 
The Spanish cattle were small, light and very inferior as beef animals, but 
they were excellent runners, if that can be considered a virtue in a cow. An 
old Spanish cow would weigh perhaps 700 pounds — quite as often consid- 
erably less. As late as 1880 wild cattle and deer were seen about the Kern 
river oil fields, antelope were plentiful farther west, and elk roamed in the 
Elk hills and along the Coast range mesas. 

About 1870 Francisco Martinez used to make a business of catching wild 
horses where the Lost Hills oil field is now located and all along the Coast 
range hills from Sunflower valley to Carneros springs. Martinez built cor- 
rals with wide extended wings and drove the wild horses therein, or built 
snares for them about their watering places. Sometimes he would get twenty- 
five or thirty of the mustangs in a corral at a drive, and he sold them, either 
broken or unbroken, for $2.50 to $5 per head. A mustang that had been las- 
soed and thrown down was broken, and one that would not throw itself 
over backward when a halter was put on it was a finished product. Tomas 
Castro used to trade Martinez a hair rope for a mustang, and one day Lee 
and Dom were sent to bring home a couple of fillies so acquired. But in 
crossing the river the colts, tied together by their halters, got dizzy and 
turned round and round until they fell down and drowned in the shallow 
stream, although the boys did their best to hold their heads above water. 
Of such value were the wild horses. 

Stories of the Outlaw Vasquez 

Some of the mustangs of the early day, how^ever, were famous for their 
speed and endurance. One of these, Pico Blanco (white Bill), is the hero of 
sundry adventures. One morning before the light began to streak the sky 
above Bear mountain, Tomas Castro was called from his bed by a voice 



52 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

shouting his name from the road. He went out to find Tiburcio Vasquez, 
the famous outlaw, who said he wanted the best horse on the Castro ranch. 
Tomas brought out Pico Blanco, and Vasquez mounted him and dashed 
away — probably pursued by a posse in search of vengeance for some outrage. 
No more was heard or seen of Pico Blanco for many days, when one 
morning Vasquez was again heard calling from the road. When Castro 
appeared Vasquez tossed him $100 in gold and a rope, at the other end of 
which was a bony shadow of Pico Blanco, took his own horse, which had 
been kept at the ranch, and disappeared. Pico got back his flesh and his 
spirit, and in later years, Dom Castro says, Morris Jacoby, a merchant of 
early Bakersfield, used to ride him to Los Angeles, starting in the morning at 
6 o'clock and arriving in the southern city by 7 or 8 in the evening. 

Lesser Hirshfeld, who kept the first store in the Panama settlement, 
tells another story that illustrates the methods of the Vasquez gang. One day 
a Mexican friend stopped at the store and invited Hirshfeld, or Cristobol, 
as he was known by his patrons, to come with him to a dance at a road 
house a few miles down the road. Business was dull, and a part of the 
science of mercantile success is to maintain friendly relations with one's 
patrons, so Cristobol saddled his horse. Arriving at the dance, the merchant 
was impressed by the presence of a large number of strangers and a display 
of fire arms unusual even for a dance in the early days, and he was not long 
in deciding the character of his fellow guests. Hirshfeld took a perfunctory 
part in the festivities and did the proper thing by treating everyone including 
the outlaws to drinks and cigars, and then making some excuse about a 
business engagement, he took a circuitous route back to his store, gathered 
up his cash and galloped by another round-about way to town. He came 
back next day expecting to find his place robbed, but nothing had happened. 
This was Thursday, and that night the pioneer merchant again galloped to 
town with his day's receipts. The same process was repeated Friday and 
Saturday, and Hirshfeld had about exhausted his ingenuity in inventing 
reasons to give his clerk for passing the nights in town, but when he got 
home Sunday morning there was no need for further explanation. In the 
night Vasquez and his men appeared masked and held a parley in front 
of the store with some of Hirshfeld's neighbors. It developed later that the 
neighbors convinced the outlaws that Hirshfeld had gone to town and taken 
all his money with him. Thereupon the gang threw ofif the masks, entered 
the store, called for drinks and paid for them ; called for another round and 
did not pay; called for a third round and paid, and disappeared on their 
horses in the darkness. Any discerning person will understand that Vasquez, 
with the courtesy for which he was noted, did the proper honors of the time 
and the occasion just as though the proprietor had been present, and the 
proprietor, when he returned, fully appreciated it. 

Meantime a posse that left Bakersfield on Friday (taking every gun in 
the city, it is said) was scouring the hills from Caliente to Tejon caiion in 
search of the men who were dancing and feasting at Panama. It was the 
last visit of Vasquez to Kern county. From Panama he went to the San 
Fernando valley where he was captured, through the agency of a woman 
who played him false. 

The Barnes Settlement 

The Barnes settlement was named for Thomas Barnes, who was in the 
county in 1859, and who settled some six or eight miles west of Panama in 




Sll^ Ji 



^^^^?_ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 53 

the early '60s. Barnes lived on section 26, 30-26, near a big natural grove of 
cottonwoods that lay a half mile wide and about three miles long in the 
bed of an old slough. Jefif, Jim, Ed., Noland and Tony Harris, all brothers 
of Airs. Barnes, had ranches there, but they were away teaming in the moun- 
tains a larger part of the time than they spent farming. By 1868, when 
P. J. Waldon took up a claim in the Barnes settlement, Bill Daugherty had 
lived there and gone, and some of the other earlier settlers were fading 
memories. Air. Waldon does not recall the name of an Arkansas woman 
who planted an acre of peach trees on the place where Barnes lived in 1868, 
but the fruit was celebrated throughout the whole delta, where any kind of 
peaches probably tasted good in 1868. Barnes had about forty head of cattle, 
and ran hogs in the tules, and nearly all the other early settlers in the 
vicinity did the same. Waldon says the wild hogs were not very good 
eating, but tarne hogs sold readily in Bakersfield at four and five cents per 
pound, and the hog-raisers made money. In the later '70s Waldon, Van 
Stoner, W. W. Frazier, Vining Barker and Jock Ellis ran their hogs in 
one herd for economy of management, and the raising of pork was a con- 
siderable industry about Old River, the Barnes settlement and Canfield 
(so called in honor of Wellington Canfield.) 

Wellington Canfield and F. A. Tracy were first in the cattle business 
on Jerry slough, named for Jerry Bush, a cattleman who ran his herds there in 
1866, but later they bought land near the Barnes settlement, and a little 
town was laid out and christened Canfield. 

There is a tradition that the first alfalfa in the county was grown by 
Tom Barnes from seed sent him from South America by a traveler who had 
visited the delta and believed the clover would do well there. It did do well, 
and the fame of the Barnes alfalfa patch was spread all over the county 
in 1867 or '68. 

The Buena Vista Canal Company was organized in 1870 by Barnes, Har- 
ris, Gillum, John Oleton, P. J. Waldon, Peter O'Hare, John Gordon, James 
Cole and others, and later, as in the case of nearly all the canal companies, the 
controlling interest was acquired by Haggin & Carr. 

Throughout the whole of the great Kern delta in the early days every- 
body within a radius of twenty miles was everybody else's neighbor, ready 
to help dispose of a feast or nurse a stricken fellow settler through a fever 
with impartial alacrity. When Sis Daugherty was married to Corbin Wicker, 
old man Daugherty launched his tule boat on the South Fork and hitching his 
riata to the prow swam his horse across to fetch all the neighbors to the 
wedding supper. On Christmas day just before the great flood of 1861-62 that 
made history and geography both in Kern county, the Skileses, w'ho lived 
somewhere south of Reeder lake, made a dinner for the whole neighborhood, 
and the Gilberts, returning just as the first swelling of Panama channel 
began to make the banks boggy, mired dow^n in the foamy, brown water, 
and friendly Indians waded in and carried Mrs. Gilbert and her infant ashore. 

But before I go on with the tale of the flood I must go back a little 
way and relate how all this peaceful Arcadia, where there was neither law 
nor present need of law was the subject of special acts of the state legislature 
and of plans and dreams of men so far-sighted that they lifted their feet to 
step over the threshold into a future, which to us, nearly a whole lifetime 
later, seems far awav on the horizon. 



54 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

CHAPTER V 
Floods and Swamp Reclamation 

Residents of the San- Joaquin valley in the year 1913 look forward, in 
hours of faith and prophecy, to a time when the population of the valley shall 
be so large and the freight traffic so great throughout the length of it that it 
will be practicable and profitable to build and operate a transportation canal 
from Bakersfield to the bay. W'e know that it would be neither practicable 
nor profitable at the present time. But it is of the essence of the pioneer to 
see the ultimate destiny, to leap over, in fancy and undertaking, the inter- 
vening years or centuries — it makes little difference to the true pioneer — 
to set cheerfully at work to accomplish the impossible, and to make some 
shift or other in the face of the inevitable defeat. 

It is necessary to keep all this in mind and to remember, also, that 
everybody in the state of California was a pioneer in 1857 when we read 
in the statutes that in that year was passed and approved an act giving 
W. F. Montgomery, Joseph Montgomery, A. J. Downes, F. W. Sampson and 
their associates and assigns the right to reclaim all the swamp land belonging 
to the state "lying between the San Joaquin river at a point known as Kings 
river slough, and Tulare lake, and also the swamp and overflowed lands 
bordering on Tulare, Buena Vista and Kern lakes, and between said lakes, 
and up to the line dividing the said swamp and overflowed lands from the 
lands belonging to the United States." 

The First San Joaquin Valley Canal Project 

Also they were given the right and privilege to construct and put in 
operation a canal, capable of carrying boats of SO-tons burden, all the way 
from Kings river slough on the San Joaquin river to Kern lake, or, if they 
chose, they could switch the course of the canal to intercept the main channel 
of Kern river instead of passing through Buena Vista and Kern lakes. 

They were given a right of way 200 feet wide on each side of the pro- 
posed canal, and were to have the right to operate the waterway and to 
collect such tolls as the legislature might authorize for a period of twenty 
years, after which the ownership of the canal should revert to the state. 
Incidentally the grantees were to have all the odd sections in the tracts 
reclaimed, and for every odd section therein of which the state might thereto- 
fore have disposed, the grantees were to select in lieu four even sections. 

Note particularly that work on the canal must begin within one year 
ana the whole must be completed within three years from the passage of 
the act in order to comply with the provisions of the grant. 

The First State Highway 

In the spring of 1862 the act was amended, a provision being inserted to 
the eft"ect that out of the 200 feet of right of way allowed on each side of the 
canal the public should be permitted the use of a highway. It also was pro- 
vided that when the work was done the governor and the surveyor-general 
must certify to the reclamation of the land. The new act also extended the 
time limits to one year and three years, respectively, after the passage of 
the amended act. This date was April 10, 1862. 

Meantime W. F. Montgomery, who was the principal in the scheme, 
had not succeeded in interesting capital in the canal project, and for a con- 
sideration of $10,000 he deeded to Thomas Baker and Harvey S. Brown (each 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 55 

an undivided one-half share) all his right, title and interest in the lands in 
question. For smaller sums Baker and Brown bought out the other owners. 

Baker, who seems to have been the active member of the new partnership, 
set about finding capital to carry out the enterprise, but he was no more 
successful than Montgomery had been. But the legislature came to his aid 
most generously and again amended the act providing for the reclamation 
of the lands in question, releasing W. F. Montgomery, et al., their asso- 
ciates and assigns from all obligation to construct and put in operation for 
the purpose of navigation, the several canals referred to in the previous act, 
and providing that in consideration of the reclamation of the lands mentioned 
in the act they should be entitled to the same quantity of land and all other 
rights and privileges as if they had not been released from the obligation 
to construct the canal. 

With somewhat greater verbosity than the foregoing, the legislature of 
1863 dashed, for something more than half a century, at least, the hope of 
Bakersfield's standing at the head of navigation in the San Joaquin valley. 

But while the open-hearted members of the legislature had generously 
relieved Colonel Baker of more than half his monumental undertaking he 
was still, so far as any human being had the slightest reason to suppose, 
in the position of a man, who, having discovered that he could not grasp the 
moon, would find himself elevated, suddenly, on legs ten thousand feet in 
height. The assistance would not be effective enough to be even genuinely 
tantalizing. As for the reasonableness of the action of the legislature, con- 
sidering that body as the custodian of the public interest, let it be remembered 
th&t the flood of 1861-62 broke levees right and left in the Sacramento valley, 
doing damage upward of $3,000,000. The experience taught a new lesson to 
the state concerning the difficulty of handling floods and swamps. And the 
legislature had no means of knowing, it is to be supposed, what a merry 
prank Kern river had just played with Old Tom Barnes' irrigating ditch. 
Like as not many of the legislators honestly thought that a man who would 
reclaim a swamp ought to have the whole of it for his labor, not half. 

As for Colonel Baker, he came to Kern county, hired thirty Indians 
from the Tejon reservation and set to work to reclaim a swamp of upward 
of 400,000 acres that wound for 150 miles through a raw, unsettled country 
and was replenished by the waters of two of the great rivers of the state 
and six or seven smaller streams. Try to compass the sublime audacity 
of it, and then see how Nature can bend her forces to help a sublimely 
audacious man — the kind of man, apparently, that Nature loves. 

Look back a little now and see what old Kern river was doing while the 
legislature was revising its laws, and first Montgomery and then Colonel Baker 
were trying to interest capital — in Civil war times — in their mad and visionary 
undertaking. 

How^ a River in Flood Reclaimed a Swamp 
When the Gilberts went home from their Christmas dinner at the Skiles 
place as related in the previous chapter, the}^ had to cross the first turbid 
forerunners of the flood, because they lived out at the old race track, and 
the river then was all this side. Their house of poles and tules stood in a 
thicket of willows, but a little way to the north was the open, sage brush 
country, through which Tom Barnes and the Harris brothers had begun to 
build an irrigation ditch to lead the water down to lands they had started to 
cultivate. For that dav the ditch was an ambitious undertaking, both in 



56 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

width and in depth, and its construction had progressed for a mile and more. 

The Gilberts had seen high water before, and they went to bed with 
little concern after they had been rescued from the river by the Indians. 
Along in the night, however, there arose a great squealing from the pen 
where some forty porkers fattened, and when Gilbert rolled out of bed to 
see what was the matter, he splashed to his knees in icy water. 

By the time Gilbert and a couple of men who were stopping at the place 
could carry the children and the provisions to a little knoll of high ground 
farther north, the melted snow water was lapping around their waists. The 
hog pen and the corn crib floated down stream, and the tule house followed 
them next day as the water continued to rise. A little exploration to the 
north showed that the swollen current had found Tom Barnes' ditch and 
was scooping it deeper and wider at a faster rate than Barnes could have 
done had he been loaned all the horses and plows in the state of California. 
The virgin earth, unprotected by roots or vegetation, melted before the 
torrent like mounds of sand before the incoming tide. Not many days passed 
before the larger of the two streams was to the north of the Gilberts instead 
of to the south of them, and at frequent intervals a dozen tons or more of earth 
would cave from the bank of the new channel and fall into the brown and 
boiling flood with a roar that did not sound good to the damp and shivering 
refugees perched on their island knoll only a few rods away. 

Fortunately, only a few days before the flood, Gilbert had returned with 
a four-horse load of provisions from Visalia, and a little while before that 
they had bought 700 pounds of flour from a man who had to take flour for 
a debt a Parajo valley rancher owed him and who was peddling it out 
through the length of the valley after the manner of the day. So the family 
made out through what seemed, not only to them but to many other flood- 
bound pioneers in the state, an interminable season of rain and freshet, and 
then they moved to Reeder hill, the highest and dryest spot within the pres- 
ent townsite. 

And so, when Colonel Baker came with his thirty Indians he put a head 
gate in what remained of the old south fork, and built the beginning of 
the Town ditch, and was able to report to the governor and surveyor-general 
in all truthfulness that a very considerable portion of the 400,000 acres had 
been reclaimed. 

Then the Drought Helped, Too 

Still Nature was kind to this generous, enthusiastic optimist who was 
not afraid to attempt great things that other people said were impossible. 
In the year 1864 was the worst drought since the American occupation. All 
over the state cattle and sheep died of starvation by the hundreds of thou- 
sands. Shepherds were glad to dispose of their flocks at a bit a head, and 
failing that they killed them mercifully and saved their pelts. 

Colonel Baker, when he had built the head gate in the south fork, went 
down to the north end of Buena \^ista lake and scraped the Baker dam, frag- 
ments of which are still to be found a little way north of the Cole levee. 
Then he took his family back to Visalia temporarily while he did further 
reclamation work north of Tulare lake. 

Baker Gets His Patent 

The Governor sent the surveyor-general and another engineer by name of 
Andrew Jackson to see if the lands had been reclaimed. By that time the 
drought had done what Baker could not do. The engineers found the land 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 57 

as dry as a bone, and so reported. There was some delay in the making out 
of the patent, but finally it was sigi\ed by Governor Frederick F. Low on 
November 11, 1867. It conveyed to W. F. Montgomery, et al., their asso- 
ciates and assigns, a total of 89,120 acres of land in Kern and Fresno coun- 
ties — about half as much as the grantees originally were to receive. 

The next great flood — the greatest in the history of the county, came 
between Christmas and New Years in the winter of 1867-8, and spread a 
vast lake of water over every acre of Colonel Baker's reclaimed land. 

Montgomery Patent Annulled 

Years later there fell upon the state a far-flung fore-shadow of the modern 
conservation movement, and the legislatures of 1857 and 1862 were sharply 
criticised for giving away so much land for so small an amount of improve- 
ment. The courts, as courts do now, sometimes, undertook to correct the 
follies of the lawmakers, and on September 17, 1878, in the case of People 
ex. rel. J. L. Love, attorney-general, versus John Center, et al., appellants 
and respondents, the district court of the twelfth judicial district — San Fran- 
cisco — handed down a decree declaring the Montgomery patent null and void. 
In the opinion accompanying the decree the court pointed out that the 
governor and surveyor-general did not issue a certificate to the effect that the 
land had been reclaimed — as the law directed — and held that this omission 
was not cured by the fact that the governor signed the patent, and that the 
document also bore the signature of the secretary of state, who happened 
to be the surveyor-general as well. To a layman it might seem that this 
objection was purely technical. The second defect noted by the court — the 
fact that the land was not actually reclaimed — was not to be disputed by 
anyone. 

But the decree mattered little to Colonel Baker. Six years before it was 
signed by the judge his remains had been carried to their last resting place in 
Union cemetery by the strong but gentle hands of other pioneers who knew 
and loved him. Moreover, long before his death Colonel Baker had sold his 
share of nearly all the immense tract the Montgomery patent conveyed. 
Some of it went for ten cents an acre. The highest price the smallest 
purchasers paid for farms was $1 and $1.50 per acre. Baker was no land 
monopolist. 

Before the district court issued its decree the legislature got busy again, 
tempering justice with mercy. An ^ct approved March 20, 1878, provided 
that all persons who had bought land covered by the Montgomery patent, 
subsequent to the issuance of such patent, should be entitled to a decree of 
the court directing that a patent issue to them for such lands, on their 
showing within sixty days after the passage of the act, that they had spent 
for taxes, improvements, fences and reclamation a total of not less than $1 
per acre for all the lands so claimed by each. 

All the purchasers were able easily to comply with these conditions, 
and so the story ends happily for all concerned. 

Beginnings of Bakersfield 

The flood of 1861-2 is a convenient mark in history from which to date 
the earliest beginnings of Bakersfield. As related in the preceding chap- 
ter, the flood moved the main channel out of the future townsite, leaving 
the land dryer and rather .more suitable for the habitation of civilized men. It 
made it less desirable for the Indians. Prior to that time, as Mrs. Van Orman 
recalls, there was a considerable settlement of the aborigines somewhere 



58 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

about Chester Lane, and huts of individual savages were scattered about 
the willow groves everywhere. But the flood drowned the squirrels and other 
small game which the Indians used to kill and eat, swept away the fish they 
used to catch in the river, and incidentally the long season of rains when the 
freshet rose and fell day after day in apparently interminable succession made 
the place generally disagreeable even for the stoical redskins. About that 
time, also, the government was moving the larger part of the tribes from 
Tejon to the Tule river farm. So the Indians moved out. So did two families 
by name of Lovelace, and others of whom the names are not remembered. 
The settlers who remained sought the high spots that the waters had not 
covered. 

The people who stayed and helped to form the new settlement were 
the Shirleys, the Gilberts, Harvey S. Skiles, the grandfather of Herman 
Dumble, the present city trustee of Bakersfield, and Lewis Reeder, who 
bought Gilbert's second place on Reeder hill and gave his name to that 
ancient landmark. The next year came Colonel Baker and his family, Edward 
Tibbet, who settled on the present Tibbet homestead just south of the city 
limits, and Allan Rose, who succeeded to the house on Reeder hill after 
Reeder and many of his family had died. Reeder, himself, died in the moun- 
tains whither he had gone for lung trouble, but others of his family who sick- 
ened and died there and later residents who turned their faces to the wall 
in the ill-fated house made a total of seven deaths on Reeder hill in the first 
few years of the settlement. Two others, accidentally shot, raised the total 
to nine, wherefrom grew the tale that the Reeder hill house was haunted. 

Colonel Baker, of course, at once directed his energies toward the recla- 
mation of the swamp lands covered by the Montgomery franchise. The 
others farmed the fertile townsite, raised cattle and hogs or hunted both in 
the swamps and out on the dry ranges. The soldiers at Fort Tejon paid 
$50 per ton for hay delivered, and both at the fort and in the mining camps 
were the best of markets for meat, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, and all 
other vegetables that the early settlers raised. In a letter written by Solomon 
Jewett in 1871 reference is made to the fact that Harvey S. Skiles raised a 
small patch of cotton in 1862. 

The first genuine cotton culture, however, was in 1865, when the Jewett 
Brothers, who had interests in Bakersfield then in addition to their extensive 
sheep business at the Rio Bravo ranch, raised 130 acres of cotton which was 
harvested and sent to Oakland to be ginned and manufactured. Some of 
the cloth was shipped back to Bakersfield and sold in the first store built in 
the settlement. Mr. Jewett imported two tons of seed, one from Tennessee, 
and the other from Sonora, Mexico. He got the crop in rather late, but he 
declared that the experiment was a success, or would have been had it not 
been for the prohibitive cost of hauling the cotton to Oakland by team — 
probably ox-team. 

Colonel Baker, ^^Ir. Winfey and A. R. Jackson were appointed school 
trustees in 1866, but they never organized. A man by name of Brooks taught 
a private school that year, and in 1863, for a short time, Mrs. Baker taught 
a few of the neighbor children at her home. They had no books, but Mrs. 
Baker cut letters out of paper, and resorted to other laborious shifts to 
help the youngsters up the hill of knowledge. The first active school board 
consisted of Messrs. Tibbet, Troy and Reeder, who were chosen in 1867. In 
that year Mrs. Ranney taught a three-months' term. In 1868 Miss L. A. 
Jackson taught a six-months' term. The first school house, which an old 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 59 

newspaper account says was a brick building 40x60 feet in size, was built in 
1869 and in June of that year A. R. Jackson opened school in it. The next 
year there were two teachers, A. R. Jackson and Aliss Callie Gilbert, ana 
thirty-five pupils, whose surnames were Adams, Baker, Crawford, Lundy, 
Patria, Pettus, Ranney, Shelley, Shirley, Tibbet, Ward, Arujo, Collins, Con- 
treras, Gilbert, McKenzie, Reeder, Troy and Verdugo. 

For six years after Colonel Baker came to the Kern delta there was no 
postoffice here. Until the breaking out of the war, the removal of the gar- 
rison from Fort Tejon and the discontinuance of the Butterfield stage line 
from San Francisco to Los Angeles, the settlers here used to have their 
mail left at the fort. Later on it was addressed to Visalia, and the thoughtful 
postmaster at that place would forward mail for the whole settlement by any- 
one whom he knew was coming this way. Freight was hauled mostly from 
Los Angeles, and the charge was three cents per pound. Flour sometimes 
got as high as $10 per sack in the earliest days of Bakersfield, and when the 
freshets cut ofif travel to Visalia and snows blocked Tejon pass, corn and 
wheat ground in a hand mill and other home products had to eke out the 
larder. Mrs. Tracy (then "Sirs. Baker) says she used to leech salt out of 
the earth to cure pork, and in other times of necessity made a pretty good 
article of soap with grease and alkali. Ordinarily they made their own 
candles, used honey in lieu of sugar, and baked sweet potatoes as a sub- 
stitute for coffee. Meal ground in the old hand mill was not of the finest, 
but the pioneers sifted out the coarsest part and used it for hominy. Dave 
Willis of Visalia tried making salt from an old salt lick about sixteen miles 
south of Bakersfield, with indifferent success. In 1868 a saw mill was started 
in Tecuya valley near Fort Tejon, but the lumber, which was sawed from 
bull pine, was. so prone to warp that it needed a ton of boulders on each end of 
a plank to hold it down, and then it would twist in the middle. 

Prior to the days of the Tacuya mill adobes and poles or brush, tules 
and mud formed the building materials, as previously described. Colonel 
Baker's first house, the one the family was living in at the time of the great 
flood of 1867-8, was of adobe with a brush, tule and dirt roof. The first years 
of Colonel Baker's residence here were unusually dry, especially the great 
drought year of 1864, and a dirt roof was a very great protection from the 
sun in summer, and also was unobjectionable in winter, so long as the light 
rains were insufificient to wet it through and the intervening days of sun- 
shine quite sufficient to dry it out again. 

The Flood of 1867-68 

The winter of 1867-68 was dift'erent. The heavens wept as though their 
sorrow never would be washed away, and after a while the rain drops began 
to filter through the bed of rich, alluvial soil on the roof until the shower inside 
was almost or quite as heavy as that outside. The chief difference was that 
the shower inside came a few minutes after the shower outside, and the tiny 
streams that trickled from the pendant tule ends were black as ink with the 
humus they extracted from the dirt on the roof. They hung umbrellas over 
the tables to protect the food, and sheltered the beds as best they might. 

It rained, and rained, and then, very strange, as it seemed to the settlers 
along its banks, the river, for two days, went almost wholly dry. They knew 
nothing about it in the little village of Bakersfield, but up in the mountains 
where the lakes of upper Kern river now are, there had been a succession 



60 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

of avalanches that filled the bed of the river with rocks and earth and a 
whole forest of great pine trees. 

A closer inquiry seems to develop the fact that popular tradition respect- 
ing the slip of earth that held back the waters of Kern river in the flood of 
1867-8, instead of exaggerating it, as tradition is wont to do, falls far short 
of comprehending its tremendous magnitude. The lakes themselves, beau- 
tiful sheets of water far up toward the head of the river, are remnants of the 
great reservoirs that the avalanches made. Many years ago the old Jordan 
trail from Visalia to Inyo county used to pass through where the lakes now 
are. To this day, looking down through the clear waters, in the lake bottom 
mav be seen trees that grew there before the flood overwhelmed them. 

It must be that the thorough soaking: of the mountain sides after a long 
oeriod of drought caused whole sections of wooded slopes to plunge down into 
the river canon. When the impounded waters finally broke away they came 
down the rocky gorges in a churning, thundering torrent, adding to the roar 
of the water itself the crash and shriek of thousands on thousands of trees, 
sixty and a hundred feet in length, and up to three or four feet in diameter, 
tumbled end over end in the narrower parts of the cafion and rolling and 
swirling with the current in the wider reaches of the stream. Kernville resi- 
dents say that for three days the river flowed past that place a mile in width, 
and from the bank it looked as though a man could walk on logs dryshod 
from one side to the other. 

Those who have seen the steep, narrow rock-walled gorge through which 
Kern river emerges from the mountains sixteen miles above Bakersfield can 
form some guess of their own concerning the steady, increasing, rolling thun- 
der with which the coming flood heralded its approach to the sleeping citizens 
of infant Bakersfield. 

Flood Reaches Bakersfield. 

It was the flatness of Bakersfield and the great expanse of level country 
that opens, fanwise, west and south from the townsite that saved it from 
annihilation. Since the first flood people had sought out the knolls for their 
dwelling places, and there was a little time after the drift logs began to 
bob and crunch among the willows of the sloughs before the water was 
lapping at the threshholds. 

Richard Hudnut, afterward the editor of the Kern County Courier, was 
living in an adobe house somewhere near G and Twenty-fourth street. The 
noise of the water wakened him, and he went out a little wa) from his house 
to see what was coming. He crossed a little swale dry-shod, and looked 
back a moment later to find it full of water, running like a mill race. He 
shouted a warning to his bride and the latter's sister, who remained in the 
house, and in a few seconds he was obliged to climb a tree to keep out of 
reach of the rising flood. The house was on a little higher ground, but 
presently the chilly stream — it was between Christmas and New Years — 
began to flow over the floor. ]\Irs. Hudnut and her sister perched themselves 
on their beds. But the water steadily rose, and what was equally appalling, 
the roof above their heads was slowh^ but steadily sinking down. Pretty 
soon they realized that the adobes at the bottom of the wall were melting in 
the flood. By the time the ridge pole had settled down on top of Mr. Hudnut's 
tall book case at the end of the room, the ladies mustered up their courage 
to wade outside. The roof by then was so low that they were able to 
scramble upon it, and there they sat shivering and shouting counsel back 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 61 

and forth with Mr. Hudnut, perched in his tree, until men with a boat came 
to their rescue. 

Similar experiences happened in many places, but no lives were lost, and 
the pioneers, used to pranks of Nature and Fortune, took the experience 
philosophically, and with mutual helpfulness and optimism soon made new 
shifts and forgot their losses. The day after the flood came there was to have 
been a neighborhood feast at the Tibbet's home, and although the waters 
undermined a cupboard where the roast pig was stored and spilled it in the 
flood, it was rescued and re-garnished and a little later than the hour set 
the guests assembled and shared the slightly moistened viands and related 
their several experiences. The Hudnut story and the Tibbet feast are 
incidents of the flood most generally remembered, probably because of the 
humor they contain — and that fact furnishes the key to the temperament 
and disposition of the Kern county pioneer. 

The Baker adobe was not overflowed. It was only wet and drizzling 
from the long continued rains, and there a dozen homeless neighbors gath- 
ered and were made as welcome as flowers in February. 

The trees (live trees, not dead driftwood) which were washed down by 
the flood strewed a strip of country a mile wide through Kernville, and 
from the point of Panorama heights past Bakersfield they spread over the 
ground all the way to Bellevue and the old Barnes settlement, a distance of 
ten miles or more. Colonel Baker built a saw mill to cut the logs on the 
townsite into lumber, and Myron Harmon tried the same plan up in Kern- 
ville, but the logs there were so thickly imbedded with sand and broken 
chunks of rock (some of them as big as a man's fist) that sawing them was 
impracticable. 

Meantime Colonel Baker had completed his reclamation of the swamp 
lands covered by the Montgomery franchise, had gotten his patent to 89,120 
acres of land, and plans were forming in the minds of ambitious, enterprising 
men to make a great empire out of the rich lands through which the river 
plowed its devious and shifting channels, and incidentally to make some 
personal profit thereby. 



CHAPTER VI 

Organization of the County 
The county of Kern was created by an act of the legislature approved 
April 2, 1866, out of territory formerly included in the counties of Tulare and 
Los Angeles, chiefly the former. The act fixed the county seat at Havilah; 
provided for a county judge to be appointed by the governor, ordered an 
election to be held on the second Thursday in July, 1866, to select a clerk 
who should be also a recorder, a sherifif who should be tax collector as well, 
a district attorney, an assessor and collector of poll taxes, treasurer, surveyor, 
coroner and public administrator, superintendent of schools and three super- 
visors. Michael H. Erskine, Eli Smith, Dan W. Walser, Thomas Baker and 
John Brite were named as a board of commissioners to appoint election officers 
and canvass the returns. The county was assigned to the fourth senatorial 
district of that day, and was attached to Tulare county for representative 
purposes. The supervisors were directed to name two commissioners to 
meet with other commissioners from Tulare and Los Angeles counties to 
settle upon Kern county's share of the bonded indebtedness of the other 
counties of which its territory had been a part. 



62 • HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

First County Officials 

Without special incident this program was carried out, the following 
officials being declared elected as the result of the first ballots cast in the 
new county : district attorney, E. E. Calhoun ; sheriff, W. B. Ross ; clerk, 
recorder and auditor, H. D. Bequette ; treasurer, D. A. Sinclair; assessor, 
R. B. Sagely ; coroner and public administrator, Joseph Lively ; superintendent 
of schools, J. R. Riley; surveyor, Thomas Baker; supervisors, Henry Ham- 
mell, S. A. Bishop and J. J. Rhymes. 

The governor appointed Theron Reed as county judge. J. W. Freeman 
was already state senator, having been elected while Kern county was a part 
of Tulare, and I. C. Brown was similarly in possession of the office of 
assemblyman. 

At their first two meetings, held August 1st and 2nd, the supervisors 
established three judicial townships in the county, fixed the tax rate at a 
total of $2.61 for state and county, and called for bids for building a jail. 
At the next meeting the bid of T. B. Stuart for the construction of the jail 
for $1600 was accepted, and for $800 a site was bought for a courthouse. The 
latter building served until the county seat was moved to Bakersfield, when it 
was taken down and the lumber sold to P. T. Colby, who put it together again 
in the form of a residence just south of the Kern Valley bank on Chester 
avenue in Bakersfield. The first courthouse was built by T. H. Binnex for 
the modest sum of $2200. 

Each judicial (or magistrate's) township was made a school district as 
follows: township No. 1, Havilah district; township No. 2, Linn's valley dis- 
trict; township No. 3, Kelso district; township No. 4, Tejon district. 

It is worthy of note that Bakersfield and the Kern delta do not appear 
in the list, but in February, 1867, Lower Kern River district was formed 
from the Linn's Valley district. Also, each magistrate's township was made 
a road district. 

First Election Precincts 

The first election districts were established by the supervisors May 25, 
1867, as follows : 

Havilah — vote at court house. Claraville — vote at Bodfish's old store. 
South Fork — vote at John Nicoll's blacksmith shop. Kernville — vote at old 
Cove house. Keysville — vote at Alarsh & Kennedy's old store. Alpine — vote 
at Eugene Caillard's store. Summit Mill — vote at Knox house, summit. 
Linn's Valley — vote at Myers' store. Long Tom — vote at Yoakum's store. 
Kern Island — vote at Chester's store, Bakersfield. Reservation — vote at Tejon 
reservation buildings. Tehachapi — vote at school house. Walker's Basin — 
vote at Dr. Adams' store. Augua Caliente — vote at Wolfskill house. Cross's 
Mill — vote at Cross' mill. Delonega — vote at Williams & Martin's camp. 

First Election in the County 

Before the election was held on September 4th, Sageland voting district 
was established and Sanderson & Asher's store on Kelso creek was named 
as the polling place. 

In the list above the word "old" wherever used, is quoted from the super- 
visors' record. After forty-four years its use gives some idea of relative 
antiquity. As an index to the relative population of the districts and also to 
show the political complexion of the new county the vote for governor in the 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 63 

several precincts in the first election after the county was established is given 
herewith : 

Havilah — Haight, 147; Gorham, 60. 

Kernville — Haight, 38; Gorham, 43. 

South Fork — Haight, 10; Gorham, nothing. 

Walker's Basin — Haight, 32; Gorham, 13. 

Alpine — Haight, 11; Gorham, 3. 

Summit Hill — Haight, 18; Gorham, 5. 

Linn's Valley — Haight, 22; Gorham, 6. 

Long Tom — Haight, 20; Gorham, nothing. 

Kern River Island — Haight, 21 ; Gorham, 11. 

Reservation — Haight, 4; Gorham, 2. 

Tehachapi — Haight, 25 ; Gorham, 3. 

Sageland — Haight, 21 ; Gorham, 11. 

Augua Caliente — Haight, 3 ; Gorham, nothing. 

Claraville — Haight, 13; Gorham, 7. 

Totals— Haight, 385 ; Gorham, 164. 

Haight's majority, 221. 

The election throughout the state gave the following totals for governor : 
Henry H. Haight, Democrat, 49,905; George C. Gorham, Union, 40,359; Caleb 
T. Fay, Union-Republican, 2,088. 

At the same election the following county officers were chosen : Sheriff, 
R. B. Sagely; clerk, H. D. Bequette ; district attorney, Thomas Laspeyre ; 
treasurer, D. A. Sinclair; assessor, James R. Watson; surveyor, Thomas 
Baker; coroner, A. D. Jones; superintendent of schools, E. W. Doss; super- 
visors, first district, D. W. Walser ; second district, J. J. Rhymes; third dis- 
trict, John M. Brite ; constables, township No. 1, John B. Tungate and W. S. 
Gibson ; township No. 2, J. Pascoe ; township No. 3, Thomas F. Owens and 
Thomas McFarlane ; township No. 4, Isaac Hart and James E. Williams ; 
township No. 5, J. J. Yoakum and W. W. Shirley. 

Roadmasters for the five townships were William F. Klaiber, C. T. 
W'hite, J. M. Garrett, M. A. Tyler, and William Higgins, respectively. 

At the judicial election held October 16th, P. T. Colby was elected county 
judge, and justices of the peace were chosen as follows: township 1, G. Martel 
and J. W. Venable ; township 2, Thomas Despain ; township 3, William S. 
Adams and Daniel Memckton ; township 4, William P. Higgins and Grant P. 
Cuddeback ; township 5, P. A. Stine. 

First Swamp Land District Organized 

Other matters which demanded a large share of the attention of the 
first boards of supervisors other than the political organization of the county 
and the calling of elections were the granting of permits for toll roads and 
ferries, the organization of reclamation districts and the adjustment of assess- 
ments. The first reclamation districts were formed on August 7, 1866, seven 
days after the first board organized. Under an act of the legislature ap- 
proved April 2, 1866, the supervisors, whom the law made ex-officio swamp 
land commissioners for the territory included in the county, divided the 
swamp and overflowed land in Kern county into two districts. District No. 1 
included all the swamp land in the county east of the range between ranges 
26 and 27 east. District No. 2 included all the swamp land in the ccmnty 
west of this line, and all the even sections in both districts were set aside 
to defray the expense of carrying out a system of reclamation and irrigation 



64 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

provided in an agreement between the supervisors, acting in the capacity of 
swamp land commissioners, and Thomas Baker, his associates and assigns. 

According to this agreement. Baker and his associates were to construct 
a good and permanent improvement to turn from Kern river into the south 
fork water sufficient to irrigate district No. 1, to remove all timber and 
driftwood from the slough so that it would carry water, to build a guard gate 
to afford passage for water across the levee already constructed across said 
slough for reclamation purposes and to keep said gateway and levee in good 
repair so as to allow enough water to pass for irrigation but at the same time 
to prevent a flood. Baker was to begin the work within two years after Jan- 
nary 1, 1867, and was to be paid $6000 for the job, half of the amount as the 
work was finished, and the other half as afterward provided in the agreement. 

Also, Baker was to build irrigating ditches and improve existing sloughs 
so that they would serve as channels to carry irrigation water, being paid 
therefor at the rate of 50 cents per yard for all dirt moved up to a total of 
$8000, half of the amount to be paid as the work was completed, which must 
be within four years from January 1, 1867. The payments were to be made 
in land scrip to be issued to Baker at the rate of $1 per acre in such 
denominations as Baker should elect. The agreement provided that Baker was 
not to be held liable for damage caused by any exceptional floods. 

For the reclamation of district No. 2 Baker was to build a levee across 
Buena Vista slough in township 30-24 (a little north of Cole's levee of the 
present day) to improve the natural channels and build canals at the rate of 
50 cents per cubic yard for the earth moved, up to a total of $26,000, payment 
to be made as in the case of district No. 1, in land scrip at the rate of $1 per 
acre, subject to location on even sections or fractions thereof, within the 
districts described. In the two districts the compensation would amount to 
$40,000 or 40,000 acres of land. The control of the water and distribution 
of the same for irrigation purposes was to remain in the hands of the super- 
visors. 

The reader will recall that heretofore Baker and his associates had, under 
the Montgomery franchise, just completed the reclamation of all the swamp 
and overflowed lands in the two districts mentioned in the agreement and 
had put in their application for a patent for all the odd sections as com- 
pensation for their labors. At this time and a few years later there was no 
little protest against this action of the supervisors by people who pointed 
out that the state had given half the land for taking the water ofif, and now 
the county was giving the other half for putting the water back on the land. 
Against this contention, however, was presented the argument that while 
the swamps had been drained and now were as dry as tinder, they were no 
more suited to cultivation without water for irrigation than they had been 
when they were submerged. The argument was good, and prevailed. 

Changes in Swamp Land Laws 

Before Baker could complete his portion of the contract with the super- 
visors, the state legislature, which was having a large amount of trouble 
about that time in settling in its own mind what was the best policy to follow 
respecting the swamp lands, made another change in the law, in 1868, plac- 
ing the swamp lands back in the trust of the state, instead of the coun- 
ties, and removing all restrictions formerly in effect as to the amount of 
swamp land which any one person or corporation could acquire. The new 
law provided that purchasers of swamp land must deposit $1 per acre in the 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 65 

county treasury as a guarantee that the land would be reclaimed, or twenty 
per cent of the amount could be paid outright and the balance made up later. 
Each district was to make its own by-laws and regulations, but in the end, 
if the land was not reclaimed, the title remained in the state. 

The change in the law made a change in the plans for reclamation, and 
under the new act, on December 24, 1870, Livermore & Chester, Thomas 
Baker, Julius Chester and Andrew R. Jackson filed with the supervisors a 
petition for the formation of a reclamation district including all the swamp 
and overflowed lands in townships 27-22, 28-22, 28-23, 29-22, 29-23, 29-24 
30-24, 31-25, 31-26, 32-26 and 32-27. 

The story of the acquisition of the swamp lands forms a long and rather 
complicated chapter which would be of only casual interest to the average 
reader. What has been related so far gives a very good illustration of the 
manner in which all the swamp land in the county finally was acquired. The 
odd sections for the most part went to parties who had bought them from 
Baker or his assigns subsequent to the Montgomery patent, the purchasers 
being protected by a new act of the legislature when the Montgomery patent 
was annulled by the court in 1878. The even sections were purchased from 
the state for about the cost of completing their reclamation. 

A Sheep Was Worth More Than an Acre of Land 

Probably it will strike the present day reader that the moving of two 
cubic yards of earth from the center of a ditch to a ditch bank was a small 
amount of labor to give in exchange for an acre of the rich, Kern delta land, 
but the records of the supervisors, sitting as a board of equalization in the 
early days of the county throw an explanatory light on the subject of relative 
values. Nowadays nobody pays any attention to his assessments, whether 
they are high or low, but in the '60s and '70s the meetings of the equalizers 
were enlivened by a steady procession of taxpayers who wanted their assess- 
ments lowered or those of their neighbors raised. Eor example : In 1870 
sheep were assessed at $2 per head, and the San Emidio grant was assessed 
at $1.25 per acre. The supervisors reduced sheep to $1.50 and the land in 
the grant to $1. In the same year the Western Union Telegraph Company's 
assessment was cut from $170.64 to $85.32. In 1868 three American horses 
belonging to Dave Lavers were raised from the assessor's figures to $300, 
and the next year the Joe Walker mine was chopped from $5000 to $500. 

The First Mountain Roads 

Nearly all the early roads through the mountains were built by private 
enterprise as toll roads. In the valley any traveller could lay out a new 
road for himself if he chose, and others who came after him soon wore it 
into a trail. But when he came to a stream he could not ford he had to pay 
tribute to the ferryman. J. M. Griffith, in 1868, built a toll road from Moore's 
station at the foot of Tehachapi mountain to Agua Caliente creek and was 
permitted to charge for its use. $2.50 for a wagon and twelve horses, $2.25 
for a wagon and ten horses, $2 for a wagon and eight horses and down to 
seventy-five cents for a wagon and two horses, twenty-five cents for a horse 
and rider, five cents per head for loose cattle, two cents per head for sheep, 
and twenty-five cents for a pack animal. 

Charges were fixed by the supervisors for the ferry operated in the 
same year by J. E. Stine at Telegraph crossing over Kern river near Bakers- 
field as follows : For a wagon and two horses. $2 ; for each extra span of 

4 



66 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

horses, fifty cents; for a horse and rider, fifty cents; for loose animals of all 
kinds, twenty-five cents each ; for footman, twenty-five cents. 

Rates for other toll roads and ferries were not far from these fig^ures. 

In 1868 James Cross built a ferry below the junction of South Fork 
(in the mountains). Cross, Morton & Company were given a permit to 
maintain a toll road from Havilah via Walker's basin to their mill. J. W. 
Sumner was given a permit to build a toll bridge across Kern river near 
Hot Springs valley. Thomas Baker a little later built the famous Baker 
toll road up the mountains between Bakersfield and Havilah. Eight or ten 
years later the county began buying in these toll roads, and there were 
numerous and spicy charges of graft and extravagance in connection with 
the different purchases. 

(Throughout this history it is necessary to distinguish between the South 
Fork of Kern river, which is one of the two chief branches of the stream to- 
ward its source in the mountains, and the south fork channel which ran 
through the eastern part of Bakersfield in the early days. For the purpose 
of lessening the confusion of the dual use of the name I have arbitrarily chosen 
to give the mountain stream and the valley that bears its name the dignity 
of capital initials.) 



CHAPTER Vn 
Coming of the Capitalist 

Dividing the history of Kern county into epochs from an industrial point 
of view, the years around 1870 mark the beginning of the influence of large 
capital in the county's development. Prior to 1860 the settlers in the valley 
were mainly small farmers or small stockmen, intent on getting what they 
could from the land and concerned but little or not at all in the permanent 
improvement or development of the country. In the mountains the placer 
miners and the first quartz miners were doing the same — getting money out 
of the ground, and putting little in. Following these came men like Colonel 
Baker, fully gifted with the ability and inclination to plan large developments 
and improvements for the future, but handicapped everywhere for want 
of money to carry out their plans. Nevertheless, Baker and others in the 
Kern delta began the construction of reclamation levees and irrigation ditches ; 
in the mountain valleys the sturdy pioneers, full of energy if short of cash, 
were improving their farms and beginning to accumulate their flocks and 
herds, and in the mineral sections the quartz miners were delving deeper in 
tlie ledges and developing shafts and tunnels that properly were entitled to 
the name of mines as distinguished from placers and prospect holes. 

All these enterprises were carried on by men of modest means and 
modest ambitions. But before 1868 General Beale had acquired the Tejon 
ranch, and Beale & Baker were building up flocks of sheep aggregating as 
high as 100,000 to 125.000 head. In 1868 J. C. Crocker established head- 
quarters at the Temblor ranch and began buying the land and accumulating 
the herds that formed the nucleus of the immense Miller & Lux holdings. 
About the same time the Chesters were in Bakersfield, planning big enter- 
prises with the money of H. P. Livermore, a wealthy druggist of San 
Francisco, to back them. In 1875 Senator Jones bought the Big Blue mine 
and gave a new character to the search for Kern county gold. In 1872 Walter 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 67 

James came to make a report on the Gates tract, a big body of land lying 
south and west of Bakerstield which Isaac E. Gates of New York had acquired 
from the railroad and which was later purchased by J. B. Haggin and became 
the nucleus of the Kern County Land Company holdings. In 1873 came 
the Southern Pacific railroad. It is pertinent, therefore, to take account, 
roughly, of the county's stock about the year 1870. 

Havilah was the most important town in the county, although there 
were not lacking men who could foresee that Bakersfield was soon to'^outstrip 
it in the race for supremacy. A. D. Jones, editor of the Havilah Courier, 
was one of these, and on December 22, 1869, he had moved to Bakersfield,' 
changed the name of his paper to the Kern County Courier, and had gotten 
out the first issue. In the issue of January 18, 1870, the Courier describes 
the town : 

Bakersfield as It Was in 1870 

Bakersfield, laid out about four months previous to that date, contained 
the stores of Livermore & Chester and Caswell & Ellis, one telegraph office, 
a prmtmg office (the Courier) the blacksmith and carriage shop of Fred 
Hacking, a harness shop belonging to Philip Reinstein, Littlefield & Phelan's 
hvery stable, John B. Tungate's saloon, a carpenter shop, a school house 
with fifty pupils, and two boarding houses. The professions were represented 
by Dr. L. S. Rogers and Attorney C. H. Veeder. A hotel and grist mill were 
m contemplation. The Baker toll road was in operation between Bakersfield 
and the county-seat; there were good wagon roads to Visalia and Los 
Angeles, and a grade up the mountains to Tehachapi was in progress of 
building. 

The town was protected from flood by a levee built by Colonel Baker, and 
the whole country was supplied with fuel for a long time to come by the 
logs washed down by the flood of 1867-8. The editor cheerfully assures the 
world that the action of the elements is such as to warrant that other floods 
would wash down more driftwood before the then present supply ran out. 

Of the lands on lower Kern river 129,625.34 acres had been entered under 
the state laws, and 40,000 had been patented for reclamation purposed by 
individuals. No reclamation districts had been formed under the new law, 
which provided for the appropriation of $1 per acre for the reclamation of 
swamp lands. This would make a fund of $129,625.34 available for the 
reclamation of lands in Kern county, an amount believed to be sufficient to 
accomplish the task and make nearly 200,000 acres of fine land available for 
cultivation. There were still some 275,000 acres of government land open 
to homestead and pre-emption, beside some 50,000 acres of railroad land 
m the Kern delta which was ofifered to settlers at government prices. 

All this land was considered among the potential assets of Bakersfield. 
The town was just recovering from an epidemic of fever during the summer 
previous, and the cause of the fever having been ascribed to drinking water 
from shallow wells and irrigating ditches, an agitation for deeper wells was 
under way. Residents of the new town were looking forward to the building of 
the projected railroad up the valley and were worrying about how they were 
going to feed the great number of people who would come with the laying 
of the tracks. They even went to the length of organizing the Kern County 
Agricultural Society for the promotion of agriculture, so that a plenty of 
food would be assured the newcomers. 

In March of 1870 the town was re-surveyed, and it was announced 



68 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

that shade trees were to be planted at each lot corner. Colonel Baker was 
building his saw mill, a saw mill at San Emidio had just put in new planing 
machinery, and Livermore & Chester's saw mill in the Tecuya valley was 
about to resume work. In 1870 a bill passed the legislature to change the 
county seat from Havilah to Bakersfield, but Governor Haight did not sign 
it, and it failed to become a law. 

In the county there were five postofifices, the following being the post- 
masters : At Bakersfield, George B. Chester; at Havilah, H. H. Denker; at 
Kernville, G. Martel ; at Linn's valley, John C. Reid ; at Tehachapi, P. D. 
Green. 

The surveyor general's report for 1867, published in 1870 showed that 
Kern county on the former date had 5,000 acres of land fenced, 2,398 acres 
under cultivation, 550 acres in wheat which produced 16,500 bushels, 906 
acres in barley, which produced 27,180 bushels, 4,000 grape vines. The 
value of the real estate was placed at $440,000; improvements, $40,000; per- 
sonal property, $866,500; total, $1,346,500. The estimated population was 
1,400, and the number of registered voters was 766. 

The Buena Vista Petroleum Company was working hopefully but not 
profitably at McKittrick, known in early days as Asphalto, almost due west 
of Bakersfield at the end of the Santa Maria valley. 

Sources of Ready Cash 

The Courier summed up five sources from which money flowed in greater 
or less streams, into the channels of Bakersfield's trade. Travellers brought 
some ; a few horses and mules were sold ; lumber, posts, etc., from Greenhorn 
mountain brought in a little ; the Jewett Brothers, the Troys, Gustav Sanger, 
Beale & Baker and others sent away sheep and wool and brought back large 
sums of gold. George Young, Launder, Tracy & Canfield and others sold 
beef cattle. Finally the mines, although not so profitable as formerly, were 
still worked with profit. 

The whole population on the "Island" was estimated in 1870 at 600. Out- 
side the town of Bakersfield and scattered ranches there was only the 
Barnes settlement and the Mexican settlement at what is now Panama. The 
remainder of the people were in the mountains. Old Tehachapi was a thriving 
little village, gaining its support from the stock men who were getting 
well established in the fertile valleys round about, and from the early placer 
miners, who were working over the gravels of China hill. About forty 
men were working about the Kernville mines, for the most part on shares ; 
they were just putting in new pumping machinery in the Joe Walker mine; 
Burdette & Tucker had opened a new lead in Long Tom ; Sageland, Clara- 
ville and other mining camps through the mountains were enjoying fair 
to medium prosperity ; Havilah was passing its best days and looking forward 
to the time when it must fight for the retention of the county seat, which was 
coming to be almost as important to its existence as its mines. 

The South Fork valley. Walker's basin, Linn's valley, Poso flat and less 
important valle3^s in the mountains were becoming centers of development 
and industry under the hands of the farmers and stockmen. 

Early Captains of Industry 

The new factors in the county's development took up the task with 
energy and enthusiasm. It is to be noted that in each instance the men who 
were supplying the capital for the carrying out of the resident managers' 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 69 

plans lived elsewhere, and except in the case of Henry Miller they appear 
to have given little personal attention to the details of their Kern county 
investments. In each case, however, the resident managers were capable 
of laying their own plans and of carrying them out, also, provided the money 
kept coming. Julius Chester was the active partner of the firm of Livermore 
& Chester. Livermore furnished the money, but he seldom came to Bakers- 
field. George Chester was less aggressive than his brother, and although 
he figured prominently in the early annals of the city, it was Julius that 
generally directed affairs in which the company was interested. Under his 
guidance Livermore & Chester branched out in all directions. They estab- 
lished the leading mercantile house in the county ; as noted, they were 
active, in partnership with Colonel Baker and others, in the formation of 
reclamation districts and they began to acquire land in all available ways. 
They bought large tracts from Baker under the Montgomery patent, paying 
ridiculously small prices therefor. In June, 1870, Livermore & Chester were 
advertising 20,000 acres of farming land for sale at $2 to $10 per acre. In 
July, 1870, the Chesters, Livermore & Chester, Thomas Baker, A. R. Jack- 
son, B. Brundage, C. G. Jackson, John Howlett, H. A. Cross, Solomon Jewett 
and L. G. Barnes filed a petition for the formation of a reclamation district 
comprising 28,000 acres in townships 29-27, 29-28, 30-28, 31-28 and 32-28, 
which include the townsite of Bakersfield and the country south to beyond 
Kern lake. The district previously described lay mostly to the north of 
Buena Vista lake. On March 11, 1871, the first Bakersfield Club was organ- 
ized, with George Chester as president, John Howlett as vice president, J. 
Leopold as secretary and Julius Chester as treasurer. In July, 1871, the 
new livery stable of Livermore & Chester is described as one of the most 
imposing structures in the city. It was of adobe, 275 feet long, and 35 feet 
wide, and was used in connection with the long-distance teaming of those 
days, in which Livermore & Chester were largely interested directly. 

Cotton Growers' Association Formed 

In August, 1871, the California Cotton Growers' Association was organ- 
ized with Julius Chester as president and James Dale as secretary. Dale 
wrote that ''Our vast plantation will be divided into cotton parks of 50 
to 100 acres each, surrounded by hedges of mulberry which will be clipped 
regularly. At intervals in the hedge rows different varieties of fruit trees will 
be planted to furnish fruit and shade." 

A later and fuller prospectus states that the California Cotton Growers 
and Manufacturers' Association was composed of Californians and English- 
men ; that after examining all the San Joaquin valley the association had se- 
lected the Kern River valley as the scene of its operations. It had purchased of 
Livermore & Chester 10,000 acres at $5 per acre and planned to plant 1000 
acres of cotton the following spring. The sale from Livermore & Chester 
to the association also included, according to the statement, the townsite of 
Bakersfield, sixteen houses, a large brick store and warehouse, the motive 
power and privileges of the Kern Island Irrigation Company's canal, the 
new flour mill, the merchandising and transportation business of Livermore 
& Chester and an improved farm of 1000 acres with tools, teams, etc. The 
men composing the association were J. H. Redington, A. P. Brayton, C. J. 
Pillsbury, L. A. Bonestell, Horatio Stebbins, J. D. Johnson, H. C. Liver- 
more and C. Maddux. 

In May of 1872, the Livermore saw mill twentv-five miles east of 



70 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Bakersfield began operations. A little later Julius Chester was on a trip 
over the mountains to promote a road to the Owens river. All this will 
indicate briefly, the extent, variety and general character of the activities 
which Julius Chester directed, and the place which Livermore & Chester 
and their associates occupied in the enterprise and development of Kern 
county during this period. During this time the association was spending 
money freely in the advertising of the county's attractions, and conducting a 
campaign of general promotion that would have been a credit and advantage 
to a much older community. It is painful to record that Julius Chester's 
plans did not materialize financially. It cost more to run the business than 
the business brought in. and eventually Celsus Brower and S. J. Lansing, who 
had come to Bakersfield to look after the affairs of Livermore & Chester and 
the Cotton Growers' Association, found the business in such a badly muddled 
and unpromising condition that they sent for Livermore and the result 
was a change of management and a transfer of the property involved to 
J. H. Redington, a partner of Livermore, in the drug business, as trustee, 
for adjustment. Celsus Brower remained in charge for some years, un- 
tangling the accounts, selling land and town lots, leasing some of the ranches 
and generally getting what returns he could from the large investments of 
Livermore's money. Finally the Livermore and Redington interests were 
sold to Haggin and Carr, and became a part of the principality of which 
the latter dreamed and for which the former paid. 

Kern County News of 1871-3 

Detached items of news from the papers printed in 1871-3 will serve as 
well as a more extended description to give the reader an idea of the plans 
and ambitions, sorrows and entertainments, dreams and accomplishments 
of the people of the Kern delta during this interesting period. 

February 25, 1871 — R. Van Orman's horse lost in a 440-yard race to a 
nag belonging to Antonio Barreras, and $1000 changed hands on the result. 
On the same day the Bakersfield sports paid over $500 that they had wagered 
on Bob Withington's sorrel against Arujo's bay. 

May 13, 1871 — Public spirited citizens here subscribed $3200 to build a 
town hall with a lodge room upstairs for the Masons and Odd Fellows. 

June 3d — Mr. Lucas is getting ready to again supply Bakersfield with 
ice from Cross' mountain. 

May 27th — The first section of the Kern Island ditch is finished and 
ready to irrigate (so the paper says) 75,000 acres of land. 

An efifort is being made to raise money for a church building, and an 
express office is soon to be opened. 

Tiburcio Vasquez, Bartola Sepulveda, Procopio Murietta, Pancho Go- 
linda and Juan Doe Bacinos have held up the stage near San Jose again. 

September 9, 1871 — The surveyors for the Southern Pacific railroad are 
in Bakersfield and the citizens are awakening to the fact that the road is 
going to miss the main portion of the town. 

The third Sunday in October there was a camp meeting on Kern Island. 

Stage fare from San Francisco to Bakersfield is $30, and from Los 
Angeles to Bakersfield, $15. The latter stage is weekly and irregular. 

Laborers get $40 to $60 per month, but save no money. 

October, 1871 — Bishop Amat and Father Dade call the Catholics to- 
gether to discuss the subject of building a church and school. Julius Chester, 
Pablo Galtes and Alexis Godey are appointed a committee to raise the funds. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 71 

Alfalfa is proving a great success on the island. 

Solomon Jewett is awarded a prize of $100 by the state agricultural 
society for the best paper on cotton growing based on actual experiment. 

October, 1871 — Havilah residents are beginning to come to Bakersfield, 
bringing their houses with them. 

And the Santa Barbara Press was boosting for a railroad to Bakers- 
field just as cheerily as it is now (in 1911)— and with the same result. 

The railroad is finished about to the Merced river, and farmers are still 
driving their turkeys from valley points to San Francisco for holiday market. 

December 16, 1871— J. S. Brittain lands here to found a Democratic 
paper — the Southern Californian. 

A petition is in circulation to move the county seat from Havilah to 
Bakersfield. 

B: Brundage and E. H. Dumble move here from Havilah. 

December, 1871— Surveyor Yates of the San Joaquin Valley Canal Com- 
pany decides to wait until the weather is settled before continuing his plans 
for a great canal to start at Antioch, run south along the Coast range mesa 
to the head of the San Joaquin valley, circle the base of the San Emidio hills, 
turn north at Tejon, follow the Sierra Nevada mesa to the head of the Sacra- 
mento valley, and return on the west side of that valley to a point opposite 
Antioch. The purpose of the canal is to gather all the waters of all the 
streams of the interior into one great irrigation system that will water every 
foot of land in the two great valleys. (It is too bad the plan was nevei* 
carried out !) 

January, 1872— Freight by teams from Los Angeles to Bakersfield costs 
4 cents per pound. 

April, 1872— The legislature defeats a bill to repeal the fence law, and 
a meeting is called in the town hall to discuss means of protection from wild 
cattle. The fight over the fence law is between the farmers and the stock- 
men. The latter want a law which will practically compel the farmers to 
fence their lands or sufifer damage from stock that may trespass upon them, 
while the farmers want the burden of herding the cattle or paying damages 
placed on the stockmen. 

The same month — Surveyors are laying out the town of Fresno on the 
line of the new railroad. 

May 22, 1872— The Hotel Association is selling stock, and plans to build 
a first class hotel. 

June, 1872— Mechanics are leaving their work in town and flocking to 
the placer gravels along Kern river about nine miles above Bakersfield. 

August, 1872— Drs. Baker of Visalia and Howard of San Francisco are 
here to look at new coal mines and petroleum deposits at the base of the 
Coast range west of Bakersfield. The San Francisco Gas Company is plan- 
ning to make gas of crude oil. 

The great register of the county for 1872 contains 785 names, divided 
among the several precincts as follows: Bakersfield, 245; Linn's valley, 140; 
Tehachapi, 90; Havilah, 85; Kernville, 60; South Fork, 40; Sageland, 35; 
Bear Valley, 30; Tejon, 25; Walker's Basin, 15; Long Tom, 10. 

November, 1872 — A. Cross arrives with three teams from Owen river 
with 335 bars of lead bullion, or 30,000 pounds. The bullion was hauled to 
the foot of the lake by steamers from the furnaces on the other side. It 
took ten days to make the trip by team from the lake to Bakersfield. 



72 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

November, 1872 — Colonel Baker makes the first successful attempt to 
burn a kiln of brick. 

Sunday, November 24, 1872 — At 1 p. m. Colonel Baker dies of typhoid 
pneumonia. His funeral is held from the town hall the following Tuesday, 
and the entire population of the town attends. The Masons conduct the 
service, and A. R. Jackson delivers the oration. The body was buried in 
Union cemetery, the ground for which was selected by Colonel Baker about 
a year before. 



CHAPTER VIII 
Bakersfield Becomes the County Metropolis 

In the process of gathering the data for this history the author asked 
one of the men who have been intimately associated with its larger affairs 
during the last forty years to name over the chief events in the history of 
Bakersfield. He answered : 

"The history of Bakersfield is a story of hope deferred, of promises 
unfulfilled. First we prayed for a railroad. We got it, but it did not unlock 
the door of our possibilities as we expected it would. Then we prayed for 
colonization. Everything was made ready to answer that prayer, when 
the contest over the water rights interfered and nothing could be done 
toward cutting up the land until that was settled. It took years to settle 
it. When it was out of the way and the colonization scheme was undertaken, 
just at the start, when everybody's hope was stimulated, the town burned 
up. We rebuilt on hope, and the colonization scheme went forward. Most 
of the colonists who came were not farmers, or if they knew how to farm 
in the east or in England they did not know how to farm here. The 
water was managed badly ; some of the ground was waterlogged, the ditches 
broke, things dried out on the high ground and flooded out on the low ground. 
Just as the orchards and vineyards came into bearing the panic of 1893-4 
broke. There was no local market, and fruit shipped east would hardly pay 
the freight ; sometimes it did not pay the freight and they sent back a bill 
to the shipper. The seasons about that time were dry, but we could have 
managed that. The greatest handicap was transportation charges. Then 
we prayed for a competing railroad. The Valley road (the Santa Fe) was 
built, but it did not compete. There never was a thing happened in this 
county that really gave it any chance, that offered any opportunity to 
go ahead and do things until they began to develop the oil fields." 

Understand that this is the speech of an optimist, not a pessimist. 
Through nearly all this period (this era of hopes deferred and promises 
unfulfilled) Bakersfield was counted by travellers and travelling salesmen as 
one of the "best towns" in the state. It was always full of life and interest, 
always there was something doing. Only to the men of intimate knowledge 
of the county's possibilities and of abounding faith in the county's future 
has the history of the past forty years been one of hopes deferred and promises 
unfulfilled. 

Nevertheless, throughout these forty years the attitude of this optimist 
who speaks like a pessimist has been a typical one. Literally hundreds of 
people, looking about at the immense body of fertile land that fills the 
heart of the county, the great river that flows down from the mountains at 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 73 

exactly the most convenient spot for irrigating it, the warm, even climate 
and the tremendous treasures of oil and other mineral wealth that the hills 
and mountains contain, have been amazed, irritated and angered because 
circumstances have prevented Bakersfield from becoming the largest city 
in the interior of the state, as it justly deserves to be. 

Understand, also, that it is only in the retrospect that the Bakersfield 
optimist has seen that the history of the town was a story of promises unful- 
filled. For only brief periods during all these forty years has the town been 
lingering elsewhere than on the threshold of a great new boom. It was on 
the threshold of one of its booms when its founder. Colonel Baker, died. 
The fertility of the Kern delta was fully established, capitalists in the person 
of Livermore & Chester were promising great things, plans for getting the 
remaining portions of the public domain into private hands with the least 
possible effort and the speediest dispatch were going forward without a 
hitch worth mentioning, the example of Colonel Baker inspired the belief 
that so soon as these public lands were patented they would be offered for 
sale at modest prices, and the Southern Pacific railroad was headed down 
the valley with the long desired transportation facilities. Bakersfield was 
convinced of her future greatness, and was preparing to take her first steps 
forward by incorporating as a city and by wresting the county seat from 
Havilah. 

Bakersfield Gets the County Seat 

The contest for the removal of the county seat from Havilah to Bakers- 
field, preliminary skirmishes of which had been taking place occasionally for 
years before, assumed final, serious form in January, 1873, when, in response 
to a petition signed by upward of one-third of the registered voters of the 
county, the supervisors called an election for February 15th to determine 
the question. 

F. W. Craig, who was one of the supervisors at the time and who 
fought hard for the retention of the county seat at Havilah, says that the 
Havilah partisans did not hope to keep the county seat permanently, but 
they objected to its going to Bakersfield because they considered the place 
unsuited on account of its low and swampy character. They believed that 
with the building of the railroad a new and more permanent town would 
be founded somewhere on higher ground than Bakersfield, and their fight 
was to keep the county offices at Havilah until the expected new town 
could develop and assert its claim to the seat of government. 

The sincerity of the men who made the fight against Bakersfield on the 
ground of healthfulness is shown by subsequent action on the part of some 
of them, although a very few years sufficed to prove that their fears were 
ungrounded. Dr. L. Brown, the county physician in the days of Havilah's 
supremacy, declined to follow the court house to Bakersfield but gave up 
his practice and moved to a farm in Walker's basin where he would at least 
have the advantage of the mountain air. By the irony of fate the good doctor 
died a short time thereafter, while his widow, who some years later became 
the wife of General Freeman, came to Bakersfield, where she still lives in 
the best of health and possessed of an energy and activity that would do 
credit to a woman of half her years. Mr. Craig, who afterward was county 
clerk, came down to the valley perforce, but he took up his residence in 
Sumner (now East Bakersfield), and still maintains that there is more ozone 
in the air east of Union avenue than west of it. 



74 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Bakersfield people contented themselves with pointing to the mortality 
tables and making- fun of the contention of Havilah that Bakersiield was 
not a "fit place for a gentleman to live," but to the complaint that it would 
cost the county a large sum of money to erect the necessary new buildings 
which a change in the county seat would entail, they presented a more 
material answer. Morris Jacoby gave a bond, with F. A. Tracy and Solomon 
Jewett as sureties, that he would build a brick jail and lease it to the county 
for five years free of cost if the election resulted in moving the county seat. 
Julius Chester signed a lease to the county at $1 per year for a one-story 
brick building to be used to house the county offices. On the same terms 
John Howlett and Julius Chester, as trustees, leased to the county the town 
hall for a court room. The lease was for five years. 

Contest Over Election 

First unofficial returns of the election gave a majority of twelve for 
Bakersfield, but when the vote was canvassed on February 24th, Super- 
visors Craig and John M. Brite, father of the present supervisor, voted to 
reject the returns of Hudson, Bear valley and Walker's basin precincts on 
account of irregularities on the part of the election officials. Solomon Jewett, 
the third supervisor, recently elected, voted to count the returns from the 
three precincts but was outweighed, and Havilah was declared to be the 
choice of the voters for the county seat by a vote of 328 to 318. 

An application for a writ of mandamus compelling the supervisors to 
count the returns of the rejected precincts was thrown out of court by 
Judge Colby on a demurrer filed by Supervisors Craig and Brite. An appeal 
was then taken to the district court. 

Meantime there was another county election, and John Narboe suc- 
ceeded Brite as supervisor from the third district, and Andrew H. Denker 
was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Supervisor Craig, who had been 
elected county clerk. This changed the attitude of the majority of the board 
on the county seat removal, Supervisors Jewett and Narboe favoring Bakers- 
field while Denker, who was a merchant and hotel owner of Havilah, stood 
for his own town. Jewett was chairman of the board. 

The case was entitled People of the State of California on the relation of 
A. R. Jackson, plaintififs, against the Board of Supervisors of Kern County, 
defendants, and was heard before Judge Alec Deeming at Tulare. B. Brun- 
dage appeared as counsel for the plaintiff, and A. J. Atw^ell represented the 
board of supervisors as the defendant. An answer filed by Attorney A. C. 
Lawrence and verified by Supervisor Denker, was stricken out by the court 
on affidavit of Supervisors Jewett and Narboe that he did not represent the 
board. The case being submitted on the pleadings, Judge Deeming issued a 
peremptory writ of mandate requiring the supervisors to canvass the vote of 
the Hudson-Rosemyer and Bear Valley precincts. The returns as finally 
canvassed on January 26, 1874, gave Bakersfield a majority of twenty-two 
votes, and stood, according to precincts, as follows: 

Havilah — Havilah, 97 ; Bakersfield, nothing. 

South Fork — Havilah, 33; Bakersfield, 1. 

Hudson-Rosemyer — Havilah, nothing ; Bakersfield, 14. 

Kern Island — Havilah, 5 ; Bakersfield, 265. 

Long Tom — Havilah, nothing; Bakersfield, 10. 

Tehachapi — Havilah, 40; Bakersfield, 18. 

Bear Valley— Havilah, 4; Bakersfield, 22. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 75 

Sageland — Havilah, 22; Bakersfield, 1. 

Linn's Valley — Havilah, 38; Bakersfield, 23. 

Kernville — Havilah, 72; Bakersfield, nothing. 

Claraville — Haviland, 21 ; Bakersfield, nothing. 

Totals — Havilah, ZZ2] Bakersfield, 354. 

No election was held in Alpine precinct, and for some reason the vote 
of Walker's Basin was never included in the official count. 

For a short time the seat of government was transferred to the town 
hall in Bakersfield, located on the present site of the Beale Memorial library. 
But preparations at once were made for more permanent quarters. An act 
of the legislature was secured authorizing the board of supervisors to bond 
the county for $25,000 for a court house and jail. In lieu of the ofifers of 
free rent for the county offices, George B. Chester tendered and the board 
accepted on September 1, 1874, a deed to the block of land just south of 
Truxtun avenue and west of Chester avenue. In those days the intersection 
of these avenues was considered the civic center of Bakersfield, and all 
streets were numbered with reference to that point. Seventeenth street was 
known as First street North, Eighteenth street was Second street North, 
and Nineteenth street was Third street North. I street was First street 
West, etc. 

New Public Buildings 
On October 5th, a contract was let to A. W. Burrell of the California 
Bridge and Building Company for the new court house at a price of $29,999, 
the work to be completed within a year. T. W. Goodale, who had suc- 
ceeded Denker as supervisor, voted against the awarding of the contract for 
the reason that the price was in excess of the bond issue. The new court 
house which comprised the south wing of the building now in use, was ac- 
cepted April 3, 1876, on the favorable report of a committee of inspectors 
composed of J. A. Riley, N. R. Wilkinson, E. H. Dumble and P. A. Stine. 
The court house was furnished for $3802. In the fall a contract was let 
to William McFarland to build a county hospital for $1400. For a time a 
branch hospital was maintained at Havilah, and later a branch was estab- 
lished at Hot Springs. In November, 1874, a branch jail was built at Kern- 
ville for $200, and in 1875 the old county jail at Havilah was presented to 
Caliente and moved to that place. 

Bakersfield's First Incorporation 

Meantime Bakersfield had launched on its first experiment as an in- 
corporated town. Pursuant to a petition of the citizens, the county super- 
visors at their May meeting, 1873, declared the town incorporated and called 
an election of officers for May 24th. J. B. Tungate, E. H. Dumble and 
A. R. Jackson were appointed election officers. The town limits included all 
of section 30, 29-28; the east half of the southwest quarter and the east half of 
the northeast quarter of section 25, 29-27. The following were chosen for 
the first officers of the new municipality: 

Trustees — W. S. Adams, president; L. S. Rogers, M. Jacoby, J. B. Tun- 
gate and R. W. Withington. 

Recorder — A. R. Jackson. 

Treasurer — J. Weill. 

Assessor — William McFarland. 

Marshal — Joseph Short. 



76 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Adams was a liveryman, Jacoby and Weill were merchants, Rogers was 
a physician, and Withington and Tungate were saloon keepers. 

The new board fixed a license of $20 per year on saloons and general 
merchandise establishments ; $10 per year on breweries, and lesser sums 
on other businesses. They made it a petit larceny offense to use water from 
an irrigating ditch without permission; required that all canals must be 
bridged to the full width of the streets ; forbade bathing in the ditches, and 
fixed a limit of three cubic feet on the amount of litter that might be piled 
in either of the two chief business streets of the city. 

The First Hope Deferred 

Meantime, also, the long cherished hope of a railroad into Kern county 
had been realized at last. On July 21, 1873, the track had been completed to 
a point four miles south of the north county line, and there work was 
stopped, as the people of Bakersfield complained, "out in an open plain, 
thirty miles from wood or water, thirty miles from the nearest farm house, 
thirty miles from the nearest point where the transportation company could 
hope to get a single passenger or a single pound of freight." There was a 
wail of protest from residents of Bakersfield and Kern Island, who could 
not understand why the road had not been completed at least to the north 
bank of the river. Whether the railroad builders had run out of funds or 
were actuated by motives of purposeless, inscrutable malice were questions 
of common debate during the eight months or more that the grading and 
track-laying gangs were idle. The latter hypothesis, however, seems to have 
been the more popular. About this time the Courier refers editorially to 
the alleged fact that from its very beginning the railroad was the object of 
popular distrust. This aversion or hostility went even so far, the paper 
declared, that settlers were buying little railroad land, although it was offered 
at attractive prices and was generallv of good quality and desirably located. 

Delano Is Founded 

But while the railroad halted and the people of Bakersfield fumed, the 
new town of Delano was founded and became a flourishing business center 
on a small but active scale. Merchandise that formerly was delivered to 
the Kern delta and all the mountain districts via Visalia. Walker's pass or 
Tejon cafion now came to Delano and was hauled thence by freight teams. 
All outgoing freight was delivered there, even to the great loads of bullion 
from the Cerro Gordo mines. The sheep shearing camps that had been 
scattered over the country from White river to Poso creek moved up toward 
Delano to shorten the haul by wagon. The stage from Los Angeles made 
that place its northern terminal, dry wheat farmers on the mesas between 
the railroad and the Sierras increased in number, and broke trails to the rail- 
road, and generally Delano became a very lively and prosperous place. 

The Story of Eph Johnson's Ox Team 

Just how new and strange a thing a railroad was in the San Joaquin 
valley then is illustrated by the story of Eph Johnson, one of the best known 
of the teamsters who broke the trails from the mountains to the new ship- 
ping point. On one of his first trips to Delano Johnson got his first near 
view of a freight engine. He looked the thing over, and did not think much 
of it. Loyalty to the old methods of transportation and instinctive antag- 
onism toward this new machine that threatened to put the teams and team- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 77 

sters out of business got him into an argument with the trainmen, and finally 
Johnson bet his eight good oxen against the locomotive that he could drag the 
iron horse backward on the rails that had been laid with so much expense 
for it to run upon. Johnson stipulated that he should be allowed to tighten 
the chains before the engine was started, and he cracked his long bull whip 
and shouted to Baldy, the leader. Baldy stififened his neck to the yoke, 
and all the eight great animals got their hoofs against the ties and sank 
their bellies low toward the soft, new roadbed in a perfect exhibition of 
bovine team-work. Then the engineer opened the throttle and jerked the 
finest eight-ox team in Kern county into a tangled mass of chains and 
cattle. The trainmen had no more use for Johnson's oxen than Johnson 
would have had for the engine, and so the bet was never paid, but it cost 
the teamster the value of at least one yoke of cattle before the thirst of the 
other teamsters, the railroad crews and all the population of Delano was 
assuaged. 

News Notes of 1873-75 

A few more news notes of the time will fill out the detail in this picture 
of the county in 1873-75 : 

June 22, 1873 — At Tehachapi Brite & Bennington are building a steam 
saw mill with a capacity of 10,000 feet in twelve hours. 

Tehachapi merchants are asking 100 per cent profit on grain sold to 
Owens river teamsters. 

John Narboe & Co. are gathering salt from the salt lake near Tehachapi. 

Green & Henderson clean up $1,438 in their hydraulic mine near 
Tehachapi. 

The Kern & Inyo Forwarding Company advertises for fifty mule teams 
to haul between the end of the railroad and Owens lake, and guarantees a 
full load both ways. 

Stage fare from Delano to Bakersfield (thirty-two miles) is $7; from 
Bakersfield to Los Angeles, $25 ; from San Francisco to Los Angeles, $25. 
The "long and short haul" problem is a cause of complaint. 

August 2, 1873 — Escalet's new hotel at the corner of Chester avenue and 
Third street (now Nineteenth) is completed. 

August 23d — The affairs of the California Cotton Growers' Association 
and Livermore & Chester have been assigned to J. H. Redington. 

August 23, 1873 — Tiburcio Vasquez is reported overtaken in Rock canon 
east of Los Angeles. 

September 12, 1873 — IMontgomery and Burkhalter of Tulare are building 
a schooner-rigged boat fifty feet in length and of seventy tons burden for 
Atwell & Goldstein, who have an immense hog ranch on an island in Tulare 
lake. 

November 22, 1873 — J. C. Crocker and Miller & Lux are fencing a great 
tract of land between Buena Vista and Goose lakes with redwood posts 
and lumber shipped from Oregon. They will plant alfalfa. 

Many stage robberies are reported from Visalia. 

December 6, 1873 — The Stine Irrigating Canal Company levies an assess- 
ment of $25 per share. 

Farmers' Irrigating Canal Company is supplying water to a new dis- 
trict between Panama and Kern lake, which is fast settling up. A school 
is to be opened there in February, with Mrs. S. A. Burnap as teacher. 

January 17, 1874 — W. B. Carr, the "world renowned Billy Carr, political 



78 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Napoleon of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company," is here looking over 
the country. He owns some land in Kern county and is anxious to get more. 
He has plans for the complete and thorough irrigation of the valley. 

A bill is introduced in the legislature to form a new county out of a 
strip of territory cut from the north end of Kern and the south end of 
Tulare counties, Porterville to be the county seat and the name of the new 
county to be Monache. (The bill, of course, did not pass.) 

March 7, 1874— Julius Chester, E. Tibbet, P. Tibbet and R. Trewin are 
raising funds to build a Methodist Episcopal church. The building is to 
be open for the use of all evangelical denominations. 

The Pioneer canal is finished for a distance of eight miles. 

W. G. Souther, who is building the Kern Island canal, is having con- 
structed at Hollister a big plow with a mould board eleven feet long by 
nearly three feet deep which will cut a furrow five feet wide and two feet 
deep. The naked plow will weigh 1800 pounds, and eighty horses or forty 
yoke of oxen will be required to pull it. 

The Kern Valley Bank, incorporated on February 24, 1874, with a 
capital of $50,000, will open for business in the Wells Fargo ofiice about 
April 20th. Solomon Jewett is president; S. J. Lansing, secretary; F. A. Tracy, 
P. T. Colby and P. D. Jewett, directors. 

April 6, 1874 — Work on the extension of the Southern Pacific railroad 
south from Delano is resumed with 100 men and thirty-five teams. 

Local option is the subject of agitation all over the state. 

Rev. Thomas Fraser, Presbyterian missionary, preaches in the court 
house. 

Citizens discuss a plan to build a water tank thirty or forty feet high near 
the flour mill to afford a gravity pressure for fire protection. 

The two business streets of the town are sprinkled. 

Mexicans are preparing for a bull and bear fight in the southern outskirts 
of the town. 

Local option loses in Tulare township because the returns from a pre- 
cinct giving an anti-license majority of twenty-seven votes were sealed up 
in the envelope marked "ballots" and so were not counted in the official 
canvass. The unofficial count gave a majority of one against the saloons. 

August 1, 1874 — Trains reach the north side of Kern river. 

August 29, 1874 — The Southern Pacific is grading for the depot (at the 
present site in East Bakersfield.) A large body of land in the vicinity has 
been covered with indemnity scrip, and the railroad probably will lay out a 
town. 

October 10, 1874 — The Bakersfield Fire Company meets to adopt a con- 
stitution. N. R. Wilkinson is foreman ; W. McFarland, assistant foreman ; 
A. T. Whitman, secretary; W. E. Houghton, treasurer. A fireman's ball is 
planned for November 6th. 

December 19, 1874 — Judge Brundage plants out eucalyptus trees about 
his residence (at the northwest corner of H and Eighteenth streets). 

Mining excitement at Panamint. 

Januar}', 1875 — The river is in flood and the only way to cross is by the 
railroad bridge. No damage. 

February, 1875 — Seven or eight Mexicans, supposed to have been led by 
Chavez, one of Vasquez' lieutenants, rob the store of William Scodie about 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 79 

five miles above Weldon on the South Fork. They tied Scodie, stole about 
$800, a new outfit of clothing and a horse apiece and left toward Indian Wells. 

W. B. Carr expects to sow about 1500 acres of alfalfa this season. The 
Southern Pacific engineers are struggling with the grade up Tehachapi. The 
roadbed is built about fourteen miles east of Bakersfield. 

February 27, 1875 — The Bakersfield brass band holds its third anniversary 
ball. A revival is in progress at the Methodist church. The Good Templars 
organize Kern Island lodge. Murders and robberies are constantly reported 
throughout the county. 

March, 1875 — Much building is going on in Bakersfield. Lumber is $40 
per thousand, and brick are $10. The great Kernville gold ledge has been 
traced for twenty-five miles. A thousand men are working on the railroad 
grade to Tehachapi. 

Bakersfield Tires of Being a City and Disincorporates 

On February 27, 1875, the Kern County Courier announced that the 
town government was a miserable failure. A large amount of money had 
been collected in the form of licenses, the editor declared, but there was 
little or nothing to show for it. If a beginning had been made toward build- 
ing a sewer system or a municipal water works or if some other substantial 
public improvement were in evidence, the incorporation of the city might be 
justified, but there were none of these. This was the line of argument that 
appeared in the press. Pioneers who were active in public afifairs at the time, 
however, say that the town was disincorporated to get rid of the marshal — 
Alex Mills. 

Alex Mills was one of the thousand or more picturesque characters that 
have graced the history of Kern county and given it the pungent, preservative 
spice of human interest. He was an old man, by the time he became marshal 
of Bakersfield, and walked with a cane. But he was a Kentuckian, a handy 
man with a gun and not lacking in initiative and resource when the mood 
moved him. For example, once when he was given papers to serve in an 
attachment suit against the Southern Pacific railroad, Alex chained a log 
to the rails, sat down on it with his rifle in his hands and announced that he 
had attached the track, the roadbed, and the right of way and there would 
be nothing stirring over them until the judgment was satisfied. It was 
promptly satisfied. 

But these exhibitions of energy on the part of the town's historic marshal 
seem not to have happened very often. Urged to relate what Alex did that 
the town should want to get rid of his services, pioneers, one after another 
declare, "Nothing. He just stumped around from one saloon to another and 
at the end of the month he drew his seventy-six dollars." But diligent re- 
search reveals the fact that Alex had a habit of telling the truth on unfelicitous 
occasions. Perhaps he would stump into the ofiice or store of a prominent 
citizen and something like this conversation would ensue : 

"Mr. Blank, suh, good morning." 

"Good morning, Mr. Mills." 

"Mr. Blank, suh, you're the pop-eyed progeny of a race of runts. Nature 
never marks her critters wrong, suh. A pop-eyed man will steal, a pop-eyed 
pup will suck eggs, and a pop-eyed woman will flirt with the hired help. 

"Good morning, suh." 

And the marshal would stump out. 

Of course this is not what Marshal Mills really said. His language was 



80 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

apt to be too lurid and literal for the genteel purposes of print. But the 
paraphrase furnishes some faint idea of the historic marshal's frank and 
freehand ofifensiveness. Such means of recall as were then available were dis- 
cussed by the good citizens, but they were assured by the undaunted Alex 
that "you may remove me from my ofifice, suh, but my constituents will 
triumphantly elect me again," which everyone knew to be a fact. 

And so the good citizens disguised the issue. They pleaded economy 
and everything else that might suggest itself as an argument for disincor- 
poration. A petition was duly circulated, duly signed by more than three- 
fourths of the legal voters of the city, and the county supervisors, acting 
under the law as it then existed, on January 4, 1876, declared that Bakers- 
field was disincorporated. Samuel J. Lansing was appointed to close the 
municipality's financial aft'airs. On April 3, 1876, Lansing filed his report with 
the county board, and Bakersfield was free from all restraint, expense and 
contumely incident to city marshals until January 11, 1898, a respite of 
twenty-two years, during which period Bakersfield and Kern county passed 
through many experiences and were the scene of many stirring events, the 
story of which must now be recounted. 



CHAPTER IX 
The Contests Over Water Rights Begin 

Referring back to the news items reproduced in the previous chapter it 
will be noted that on August 23, 1873, appeared a legal notice to the effect 
that the aft'airs of the California Cotton Growers' Association, and Livermore 
& Chester had been transferred to J. H. Redington ; that in November of the 
same year J. C. Crocker and Miller & Lux were fencing in a great tract of 
land between Buena Vista and Goose lakes and preparing to sow alfalfa ; that 
in January, 1874, "the world-renowned Billy Carr, political Napoleon for the 
Southern Pacific Railroad Company," was in Kern county looking over his 
possessions here and planning how to increase them. 

About 1874 Dr. George F. Thornton was getting the Bellvue and 
McClung ranches established for J. B. Haggin. In the same year W. G. 
Souther was having the big plow built at Hollister for use in completing 
the reclamation of swamp land district No. Ill, a task which had been taken 
over by the Kern Island Irrigation Canal Company, which was a Livermore 
& Chester enterprise, now assigned to J. H. Redington. In March, 1876, Liver- 
more mortgaged to William Houston 5736 acres of land for $60,000. On 
October 1, 1877, Livermore mortgaged 9792.72 acres of Kern county land to 
Redington for $97,000. On the same date another mortgage was executed 
between the same parties involving 12,800 acres of land and $128,009. In 
the same year, which was one of exceptional drought, Livermore & Chester 
(as the concern continued to be known despite the transfers noted) are 
credited by newspaper report with having spent $20,000 in the construction 
of a dam of brush and gravel thrown across Kern river for the purpose of 
turning the water into the Kern Island canal. On July 2, 1877, the Kern 
Valley Water Company, of which J. H. Redington was president and H. P. 
Livermore was secretary, made an agreement with the trustees of swamp land 
district No. 116 or 121 (lying north of Buena Vista lake) to complete the 




COL. THOiMAS BAKER 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 81 

work of reclamation which the trustees of the district had begun. In March, 
1877, Congress passed the desert land act, and work was begun on the 
Calloway canal. In January, 1878, Livermore made another mortgage to 
Redington covering 4480 acres for a consideration of $44,800. In 1878 the 
Kern Valley Colony issued a prospectus offering seventeen sections of land 
under the Kern Island canal for sale at $25 per acre in tracts of forty to 
eighty acres at terms of one-fifth cash, with the balance in four annual pay- 
ments; interest at nine per cent. For information apply to H. P. Livermore, 
San Francisco, or Celsus Brower, Bakersiield. 

In June, 1879, Livermore and Redington sold to J. B. Haggin the Cot- 
ton ranch, comprising 729.03 acres in what is now the northwestern part of 
the city of Bakersfield. The consideration was nothing. A previous deed 
had conveyed all the other Livermore and Redington holdings in Kern 
county to Haggin, and after the deal had been completed Redington thfew 
in this remaining body of land — now selling in town lots at $20 to $200 per 
front foot — for good measure, and also, as there is good reason to suppose, 
because he did not care to keep any souvenir of his Kern county investments. 

Add to the foregoing the record of suit after suit filed against Livermore 
& Chester, Livermore & Redington and the different parties individually by 
Haggin & Carr, all dismissed or compromised, and you will have a fairly com- 
plete syllabus of the complicated chapter in the history of Kern county 
which bridges over the period during which Haggin & Carr and Miller & 
Lux came to be the overshadowing factors in Kern county's development; 
during which Bakersfield's first hope of colonization came to naught, and 
most of the remaining sections of valuable farming land in the valley portion 
of the county were thoughtfully gathered up. The chapter includes, also, the 
first bitter contests over the control of the waters of Kern river, and the 
placing of the troops and batteries for the great battle that was to come 
later on between the appropriators represented by Haggin and the riparianists 
represented by Miller & Lux. 

The Decline of Livermore & Chester 

Livermore & Redington were wholesale druggists of San Francisco, 
men of large wealth outside of their drug business, and are referred to by their 
Kern county acquaintances as of most estimable character. From the start 
their Kern county land investments were a side venture, and commanded 
little of their personal attention. Livermore came to Bakersfield but seldom, 
and Redington almost never. Taking them on their face, nothing could 
have been more promising than the Kern county swamp land projects. The 
early reclamation contracts, as we have seen, were taken on the basis of an 
acre of land in return for moving two cubic yards of earth in the construction 
of canals and levees. Ten or a dozen years later E. M. Roberts and H. W. 
Broad took a contract to finish the Calloway canal at seven cents for moving 
ordinary earth and nine cents for hardpan, and they made big money. The 
haul is longer and heavier in building a big canal like the Calloway than in a 
smaller canal like the Kern Island, and the earth moved in the former 
averaged much heavier and harder to handle than was that in the latter. It 
would seem that under normal circumstances and management the men who 
participated with Colonel Baker in the original contract for the reclamation 
of district No. Ill should have secured their land at an outlay of ten or 
fifteen cents per acre. 

But many things combined to overturn what seemed to be perfectly laid 



82 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

plans. Before the arrival of the railroad, materials of all kinds that had to be 
shipped in were exceedingly high in price, and after the railroad came the 
expected reductions in transportation charges were only partially realized. 
Labor was scarce and inefficient. Drinking water from shallovv wells or 
irrigation ditches resulted in a liberal infection of workmen with the microbe 
of weariness, and efTorts to drown the microbes in the bad liquors that 
unlimited saloons dispensed were not wholly successful from all points of 
view. 

Then it was an era of large ideas. The big plow that Souther had built 
at HoUister was not his first nor largest invention of the kind. He built in 
the Livermore & Chester shops at Bakersfield a plow designed to cut a furrow 
five feet in width and three feet deep, whereas the Hollister plow cut a furrow 
• three feet wide and two feet deep. The top of the mould board of the first 
plow was even with the head of a man on horseback. The depth of the 
cut was controlled by a screw operated from a platform high over the shear, 
and a long lever extending to the rear was used in keeping the furrow 
straight. With forty yoke of oxen hitched to it the plow would cut through 
A Cottonwood root as thick as a fat man's arm and the shear. and coulter 
shaved a clean path through the thickets of button willows that grew along 
the sloughs. The plow was perfectly designed and constructed, according to 
men who saw its try-out, but the oxen walked so slowly that the earth 
which the shear picked up was not carried out on the mould board but fell 
back in the furrow as in the case of a plow that does not "scour." When the 
bull whackers beat the cattle into a faster gait the plow made a clean furrow, 
but the faster gait could not be maintained, and at the end of a twelve-mile 
furrow it was evident that the big plow was almost as unsuited for ditch- 
building as it would be for a watch charm. 

Then Souther had the "little" plow built at Hollister. This could be 
handled with forty head of mules, and the faster animals made the new plow 
a success. Many of the smaller ditches about the delta were made with the 
Hollister plow, but its use benefited chiefly the assigns of Livermore & 
Redington. 

Fertile Causes of Litigation 

In the early days of irrigation in Kern county it was the custom to 
build wing dams of sand or of sand and brush in times when the river was 
low to force the water into the canals. These wing dams would start just 
below the head of the canal and extend at an angle upward and across the 
river nearly to the farther bank. A freshet sufficient to raise the water above 
■the top of these dams would speedily melt them away, scattering the brush to 
form impeding islands in the river bed, and the work would have to be re- 
peated so soon as the river fell again. Before the Kern valley canal was finished 
the cost of these wing dams had reached so great an aggregate that the 
managers of the enterprise decided to move the intake higher up on the river. 
This was done, the new intake being finished in 1874. The old south fork 
channel, however, was still used in lieu of a canal, the water being turned 
into the old channel from the new intake. Still later the head of the Kern 
Island canal was moved still farther up the river, and an artificial canal sub- 
stituted for the old natural channel south as far as the present mill. All 
these changes were made the excuse for a number of law suits over water 
rights, the questions involved turning on use, priority and the right of 
riparian owners to have a natural water course maintained. The suits and the 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 83 

questions involved were technical and of little interest to the average reader 
except to suggest the numberless good opportunities for litigation that arose 
while the waters of Kern river were being apportioned. Few such oppor- 
tunities, it may be added, were allowed to pass unseized. 

The agreement between the Kern Island Canal Company and the trustees 
of the irrigation district was that the company should construct the canal 
and necessary levees for $16,240, the company to own the canal and retain thS 
right to the use of the water, provided that the owner of swamp land should 
be given one share of stock in the canal company for every fifty dollars which 
his land paid into the reclamation fund, and provided that the owners of- 
swamp land in the district should have the preference right— or the exclusive 
right in case they demanded it— to purchase the water in the canal at 
rates which would net the canal company a return not to exceed ten per cent 
of its capital stock annually. 

First Great Fight Over Water Rights 

When the very dry year of 1877 came the former expedients to which 
the Kern Island Canal Company had resorted to draw the water into its 
ditch did not suffice, and the dam, which is alleged to have cost $20 000 was 
built across the river. Not only were brush and sand used, but wooden 
chutes were built against the shoulder of Panorama heights and gravel and 
boulders were chuted down to the river edge to serve as more enduring bal- 
last. Heavy timbers also were used to stay the waters, and the dam took 
on so much the character of a permanent work that settlers and water users 
over the entire delta from Bakersfield to Buena Vista lake were up in vigor- 
ous protest against this alleged effort to monopolize the entire flow of^he 
river. 

It is profitless now, as well as difficult, to decide just where the ri^^ht 
and justice lay. Those who were close to Livermore say that the dam was 
never intended to take all the water of the river and never did so. It was to 
act merely as the present weirs do, and it was only for the purpose of 
diverting into the Kern Island canal the amount of water which was due it 
by right of prior appropriation. This right, they point out, was later estab- 
lished and affirmed by the Miller-Haggin agreement and the Shaw decree 
and to this day the canal is entitled to its quota of water whenever there is 
that much in the river and whether there is anything left for other canals 
or not. 

Partisans of Livermore go on to say that much of the outcry against the 
Kern Island was raised by Carr, who had begun a systematic campaign to 
oust Livermore and Redington from their commanding position on the river 
and (like the astute and experienced politician that he was) sought to enlist 
popular sentiment as one of the chief means for carrying out his ends. 

At any rate, it appears that about this time Carr was a prince of good 
fellows. He was suffering as much as any of the smaller water users but 
he was willing to divide with everyone the little trickles that the monopolistic 
Kern Island people permitted to come down past their works. In fact Carr 
was the leader and ally of the anti-monopolists, and he was efficient and 
resourceful. 

The men who relate the story from the other side sav that no objection 
ever was made to the Kern Island company's dams so long as thev built 
them of brush and sand as others did, and no complaint was made against 
the Kern Island taking all the water to which it was entitled and which the 



84 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

irrigators under it could use. The objectors, however, go on to affirm that 
so much water was forced into the Kern Island canal that it broke and the 
precious fluid ran to waste over untilled lands while settlers farther down the 
river had to stand by and see their crops perish for want of moisture. Out of 
this difference of opinion regarding right and equity and of understanding 
as to matters of fact, arose the first great contest over the waters of Kern 
river. 

The contests between Haggin & Carr and Livermore & Chester were 
not so fierce nor on so large a scale as those that came later between Haggin 
& Carr and Miller & Lux, but they were fairly strenuous. On one occasion 
when Carr had secured from the court a restraining order to prevent Liver- 
more & Chester from placing a dam across the river to force the water into 
the Kern Island canal, instructions were issued to the Livermore superintend- 
ents to proceed with the work on the assurance that the injunction would be 
lifted the following morning. From every camp the men and teams were 
started out at noon, each taking an independent course as though going 
about some ordinary work, but all of them arriving during the afternoon at 
the foot of Panorama heights where the Kern Island intake was. The hours 
until nightfall were spent in quietly filling bags with sand and piling them 
on the river's edge. When darkness fell, two hundred men under the direc- 
tion of C. L. Connor and C. C. Stockton began building a wall of sand bags 
out into the stream. 

Carr's scouts discovered what was going on about midnight, but nothing 
was done until morning, when Connor and Stockton were placed under arrest 
for contempt of court. There had been a hitch and the injunction was not 
lifted. The judge was furious, and Carr was insistent on the officers placing 
Connor and Stockton in jail, but J. C. Crocker interceded, and Crocker's 
influence in those days was potent, even with a judge whose dignity had been 
badly ruffled. The men did not go to jail, and both of them afterward were 
given good positions by Carr, who could recognize an efficient fighter no 
matter which side he happened to be on. 

As to just what happened to Livermore & Chester's dams the testimony 
differs, but a notice published in a paper of a little later date offers a sub- 
stantial reward for the arrest and conviction of the person or persons that 
dynamited them. 

Colony Plan Is Nipped in the Tender Bud 

Of course, with Haggin's millions and Carr's far-famed genius and gen- 
eralship arrayed against them, Livermore and Redington did not fight as 
stubbornly as they might under more equal terms. No suit of importance 
seems to have been decided against them, and their contention respecting the 
paramount rights of the Kern Island canal was never overwhelmed. In 1878 
they demonstrated their faith in their position by putting a magnificent body 
of land under the Kern Island canal on the market and printing a book and 
maps descriptive of the advantages of Kern county that would do high 
honor to any colonization agency of present days. At the rate of $1000 for a 
forty-acre farm and the best water right in the county, $200 down and $200 
each year for four years, the seventeen sections which the Kern Valley Colony 
offered should have sold readily and Bakersfield's early colonization hopes 
should have been redeemed. But the sale to Haggin checked the colony 
plans before they got under way, and a long halt was called in the matter 
of inducing settlement, for Carr had drawn his plans on a much greater scale 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 85 

than any of the earlier land holders, and he was by no means ready to begin 
subdivision in the year 1879. 

Purposes of Haggin & Carr 

It would be a matter of much interest were it possible to ascertain with 
absolute certainty what were the ultimate plans that Carr had in mind for 
the vast estate which he helped to upbuild. Some of his old friends state with 
assurance that he intended (when he had gotten together all the land avail- 
able in the county and had secured full control of the water) to launch a 
great colonization scheme and build a little empire of small land owners. Carr 
is quoted as having called attention to the fact that he was a younger man 
than either J. B. Haggin or Lloyd Tevis, the other and larger partners in 
the enterprise, and remarking that in the end he expected his plans to prevail. 
But the oldest of the three men survives alone, and years before his death 
Carr's policy was over-ridden and his interest in the Kern county lands 
purchased. 

In a statement published in May, 1880, J. B. Haggin over his signature 
declared that his purpose was not to monopolize the lands he was acquiring 
in Kern county but that he intended to offer them for sale on liberal terms. 
In the early days, however, Haggin's trips to Kern county were very few 
and very brief. He came in his private car, was driven direct to Belle View, 
where he looked at the blooded racers that were bred for him there, returned 
to his car and was sped away. Lloyd Tevis was a banker of San Francisco, 
and while his financial interest in the Kern county venture dates from the 
beginning of operations here, his name was not connected with the firm, which 
for years was known locally as Haggin & Carr or Carr & Haggin, and which 
appeared in the chief legal documents as J. B. Haggin. 

Carr's money contribution to the Kern county venture is variously esti- 
mated as high as $500,000 to $800,000. Others declare it was very much less. 
The Gates tract of approximately 52,000 acres, being the odd sections in 
townships 30-26, 30-27, 31-26, and 31-27, and comprising the heart of the 
Kern river delta, was the foundation of the Carr & Haggin holdings. This 
was a tract of railroad land which fell into the hands of Isaac Gates of New 
York shortly after the grant of the odd sections along the line of the pro- 
posed Atlantic & Pacific railway had been made by Congress. Carr's position 
as political manipulator for the Southern Pacific enabled him, without doubt, 
to secure other railroad lands on agreeable terms, and he took steps at once to 
share in the wealth of swamp land which was being so rapidly and cheaply 
acquired when hearrived in Kern county. All through the records of swamp 
land districts from 1875 to 1893 the names of Haggin, Carr and Hearst figure 
prominently. 

Carr's Dealings With the Ditch Companies 

Meantime, Carr, on his first arrival here, began taking steps to gain a 
controlling interest in the canal companies that had locations on Kern river. 
Few if any of these companies were incorporated and Carr early set himself 
to induce the owners to organize under the laws of the state. Different 
methods were pursued in different cases, but one by one the companies filed 
incorporation papers, and just as surely Haggin and Carr eventually got a 
controlling interest in the stock. To tell how this was done would require 
a separate chapter for every canal company, and in most cases they would be 
interesting chapters. In every case, however, Carr presented the advantages 
of co-operation, showed how much faster and more effectually the work of 



86 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

building canals and ditches could be prosecuted with the financial aid of his 
powerful firm, offered wages to the stockholders, management and authority 
to the directors and water to the patrons of the ditch, who usually were the 
stockholders themselves. 

Testimony respecting the treatment of the minority stockholders after 
Carr & Haggin had acquired control of the canal companies differs according 
to the alliance and experience of the witness. Pioneers of unimpeachable 
character and unquestioned sincerity who were directors and officers of canal 
companies when Carr began his overtures and for a long time thereafter 
declare that the alliance was always to the benefit of the farmers. "We did not 
have money to build weirs and headgates, but Haggin did," says one of these 
pioneers. "Carr paid us wages for working on canals, his engineers ran out 
the lines so that we got the water in the right place, and it was my experience 
that when it came to dividing the water we always got our share. Carr said 
he did not care to manage the canals — that he would rather we did it. Carr 
used to come to the directors' meetings, but he let us run things as we 
pleased." 

"Did you ever notice a big cow standing over a water trough when 
there was only a little stream running in from the pump? Did you ever notice 
how she gets all the water and the little cows have to stand back? And did 
you ever notice that when she gets all she wants to drink the big cow is 
in no hurry to move away and let the little cows have a chance? Well, that 
gives you an idea of the way Haggin and Carr and the little farmers handled 
the water in the early days." This is the statement in brief, of another pio- 
neer of equal standing and reputation and with equal opportunity for informa- 
tion and observation. Between the two opinions the reader may make his 
guess, or he may let the puzzle go with the knowledge that Carr's control of 
the canals and the water in them finally became an accomplished fact. 

But another factor entered into the method of Carr's acquisition of water 
rights and into all his dealings with the settlers. He clearly foresaw, as testi- 
mony abundantly verifies, the fierce contest that was coming over the use 
of the waters of Kern river, and he made it a matter of distinct and settled 
policy to ally his interests with the interests of the people wherever it was 
possible to do so. The wisdom of his course showed in the great suit of 
Lux against Haggin, and in the celebrated Miller-Haggin agreement Carr's 
policy was carried to its logical, ultimate application by making all present 
and future land owners within the reach of the river parties to the terms 
under which its waters should be disposed. 

Plans to Gather In the Desert Lands 

While they were gathering up the large and luscious remnants of swamp 
land which the earlier comers had overlooked and were buying railroad lands, 
homesteads and school lands and were getting a firm grasp on water rights, 
Haggin & Carr were by no means overlooking the desert lands. In March, 
1877, just as Carr was getting well established in Kern county, Congress most 
opportunely passed the desert land act that is known by that date. Already, 
on May 4, 1875, water to the amount of 850 cubic feet per second had been 
appropriated under Carr's direction for the express purpose of irrigating 
desert land, and work on the great Calloway canal which was to carry the 
water to this desert land had been commenced. The first work on the canal 
was begun by Carr & Haggin's men and teams, but a little later a contract for 
excavation was given to Vining Barker. In 1877, the year the desert land act 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 87 

was passed, a contract to complete the canal a distance of about twenty-five 
miles was taken by Broad & Roberts. 

The Calloway canal takes water from the north side of Kern river almost 
opposite the center of Bakersfield. bears west through the northeastern part 
of Rosedale and then swings to the northwest over a great territory that 
needed only water to transform it into the finest of fruit and farming land. 
Broad & Roberts took the contract to complete the canal at seven cents per 
cubic yard for dirt and nine cents per cubic yard for hardpan Mr. Roberts 
says they found nothing tliat they could not plow with eight mules in all 
the length of the ditch. It took about a year to finish the job, and meantime 
Carr & Haggin were busy securing entrymen to take up the land. 

In his statement published in 1880 Haggin describes his operations in 
Kern county with special reference to the desert lands, which at that time 
were the object of much discussion. He runs briefly over the subject of his 
first activities in the county, stating that the Belle View and McClung ranches 
were established under the direction of George F. Thornton. On account of 
the malaria bred by Buena Vista and Kern lakes Haggin bought them, and a 
large amount of swamp land around them with a view to reclaiming them. 
He proceeded to divert the water of the river from the lakes to land formerly 
considered worthless for agriculture. He then built Goose lake slough, canal 
to carry off the excess water, but this was not sufificient to handle it all. In 
March, 1877, the statement continues. Congress passed the desert land act. 
Haggin bought large numbers of odd-numbered sections north of the river, and 
induced his friends to enter the even-numbered sections adjoining. He bought 
more water rights and built canals to irrigate a much larger area of land and to 
utilize all the surplus waters of the river. Haggin states that he desired the 
co-operation of the owners of even-numbered sections and desired to have 
them pay their share of the expense of constructing the irrigation system. 
In order to avoid conflict with strangers he got nearly all the even-numbered 
sections entered by friendly parties. Since the lands were entered, the state- 
ment continues, "invidious and designing persons have grossly misrepre- 
sented the facts touching the character of these lands," and efforts had 
been made to induce unusual rulings by the department of the interior to have 
the entries cancelled. Haggin had a government commission previously ap- 
pointed visit the lands in question and make a report to the authorities. In 
conclusion he made the statement of policy already referred to, to the effect 
that he did not desire to monopolize lands, but intended to offer them for sale 
on liberal terms. 

In some cases, it appears, agreements were made with parties to enter the 
desert lands giving the entrymen the alternative of paying a certain amount 
for having the water placed on the lands, or selling their equities to Haggin 
& Carr at a stipulated price. In other cases the entrymen's names seem 
to haye been loaned gratis or for a small fee without the expectation that 
they would figure in the ownership of the land after it was reclaimed. In 
either event there were not lacking arguments to show that the bargain was 
fair and advantageous to all concerned. The lands could be irrigated by no 
other means known and practicable at the time than by canal from Kern 
river, and such a canal could be built only by the expenditure of large sums 
of money. The state or federal government might have taken up the task 
but aside from these methods there was no alternative that would not 



88 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

necessitate the bonding of individual entries to meet their share of the .ex- 
pense. 

But the invidious and designing persons got the ear of the general land 
office authorities, and orders were issued suspending all action with regard 
to the entries. In February, 1891, the order of suspension was revoked, 
after something like 50,000 acres of land had been withheld from settlement 
and development for a little over thirteen years. Meantime the original 
entrymen, homesteaders and pre-emptors generally had become discouraged 
and abandoned their claims; some of the friends of Haggin who had allowed 
him to use their names were dead, others had moved away, and generally 
the plans for gathering in the desert lands were badly disarranged. 

Enter Miller & Lux at Rear of Stage 

During all of the busy and important scenes just described. Miller & 
Lux lingered at the back of the stage. Their lands lay mostly to the north 
of Buena Vista Lake, twenty miles or more west of Bakersfield, and about 
the same distance from the center of the contests between Carr and Liver- 
more over the water rights. It must be borne in mind, however, that Miller's 
interest in the disposal of the waters of Kern river was quite as great as was 
that of Haggin, and it must be remembered, also, that his position on the 
river bore the same relation to that of Haggin as the position of Haggin 
bore to that of Livermore & Chester. When Livermore & Chester put a dam 
across the river to force the water into the Kern Island canal it left dry the 
canals in which Carr & Haggin had acquired the controlling interest. Later, 
when Carr & Haggin built the Calloway weir to force the water into the 
Calloway canal the result was to dry up Miller's newly-planted alfalfa fields, 
and the tule swamps where his herds' gathered rough forage. The sloughs 
and natural water courses through which the remnants of Kern river had 
meandered leisurely through the broad, flat trough of the valley to Tulare 
lake changed from clear, though limpid and leisurely streams, to green and 
slimy sinks of stagnant water. Then they became nothing but streaks of 
mud in which the feet of the weakened cattle were held fast until the vaqueros 
came to drag the poor beasts out by riatas about their horns. A little later 
all the sloughs and swamps were parched as dry as the naked, gray expanses 
of alkali desert that bordered them, and where the waters had been, great 
cracks opened in the earth down which a walking stick could be thrust its 
entire length. Only in deep holes, puddled by the feet of many starving cattle 
and fouled by the carcasses of dead brutes, was any water left in all the fifty 
miles of swamp land between Buena Vista and Tulare lakes. 

Of course such a state of affairs could lead but to vigorous defensive 
action on the part of Miller & Lux, and so the suit of Lux versus Haggin was 
filed, and after the usual delay was brought to trial on April 15, 1881, before 
B. Brundage, judge of the superior court of Kern county. 

However, before I take up the story of this great contest of rival cor- 
porations, let me tell how lesser factors in the development of the county 
were faring, relate the stories of some disconnected incidents of importance, 
and show by transient items of interest something of the daily doings of the 
citizens of those days. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 89 

CHAPTER X 

A Collection of Disconnected Stories 

So long as the traditions of the pioneer stockmen of California remain 
the drought of 1877 will be remembered as a period of ruin and disaster 
Possibly the year was not so dry as 1864, but there were more stock in the 
state to suffer from hunger and starvation and more stockmen to wear out 
the days and nights with anxiety and frantic efforts to save the remnants of 
their flocks and herds. In Kern county the stock industry was better estab- 
lished than any other line of productive enterprise, and the heavy blows 
dealt the cattle and sheep men in the long, pitiless months when not a drop of 
moisture fell from the skies and not a green blade nor a dry and withered 
stem of grass was left to cover the absolute nakedness of the desert, left scars 
that were not effaced until many prosperous years were passed. 

In 1877 Harry Quinn, starved out of his magnificent range on Rag gulch 
drove 18,000 sheep to Nevada and brought back 2700; 15,000 of the flock per- 
ished in a great storm east of the Sierras that piled the snow waist deep on the 
level plain. Other sheep men of the county who had less resource and stayed 
at home, saw their flocks literally wiped out. The cattle men fared little 
better. While the river continued to flow down the swamps and there were 
tules to be eaten, the cattle survived, but finally there was no water save 
what was taken out in the irrigation ditches, the tule lands were dry, and the 
few remaining pools of water grew stagnant, black and poisonous. 

A very few men, like the Jewetts, who had irrigated fields and could 
grow forage despite the failure of the rains, were able to buy cattle and sheep 
at almost nothing a head, and so profited as much as they lost by the long 
continued drought. But the irrigated fields were few in those days. 

The next season the feed was good, and the next was dry again. It was 
then that Hill & Rivers sold out their interest in the stock at Tejon to General 
Beale, and Jose Lopez, to reduce the Tejon flocks, drove 16,000 sheep to Green 
River in Wyoming, whence they were shipped to Cheyenne. Lopez and his 
herders were six months on the trail, and established a record, not only for 
distance traveled, but for small percentage of loss and general success on the 
exceedingly difficult expedition. In 1880 General Beale bought out Boggs, 
the remaining partner in the firm of Hills, Rivers & Co. The sheep were 
gradually closed out on the Tejon ranches, and the herds of cattle were in- 
creased to a maximum of 29,000 head. 

The Town of Tehachapi 

The town of Tehachapi was founded in the summer of 1876, when the 
Southern Pacific railroad finally surmounted the difficulties of the grade up 
the mountains and reached the little valley at the summit. Prior to that time 
Old Tehachapi (or Old Town, as it soon came to be known) was a thriving 
and active little place of 200 or 300 inhabitants. Old Town drew its sus- 
tenance from the miners who washed gold from the sands and gravels of 
China hill and from the stockmen who had established themselves in the 
fertile Tehachapi, Brite's, Cummings and Bear valleys and were pasturing 
their herds on the meadows and mountain sides. J. J. Murphy and Hirsh- 
feld Brothers were the pioneer merchants of Old Town, Spencer & Durnal 
kept a hotel, and four or five saloons dispensed liquid refreshments. 



90 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Among the early stockmen were the Brite and Cummings families (after 
each of which one of the valleys was named), the Cuddebacks, Alatt Tyler, 
John Hickey, the Fickerts of Bear valley, Dan Davenport, Joe Kaiser, Henry 
Seegur, George Rand, and Antone Pauly, one of the few permanent settlers 
around the Tehachapi who raised sheep. There were traveling sheepmen 
in the Tehachapi country in the early day, and at Pauly's corral in fall 
and spring many sheep were shorn. The other shepherds, however, did not 
own land or maintain established headquarters there. 

The placer mining around Tehachapi dates back to the early '60s. As 
elsewhere the white miners were followed by Chinamen, who worked over 
the abandoned placer sands with considerable profit. 

The railroad missed Old Town by about three miles to the east, and 
a rival village was started about the station. Of course the new town got 
the business, but it was not until 1883 or thereabout that Old Town began 
to move over, bodily, to the railroad. 

Lime burning began around Tehachapi a little before 1880, but not until 
the Union Lime Company of Santa Cruz established a branch at Tehachapi 
and built an up-to-date kiln in 1883 or 1884, was the lime industry any great 
success. From that time on, however, the great lime deposits in the Tehachapi 
mountains continued to grow in importance until they now constitute one 
of the large factors in the county's wealth. 

Farming started actively in the Tehachapi country about 1885, and rich 
new ground and a succession of favorable years brought the mountain val- 
leys rapidly to the front agriculturally. Moses Hale, about 1880, grew the 
first apple orchard around Tehachapi, and is entitled to the name of the 
father of the apple-growing industry, which now promises to give a new 
value to the Tehachapi lands. 

Ben Kessing was the first postmaster of new Tehachapi, and was fol- 
lowed in that office by P. D. Green, manager of Baldy Hamilton's horse and 
cattle ranch, justice of the peace and friend and benefactor of everyone in 
the town who needed his help to draw up a deed, nurse the sick or lay out 
the dead. Among the first school teachers of Tehachapi were L. A. Beards- 
ley, W. W. Frazier, Dr. Hoag, and R. L. Stockton. 

Delano Making Progress 

Meantime the town of Delano had ceased to be a railroad terminus, but 
it was one of the most important wool-shipping points in the state, and it 
was gradually coming to be a noted wheat-shipping center. The warm, 
sunny plains about Delano where feed starts earlier than almost anywhere 
else in the state, early attracted the itinerant sheep owners, and flocks were 
driven there from the mountains and desert and from over the range in 
Nevada for the lambing and shearing time. Grain farmers soon found that 
the same conditions that made the early grass were good for early wheat, 
and homesteaders dotted the mesa with their dwellings and began marking 
out the great fields that were distinctive of the wheat farming districts of 
the valley before the advent of the orchardists and the alfalfa growers. 

By this time the South Fork valley, the Kernville country, Linn's valley. 
Woody, and all the other mountain districts were developing under the hands 
of stockmen and farmers into permanent and prosperous communities, able 
to weather droughts and other periods of adversity with less relative loss, 
perhaps, than any other portion of the county. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 91 

The Last of Old Clubfoot 

In 1879 Old Clubfoot made his last trip north past Tejon and back to 
his principal haunts in the San Bernardino mountains. Since the days of 
the earliest settlements, Old Clubfoot was the hero of the principal bear 
stories of the pioneers. Big as an ox, and easily identified by sight or by 
his tracks from the fact that his right fore paw had been chewed off — prob- 
ably by a trap in his infancy — the great beast used to make his pilgrimage 
into the mountains of Kern county every summer, always coming by one 
trail and returning by another. A party of twelve men met Old Clubfoot one 
day on the Alamos trail as they were going to Los Angeles from the Kern 
River mines. The bear did not offer to fight, noi did he exhibit the slightest 
disposition to retreat. He simply stood there, calm and statuesque, his big 
body filling the road from cliff to precipice — or at least leaving no clear 
space on either side down which the miners cared to venture. Clubfoot got 
the right of way. What became of him at last neither history nor tradition 
records. After 1879 the Tejon herders saw him no more, and no more is 
known of him. 

The Lynching of an Outlaw Gang 

It was while the long and ineffectual battle to save the life of the out- 
law, Tiburcio Vasquez, was dragging in the courts and before the governor 
that a number of vaqueros and amateur horsethieves started out to emulate 
Tiburcio's notorious career. They stole a number of horses and saddles from 
livery stables in Bakersfield, went to Caliente, robbed the depot, shot up 
the town and were preparing a dastardly assault on a woman when the con- 
struction train with a gang of workmen came along and frightened them 
away. 

Determined to nip this new outburst of lawlessness in the tender bud, 
cattlemen, ranchers and residents of Bakersfield took instantly to arms. Jim 
Young, a cattleman, saw the gang on its way to the Utah trail and gathered 
a small posse composed of himself, Sam Young, Bull Williams and perhaps 
one or two others. "Bull" Williams got his name from the fact (veraciously 
reported by his friends) that when he started in the cattle business as a 
tenderfoot the old timers sold him a hundred head of bull calves as a nucleus 
for his herd. A very few years later Williams sold twelve hundred cattle 
as the increase of his band, which indicates that he did not remain a tender- 
foot all the rest of his life. 

The Youngs and Bull Williams found the outlaws in a house near the 
Alamos ranch beyond Gorman station, and got between them and their guns. 
Five Mexicans and a young man named Elias were brought to the jail in 
Bakersfield, and then a meeting of the men who had been hunting them was 
held at the office of Justice of the Peace W. S. Adams. Adams was requested 
to retire, and an agreement was drafted and signed in which the men present 
pledged their support and loyalty to each other. 

Then they went to the jail, where the jailor was easily overpowered, 
took the outlaws to the courtroom and organized' a court by appointing a 
judge, jury and prosecuting attorney and attorney for the defense. Mean- 
time, that there might be no delay in the workings of the wheels of justice, 
another man was appointed to put ropes to soak and lay a heavy timber 
between the crotches of two willow trees at the rear of the court house 
yard. He also placed a plank across two barrels underneath the heavy timber. 

In the morning, very early, a great crowd gathered in the court house 



92 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

yard to see six bodies hanging stiffly by their necks. They were cut down 
and laid out side by side on the floor of the hall in the courthouse, and a 
coroner's jury promptly summoned promptly found that the deceased per- 
sons came to their death from being hanged by a person or persons to this 
jury unknown. At least the jury swore truly so far as its official cognizance 
was concerned, for no testimony touching the identity of the executioners 
was introduced at the inquest. 

Not a few people condemned the hanging of the boy Elias, and a large 
number of Mexican citizens considered the afifair an affront to their race. 
There was some talk of asking the Mexican consul to interfere, and a small 
fire starting in the alley back of the Arlington hotel gave rise to a report 
that an attempt had, been made to burn the town in resentment of the lynch- 
ing. Guards were sworn in and stationed about the streets for a night or 
two, but the excitement died out as the Mexicans were convinced that no 
discrimination between races had been intended or had been made. 

This was the last organized gang of thieves and outlaws to ply their 
profession in Kern county. 

The Tehachapi Train Wreck • 

On January 20, 1883, occurred the train wreck on the Tehachapi grade, 
still remembered with horror. The Southern Pacific passenger train reached 
Tehachapi at 2 :30 a. m. with seven cars, a postal car, baggage car, express 
car, two sleepers, smoking car and day coach in the order named. The con- 
ductor, B. F. Reid, got oft" to register and get the train orders, the head brake- 
man, C. Maltby, went to turn the switch when the engines were discon- 
nected and the helper engine was being detached, and the rear brakeman, 
John Patten, left his post to show a lady passenger the way to the depot. 
The night was very dark, and a strong and bitterly cold wind was blowing 
over the mountain from the south. The last man of the train crew had hardly 
left the cars before they began moving backward. The grade at the station 
was twenty feet to the mile, and rapidly grew steeper, and besides there was 
the wind to help give the runaway train velocity. The train was making 
furious headway before anyone inside noticed that anything was wrong. Then 
Eli Nabro, a passenger, set the hand brakes on the sleepers. This checked 
the forward part of the train so that the smoker and day coach broke loose 
and dashed on ahead. The hand brakes however, were insufficient to hold 
the cars on the steep grade, and new velocity was gained. Two miles and 
a half below the station, the sleepers left the track just after they had passed 
over a deep fill. The first was thrown against the wall of a cut and crushed 
to splinters, the second tin-ned completely over in the air and landed on the 
bank. Both caught fire, and the first was completely consumed with every- 
one in it. From the other sleeper and from the postal, express and baggage 
cars, all of which rolled Over the fill to the bottom of the gulch, eighteen or 
twenty persons escaped, all more or less seriously hurt. A Miss Squires, 
caught in the wreck unhurt, was burned to death before the eyes of other 
passengers who were powerless to help her. The smoker and day coach 
raced on a mile and a half farther, where the efforts of the passengers served 
to stop them. Just how many people were killed in the wreck was never 
accurately established. The testimony at the inquest tended to show that 
the brakes never were set at the station, though railroad officials maintained 
that the brakes were set, but that tramps released them with the intention 
of robbing the passengers. The body of one tramp was found in the wreck. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 93 

Importation of the Negroes 

Haggiii & Carr inherited from Livermore & Chester and the Cotton 
Growers' Association the idea that cotton growing should be one of the most 
profitable purposes to which the delta lands could be put, and as a means 
of securing suitable labor in the cotton fields Carr undertook the importation 
of negroes from the southern states. The St. Louis Chronicle of November 
13, 1884, records that F. M. Ownbey was there on that date arranging to 
bring to Kern county 1100 negroes to work on the Haggin lands, and states 
that the immigrants were offered wages at the rate of $12 per month for 
men, $8 for women, and $6 for boys and girls. 

Ownbey never brought so many negroes to the county as he planned, 
but three or four parties came at different times under contract to work for 
a year at the wages stated. In the last party were 130 families. Among 
them were M. Stevens and his wife, Will, Belton and Gideon Vessel; John, 
Henry and Joe Pinkney; A. W. Vessel, Mrs. Susie Hall, Francis Campbell, 
Henry Caldwell, Anderson Bowen, Mary Bowen, Pleasant Martin and Will 
Walker and his family, all members of the colored colony of Bakersfield today. 

But from Carr's standpoint the bringing of the negroes was not a suc- 
cess. No sooner had they landed than the missionaries of discontent were 
among them, pursuading them to disregard their contracts and showing them 
how much better wages they could secure elsewhere. The result was that 
the greater number of them never did enough work for Carr to pay their 
transportation. Some never did a stroke of work for him. Stevens and per- 
haps a dozen others stayed on the ranches about eleven months, and Tom 
Perryman, who was given a patch of ground to work for himself, stayed three 
years. The others found work in Bakersfield or scattered over the state. 
The importation of the negroes helped to increase the breech that was widen- 
ing between Carr and a considerable portion of the people around Bakers- 
tield, particularly working men and homesteaders who depended on their 
wages to finance them and who considered Carr's action an eifort to cheapen 
the price of labor. 

The non-success of the cheap labor scheme, on the other hand, put an 
end to the plan for raising cotton and hops, and helped, in all probability, 
to confirm the decision of Haggin and Tevis to dispose of their lands. 

News Notes of 1886 to 1893 

August, 1886 — Billy Carr is undertaking to manage both the Democratic 
and Republican parties in Kern county. At the last general election 394 votes 
were cast — 198 Republican and 196 Democratic. W. W. Drury ships his 
first crop of ramie — about 500 pounds — to Pittsburg, and the proceeds net 
him about 5 cents per pound. 

September 11, 1886 — The adjournment of the legislature without having 
passed the irrigation bills is heralded as a defeat for Haggin & Carr and a 
victory for Miller & Lux and their attorney-in-chief, R. E. Houghton. 

October, 1886 — Clashes are frequent between Carr and settlers on desert 
lands under the Calloway canal. Carr is accused of trying to prevent settlers 
from remaining on their claims by fencing the roads and otherwise, and set- 
tlers make trouble by cutting Carr's fences. Miss Conway, a school teacher 
who has filed on a desert homestead, chops down a locked gate while Carr's 
men look on. It is alleged that dead hogs were thrown in Miss -Conway's 
well. 

December 9, 1886 — Haggin & Carr are making 400 to 1000 25-pound 



94 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

cheeses per month on the ^Mountain \^iew and Kern Island ranches. From 
January 1st to September 26th 201,886 pounds of cheese were shipped to Los 
Angeles and San Francisco. 

December 30, 1886 — The people of Sumner are discussing the subject 
of a water supply for fire purposes. The Kern County Immigration Society 
is organized with H. Hirshfeld, president; A. C. Maude, secretary, and P. 
Galtes, W. H. Scribner, E. M. Roberts, W. E. Houghton and B. Ardizzi, 
directors. It is planned to keep a permanent exhibit in Los Angeles. 

February 3, 1887 — The Bakersfield water works has two eight-inch wells, 
seventy-five feet deep, and pumps about 133,000 gallons of water per day. 

February 5, 1887 — A big sandstorm from the east almost stops business 
in Bakersfield. Complaints are made concerning the large bills presented 
by the constables and justices. 

March, 1887 — The Wright irrigation bill becomes a law. 

June 2, 1887 — A news letter from Delano to the Echo describes that 
town as having four stores, two hotels, one lodging house, one restaurant, 
two livery stables, two meat markets, two blacksmith shops, one barber shop, 
three real estate offices, and a right smart sprinkling of saloons and dance 
houses — no church, no doctor, no drug store, no lawyer. The spring's ship- 
ments of wool amounted to 4600 bales. 

June, 1887 — Mr. Collins, agent of the general land ofifice, concludes an 
investigation of the Haggin & Carr desert land claims. 

June 23, 1887 — The Tehachapi Lime Company has recently begun opera- 
tions. 

June 30, 1887 — R. M. Pogson buys the old town hall and moves it to 
Tejon. The agitation begins for a $100,000 bond issue for building roads 
throughout the county and for the purchase of fair grounds. 

July, 1887- — In the election of a chief of the Bakersfield fire department, 
the Alerts and the Neptunes combine on L. F. Burr and defeat W-. H. Ream, 
the candidate of the Eurekas, by a few votes. Other officers elected are : 
E. R. Jameson, assistant chief; J. W. Ahern, secretary; H. A. Blodget, treas- 
urer. 

Charles A. Maul's peach orchard is celebrated in the local press. 

September, 1887 — The Crocker ranch south of town, largely in alfalfa 
and with a good house on it sells for $32,000 — $100 per acre. 

September, 1887 — The Southern Hotel Association incorporates. 

September, 1887 — L. P. St. Clair buys for $2400 a block of land southwest 
of the courthouse, afterward the site of the first St. Francis hospital at G 
and Fourteenth streets. 

September, 1887 — Articles of incorporation are filed in San Francisco by 
the San Francisco & San Joaquin Valley Railroad Company. A camp of 
workmen in Tejon canon is doing work preliminary to grading — supposed 
to be for the Santa Fe. The Tejon lemon and orange trees are in bearing. 

September 29, 1887 — General Beale has given a right of way across his 
Tejon lands for a railroad from Mojave to Bakersfield. The road is to be 
completed to Bakersfield within three years. 

November 1, 1887 — Cornerstone of Masonic temple is laid. 

December 26, 1887 — Superintendent J. S. Hambleton, drilling on land 
owned by -the L^nion Oil & Land Company, reports a strike at 720 feet on 
section 19, 30-22. The drill went through oil standstone into a bed of gravel, 
and gas forced oil, sand, and gravel the size of walnuts thirty or forty feet 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 95 

in the air. Tlie well flowed for some little time, and the gas was so suffo- 
cating that the workmen were driven back from the well. The Sunset Oil 
Company is daily expecting machinery from the east, when it will begin 
drilling. Hirshfeld Brothers and R. T. Norris will soon begin prospecting 
for oil eight or nine miles from Bakersfield in the direction of Kern river 
cafion at a point where gas is detected coming from the ground. 

December 25, 1887 — Fire Chief Burr brings to town the new Silsby fire 
engine, and the day being Sunday and Christmas, a great crowd gathers on 
the street to inspect the new acquisition. Alex Heyman is foreman of the 
Eureka engine company. 

January 10, 1888 — An immigrant car at the rear of a Southern Pacific 
passenger train, while coming down the grade from Tehachapi, breaks a 
wheel, is wrenched loose from the train, leaves the track, rolls over and over 
down a seventy-five-foot embankment, and is burned up by a fire which 
starts from the heating stove. All the passengers escape by crawling through 
the car windows, Charles Ankrum and his wife (colored) being the worst 
injured. Ankrum's shoulder was dislocated, and the fire burned a hole in 
the back of his coat just as he was getting through the window. 

January 26, 1888 — Clerks begin agitation for Sunday closing of stores in 
Bakersfield. Rabbit drives are frequent in the county. About 40,000 jack 
rabbits were killed in drives during January, February and March, 1888. 

February 16, 1888 — The Kern River Caiion Irrigation Company, which 
owns 25,OCO acres of land east and north of Sumner, and which plans to take 
water out of the river near the canon to irrigate lands east of Sumner and 
as far south as the Weed Patch, has bonded its lands and franchise to San 
Francisco people for thirty days. (Plans never materialized.) 

March, 1888 — Bakersfield Drum Corps organized at R. A. Edmonds' store. 

May 10, 1888 — The Porterville branch of the Southern Pacific is graded 
from Fresno to Porterville. 

June 14, 1888 — Work has been started on the Southern hotel. 

July 12, 1888 — The Woman's Relief Corps is organized. 

July 19, 1888 — W^ork begins on the new railroad shops at Sumner. 

July 26, 1888 — The details of the Miller-Haggin agreement are pub- 
lished. The only opposition appears to come from the owners of the McCord 
ditch. The immediate efifect of the agreement is to advance the price of land 
around Bakersfield. Large land owners subscribe to a fund totaling between 
$3000 and $4000 for the purpose of advertising Kern county. Carr contri- 
buted $1500. 

September, 1888 — County supervisors give L. P. St. Clair a franchise 
for a gas and electric light system for Bakersfield. Work on the plant is to 
be commenced in six months and be completed within a year. Briggs, Fergu- 
son & Co. announce a great auction sale of Haggin lands beginning Monday, 
December 17, 1888. In two hours ninety-two towns lots were sold. On Tues- 
day thirty purchasers bought nineteen colony lots of five acres each and 145 
town lots. The grand jury recommends that the saloon licenses be raised 
from $25 to $75 per quarter. 

January 24, 1889 — J. S. Hambleton, superintendent of the Sunset Oil 
Company (Jewett & Blodget), has brought in on section 16, 11-23, at a 
depth of 110 feet, an oil well that flows five barrels per day. The county 
officials are suing the county for fees which they claim they needlessly paid 
into the county treasury. 



96 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

March 14, 1889— H. A. Blodget, H. H. Fish and Jeff Packard get a 
franchise for a street railway down Chester avenue, past the site of the "new 
Southern Pacific depot" (which was never built) and out to the river bridge. 

Same date — Another Haggin land sale is announced. The sales will be : 
First day, at the Cotton ranch ; second day, in Bakersfield ; third day, at the 
hop ranch. Barbecues first and third days. Baldwin and McAfee conduct 
the sale. Town lots sell at $142 to $640. Colony lots at $57 to $135 per acre. 

April 4, 1889 — Hirshfeld brothers, who have been in the mercantile busi- 
ness in the county continuously for twenty-live years, sell to Dinkelspiel 
brothers. 

May 13, 1889 — The county, by a vote of 852 to 281, elects to issue bonds 
in the sum of $250,000 to build a new jail, a county hospital, an addition to 
the court house and to improve highways. 

Same date — Second sale of Haggin's irrigated lands begins under the 
direction of L. C. McAfee, who is now the manager, with C. Brower, of the 
land department of J. B. Haggin. McAfee announces that it is Haggin's 
policy to dispose of all his Kern county lands. McAfee and Brower have 
their first office where the Odd Fellows hall is now. 

Same date — Plans of the Poso irrigation district are submitted. 

July 7, 1889 — The entire business section of Bakersfield is destroyed by 
fire. Soon after the great fire property owners in the business section began 
laying asphalt sidewalks. 

August 31, 1890 — Carr & Haggin are working 300 head of horses ex- 
tending canals to the lands which they will colonize next winter. J. J. Mack 
is here from San Francisco to organize the Bank of Bakersfield. 

September, 1890 — The Kern County Land Company is incorporated in 
San Francisco. Report says that S. W. Ferguson is to be the resident mana- 
ger. Lloyd Tevis is anxious to dispose of the Kern county lands, as he pre- 
fers other investments. 

October 1, 1890 — James Herrington is tarred and feathered by citizens 
who disapprove of his activity in jumping lands and filing contests against 
homesteaders. 

October 27, 1890 — Work begins on the Poso irrigation district canal. 
Engineers are here surveying for the valley railroad. 

A bi-partisan committee is named by Republicans and Democrats to pre- 
vent "ward heelers and toughs" from dominating the coming election. 

November 1, 1890 — Milo McKee has both arms blown off while firing 
a salute with the old brass cannon in honor of Senator Stanford, who had 
just arrived in Bakersfield on a speaking tour. On the same day at Tulare, 
W. Baker had one arm blo\yn off in almost the same manner, also while 
firing a salute to Senator Stanford, and the engine that hauled Senator Stan- 
ford's special train to Bakersfield, while returning light to Tulare ran over 
and killed Wallace and Ed Ray, two Delano boys who were riding a railroad 
bicycle to Alila to attend a dance. The headlight of the engine was broken 
and it was running dark. 

January 1, 1891 — Ten tons of asphalt in boxes are shipped east. 

January, 1891 — Judge Arick dies, and Governor Waterman appoints 
A. R. Conklin of Inyo county to succeed him on the superior bench. 

Stores in Bakersfield agree to close on Sunday after March 1, 1891. 

February, 1891 — The ruling of the interior department of September 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 97 

12, 1877, suspending desert land entries Nos. 1 to ZZ7 , inclusive, is revoked, 
and old applications to contest are recognized. 

An amendment to the desert land act of 1877, just passed, validates as- 
signments of desert entries, and permits Haggin to complete and present 
proof of reclamation of his hundreds of desert claims under the Calloway. 

February, 1891 — The bonds of the Kern and Tulare irrigation district 
are sold. 

April 2, 1891 — John Barker has developed a gas well on his ranch be- 
tween Bakersfield and the Kern canon and has piped it to his house for 
cooking and lighting. 

April 30, 1891 — President Harrison speaks from rear of train. 

April, 1891 — Colonization Agent Knewing of the Kern County Land 
Company arrives from England with thirty young English colonists. 

July 17, 1891 — At a meeting in Sumner, George C. Doherty and John 
Barker explain their plan for the Doherty canal, which would take over water 
rights to 30,000 miner's inches of water located by John Barker in 1878, 
build a canal down the river to a point opposite Sumner, run a tunnel under 
the hill to the mesa north and east of Sumner. The company was to be 
incorporated for $1,000,000, the promoters proposed to sell perpetual water 
rights for $11.25 per acre, and planned to irrigate 80,000 acres. (This plan 
was never carried out, of course, but it was believed at the time to have been 
partly responsible for the building of the East Side canal, which covers part 
of the territory which the Doherty canal was to water.) 

The state legislature has placed a bounty on coyote scalps. 

August 25, 1892 — E. M. Roberts is given a contract to construct the 
East Side canal, which is to take a portion of the water allowed to the Kern 
Island canal under the Miller-Haggin agreement, and which is planned to 
irrigate 30,000 acres of land. 

August, 1892 — Construction trains are working on both ends of the Mc- 
Kittrick branch railroad. 

November, 1892 — A hot campaign and an election contest results in 
the election of H. A. Jastro as supervisor from the Fifth district, defeating 
H. F. Condict by three votes. 

February 10, 1893 — Kern river breaks its levee and floods the northern 
and western part of town. The water was a foot deep at I and Nineteenth 
street on Thursday, but by Friday noon it had disappeared everywhere in 
town except in very low places. 

February 23, 1893 — Celsus Brower is chosen to go to the world's fair 
at Chicago in charge of the Kern county exhibit. 

March 6, 1893 — Rosedale colonists meet to discuss water rates and re- 
solve that "no individual or corporation should have the right to fix the 
rates at which a necessity of life shall be sold." (The Land Company was 
offering the colonists for signature an agreement fixing the rate for irriga- 
tion water at $1.50 per acre per year, the contract to be perpetual and the 
charge for water to become a lien on the land if not paid.) 

February 4, 1893 — President Cleveland signs the proclamation creating 
the Sierra forest reserve, including a great territory in the mountains of 
Kern county. 

The people of Delano are discussing the possibility of getting water from 
the Calloway and Beardsley canals. 



98 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

May 25, 1893 — Company G, National Guard, is mustered in with Captain, 
W. H. Cook; first lieutenant, H. A. Blodget; second lieutenant, H. P. Bender. 

August, 1893 — At an anti-Chinese meeting in Kern City, is drafted a 
letter to the United States district attorney stating that there are 1500 
Chinese in Kern county who are not registered under the Geary law. It is 
proposed to remove the Chinese, but by peaceable methods only. 

September 21, 1893 — Fruit shippers catch seven men stealing fruit from 
cars, and haul them out to a quiet place and spank them on the bare skin. 
Fresh peaches are bringing $1 for a twenty-pound box in Chicago. The 
freight is sixty-five cents per box, leaving the shipper thirty-five cents. 



CHAPTER XI 
The Great Lux-Haggin Water Suit 

WHiile the short but interesting preliminary between Carr & Haggin 
and Livermore & Chester was being fought to a finish. Miller and Lux 
were getting established in Kern county and gathering about them able 
leaders and captains, of whom J. C. Crocker, S. W. Wible and Capt. John 
Barker were types. Long before this time Miller & Lux had acquired great 
ranches and ranges around Gilroy, along the San Joaquin river and far up 
along the northern coast. In 1872, in conjunction with W. S. Chapman, 
owner of the Chowchilla ranch, Miller & Lux as owners of the Columbia 
ranch had begun a canal, the largest and longest in the state, which took 
water from the San Joaquin river at the mouth of Fresno slough and 
extended for seventy-five miles across Fresno and Merced and a part of 
Stanislaus counties. 

Miller's activities in Kern county (Miller was the active member of 
the firm) were an extension of the operations along the San Joaquin. It 
is not unlikely that Miller at some time had pleasant visions of a great 
cattle and sheep ranch extending in an unbroken sweep through the rich, 
black tule lands from Stockton to Bakersfield. During his fight with Haggin 
& Carr, ]\Iiller is commonly reported as assuring them that he would make 
them "pack their blankets out of Kern county," and there were not lacking 
admirers of the doughty and vigorous old German who fully expected to 
see him make his threat good. 

Jim Crocker had been in Miller's employ on the San Joaquin and was 
sent to Kern county to lay the foundations for the Miller occupancy here. 
Crocker was the sort of a man Miller would be expected to choose for the 
job. A quiet, self-contained man, but a good mixer in spite of his reserve 
and a man of native force and personality that made him a natural leader. 
He was bred to get up in the morning at 4 o'clock and go out on hard 
jaunts with the vaqueros. Chasing down and breaking up organized bands 
of horse and cattle thieves appears to have been his favorite pastime. If 
a friend or fellow stockman was in trouble, financial or otherwise, Crocker 
was ready to go on his bail to the extent of his possessions. Men rallied 
to the standard of Crocker because of their friendship and confidence and 
because they liked to fight with a fighter. The men who fought under 
Carr's colors did so more usually because they believed their personal interest 
lay in that direction. It was Carr's strong point of strategy, as we have 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 99 

seen, to make the personal interest of many people lie in the same direction 
as his own. 

S. W. Wible, who figures prominently among the Miller forces in the 
Miller-Haggin contest, was a pioneer of 1852, beginning his western experi- 
ence as a miner and constructor of miners' canals and sluices and later under- 
taking the management of larger water engineering enterprises. He came 
to Kern county in 1874 and built a number of the early canals from Kern 
river. When the Kern Valley Water Company was formed by Livermore, 
Redington and others to undertake the reclamation of swamp land district 
No. 121, Wible was placed in charge as engineer. Celsus Brower had charge 
of the business affairs of the company. Wible built the great Kern V^alley 
Water Company's canal which extended north from Buena Vista lake for a 
distance of some twenty-six miles, when first constructed, but which has 
since been carried much further down the swamp and ultimately is to be 
built through to Tulare lake. The canal follows the western edge of the 
swamp and overflowed district, and was 125 feet wide on the bottom and cal- 
culated to carry a stream seven feet in depth. It was designed to carry all 
the waters of Kern river that might flow so far, and also was to serve as 
the feeder for irrigation ditches that would cover 100,000 or more acres of 
land. When Miller & Lux acquired the Kern Valley Water Company's 
interests Wible went to the new management, as most of the men who 
were prominent in the operation of Livermore & Redington's Kern Island 
projects went over to Haggin & Carr when the latter came into possession of 
those properties. Wible afterward became the general superintendent for 
Miller & Lux. He was noted as one of the few men who stood in no awe 
of Miller when the latter flew into his celebrated fits of passion. It is related 
that on an occasion when Miller had made the discovery that one of his 
warehouses had leaked and wet a great quantity of wool and was dividing 
his time between furiously chopping hole after hole in the wall of the structure 
and as furiously jumping on his hat when he found new evidences of de- 
struction, Wible followed his employer along the warehouse wall and jumped 
on the hat while Miller chopped the holes until the ludicrousness of the per- 
formance finally appealed to the cattle king and appeased his wrath. In 
his old age Wible lived true to his pioneer instinct. He was one of the 
first to respond to the Alaskan mining boom, and summer after summer 
he donned the great fur overcoat that identified him for years to strangers and 
new comers, and sailed for the north to meet the melting of the snows above 
his frozen placers. 

Capt. John Barker got into the Miller-Haggin fight partly because he 
was a riparian owner, although his lands were higher up on the river than 
the intake of any of the irrigation canals, and partly because, like an old 
war horse, he could not remain inactive when his nostrils caught the scent 
of battle. Born in England and bred to the sea, he came to California on 
the news of the first gold excitement, explored the upper San Joaquin valley 
on horseback in 1854, fought in the Indian wars of Tulare county in 1856, 
served in a troop of volunteer cavalry during war times, and came to Kern 
county in the early '70s. He was a bluff, out-spoken man, a vitriolic writer 
when his righteous wrath was stirred, and an off-hand orator, the sarcasm 
of whose phrases was dulled only by the sledge-hammer method of their de- 
livery. Captain Barker would roast his victim alive, pour carbolic acid over 
his withered remains and end bv quoting a few pages of Shakespeare. Byron 



100 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

or Bobby Burns to give a classic flavor to his philippic. He entered no less 
fervently into his friendships, and between his battles and his benefactions 
Captain Barker left his record deeply drawn across the history of the county. 
In his old age, crippled by infirmities, he used to ride about Bakersfield 
and between the town and the mouth of Kern river canon, driving an old 
white horse and a roomy phaeton, planning over old plans for the im- 
provement of the Pierce and Barker ranches and the utilization of resources 
and opportunities that still lie fallow, waiting till the time is ripe for the 
fulfillment of the prophecies of the pioneer. 

Leaders of the Carr & Haggin Forces 

Incidental references in preceding pages have given some insight into 
the character of W. B. Carr, the generalissimo of the Haggin forces. Fat, 
aggressive, determined, absolutely unabashed, with bull-dog courage and 
endurance, he was a typical political boss of the larger and more perfect type. 
Frequently and fervently cursed and hated, he could walk into a saloon 
in a hostile ward and in ten minutes have enough sworn allies to insure the 
victory of his candidates. If a delegation of angry farmers in the days of 
the bitter water troubles came after Carr with the intention of puncturing 
him with bullets or stringing him up to a high-branching cottonwood, he met 
them with an outstretched hand and slaps on their backs and sent them away 
wreathed in smiles of hope and assurance. Moreover, Carr had the valuable 
instinct that showed him to a nicety when it was necessary to dispense good 
coin and valuable favors and when mere promises would suffice. Carr was 
a finished performer and a skillful tutor, and later actors on the Kern county 
stage sat at his feet and learned to do politics in the scientific, metropolitan 
style. 

Walter James figured in the water disputes, in court and out, mainly 
as an expert witness. His long and intimate association with everything 
that had to do with the appropriation and use of Kern river's waters from 
1870 down, aided by a retentive memory and a logical, consecutive manner 
of stating the salient facts concerning a subject made him invaluable as an 
authority, and no investigation of water or water rights was complete until 
Walter James had been examined and cross-examined and with a little nasal 
drawl and imperturbable deliberation had told just how and why it all 
happened and came to pass. It is difficult to say whether Walter James 
in his long record in Kern county shines more as an engineer or as a 
diplomat, but he is hard to out-class in either capacity. 
Heads of the Rival Literary Bureaus 

Dozens of portraits of interesting actors in the great drama of the Kern 
river water contest might be added to this little gallery of character sketches, 
but I shall attempt but two more — those of the chiefs of the rival literary 
bureaus that flooded the state with syndicated editorials and syndicated sup- 
plements setting forth the rival arguments of appropriators and riparian 
owners and the history, law, custom and usage touching the utilization of 
water for any and all purposes since Noah launched the ark on the diluvian 
seas. 

In addition to his numerous other activities Julius Chester, in the days 
of his ascendency in Kern county, founded the Southern Californian and was 
its editor for a number of years. Like the other weeklies of the pioneer days, 
the Southern Californian was stronger as an organ of personal opinion than 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 101 

it was as a piirveypr of news, and Uncle Julius, as he was called by rival 
editors, was as handy as the best of them in the use of the king's English. 
He was almost as diplomatic and persuasive in his writing as he was in 
his speech, and how effective he was in the latter may be gathered from an 
incident that is related as the truth by a veracious citizen of the time. Uncle 
Julius had used some of his best literary art in writing up a certain very 
undesirable citizen, and the day following the appearance of the paper on 
the street he was sitting comfortably in his office with his feet on the desk 
when the undesirable citizen appeared. His eye was wild, his breath was 
laden with liquor and he waved a big six-shooter before the editor's stomach 
:n a very promiscuous manner while he talked. 

"Get your feet down from there because I'm going to kill you," the bad 
citizen commanded. 

Uncle Julius recognized that if the bad citizen had really intended to 
kill him a little matter of his feet being on the desk need not have interfered, 
and he asked what the trouble was all about as coolly and pleasantly as 
though it were only an advertiser wanting to know why his announcement 
did not appear to the top of the page next to pure reading matter as per 
contract. 

"You know blanked well what the matter is," said the bad citizen, "that 
there thing you wrote about me in your paper." 

Chester took his feet down deliberately, deliberately found a copy of 
the paper, sat down, put his feet on the desk again, adjusted his glasses and 
began to read the offending article aloud. 

He stopped at the end of the first paragraph. "I don't see anything the 
matter with that. Tom," he said. "That's all so, aint it?" 

"Yes," said Tom, "that's all so, but you read on farther." 

Chester read another paragraph, and repeated his question as to the 
accuracy of the narrative. 

Tom indicated with his gun that the most offensive portion of the story 
was to be found still farther down, and Chester read on. When he got to the 
bottom of the last paragraph Tom had admitted that every assertion in the 
red hot arraignment — and it was red hot — was true, and the two men went 
out and had a drink together. 

Chester in these days had descended from his former position of prin- 
cipal factor in the county's industry and commerce, his property was slip- 
ping out of his hands or had previously escaped, and he was constantly being 
sued for debt. His fighting instinct never forsook him, and during the 
latter part of his journalistic career he was engaged, a very large share of 
his time in putting the county officials on the spit and turning them slowly 
and scientifically over the coals of incandescent journalism. The county 
officials winced in patience at first, but after Chester was known to be on the 
financial toboggan they joined gleefully in pelting him on his way to the 
bottom. Everything Chester had was attached over and over. Once he 
was arrested on a charge of stealing corn from a Chinaman, but that prob- 
ably was only a fair offset to the defamatory charges which Chester heaped 
upon them. The corn theft case was dismissed. But finally Chester's presses 
and type were attached and sold to A. C. Maude, and Chester was able 
to retain possession of them onlv by showing that they had been leased to 
George Wear, another of the picturesque and notable newspaper men of the 
county, who figures more prominently at a little later date. Wear held down 



102 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the outfit, and Chester continued to publish the Southern Californian and to 
berate the county officials. Maude, who claimed that he had bought not 
only the outfit but the name of Chester's paper, began publication of the 
Kern County Californian, with Richard Hudnut as editorial writer and news- 
gatherer in chief. Finally Wear sold his lease to a printer by name of Warren 
and a school teacher by name of Vrooman. For a time the latter kept a guard 
over the shop by night as well as by day, but one evening Maude's forces 
inveigled the guard away and captured the shop. 

With nothing left but the name of his paper, Chester took himself to 
San Francisco and issued the Southern Californian from there until the close 
of the political campaign that ended with the defeat of what he was pleased 
to call the Reed ring, and the election of B. Brundage, the opponent of 
Judge Reed, to be the first judge of the superior court of Kern county. Judge 
Reed had been judge of the county court, but that office was abolished by 
the change in the constitution. 

Richard Hudnut was a highly educated and very dignified man. His 
writing was silkier than Chester's, and he had such an easy, refined and 
polished way of flaying his victim that after the victim was flayed he knew 
that he had lost his hide, but had in his mind only a vague, circumstantial 
suspicion that it was Hudnut who had skinned him. When Chester was 
charged with stealing the Chinaman's corn Hudnut mourned over him in 
paragraph after paragraph as one might mourn over the grave of misled 
innocence. 

It will be appreciated readily that in a fight like the one which the great 
water contest occasioned, where it was necessary to depict everyone on the 
other side as a red-handed pirate, a dark-alley thug and a horse thief, the 
peculiar accomplishments of Hudnut and Chester were invaluable. More- 
over, both Hudnut and Chester had all the history of Kern county water 
rights at their fingers' ends, and when they w^ere established at Sacramento 
with the money of the two rival corporations behind them, respectively, they 
poured out a class and quantity of militant, journalistic literature that marks 
a milestone in the newspaper history of the state. 

Still another journalistic factor was injected into the great fight. When 
the issue was fairly joined between the riparianists and the appropriators, in 
1886, the Kern County Echo was founded by a company of farmers and 
business men. who gathered one day at the old Burnap drug store and 
decided that there was still a third side to the great question and that a 
new organ should be established to advocate it. Capt. John Barker was sent 
to San Francisco to buy the plant, and S. C. Smith, then a young lawyer of 
Bakersfield, afterward state senator and still later congressman from the 
eighth district, was elected managing editor. Through the controversy the 
Echo urged that neither appropriators nor riparian owners be given a mon- 
opoly of the water of the river, but that the state retain the ownership in 
trust for the people and that the use of the water be permitted for irrigation 
and other purposes under state regulation and control. Water is one of the 
elements and is no more a proper object of monopoly than is the air, was 
the gist of the Echo's persistent argument during those days. 

The Great Water Suit 

The great water suit, known by the title "Lux versus Haggin," not 
only marks an epoch in the history of Kern county but marks an epoch, also, 
in the history of irrigation in the state of California. It jjegan with little 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 103 

more notice from the public than any of the other hundred or more suits 
that had been filed by rival claimants to the waters of Kern river, but before 
it had gone far local people realized that this was the battle royal, and 
before it was finally dismissed it had focussed the attention of the state, 
ranged practically every California newspaper of general circulation on one 
side or the other, resulted in the calling of two state irrigation conventions 
and a special session of the legislature, and started a movement to amend 
the state constitution so that the supreme court, which rendered an unpopular 
decision in connection with the suit, might be reorganized. The latter 
movement did not succeed. 

In brief, the contention of the plaintiffs was that they were the owners 
of riparian lands along the lower reaches of Kern river, that Kern river was 
a natural stream flowing in an established and continuous channel through 
their lands, and that under the common law of England they were entitled 
to have the waters of the river flow over, through and upon their lands, 
undiminished in quantity and unimpaired in quality. 

The defendants claimed that they were entitled by right of appropriation 
to divert the waters from the river for purposes of irrigation, to develop 
water power, and for domestic and other purposes. It was a contest, in short, 
between riparian rights and the right of appropriation. In addition to set- 
ting forth the rights of the plaintiffs the complaint alleged that the defend- 
ants, by diverting the water in their canals had rendered the lands of the 
plaintiffs dry and barren to such an extent that their cattle had neither 
grass to eat nor water to drink. 

The papers in the suit were drawn in San Francisco and sent here to 
be filed in the superior court on September 2, 1880. On the morning of 
April 15, 1881, the trial began with Judge B. Brundage on the bench and a 
formidable array of counsel for both parties before the bar. Louis Haggin 
was in charge of the case for the defendant, and was assisted by John Garber 
and George Flournoy, Sr., father of the present justice of the peace of the 
sixth township of Kern county. Hall McAllister was nominally the chief 
counsel for Lux, but R. E. Houghton, then a comparatively young attorney, 
was the active man and really the one who outlined and carried on the 
campaign. 

The reporters of the day declared that the testimony, the taking of 
which consumed forty-nine days, was tedious and uninteresting, but it is 
suspected that they were too close to the scene to realize in full its dramatic 
interest or even its numerous comedy features. The witnesses included 
everybody in the county who was supposed to know anything about the his- 
tory and habits of Kern river, the locations of its various courses and the 
dates when these courses were changed, or anything concerning the appro- 
priation of water from the river, and in addition to these, sundry expert wit- 
nesses who had read in books what happened in Calcutta or what the river 
Nile did in the days of the Pharaohs and whose testimony was duly objected 
to because they had not been present at the times and places mentioned nor 
seen with their own eyes the things they pretended to describe. 

Walter James, chief engineer for Haggin, and S. W. Wible, superin- 
tendent and engineer for Miller & Lux, were the star performers and spent 
day after day on the witness stand, mainly under cross-examination. Mean- 
time all the attorneys whittled redwood shingles, and it was a part of the 
unofficial duties of the sheriff to see that the supply of timber never ran low. 



104 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

John Garber carried a potato in his pocket for luck, and developed a habit of 
taking it out and shaking it at the witness when he asked a question of 
especial moment. R. E. Houghton, on a like occasion would stand up, reach 
across the table and dip his pen in the ink as though he intended forthwith 
to write the answer down in plain black and white so that it could never 
be denied, altered or evaded evermore. The witnesses were even more eccen- 
tric and picturesque. An old man by name of Stevens, who came from the 
head of the South Fork valley, made a speech in response to every question 
that was put to him, and finally as he was leaving the stand he swept his 
long arm out over the big assemblage of pioneers who crowded the space 
behind the attorneys and remarked : "Em gettin' to be an old man, and I don't 
know if Ell ever see you all here together again ; and I want to say to you 
now, while Eve got you all together, that Em the oldest settler in Kern 
county."' Of course one of the attorneys took an exception to the statement 
and asked that it be stricken from the records. 

Each evening when court was adjourned for the day the attorneys and 
many of the witnesses for Haggin were driven to headquarters at Bellevue 
where the walls beneath the spacious porches were lined with maps and 
diagrams. Here the net results of the day's testimony were reviewed, and 
engineers, zanjeros and scouts of all descriptions were sent out to get what- 
ever evidence was needed to fill in the gaps. 

In the meantime, if the local papers were not doing much in the way 
of reporting the trial they were sparing no efifort to prove what the judgment 
of the court should be. Despite all efforts to put him out of business, Julius 
Chester was still editing the Southern Californian, and was presenting through 
its columns the contentions of the riparianists as represented by Miller & 
Lux. The Californian, owned by A. C. Maude and edited by Richard Hudnut, 
was doing no less valiant service for Haggin. But the choicest language of 
which these masters were possessed they saved for rhetorically pummelling 
each other. 

The last witness was heard on June 2, 1881, and all the testimony, when 
it was written up, made a stack of paper four feet high. For the convenience 
of the lawyers the court consented to hear the arguments in San Francisco. 
The speech-making began on June 20th, and on November 3d, Judge Brun- 
dage rendered his decision in favor of Haggin, which was to the effect that 
the appropriators were entitled to the water of the river as against the riparian 
owners, represented by Lux. Of course Miller & Lux ajjpealed to the supreme 
court, and forthwith in Kern county there began a fierce political campaign 
to re-elect Judge Brundage on the one hand and to defeat him on the other. 

Kern River Plays Another Prank 

We have seen heretofore in the course of this narrative that Kern river 
seemed possessed of a certain titanic sense of humor, and none will be sur- 
prised to read that while the supreme court took its time in considering a 
mass of evidence, a gist of which was that neither party to the suit was 
willing to let the other have any water, the river began to increase its flow, 
and in the early part of 1884 the two chief parties to the suit were engaged 
in a fiercer fight than ever to keep the swollen river from flooding their lands, 
even though it involved turning the excess waters over on the other. 

As indicated in his statement referred to in the previous chapter, Haggin 
had reclaimed the beds of Kern and Buena Vista lakes and had built the 
Goose lake canal to carry off any excess water that the Calloway and other 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 105 

irrigation canals could not handle. The Goose lake canal led off to the north, 
and on the south side of the river Haggin had built the Cole levee farther to 
prevent the river from breaking over and flooding his reclaimed lake bottoms. 
By far the greater part of Haggin's reclaimed lands lay to the south of the 
river, and by far the greater part of Miller & Lux's reclaimed lands lay to the 
north. The latter had built levees along the north bank to protect their 
lands, and had constructed the great Kern Valley Water Company's canal 
to carry any excess waters off to the north of their cultivated fields. 

As the snows melted in the mountains and the river lapped higher and 
higher against the levees it became a most absorbing question as to whether 
the waters would break on Miller's side or on Haggin's. They broke on 
Haggin's side on May 17, 1884, and in a few hours there was a 'hole in the 
Cole levee forty feet wide and through it a stream of muddy water, twenty 
feet deep, was rushing to cover all the lands that Haggin had reclaimed with 
so great expense. 

There were great forces of men on the Haggin ranches in those days and 
m very short order Billy Carr, Walter James, C. L. Conner, Dave Coffee and 
other supermtendents and foremen for miles around were dispatching work- 
men, teams, scrapers, shovels and sand bags to the break. With the bags 
of sand the broken ends of the levee were rip-rapped to prevent further 
washing, and a row of piling was driven across the break. 

Early in these proceedings Henry Miller arrived with R. E. Houghton. 
Having a suit in the supreme court in which their contention was that they 
were entitled to have the full flow of the river run over, through and upon 
their lands at all times. Miller and his attorney were hardly in a position to ob- 
ject to Haggin's men repairing a break in their levee that would tend to throw 
the full force of the stream over on Miller & Lux. But Houghton was fully 
equal to the emergency. It happened that Miller owned forty acres of land 
m the bed of Buena Vista lake (surrounded by the Haggin sections) and 
Miller set up the claim that he was entitled to have the river flow unhindered 
over, through and upon this land, also. 

Miller strode up to the break in the levee where Walter James was 
superintending the driving of the piles. "What are you doing here? What 
are you doing here?" he demanded. 

"I'm just carrying out my instructions," drawled Walter James in his 
imperturbable manner. "We thought we'd put a few piles in here, because 
we may want to build a bridge across, or something." 

"Well, I don't want you to stop my water. I don't want you to stop my 
water. Do you understand? I don't want you to stop mv water." shouted 
Miller. "Have a cigar, Mr. James." 

So soon as the train could take him back to San Francisco. Houghton 
went to Judge Hunt of the superior court, and on a petition setting forth that 
Miller was the owner of a piece of land, to wit. forty acres, etc., and that 
whereas when the waters of Kern river were allowed 'to flow over it unhin- 
dered, etc., large quantities of tules and other plants and grasses valuable for 
feed grew thereon, and whereas one Haggin had a force of men at work with 
piles, a pile driver, brush, etc., endeavoring to restrain the said water from 
flowing over Miller's said land, etc., and whereas Miller would be greatly 
damaged, etc., etc., an injunction was duly secured. 

By the time the injunction was served the ends of the levee were pretty 
well protected with sand bags, and most of the piling had been driven, but 
the water was flowing through the break almost as rapidly as ever. 



106 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Walter James was out at the levee when a telegram arrived ordering 
him to make all speed to San Francisco. He jumped on the horse that brought 
the messenger, galloped to Bellevue, and found there another horse saddled 
and waiting. A man thrust into his hand a purse of money. "The gates are 
all wide open," they shouted, and James was off for the Southern Pacific 
depot. He got there fifteen minutes late, but the train was an hour behind 
time, and he walked over to the hotel. The first man he saw was S. W. 
VVible. 

"Hello, James," said Wible, "where are you going?" 

"I'm just going down to the city for a few days," said James. 

"Well, that's funny," said Wible, "I'm just going down to the city myself. 
Come in and let's have a drink." 

In San Francisco the next morning James assured Louis Haggin that 
if he had a free hand and all the resources of the Haggin ranches at his 
command he could stop the break in the Cole levee in twenty-four hours. 
Haggin told him to take the first train back to Bakersfield, and to look for a 
telegram at Lathrop. Meantime the lawyer would undertake to get Judge 
Hunt's injunction lifted, and if he succeeded he would send a message to 
Lathrop reading, "Make the trip." 

It was no small task to get the injunction set aside for the reason that 
after he had issued it Judge Hunt had gone on a fishing trip back into the 
mountains, leaving orders for nobody to interfere with any matter in his 
court during his absence. Louis Haggin, however, prevailed on another 
judge to set aside Judge Hunt's order, and James got his telegraphic instruc- 
tion to "Make the trip." 

On the journey home James laid out his campaign, and on his arrival 
at Bellevue orders were dispatched in all directions. Florence Gleason with 
a gang of men was already at the gap in the levee filling sand bags. Word 
was sent to C. L. Connor to report at once at the levee with all his men. J. E. 
Yancey and Frank Collins with the crews under them were to follow a little 
later, and still later were to come C. W. Jackson and the men from the Poso 
ranch. There were enough men, altogether, to keep fresh shifts at work at 
the gap all day and all night. 

The camp previously established on the levee was enlarged to accommo- 
date no less than five hundred men. Under the direction of Dave Coffee the 
hoisting engine used in driving piles was rigged to haul wagons loaded with 
sand along the levee. Heavy cables were laced back and forth among the piles, 
and the work of building in a wall of sand bags to stop the rushing flood 
proceeded with system and dispatch. 

"But R. E. Houghton never overlooked anything," said Walter James 
in telling the story. While Louis Haggin was getting rid of Judge Hunt's 
injunction in San Francisco, Houghton was getting another injunction out of 
the superior court of Napa county. This was issued at the request of George 
Cornwell, who owned a small piece of land on the south side of the river 
and many thousands on the north side and who made the same representation 
as Miller had made before Judge Hunt. 

Wible was less than a day behind James, but when he had reached 
Bakersfield, and came dashing down the road along the Cole levee with his 
Napa county injunction and Sheriff Coons, James and his great crew of men 
were swarming over the levee like human ants, working in a frenzy of haste 
to place the last sand bags that would stop the torrent of water. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 107 

Every superintendent from the Hag:s:in ranches in Kern county was there, 
with Billy Carr in personal command. The sheriff waved the injunction and 
ordered the work stopped, but everyone was too busy to hear. It was an 
intense moment, for many months of work, tens of thousands of dollars, and 
(what was almost more than either for the men of fighting blood who were 
ranged on either side) victory or defeat in the contest depended on a few 
more minutes of time. 

Sheriff Coons handed the injunction to Carr and explained its purport, 
but Carr had to read the document, and his glasses were over in the tent. 
He went to the tent, got his glasses, sat down and read the injunction and 
the complaint which accompanied it. All the while Wible was enjoining haste. 
When Carr finished studying the order of the court he desired James to read it, 
and James read it, quite as slowly and carefully as Carr had done. Wible 
stormed over to where Dave Coffee was rushing in the sand bags with 
redoubled haste and energy, and commanded him to desist in the name of 
the law. But Coff'ee knew nothing of law or injunctions and he kept right 
on shoving the sand bags down to the men who were building them, now, 
just above the surface of the yellow water. Finally Carr sauntered back from 
the tent, saw that the gap in the levee was closed and the bags of sand rose 
clear and dry above the surface, and held up his hand as a signal of submission 
to the court's decree. 

But one thing had not been done. James had buried logs, or "dead men" 
on the upper side of the levee and had attached to them loops of cable ready 
to slip over the tops of the piling to help them carry the great weight of the 
water pressing on the narrow dam. But these loops of cable had not been 
adjusted, and the upper ends of the piling were without support. For a little 
while the piles and the wall of sand bags stood, and then, as the water low- 
ered on the outer side, they leaned and swayed ; the sand-bag wall splashed 
out of sight, the broken piles bobbed merrily to the surface, and the yellow 
flood leaped through the breech once more to spread over section after section 
of Haggin's reclaimed swamp land, and "undiminished in quantity and unim- 
paired in quality," flowed over, through and upon Miller's forty acres of 
Buena Vista lake bottom until it was covered a dozen or fifteen feet in depth, 
and it remained covered until the wild geese came and went and went and 
came again. 

On July 5th, more than a month after the wall of sand bags washed out, 
the water was still pouring through the Cole levee upon Haggin's land 
at the rate of 3000 cubic feet per second. 

But R. E. Houghton never overlooked anything. On July 26th he had 
W. B. Carr and Walter James haled before the court of Napa county to 
show cause why they should not be punished for contempt of court for 
consuming a quarter of an hour in reading the court's injunction. 

"Did you have any thought in your mind, Mr. Carr," said the Napa 
lawyer who appeared for Houghton, "that you might profit by the delay you 
were causing?" 

"Not in the least," said Carr. 

"Of course not," said the Napa lawyer with fine sarcasm. 

The Napa judge let Carr and James oft' with a mild admonition, but 

Judge Hunt was more obdurate. He declared that no court had any authority 

to set aside his injunction, and that all the time the five hundred men were 



108 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

rushing sand bags into the break they were in contempt. "The defendants 
are fined $1000 each." 

Supreme Court Decides for Riparianists 
xAnother victory was coming to the Miller forces. The same issue. of the 
Haggin & Carr paper that contained the short paragraph about the Cole 
break and the San Francisco injunction carried an equally short paragraph 
stating that the great water suit had been resubmitted. It took until October 
27, 1884, for the supreme court to reach a final decision, and the remittitur 
was not filed in this county until May 28, 1886, but not to make the story long, 
the supreme justices, or a majority of them, found that Judge Brundage had 
committed an error in not allowing certain testimony on the part of the 
defense that would have made but little difiference, probably, in the main 
issue. But accompanying their order was a most important expression of 
opinion to the effect that the English common law respecting riparian rights 
governed the use of water in the state of California. In other words, as the 
Chester and Hudnut literary bureaus soon after made the whole state aware, 
the owner of land on the banks of a natural water course was entitled to 
have all the waters of the stream flow over and through his land, undiminished 
in quantity and unimpaired in quality. That meant that nobody could take 
water out of a stream in an irrigating ditch and spread it over his land, for 
if he did so, certainly he could not restore it again to its natural channel, un- 
diminished and unimpaired, or either. 

Of course every irrigator in the state sat up and howled, and it was not 
very long before an active and able politician like Billy Carr had them 
organized and holding big irrigation conventions, first at Riverside and then 
at Fresno, and drafting laws for submission to the state legislature that were 
calculated to send the doctrine of riparian rights back to England on the 
first tramp steamer that left the Golden Gate. 

Carr did more. He went to work quietly among the members of the 
state legislature and before Miller's men knew what was going on he had 
the signatures of about two-thirds of them appended to a petition asking the 
governor to call a special session of the legislature and virtually pledging 
themselves to enact into law the measures framed at the two irrigation con- 
ventions. 

Governor Calls Legislature Together 

Armed with this petition and reinforced by a stalwart bunch of his 
friends from Kern county and elsewhere, Carr met Governor Stoneman at a 
hotel in San Francisco. Everybody had a good time, and the governor, who 
was a veteran of the Union army, distinguished and endeared himself in the 
eyes of Carr's southern followers by consuming without a quiver more mint 
julips than any man in the crowd from below the Mason and Dixon line 
could carry off. Before the evening was over the call for the special session 
of the legislature was signed. 

This was in July, 1886, but meantime Kern county had gone through 
another political campaign (the hottest and most vindictive, perhaps, which 
was ever waged in the valley) in which the issue turned on the election of 
the superior judge before whom the great water suit should come for re-trial. 
Brundage, of course, was supported by the Haggin & Carr forces, and all of 
Miller's strength was thrown behind Judge Arick. The latter was victorious 
by the scant majority of four votes. 

Meantime, too, the whole state was being flooded with the fruits of the 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 109 

labors of Chester and Hudnut and other writers of the Miller & Lux and 
Carr & Haggin literary bureaus. Supplements treating the water question 
from Miller's side were furnished free to every paper of importance in the 
state that would handle them. The next week an equally copious flood of 
Haggin supplements descended on the readers. Plain print was seconded by 
whole page, colored cartoons, and these in addition to being sent to the 
papers were posted on the dead walls about the towns like circus announce- 
ments. 

The extra session of the legislature convened in August, 1886, and with 
the din of a state-wide battle in their ears, the members of the assembly 
passed the irrigation bills as per schedule. But the senate balked. It would 
not defeat the bills nor would it pass them, and on September 11, 1886, the 
legislature adjourned with the question of water legislation immersed a 
thousand fathoms deep in statu quo. 

It was sometime during the events recorded in this chapter that Henry 
Miller made the important discovery and confided it to a friend that "plenty 
of money makes a good politician." 

How much money it took to make the very high grade politicians that 
fought each other to a stand still in the legislature of 1886, the author has 
not been able, even approximately, to ascertain, but battles like the one over 
the judgeship and battles like that at Cole's levee were evidently so immensely 
expensive that both Haggin & Carr and Miller & Lux wished for peace. The 
big suit fell to Judge Arick to try, but he granted a petition for a change of 
venue to Tulare county, which the supreme court sustained, and there the 
case lay until all the points involved in the contest were settled to the satis- 
faction of both parties by the celebrated Miller-Haggin agreement. 

Miller-Haggin Agreement Ends Litigation 

This agreement, which was signed on July 28, 1888, and which bears the 
signatures of thirty-one corporations and fifty-eight individuals owning water 
rights at the time on Kern river, practically divided the waters of the stream' 
between Miller & Lux and Haggin and the different canal companies that 
were represented by them. The length of the document is fully commensurate 
with its importance and the number of parties interested, but as it was later 
incorporated into the findings of the Shaw decree, issued by Judge Lucien 
Shaw of Los Angeles sitting in the superior court of Kern county in 1895, 
and has been made a part of every deed executed by either of the two great 
land owners of the county since then, a scant summary of its provisions here 
is justifiable. 

The agreement begins by recognizing that certain of the parties 
have riparian rights, and that certain other of the parties have 
vested rights by appropriation against all the world except the aforesaid 
riparian owners. This point settled, the agreement provides that the parties 
of the first part, represented by Miller, shall have one-third of all the waters 
of the river during the months of March, April, May, June, July, and August 
of each year, and that the parties of the second part, represented by Haggin, 
shall have all the remainder. 

It provides for the measurement and delivery of the water, and for the 
construction of the Buena Vista Lake reservoir, covering approximately 
thirty-six sections of land. The two parties join in this undertaking, sharing 
equally the expense of construction, repair and maintenance. The two parties 
also share equally the expense of building the levees necessary to carry the 



110 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

water of the river from the second point of measurement to the reservoir, and 
of building- an outlet canal from Buena \"ista lake to the Kern \''alley Water 
Company's canal. Both parties agree to join in suit against any person or 
persons who attempt to divert any water from the river above the second 
point of measurement, and each is to bear half the expense of such litigation. 
All pending suits between the two parties were to be dismissed. The agree- 
ment is made a perpetual covenant, running with all the land owned or claimed 
by any of the parties within the territory described in the contract. 



CHAPTER XII 

First Attempt at Colonization 

The first effects of the settlement of the contests over water rights by 
means of the Miller-Haggin agreement were to stiffen land values in all the 
irrigated portion of the county, and to bring to a head the plans of Haggin 
and his associates for subdividing their lands and placing them on the market. 
The inevitable great expense of developing water rights, building canals and 
improving large ranches had been increased enormously by the outlays con- 
nected with the water contests with Livermore and Chester and then with 
Miller & Lux and by the expensive political campaigns incident thereto, and 
by the summer of 1888 the expenditures of Haggin and Tevis in their Kern 
county ventures had reached a huge aggregate. Meantime the growing of 
cotton and hops had not proven remunerative on account of the large labor 
cost and the failure of the attempts to secure low-priced workmen, and the 
same difficulty seemed to place a bar across other avenues to profit through 
agricultural activities on a vast scale. Lloyd Tevis, it is remembered, was 
a banker, and from the viewpoint of a banker who keeps tab on the amount 
of money invested and the amount of interest which it should bring in at 
current rates, the Kern county property of Haggin & Carr certainly did not 
look very hopeful. 

Hence the decision to colonize the Haggin lands. But from the start 
differences arose between the parties interested as to the exact methods of 
procedure. According to seemingly reliable statements, it appears that Carr 
was skeptical about the wisdom of beginning the land sales at all just at 
that time, and he interposed strenuous objections to parting with any of the 
lands which had been planted to alfalfa or otherwise brought into a revenue 
producing condition. He objected, also, it is said, to selling the most desir- 
able of the lands, which generally were those south of Bakersfield under the 
Kern Island canal. L. C. McAfee and C. Brower, managers of the sales de- 
partment under the name of the Land Department of J. B. Haggin, proposed 
making certain improvements on the lands before offering them for sale. 
and employing a superintendent to advise and instruct the colonists in the 
management of their farms and orchards so that fewer luistakes would be 
made through inexperience. But all this involved more expenditures, and the 
plan did not meet with favor from those who had to sign the checks. 

Still other points of difference arose. S. W. Fergusson, who had estab- 
lished a reputation as a boomer of real estate subdivisions, was sent to take 
charge of the Haggin colonization, and clashes of authority arose between 
him and Carr. For example, Carr and Fergusson differed as to the proper size 
for the irrigation ditches that were built through the colonies. Gradually 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 111 

Fergusson superseded Carr in the control of different departments of the 
Haggin activities, and it was not in Carr's nature to like a second place. In 
the end Carr sold out his interest, and the Kern County Land Company 
succeeded to Haggin & Carr. But these initial elements of failure in the 
colonization project were under the surface, and the people of Bakersfield 
rejoiced over the prospect that at last the great land holdings that had 
hedged the town about and impeded its growth and development were to be 
broken up. It was like opening the throttle to the pent up energies of the 
community, and new enterprises began to spring into life as the restraint was 
removed. There were other incentives to hope and progress. At a banquet 
tendered him by the citizens of Bakersfield, General Beale announced that 
he had plans for the colonization of the Tejon ranch ; the Southern Pacific 
was grading the Porterville branch railroad ; the railroad shops were being 
moved to Sumner, and more and more confidence was being placed in the 
constant report that the Valley railroad was soon to be built. 

Many Plans for Progress 

Under the influence of all these better prospects the Southern Hotel 
Association began the construction of its first building at the corner of 
Nineteenth street and Chester avenue ; L. P. St. Clair and O. O. Mattson 
undertook the construction of a gas and electric lighting system ; H. H. 
Fish, H. A. Blodget and T. J. Packard launched their plans for building a 
street railway system, and citizens of the town and land owners of the sur- 
rounding country subscribed a fund of $3000 for advertising the county at 
Los Angeles, then as now the distributing point for the Eastern home-seekers. 
In the spring of 1899 the Postal Telegraph Company completed its line to 
Bakersfield, the people of the county voted by 852 to 381 to bond the county 
for $250,000 for public improvements including an addition to the court house, 
a new jail, a county hospital and the grading and improving of many roads 
in dift'erent parts of the county. 

Fire Wipes Out Business Section 

In the midst of all these evidences of progress and while Bakersfield 
was looking forward with greater hope and expectancy than ever before in 
its history, came the fire of July 7. 1889, and wiped the business part of the 
little city clean. The business section of Bakersfield was confined in those 
days to the area bounded on the west by I street, on the south by Seven- 
teenth, on the east by M, and on the north by Twentieth. Practically every- 
thing within these limits was destroyed. 

The fire started in or near N. E. Kelsey's residence on Twentieth street 
about midway between Chester and I street, just back of where the Bank of 
Bakersfield now stands, or about on the spot where the rear quarter of the 
bank building is located. Mrs. Kelsey was getting the Sunday dinner on a 
gasoline stove, but as to further details of how the building caught fire 
reports differ widely. The volunteer fire department responded to the alarm 
with ordinary promptness, and hitched the suction hose of the Silsby steam 
fire engine to the old cast iron hydrant that still stands in front of the Southern 
Hotel at Nineteenth and Chester. This hydrant connected with the old Scrib- 
ner water system, which was supplied by pumps and wells located at the 
southeast corner of Seventeenth street and Chester avenue. The small mains 
and the light engine, however, were insufficient to provide a stream that would 
check the flames. There was no wind, and the smoke and flames for a time 



112 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

mounted straight upward. In a very little time the fire spread to the Kelsey 
furniture and undertaking establishment on the corner where the Bank of 
Bakersfield is, and to the store of Hayden & White and the Echo office, all 
of which were on the same half block with Kelsey's residence and faced on 
Chester avenue. From these the Southern Hotel Association's new building 
at Nineteenth and Chester was ignited. By that time the heat from the flames 
had driven the firemen east on Nineteenth street, where the hose was dropped 
into one of the cisterns built at the street intersections on purpose to supply 
water for fighting fire. These cisterns were connected with the Town ditch 
by redwood conduits six inches square, but the conduits had grown full of 
roots and the cisterns were soon exhausted. Meantime burning shingles carried 
high in the air by the draft from the fire, had fallen on the roof of the Union 
stable, on the south side of Nineteenth street between K and L, and a new 
center of conflagration had been started. Also the fire had leaped across 
Nineteenth street to the south from the Southern hotel and was eating out 
the line of buildings on the west side of Chester avenue. Everything was 
burned along this street as far south as Seventeenth street, where the skating 
rink, standing where the new Morgan building now is, was the last building 
consumed. The water tower, diagonally across the avenue, was saved by the 
man in charge, who climbed to the roof and kept it wet down. 

For a long time the Arlington, almost in the center of the fire, was 
saved by two means. The roof and veranda were covered with wet blankets 
and a small hose was used to keep them wet, and after the fire was well under 
way a breeze seemed to suck around the Southern hotel corner in such a 
way as to keep the heat from the Arlington. The building finally succumbed 
to the backfire from the east, but it was one of the last to go down in the 
central part of town. 

The Episcopal church at Seventeenth and I streets, the Catholic church 
at Seventeenth and K, and the Baptist church at I and Twenty-second were 
mentioned roughly as the limits of the burned district, although the fire did 
not reach really so far as the Baptist church. How completely the business 
houses were wiped out is illustrated by the fact that it was impossible to 
buy a plug of tobacco in Bakersfield after the fire. 

The fire occasioned a staggering property loss to the people of Bakers- 
field, but none went hungry or unsheltered for a night. Very few residences 
were destroyed, comparatively, and probably not over a hundred people were 
made homeless. These were speedily cared for by the more fortunate. For 
provisions there were the stores of Sumner, a mile away, including the well- 
stocked general merchandise establishment of Ardizzi-Olcese Company, and 
Haggin & Carr at once hauled in a large stock of provisions of all kinds from 
the company store at Bellvue. Carr also had many beeves slaughtered, and 
everyone had meat in abundance, whether he had money to pay or not. 

So soon as the news of the disaster reached San Francisco an offer of 
aid was tendered by that city. Bakersfield was able to answer that no aid 
was needed, but the people of this city remembered the prompt offer years 
after when San Francisco was stricken, and few communities responded more 
promptly or liberally to the bay city's need than did Bakersfield. 

Bakersfield Quickly Rebuilds 

Before the embers were cool on the lots in the burned district new offices 
and business houses were being established in hastily built shacks in streets. 
Every newspaper office in the city was destroyed, but George Wear of the 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 113 

Gazette managed to save an old hand press and some cases of type, and the 
usual editions were gotten out with these meagre facilities, or copy was for- 
warded to San Francisco and the papers printed there until new plants could 
be obtained. The Southern Hotel Association rebuilt better and larger than 
before, and almost every other burned building was replaced at once by a 
better one. In a year's time all the temporary buildings had disappeared from 
the streets, and the city was bigger and better than it had been before the 
fire. During the rebuilding time, of course, the town was very active. The 
colonists were coming then in large numbers, extensions were being made in 
the canal systems, and there was great activity in locating desert lands, home- 
steads and pre-emptions. 

A little more than a year after the fire the Bank of Bakersfield was 
founded, engineers were surveying in the vicinity of Bakersfield for the new 
valley railroad, the Kern County Land Company had been organized to take 
over the Haggin & Carr holdings, and S. W. Fergusson was placed in charge 
of the Rosedale and other colony lands, including Greenfield and Lerdo. 

Colonization on a Large Scale 

Fergusson at once organized a large ofiice force in Bakersfield, estab- 
lished branch agencies in the east and in England, and prepared to do a 
colonization business on a very large scale. His advertising and the activities 
of his agents soon had a stream of immigrants and prospective land buyers 
flowing into Bakersfield from all points of the compass. Rosedale, situated six 
or eight miles due west of Bakersfield, was the principal scene of the colon- 
ization operations, although numbers of tracts of land were sold at Greenfield 
and elsewhere. The Rosedale lands lie under the Calloway canal, and are 
chiefly light, sandy soils, easily tilled, well suited to irrigation and quite pro- 
ductive. Most of the newcomers were well satisfied with the propositions 
ofifered them, and sales were reasonably brisk. The arrival of the English 
colonists was a great event in Bakersfield. They were of all sorts and con- 
ditions from market gardeners of experience who had saved small sums of 
money in years of industry and thrift, to scions of nobility who were shipped 
abroad by their relatives as a last despairing means for their moral and 
industrial redemption. It was a vain hope so far as the latter was con- 
cerned. 

The few farmers among the English colonists got to work in their own 
fashion to the amazement and mirth of the California ranchers. The latter, 
used to driving six to ten horses attached to a gang plow, made great sport 
of the English farmers who went to their fields with a boy to lead the single 
horse while a man held the plow handles. But the little orchards and vine- 
yards that the Englishmen planted grew and throve, and so did the peanuts, 
corn and other vegetables that they planted between the rows. 

Scions of Nobility Make Things Hum 

The scions of nobility for the most part disdained to toil. There were 
neither orchards, vineyards nor vegetables to show for their labors, but they 
certainly made lively times about the Southern bar and lobby and in many 
other parts of the city less approved by good society. Nearly all the idlers 
were remittance men, and they ran uniformly successful races with time to 
dissipate their monthly allowances before the next batch of checks came 
from home. If they were sent out here to be clear of the temptations of 
English city life they were thrown from the frying pan into the fire, for if the' 



114 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

slums of Bakersfield lacked anything that the young British bloods were used 
to they speedily arranged to supply the deficiency and to give all vice a 
Western air and relish that the most artistic panderers to depravity in Euro- 
pean capitals could not put to blush. It was profitable to cater to the pleas- 
ures and follies of the remittance men, and in those days a dollar that was 
not in visible circulation was counted a dollar lost in Bakersfield. To illustrate 
how cheerfully and enthusiastically the sports from across the seas put their 
money into circulation while it lasted it is related that on one occasion when 
the birthday of the queen was being celebrated with a banquet at the South- 
ern, the loyalty rose to such a height that not only was her majesty's health 
drunk copiously in the Southern's best champagne but the cheering crowd 
came storming out of the dining room and tried to pour champagne down 
the throats of the ponies tied at the rail beside the curb. 

An International Romance 

With this story of the Rosedale remittance men belongs the romantic 
tale of the wooing of Loretta Addis by Lord Sholto Douglas, third son of the 
Marquis of Queensbury. Loretta Addis was Miss Maggie Mooney's stage 
name, and Miss Maggie Mooney was a pretty and piquant little Irish girl 
who made an honest if not conventional living for herself by doing a turn 
on the stage of big Frank Carson's place on Twentieth street. 

Lord Sholto and many others were captivated by Miss Mooney's charms, 
and Sholto proposed on every appropriate and inappropriate occasion he could 
find or manufacture. But Loretta was suspicious of alliances with the nobil- 
ity, and she did not lack friends who told her that the marquis and marchion- 
ess never would sanction the match and that if she married their son she 
certainly would be cast ofif and renounced but a little later. Being cast ofit" 
and renounced did not suit the fancy of this spunky Irish girl, and she sfet 
her face sternly against the tender appeals of Sholto. Finally the young 
lord's friends interfered to break up the languishing match, and failing in 
persuasive tactics they had Sholto arrested on a charge of insanity. Then 
they set to work to get Miss Mooney out of Bakersfield. 

Undoubtedly this would have been accomplished had it not been for 
the exigencies of journalism, which include the fostering of a good story and 
the making of a sequel to a good story wdien the good story plays out. The 
love affairs of Lord Sholto and Loretta Addis made a good story, or at least 
the stories that the Bakersfield correspondents sent out looked good to the San 
Francisco city editors, and they gave the Bakersfield correspondents carte 
blanc, printed their stuff on the front page and clamored for more. C. P. Fox 
and W. D. Young, both familiar figures in Kern county journalism, were 
local correspondents for the Chronicle and the Examiner and were working 
the story together. Five dollars a column and full space rates for pictures was 
like a gold mine while it lasted, but it did not last sufficiently long. 
W hen Sholto was locked up in one of the private rooms at the sheriff's quar- 
ters and Sholto's friends were about to succeed in persuading or hiring Miss 
Mooney to move to another city, Young and Fox saw the end of their pay 
streak. They held a solemn consultation and decided that the only way 
to save the story was to complete Sholto's wooing for him. So they hired 
a hack and drove in all state to Miss Mooney's lodgings. She received them 
graciously, but turned a deaf ear to the eloquent words in which they pictured 
Sholto's double despair, spurned by his heart's desire and charged with 
madness, for nothing more than that he loved the fair Loretta. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 115 

It was of no use. Miss Mooney knew blarney when she heard it. Then 
Fox and Young painted the glamor of the British nobility and showed Miss 
Mooney how much better off she would be as a member of one of the oldest 
families of England than as a dancer and singer in a vaudeville theater in 
the wild west. It made no difference to Miss Mooney how fine the British 
nobility might be if the British nobility was going to renounce her, and she 
indicated as much. It began to look pretty desperate for that five-doUar-a- 
column stuff', but Fox rallied his jaded eloquence and taking an argumentative 
tone he recounted the history of the Marquis of Queensbury, showed that the 
old gentleman was a true old sport, quick to recognize merit, not too fas- 
tidious in his associates and amusements and altogether unlikely to play the 
part of a prude or a pharisee when the variety actress was presented to him 
as his daughter-in-law. The argument fell flat. The opposition had preju- 
diced her mind too thoroughly. 

Then Young played his last trump card. He raised himself to the full 
of his raw-boned height and assumed a belligerent air. "Let them renounce 
you, if they dare," he exclaimed, "and you go on the stage as Lady Sholto 
Douglas, daughter-in-law of the Marquis of Queensbury. With the talent 
you've got " 

The practical instinct of a good press agent won where flattery and per- 
suasion failed. 

"I'll do it!" exclaimed Miss Mooney, springing up. 

"Get on your hat," said Fox, also springing up. 

Fifteen minutes later Fox and Young and Deputy Sheriff Joe Droul- 
liard were ushering Miss Mooney into the little room where Sholto sat brood- 
ing his unhappy fate. 

Another fifteen minutes, and they were receiving her in the little corridor, 
and the happy Sholto w^as consoling himself in his imprisonment with dreams 
of future bliss. 

The San Francisco papers had another big story next morning; another 
when, a few days thereafter, came a cablegram containing the cheerful consent 
of the Marquis to his son's proposed alliance ; another when Sholto was 
released without a complaint of insanity actually having been placed against 
him, and still another when Lord Douglas and Miss Mooney were happily 
married in an Episcopal church in San Francisco. 

It is pleasant to conclude the story with the statement that they are 
still living happily on a ranch in Canada where Sholto has learned to 
farm and where Lady Sholto reigns with all the grace of sweet domesticity, 
her children growing up about her. 

Not All Beer and Skittles 

But it was not all champagne and romance with the Rosedale colonists. 
Only a small proportion, even among the industrious knew how to irrigate 
or understood the use and duty of water. A lot of them had a reckless habit 
of shutting down the gates of the side ditches when they wanted to go to 
their meals, and the water, backing up, would break the main ditch and flood 
five or ten acres of land before anyone knew anything about it. The low 
lands were the ones invariably flooded in this manner, and presently, what 
with the breaking of ditches and the prodigal use of water at all times, the 
lower lands became water-logged and black with the alkali that the rising 
water level brought up. 



116 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

The Land Company put teams and men at work digging miles of drain 
ditches. About the time they were finished the dry years came, and the 
trees and vines on the high lands that had escaped the drowning began to 
perish for want of water. The Calloway's water right was good only after 
certain other ditches had been supplied. 

There was no home market except for a very limited amount of fruit 
and farm produce, and shipments of fruit to the east began to show returns 
in red figures. Added to everything else was the financial panic that swept 
over the entire country in 1893-4. It is little wonder that Rosedale colony 
became a reproach in the county and that Bakersfield's second great hope 
for the cutting up of the great land holdings of the county came to naught. 

It did not quite come to naught, for a few steady, industrious farmers 
stayed with their Rosedale land, and in the end developed fine homes and 
valuable property. They did it, moreover, with no less labor and waiting 
than the ordinary farmer has to undergo in any new country before his land 
pays for itself and begins to earn him a competency. At the present time, 
sixteen or seventeen years after it was denounced as a failure, Rosedale col- 
ony is as fair and pleasant a place and the farmers there are as happy and 
prosperous as any to be found in all the valley. 

But the Fergusson administration of the Kern County Land Company 
affairs ended in general denunciation, and the big concern was more unpop- 
ular than at any other time, before or since, in the history of the county. 

Another Swamp Land Contest 

Another incident that added to the bad favor in which the Land Com- 
pany found itself about the year 1895, was the contest over swamp lands 
bordering Buena Vista lake between settlers and the Land Company. This 
contest began to assume the form of open hostilities in March of the year 
named. Haggin claimed the land under certificates of purchase from the 
state as swamp land obtained by Duncan Beaumont in the '70s and as- 
signed to Haggin. The settlers claimed that when the United States deeded 
the swamp and overflow land in California to the state the land in dispute 
was unsurveyed and was, as a matter of fact, a part of the bottom of a 
navigable lake and so was not conveyed by the grant to the state and was 
not subject to sale by the state. 

The contest was soon carried into the courts, but while it was pending 
there men sent out under the command of Count Von Petersdorf tore down 
a number of the settlers' houses and threw them off the land. The settlers 
rallied, replaced their houses and again were driven off. There seems to 
have been no bloodshed, but both parties to the contest were armed, and 
arrests were frequent. There was quite a furore over the affair, but the 
proceedings of the justice court before which the combatants were brought 
were not of a character to promote solemnity. One day a company of settlers, 
all of whom were or had been fully armed, would be brought into court and 
duly charged with disturbing the peace by loud, boisterous and tumultuous 
language, fighting or offering to fight and exhibiting fire arms with the threat 
then and there to do bodily harm to certain other persons then and there 
present, all of which was contrary to the peace and dignity of the people of 
the state of California, etc. The settlers would then be admitted to bail in 
certain generous sums and released on their own recognizance. The next 
day Von Petersdorf and a dozen or so of his men would be haled before the 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 117 

court on a similar charge and released in the same manner. Altogether a 
sufficient total of bail bonds was named by Justice Tox to have bought all 
the land in dispute several times over. Eventually W. S. Tevis and H. A. 
Jastro took a hand in the matter, met the settlers and effected a compromise 
in which the Land Company got the land but the settlers were reimbursed 
for their improvements and expenditures. 

The Jastro Administration 

Not very long after that date H. A. Jastro became the general manager 
of the Land Company and inaugurated a new policy in the handling of the 
affairs of the concern. Under Carr's administration nearly all the money 
handled in the Haggin and Carr offices went out. Carr was buying land 
all the time, and building canals or making other improvements. Fergusson, 
of course, took in large aggregates of cash, but in another sense his adminis- 
tration was an extravagant one, for the colonization scheme consumed a 
large sum and was not a success, and the ranches paid little if any more under 
Fergusson than under Carr. Jastro put the business on a paying basi-s. 
Enterprises that did not yield a balance on the right side of the ledger were 
discouraged, and a minimum amount of money was spent on improvements 
that did not add to the immediate revenue producing power of the property. 

Jastro's policy and its revenue producing result probably have prevented 
further efforts to sell the Kern County Land Company holdings to the 
present time. At least there have been no more colonization projects on 
the part of the Land Company, although the company has sold three consid- 
erable tracts for colonization— the Wasco and Mountain View colonies, which 
were handled by the California Home Extension Association, and the Lerdo 
tract which is to be colonized by the Lerdo Land & Water Company. 



CHAPTER Xni 
Important Events of a Decade, 1890-1900 

The desert gold mines of Goler were first worked in the spring of 1893, 
and m December of that year a newspaper correspondent writing from Kane 
springs states that approximately $50,000 had been taken out by the thousand 
or more men who had been there. Four-fifths of this amount was found 
by less than a dozen men. and the bulk of the remaining fifth was taken out 
by a small fraction of the nine hundred and eighty-eight others. Coming 
from Bakersfield or Los Angeles the first camp in the Goler district was at 
Red Rock caiion, in a side gulch of which were developed the richest placer 
diggings in the state. At the time of the letter eight men were taking out 
$1000 a week from the Bell claim in this gulch. Over the ridge in another 
draw Sullivan & Black were doing about as well. At Goler. fifteen miles 
east of Red Rock, a few had struck it rich, others were doing fairly well, 
and many were obliged to live on the money they had brought with them. 
Bonanza gulch placers were yielding thirty cents to the pan from the bed 
rock. Twelve miles east of Goler at Summit, the Van Sykes had struck it 
rich. 

That the desert mines had been prospected bv the first of the California 
gold seekers was shown by the discovery in 1894 by W. J. Langdon of a 



118 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

location notice posted by Hiram J-ohnson bearing date of 1853. On a rock 
near by Langdon also found a pair of rusty gold scales, and by an old fire 
place, buried under three feet of drifting sands, the same prospector found a- 
black whiskey bottle with gold dust in it to the value of $6.20. 

The desert placers were exceedingly rich on the surface, but the great 
lack of water, not only for washing but even for drinking, held back devel-- 
opment until the remainder of the state was long overrun by the placer miner 
and his burro. In 1894 Langdon, Ben Alagee of Selma, a man by name of 
Cummings from Los Angeles, and F. AI. Mooers, formerly a newspaper man 
of New York, panned the first gold in the Randsburg district, then unnamed. 
Even then, although the sands were found to be exceedingly rich, the dif- 
ficulties of desert mining discouraged the majority of the party from con- 
tinuing. They all drifted away except Alooers who went back to the Summit 
mines for a while, worked out his placers there, and then, in partnership with 
John Singleton and C. A. Burcham, went back to the Rand district and began 
dry wasliing in a gulch. They made about $5 per day each here, and later 
struck a better placer on the top of the hill. 

Discovery of the Yellow Aster 

One night when they had been away from camp and were coming home 
late they lost their way and made their bed in a gulch by chance. They slept 
late, and when Alooers opened his eyes in the morning the sun was glistening 
on the little particles of free gold in the ledge about his head. Burcham 
got his hammer, struck the rock of the projecting vein, and laid bare before 
the dazzled eyes of the three prospectors the treasure of the Yellow Aster. 
This was in the fall of 1895. Not for more than a year later was the wealth 
of the great mine demonstrated. For a long time its owners were content 
to take out its riches in a modest way. They had no money to begin with, 
and large development on the desert meant the investment of large sums. 
Ore for the first millings was hauled to Garlock, a distance of ten miles. 
Water for all purposes was hauled back from the same place and retailed for 
ten cents a gallon or three dollars per barrel. Later water was piped from 
Goler and from Squaw springs on Squaw mountain. 

With the Yellow Aster, Alooers, Burcham and Singleton located the 
Rand. Olympus and Trilby claims, combining them under the name of 
Yellow Aster mine. In 1898 they built a thirty-stamp mill, and afterward 
increased it to one hundred stamps. The mine is now reckoned as the largest 
gold mine in the state. The ore is quarried out in glory holes, run down 
to the mill in cars and handled in everv way on a wholesale scale. 

Other Famous Desert Mines 

Other famous mines of the Rand district include the Kinyon, named for 
its owner, who came to the desert without a dollar, and took out $40,000 
with a windlass the first year from a little shallow shaft a short distance 
from the Yellow Aster. Silas Drouillard was grubstaked by the sheriff and 
his deputies in Bakersfield and went to Randsburg in search of the desert's 
treasure. The desert lured him across the sands until he dropped in ex- 
haustion beside a rock. As a parting blow in the face of fate he struck the 
rock with his hammer and broke off a chunk that even in the dazzling days 
of the first Randsburg boom was worthy a place on a shelf in a saloon where 
the hungry-eyed prospectors could look and marvel between their libations 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 119 

to the fickle Fortune of the desert. The Wedge, Hammond's Winnie, and 
the Ramey brothers' Butte were among the strikes that gave the camp its 
first fame. 

The Town of Randsburg 

The town started first on the Yellow Aster property where Cuffle had 
a store and Airs. Freeman ran a boarding house. In 1895 Abram Staley and 
his son Homer opened a blacksmith shop on the flat, the first wooden build- 
ing on the present townsite. Charles Keehn opened the first store in the 
town proper; Montgomery Brothers started a saloon, John Crawford started 
another, and after that the arrivals were too rapid and numerous to be remem- 
bered. 

During the rush of 1896 Randsburg had its first experience of the dis- 
order that belongs by tradition to new mining camps. "The Dirty Dozen," 
as the members of a gang of dry washers from an older camp chose to call 
themselves, conceived the pleasant pastime of visiting Randsburg of even- 
ings, making a rough house in the different saloons and finally promenading 
the streets, firing their revolvers. As most of the houses in the camp had 
only canvas walls and as the members of the Dirty Dozen w^ere careless 
in their aim there was a general protest which resulted in a mass meeting 
on the porch of the Clifif house (hotel) and the organization of the Citizens' 
committee. At first it was planned to make it a vigilante organization, but 
soberer discussion resulted in the agreement that the disorders were not 
grave enough for such means of repression, and "Ironsides" Raines was hired 
to act as town marshal at a salary of $100 per month. A number of citizens 
were made deputy constables without pay. Personal notice was served on 
all the known members of the Dirty Dozen that their visits could be dispensed 
with, and a notice in the following words was posted in the streets : 

The Citizens of Randsburg have organized to enforce the laws. Ten 
Deputy Constables have been appointed, and any riotous and threat- 
ening conduct will be punished, 
by order of the 

CITIZENS' COMMITTEE 

There was no further disorder. At least there was no further general 
menace to life or limb, although for some time afterward the diversions of 
the miners that assembled in the desert camp differed somewhat from those 
of a Sunday-school picnic. 

At the present time there is more genuine, profitable mining going on 
in the Randsburg district than at any other time since the camp was estab- 
lished. All the mines named heretofore are worked with profit, and in addi- 
tion the King Solomon, Sunshine and Merced are yielding good returns to 
their owners. Mooers of the Yellow Aster is dead, but his heirs and his 
original partners, Burcham and Singleton, still own the mine and are taking 
out about 600 tons of $5 ore per day. 

Discovery of Tungsten Mines 

About ten years ago, during the progress of a strike of union miners at 
the Yellow Aster, Charles Taylor, one of the strikers, and Tom McCarthy 
went prospecting and discovered the afterward famous tungsten mines of 
Randsburg district. It soon developed that the tungsten deposits were among 
the largest and most accessible in the world, and the quality was excep- 



120 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

tionally good. Somewhere between two million and three million dollars 
worth of the mineral have been taken out, and the mines are but fairly 
opened up. 

The Mojave mines were discovered about the time of the first Rands- 
burg rush or a few months later. The Queen Esther, Carmel, Golden Treas- 
ure and other mines of Mojave are celebrated producers, but the district 
never attained the fame that was accorded to Randsburg. 

The Amalie District 

Among the more important of the recent mining operations in the 
county are those about Amalie, a short distance above Caliente on the north- 
ern side of the Tehachapi pass. The Amalie mines carry both silver and 
gold, and with depth the ledges improve greatly. The Gold Peak, Amalie 
and other less celebrated mines of that vicinity have passed the stage of 
experiment and are reckoned as certain producers in the hands of competent 
management. Mining men familiar with the district prophesy that the future 
will see Amalie recognized as one of the most important mining sections 
of the state. 

Other Important Events 

Other matters that lend a special interest to the busy and eventful period 
in Kern county's history about the years of 1890 to 1900 include the building 
of the electric light, gas and street railway systems of Bakersfield, the begin- 
ning of the utilization of the waters of Kern river for the development of 
electric power, discovery and development of the desert mines, the local 
phases of the great railroad strike of 1894, the visit of the Oakland contingent 
of Coxey's army, the second incorporation of Bakersfield and the issuance of 
the celebrated Shaw decree, by which the \terms of the Miller-Haggin agree- 
ment were given a semblance, at least, of judicial authority. 

Gas and Electric Plants 

The first gas plant was built and operated by L. P. St. Clair, Sr., and 
O. O. Mattson about the first part of 1889. Later H. A. Blodget and H. A. 
Jastro bought out Mattson's interest. The first plant was a crude afTair 
comprising eight retorts, and the gas was manufactured from gasoline. In 
summer it was too rich, and in winter it was too thin for perfectly satis- 
factory use. During the summer of 1889, it is recalled, a big bellows was 
used to pump air into the holders to reduce the quality of the gas and pre- 
vent its smoking by reason of an excess of carbon. In the fall of 1889 the 
plant was changed to use coal instead of gasoline. The use of crude oil in 
the manufacture of gas was begun in 1896 and 1897, and continued to 
the fall of 1911, when natural gas from the great gas wells of the Standard 
Oil Company in the Buena Vista hills was turned into the mains. 

It was not long after the gas plant was established that electric lighting 
began to gain greatly in popularity, and outside parties visited Bakersfield 
with a view to obtaining a franchise for an electric lighting system. They 
failed to get the franchise, but their visit spurred the local lighting com- 
pany into action, and electricity was added to gas as a means of illumina- 
tion in the city. In the spring of 1890 a 40-light dynamo was installed and 
a wood-burning steam engine was utilized to furnish power. The limita- 
tions of wood-generated steam and the advantages of water power in the 
generation of electricity were speedily recognized, and for a time a plan 
for using water power from the mill ditch was entertained. The fact that 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 121 

it is necessary to dry out the ditch occasionally for cleaning and repairs 
stood in the way of this plan, and the idea of maintaining a steam auxiliary 
plant for use when the ditch was out of commission did not appeal to the 
electric company. 

It was the natural thing to turn to Kern river cafion as a source of 
power, and the plans for the first power plant built there were drawn by 
Blodget, Jastro, W. S. Tevis, S. W. Fergusson and C. N. Beale. The first 
intention was to interest eastern capital in the enterprise, but when it was 
mentioned to Lloyd Tevis he said that he would take it up himself, and 
did so. Work was begun December 13, 1894, building the flume along the 
w'all of the caiion to carry the water from the intake up the cafion to the 
water wheel at the canon's mouth where the present power house is located. 
The wooden flume first used to convey the water was later replaced by a 
tunnel driven in the rock of the canon wall. 

First Street Railway 

The first street railway system was established about the same time 
as the gas plant. John M. Keith and H. A. Blodget were the originators of 
the project, and they called in H. H. Fish, who was operating a line of hacks 
and omnibuses and whose co-operation instead of competition was desirable. 
Fish went into the street car plan and Keith withdrew. The first equipment 
of rolling stock consisted of little horse cars, and one of the diversions of- 
fered the passengers was to help put the cars back on the track once in 
a while when the unaccustomed street car nags would get scared at some- 
thing and bolt off at a tangent from the rails. 

With the building of the power plant in the canon (finished in 1897) 
the horse car system was supplanted by electric cars and C. N. Beale joined 
with Fish and Blodget in the enterprise. Six or eight years later the Power, 
Transit & Light Company was organized as a subsidiary corporation of 
the Kern County Land Company, and the street car, gas and electric light- 
ing systems were taken over by it. In 1911 the San Joaquin Light & Power 
Corporation bought out the Power, Transit & Light Company. Meantime, 
in 1897, the Electric Water Company, also a Land Company corporation, 
bought the Scribner Water Works and extended the system to meet the 
growing needs of the city. 

The First Levee Canal 

What is known as the levee canal, built a little distance south of Kern 
river from the Kern Island canal near Panorama heights southwest to the 
Stine canal, was constructed in the summer of 1890. On May 8th a sub- 
scription paper was circulated for the purpose of raising money to buy land 
for a right of way and for building the levee, and the following subscrip- 
tions were secured: W. B. Carr, $500; Celsus Brower, L. S. Rogers, H. C. 
Park, H. A. Jastro, H. A. Blodget, W. H. Scribner, J. Neiderauer, Dinkel- 
spiel Brothers, Joseph Weringer, Solomon Jewett, Kern Valley Bank, A. C. 
Maude and J. E. Bailey, each $100; Paul Galtes, A. Weill and Hirshfeld and 
Brodek, each $150; C. L. Connor and Alex Mills (not the ancient marshal), 
each $50. 

The right of way, however, was purchased by the county from Haggin 
& Carr for $4500, the deed being made on July 15, 1890. The levee canal 
was built along the right of way, and the dirt was thrown mostly on the 
side of the ditch next to the river so as to make an embankment sufficient 



122 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

to restrain any ordinary high water. This levee broke toward the north 
end at the time of the flood of 1893, and since then has been strengthened, 
a little dirt and sand being added whenever the river became threateningly 

High- 

Ever since the first levee was built periodic movements have been started 
looking to the construction of an embankment that would permanently dis- 
pose of all possibility of the river getting into the town, but with the sub- 
sidence of the freshets the interest in the plans wane and only the inci- 
dental repairs and improvements mentioned have been made. The latest 
project for levee building includes the construction of a boulevard along 
the top of the proposed embankment, connecting with Oak street on the 
west and mounting Panorama heights on the east and connecting thence 
by Baker street and Truxtun avenue with the southern end of Oak street 
and forming a complete driveway around the northern half of the city. 
This project has been lingering in statu quo for several months past, but 
has not been definitely abandoned. 

The Great Railway Strike 

The great strike of the American Railway Union which began Thursday, 
June 28, 1894, afifected Bakersfield and Kern about as it affected any other 
railroad division point. There was much excitement during the first few 
days of the tie-up, and on July 12th, two hundred men met at Reich opera 
house, which stood just across Jap alley from Weill's store, and organized 
the Citizens' committee of safety. S. W. Wible acted as chairman, and 
after the adoption of resolutions and a prayer by Rev. Henry, fifty men 
signed the roll as volunteer home guards, took the oath to support the con- 
stitution and pledged themselves to guard duty in case Company G of the 
National Guard were ordered away from town and their services were 
required. Officers were elected as follows: captain, F. S. Rice; lieutenants, 
G- K. Ober and C. A. Maul; sergeants, John O. IMiller, G. L. Dillman, C. Von 
Petersdorf, Leo F. Winchell and H. C. Park; corporals, H. F. Condjct. W. 
Lowell, A. W. Storms and R. M. Walker. 

The committee of safety, however, was never called upon for active 
duty. Before the guards were organized the railroad men had established a 
patrol of their own under the informal but recognized leadership of Parker 
Barrett (then a conductor, but later one of the owners of the world-famous 
Lakeview oil gusher), and generally the best of order prevailed among the 
strikers. Following the meeting at Reich opera house the A. R. U. repre- 
sentatives called a mass meeting at Athletic park, at the southeast corner of 
Nineteenth street and LInion avenue, where about four hundred people were 
addressed by three or four speakers and where long resolutions were 
adopted. 

Bakersfield did not go hungry because of the strike, but a large part 
of it went thirsty or drank warm beverages. Most of the ice used in the city 
was shipped here from Truckee in those days, and except in the case of 
E. Downing's candy store the supplies were all small when the tie-up of the 
railroad began. When the saloons were out of ice they were, nearly out of 
business, for few people would drink warm l^eer in July. Downing had 
3000 pounds of ice when the strike began, and for a time his soda water 
fountain was the most popular place in Bakersfield. Finally the stock of ice 
was reduced to 700 pounds, and Downing hung the closed sign on the front 
of the fountain. "The rest of it is for the sick folks," he explained, and after 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 123 

that anyone who could show that he was sick got ice from Downing for 
nothing. Nobody else could get it at all. 

Coxey's Army Comes and Goes 

On June 7, 1894, what was known as the Oakland contingent of Coxey's 
Industrial Army arrived in Bakersfield on its way to Washington to join in 
the celebrated protest which ended in the "army" being ordered off the 
White House grass. For a time the supervisors entertained the army at the 
Reich opera house and later they were, kept in a stockade built back of the 
jail. Even the latter accommodations were expensive to maintain, however, 
and the supervisors held a conference with Division Superintendent Burk- 
halter of the Southern Pacific with the result that a special train consisting 
in large part of stock cars was ordered, and the whole army was loaded aboard 
and headed for the south. Chairman Jastro of the supervisors and some 
of the railroad officials accompanied the army to Mojave, where they were 
landed in the midst of a blinding sandstorm. The army would have eaten 
Mojave out of house and home in a day's time, and to leave it there was out 
of the question. So Jastro and the Southern Pacific men called the leaders 
into consultation. "What you people want," they put it, "is to get east as 
quickly as possible. Now the Santa Fe is the shortest and fastest line from 
this coast (think of the S. P. men saying that) and what you want to do is 
just to confiscate the first Santa Fe train that comes along and take yourselves 
east with it." 

It looked like a good plan to the army officers, and they proceeded to 
carry it out. Then a telegram was sent to Los Angeles, and a light engine 
loaded with United States deputy marshals ran out, headed off the stolen 
Santa Fe train at Barstow and carried the whole army back to Los Angeles 
under arrest, for the Santa Fe was in the hands of a receiver at the time 
and so under government authority. .; ' 

Twin To'wns Incorporate 

With all these movements for the progress and improvement of Bakers- 
field under way the re-incorporation of the town was inevitable. Kern, the 
lesser of the twin towns, not half so populous as Bakersfield, had been incor- 
porated. But a large element of the voters in Bakersfield opposed incor- 
poration, and when, in December, 1896, the question was submitted after a 
long period of agitation, it was voted down by 268 to 197. In January, 1898, 
a second election was held, and the proposition won by 387 to 146. The 
vote by precincts was as follows : 

Number 1 — For, 121 ; against, 30. 

Number 2 — For, 74; against, 15. 

Number 3 — For, 43 ; against, 44. 

Number 4 — For, 70; against, 39. ^ 

Number 5 — For, 79; against, 18. 

The first officers elected were: Trustees, Paul Galtes, L. P. St. Clair, 
Sr., H. H. Fish, W. R. Macmurdo, J. Walters ; board of education, J. A. 
Baker, Celsus Brower, O. D. Fish, F. S. Rice, E. P. Davis ; assessor, H. F. 
Condict; marshal, T. A. Baker; treasurer, O. O. Mattson ; attorney, S. N.- 
Reed ; clerk, A. T. Lightner. 

Bakersfield was incorporated as a city of the fifth class, taking the charter 
provided by state law for such cities, and the same charter is in effect still, 
although Bakersfield and Kern have since been consolidated and the com- 



124 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

bined population is far in excess of the number required for a city of the 
fourth class. 

Company G Responds to Duty 

On May 8, 1898, Bakersfield proudly dispatched its first company of citi- 
zen soldiery to the defense of the state. Company G, National Guard, was 
ordered to San Francisco to do garrison duty at San Francisco during the 
progress of the Spanish-American war, and although the men left the armory 
at 5 a. m. they were greeted at the depot by a large body of citizens who gave 
them a farewell breakfast and presented them with a handsome silk flag on 
behalf of those who stayed at home. T. W. Lockhart made the speech of 
presentation. Capt. W. H. Cook made an address in response. The roster 
of the company was as follows : 

Captain, W. H. Cook; second lieutenant. Lucien Beer; first sergeant, 
B. A. Hayden ; second sergeant, H. C. Lechner ; third sergeant, K. C. Mastel- 
ler; fourth sergeant, C. E. Harding; corporals, H. J. Haley, C. L. Dunn, J. G. 
Broom, H. F. Stanley, C. R. Blodget, F. J. Downing and William Reddy; 
privates, L. C. Moon (musician), A. H. Abram, I. Barnes, John Barnes, 
W. Barnes, W. Barnhart, E. H. Bartley, J. L. Benoit, F. F. Blackington, 
H. H. Borem, D. E. Brewer, A. Brundy, A. M. Cammack, E. H. Chandler, 
A. S. Colton, E. R. Crane, A. S. Crites, G. S. Crites, F. W. Crocker, L. Cun- 
ningham, J. R. Daly, T. E. Davis, E. Dixon, R. Dinwiddle, R. Durnal, A. R. 
Elder, D. Fiedler, G. N. Frazier, R. Garner, W. G. Garrison, C. Colby, F. 
Hamilton, W. C. Hewitt, E. A. Hicks, F. M. Hicks, W. F. Hunt, S. A. 
Ice, G. H. Ingles, C. W. Kirk, Bert Kunkelman, O. P. Lindgren, E. 
P. Munsey, F. N. Mills, H. R. McKenzie, W. Olds, C. H. 
Ortte, J. H. Paulke, J. Pennington, W. H. Powers, Lynn Roberts, E. J. Ruddy, 
J. Savage, J. Timson, I. W. Tucker, J. B. Ware, C. W. West, B. F. Whittom, 
J. C. Ashby, C. W. Bollinger, E. Brodley, A. R. ShurtlefT, W. Lakin, C. Man- 
ley, F. J. Kincaid, J. Manning. 

News Notes, 1895 to 1900 

August 29, 1895— J. B. Haggin had deeded to W. B. Carr all his right, 
title and interest in 14,280 acres of swamp land in Kings county. 

Letters from farmers and others published in the newspapers suggest 
general farming as a solution of the troubles of the Rosedale colonists. Es- 
pecially the farmers are urged to raise hogs. 

October 10, 1895 — The Kern River Power Company is surveying for 
its power generating plant on Kern river and for an electric transmission line 
to Los Angeles. 

November 14, 1895 — Mooers, Burcham and Singleton win in a suit attack- 
ing their title to the Yellow Aster mine. 

December, 1895 — W. S. Tevis settles with homesteaders on the Haggin 
swamp lands near Buena Vista, giving them a year's rent free and paying 
them for the improvements on the land. 

Same date — Rights of way are being secured for the Valley railroad. 

June 11, 1896 — The new court house is finished. 

July 16, 1896 — An unsuccessful attempt is made to crack the vault in 
the county treasurer's ofifice. 

July, 1896 — Silas Drouillard finds the St. Elmo mine in the Randsburg 
district and names it for one of his partners, Elmo Pyle. 

September 25, 1896 — The contract is let for the Power, Transit & Light 
Company's substation, and the machinery is ordered from Schenectady. 



F, 



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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 125 

January 28, 1897 — The business of the Bakersfield post office for the 
past year amounted to $74,000. 

December, 1896 — The Bakersfield Creamery is established. 

April 4, 1897 — The electric current is turned on from the power plant in 
the caiion, and the Kern County Land Company is preparing to use the elec- 
tricity for pumping water at Stockdale, to run a cold storage plant at Bellevue, 
and to drive the machinery in its shops in Bakersfield. 

May 10, 1897 — W. B. Carr is found dead in his room in San Francisco 
from asphixiation. 

August, 1897 — The Kern County Land Company is constructing a 
slaughter house and meat-packing establishment at Bellevue. 

April, 1897 — The Bakersfield Labor Exchange is organized. 

September 23, 1897 — The Land Company is laying pipes for a new water 
system in Bakersfield. 

October 28, 1897 — S. C. Smith has secured the last deed for the right of 
way for the San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley railroad. 

December, 1897 — H. E. Huntington says that the Southern Pacific is 
willing to build a loop into Bakersfield and build a depot nearer the business 
section. 148 citizens signed a petition asking W. S. Tevis to use his influence 
to prevent the proposed loop and depot from being built. 

May 12. 1898 — Company G of the National Guard goes to San Francisco 
lor duty in the Spanish American war. 

May 27, 1898 — The arrival of the Valley railroad is celebrated in Bakers- 
field with a parade, floats, wild west show, speeches and fireworks. 

July 14. 1898 — Fire, starting in the California theater, lays waste the 
larger part of the business section of Kern city. 

November, 1899 — The paving of the streets in the business section of the 
city is in progress. 

During October, 1899, 323 oil land locations were recorded in the county. 

Bakersfield is soon to have free mail delivery. 

Levee agitation is active. 

W. S. Tevis and others make tender of sites for city parks, but all of 
them are rejected for one reason or another. 

January 12, 1900 — The corner stone of the Woman's Club Hall is laid. 

January, 1900 — Oil land locators begin to have trouble with scrippers. 

February, 1900 — The electric road between Bakersfield and Kern is soon 
to be started. 

March, 1900 — The Southern Pacific has begun the use of oil as fuel in its 
engines. 

March 16, 1900— Solomon Jewett, H. A. Blodget, L. P. St. Clair, C. N. 
Beal and F. T. Whorfif incorporate the Sunset Railroad Company to build 
a road to the Sunset oil fields where Jewett & Blodget are largely interested 
in development work. 

]\Iarch 26, 1900 — Truxtun Beale presents to the city of Bakersfield a deed 
to the Beale Memorial public library. 



126 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

CHAPTER XIV 
Development of Oil Fields 

Ask the first man you meet on the streets of Bakersfield what gave the 
town its great boost forward about the year 1900, and he is very likely to 
answer that it was the discovery of the oil fields. Perhaps he will be more 
specific and say the discovery of the Kern river oil field. In either case, how- 
ever, he will be very far from the actual, historic truth as to the date of these 
discoveries. Titus Fey Cronise's "The Natural Wealth of California," pub- 
lished in 1868 by Bancroft & Company at San Francisco, states that from 
Fort Tejon to Kern river, a distance of forty miles and extending out a 
space of ten miles from the Coast range, the country is covered with salt 
marshes, brine and petroleum springs. Petroleum and asphalt deposits, the 
same authority continues, extend from San Emidio canon to Buena Vista 
lake (so named by the Spaniards in 1806) the main deposit being eighteen 
miles southeast of the lake. At that place there was a spring of maltha 
covering an acre in extent, the center of which was a viscid pool, agitated by 
gas, and the outer edge of which was hardened into stony asphalt, full of the 
bones of beasts. Works erected here, Cronise says, produced in 1864 several 
thousand barrels of good oil, which was shipped to San Francisco. The 
great cost of transportation prevented the enterprise from being a financial 
success. 

About the same date R. M. Gilbert took a barrel of thick, tarry oil out of 
an oil spring on the north bank of Kern river at the lower edge of the present 
Kern river field and hauled it to Solomon Jewett's sheep ranch a few miles 
up the river to mark the sheep with. On April 23. 1872, J. O. Lovejoy 
deeded to the Buena Vista Petroleum Company all his right, title and interest 
in a certificate of purchase dated April 3, 1872, for 640 acres in the northeast 
quarter and the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section nineteen ; 
the west half and the southeast quarter of the northwest quarter, the east half 
and the northwest quarter of the southwest quarter and the southwest quarter 
of the southeast quarter of section twenty, and the northeast quarter of sec- 
tion twenty-nine, all in township thirty, south of range twenty-two. This 
comprised the heart of the old McKittrick field, where many of the present 
producing wells are located, and the exact description of the land is given to 
show that even in those days the oil men had learned to "lay the ruler diagon- 
ally across the sections from northwest to southeast" when they studied 
their maps. 

This is sufficient to show that thirty or thirty-five years before the first 
big oil boom in Kern county oil had been discovered in all the great fields of 
the present day except Midwa}' and Lost Hills. Moreover, six years before the 
oil boom in 1899, when the Kern river field was uncovered and oil began 
to be the principal subject of interest in Kern county, the quiet, laborious 
and not too profitable development of the oil and asphalt industry at McKit- 
trick and Sunset had reached such a stage that the McKittrick railroad had 
been built and the Sunset road was projected. The big oil boom was not, ac- 
cordingly, so much a boom of discovery as a boom due to the ripening of mar- 
ket conditions and the revival of industrial enterprise and expansion after the 
financial depression of 1893-4. Similarly all the later booms have depended as 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 127 

much on outside conditions as on the bringing- in of wells in new territory. 
Whenever the market has demanded more oil and the price offered has been 
tempting the oil industry of Kern county has risen to the emergency, and 
there is now every reason to believe that future renewals of the same' con- 
ditions will stimulate the industry to renewed activity until the county's oil 
production reaches several times its present great aggregate. 

Early Development at McKittrick 

Aside from the unprofitable efforts of the war-time oil prospectors already 
referred to, the first development of the Kern county oil deposit was in the 
early 70s when a company of Italians from Mariposa county built a crude 
refinery at McKittrick, sunk shafts into the beds of asphaltum and dug some 
shallow wells in search of oil. 

It was the natural thing that development should begin at this place, 
for near the present site of the town of McKittrick violent upheavals of the 
earth in ages past had rent and torn the strata leaving a great body of oil 
sand exposed. From this oil sand the crude petroleum qozed and flowed 
gently over the broken edge of the hill, thickening as the sun and air ex- 
tracted the lighter elements and finally forming great masses oi natural as- 
phalt, pure and clean except for the sand and dust that the winds carried into 
it. At no other place in the county were the oil sands so largely exposed, 
and nowhere else were the surface evidences of petroleum so conspicuous and 
extensive. It was only a matter of quarrying to obtain the asphalt in great 
quantities, and the early operators sought only enough oil to serve as a flux 
for the heavier product that Nature had prepared in her own laboratory. At 
one place the Italians drove a tunnel eighty feet into a mass of asphalt that 
had flow^ed over the edge of a little caiion, but at that time there was no 
railroad in the valley, and it was altogether out of the question to reach a 
profitable market. 

Following the building of the Southern Pacific and the beginning of new- 
enterprises in Kern county with the capital of Livermore & Redington and 
J. B. Haggin, the Columbian Oil Company was organized by Solomon Jewett, 
F. R. Fillebrown, Dr. George F. Thornton, J. Q. Parke, Alfonse and Jacob 
\\'eill and others and a well was started on section 13, 30-21, on what is now 
known as the Del Monte property. Parke, who was a civil engineer, had 
some experience in the Pennsylvania oil fields, and was the prime mover in 
the enterprise of the Columbian. The company drilled to a depth of 800 
feet, but by that time the gas pressure had become so strong that the drillers 
were unable to go deeper with the imperfect machinery then obtainable. The 
derrick was moved to section 24, and a contract made for a hole 1000 feet 
deep. The result was a clean, dry hole with neither gas nor oil nor any other 
valuable product. 

Operators Move to Sunset 
The Columbian abandoned the field, and in 1890 the derrick was moved 
to Sunset, where Jewett & Blodget had begun operations. The first activity 
at Sunset began in 1889, when Solomon Jewett, H. A. Blodget, John Ham- 
bleton, Judge J. O. Lovejoy, J. H. Woody, William F. W^oods "and others 
located 2000 acres of land along the edge of the hills northwest and southeast 
of Old Sunset, organized the Sunset Oil Company, and started a well on sec- 



128 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

tion 2, 11-24, about half a mile west of where the fine producing wells of the 
Adeline Extension were subsequently brought in. 

This first well was drilled by William DeWitt of Tulare, and was located, 
as was the case of nearly all the earlier wells, in a bed of brea, just at the 
point where the oil sands outcropped. DeWitt got a strong flow of sulphur 
water at 300 feet and abandoned the well. Had he moved his derrick a little 
farther to the east he would have developed an oil well at a very shallow 
depth, but instead he found another bed of brea on section 21, 11-23, about 
five miles southeast of his first location, and started drilling there. At a 
depth of 100 feet the drill went into a very heavy oil that rose in the casing 
and oozed over the top. 

Meantime Jewett & Blodget and Charles Bernard of Ventura county se- 
cured a lease on the Sunset Oil Company's 2000 acres of land, and Bernard, 
who had gained some experience in the Ventura oil fields, took over the De- 
Witt outfit and began a new well close to the second hole which was drilled 
by the latter on section 21. By the time Bernard had gone down 300 feet he 
had three strings of tools in the well, and decided that it was cheaper to move 
than to fish them out. He took his derrick to section 13, 11-24, drilled down 
300 feet, got a flowing sulphur water well, and sold his interest in the lease 
to Jewett & Blodget. 

Blodget then took charge of the development of the Sunset field, bought 
the rig of the Columbian Oil Company at McKittrick, and drilled a number 
of small wells along the edge of the outcroppings near Old Sunset. None 
of the wells yielded much oil, but the total output was sufficient to supply the 
flux for making asphalt, and in 1891 the Jewett & Blodget refinery was 
established at Old Sunset. The natural asphalt was quarried as at Mc- 
Kittrick and melted in open kettles with a small amount of crude oil as a 
flux. Then the hot asphalt was drawn off into wooden boxes, and the settlings 
of dirt and sand were shovelled out of the kettles ready for another batch. The 
asphalt was hauled to Bakersfield by teams of sixteen to twenty-four horses 
and shipped east. 

McKittrick Railroad Built 

The expense of this method of transportation was so great that Jewett 
& Blodget through H. F. Williams and A. N. Towne began negotiations with 
the Southern Pacific for a railroad to Sunset and one to McKittrick, where 
Jewett & Blodget were operating also to some extent. The result was an 
agreement in 1892 by which the railroad undertook to build a road to Mc- 
Kittrick within two years, and another to Sunset within five years, Jewett 
& Blodget to secure the right of way and guarantee sufficient business to pay 
the operating expenses. As a part of the agreement, also, the Standard As- 
phalt Company was organized with Jewett & Blodget and the railroad com- 
pany as equal partners. Later the agreement as to the building of the roads 
was amended by the Southern Pacific beginning the construction of the Mc- 
Kittrick branch at once and the Sunset branch construction being postponed 
indefinitely. The AIcKittrick road was completed in 1893, just in time for 
the financial panic to offset by reduced demand for asphalt the advantage 
of better transportation facilities. The operations of the Standard Asphalt 
Company did not pay, and the partnership between Jewett & Blodget and 
the railroad was dissolved, Jewett & Blodget going back to Sunset and the 
railroad takiner the McKittrick end of the business. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 129 

Jewett & Blodget kept plodding- away in the Sunset field, bringing in 
small, shallow wells near the outcroppings, and in 1895 they had a production 
that justified them putting in stills for the manufacture of asphalt. These 
operations comprised the whole of the oil business in Kern county until 1898, 
when McWhorter, Doheny and others of the advance guard of the first rush 
of oil men began to explore the west side. In 1899 the oil excitement had 
spread from the south and from Coalinga. There was much talk of the Mc- 
Kittrick field and many visitors and prospectors were arriving there from all 
parts of the state. 

One of the men who invested in AIcKittrick was Judson F. Elwood of 
Fresno, who bought a few shares in one of the early companies and went to 
see what the property looked like. On his way home he stopped to visit his 
brother, James Munroe Elwood, who was keeping a small wood yard in 
Bakersfield. Judson told his brother about his McKittrick oil venture, and 
remarked that the country north of Kern river looked much as it did at 
AIcKittrick. James Elwood's interest was further excited by overhearing two 
men discussing the story of the oil spring from which Gilbert took the tar 
to mark Jewett's sheep in the '60s. He made inquiries of Thomas A. Means, 
who owned land along the north side of the river, and Means told him that 
the Kern County Land Company, in excavating for a ditch years before, had 
uncovered oil sand and that gas had been seen bubbling up in the waters 
of the river. The exposed oil sand had long been recovered, however, and the 
gas was seen no more. Means for a long time past had been seeking to in- 
terest someone in the oil prospects on the north side of the river, and had 
shown E. L. Doheny and W. S. Tevis over the land without result. Accord- 
ingly he was only too glad to give James Elwood a favorable lease, and 
Elwood wrote to his father, Jonathan Elwood, who was living in Fresno 
county and who was an old prospector, to come and help him find the Kern 
river oil. 

Discovery of the Kern River Field 

In a letter to the California Oil World published August 24, 1911, Jon- 
athan Elwood tells the story of the discovery in these words : 

"James Munroe Elwood and I, Jonathan Elwood, alone and without the 
assistance of anyone, discovered oil on the north bank of Kern river, seven 
miles northeast of Bakersfield on Thomas A. Means' farm. This was in 
May, 1899. We made the discovery with a hand auger, under the edge of a 
clifif, close to the river. Our auger consisted of a piece of thin steel about 
four inches wide and twisted so as to bore a hole about three inches in 
diameter. 

"We had a short piece of one-half inch iron rod, making the bit and rod 
together four feet long. A screw was cut on the end of this rod to receive a 
one-half inch gas pipe which we had cut in four and eight-foot lengths, so we 
could bore one and the other alternately and never have our auger handle 
more than four feet above the ground. We bored a number of holes fifteen or 
twenty feet deep and every time would bore into water sand that we could 
not keep on our auger. 

"We concluded that the bank must have slid dowm and that we w^ere 
boring where the river had once been. We then went where the bank was 
worn ofif by the river perpendicularlv thirty feet. We dug back into the bluff 
as if making a tunnel three or four feet, and set our auger on solid formation 
8 



130 HISTORY Ol' KERX COUNTY 

and in three hours we were in oil sand at a depth of only thirteen feet. We 
had enough auger stem with us to go on to a depth of twenty-five feet and it 
was looking well. 

"We then went up onto the blufif and commenced a shaft, and at the 
depth of forty-three feet we again struck the oil sand. We were then obliged 
to get timber and curb as we went down, as the oil sand was too soft to stand 
up. We were obliged to put in an air blast to furnish fresh air to the man 
below on account of the strong odor of gas. At a depth of seventy-five feet 
there was so much oil and gas that we concluded we had better get a steam 
rig. We got this and went down 343 feet. 

"By this time men were coming there from all over the state, locating 
government land and quarreling over first rights, jumping some that we had 
located, three or four claims deep. The shaft furnished us with oil to run 
our own steam rig also rigs for several of the locators. The first oil taken 
away was when I took four whiskey barrels of it to Kern city and shipped it 
to Millwood for skid grease, getting $1 a barrel net." 

As Mr. Elwood says, by that time people were coming to Kern county 
from all parts of the state, and very soon after they were coming from all 
parts of the world. The boom resulted in development that soon proved the 
land over the great Kern river oil pool, and scattered derricks north along the 
low hills as far as Poso creek. It extended to the Sunset and McKittrick 
fields, and spread a line of prospectors all across the territory between, which 
soon took the name of Midway. 

Sunset Railroad Built 

In March, 1900, Solomon Jewett, H. A. Blodget, L. P. St. Clair, C. N. Real 
and F. T. WhorlT incorporated the Sunset Railroad Company, and Deal, who 
formerly had been in the employ of the Santa Fe railroad, undertook to in- 
terest President Ripley of the Santa Fe in the Sunset branch. This he suc- 
ceeded in doing, and arrangements were made to float a bond issue of $300,- 
000, guaranteed by the Santa Fe. Before the plan was carried out, however, 
the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific entered into an agreement to build and 
operate jointly all branch or feeder roads terminating at common points. 
This agreement and the death of C. P. Huntington, president of the Southern 
Pacific, delayed the building of the Sunset road until 1902. 

The Southern Pacific in December, 1899, began building the short branch 
from its main line west of the Kern river field into the lower part of the pro- 
ducing territory, where oil from all the leases higher up could be delivered 
by gravity or small pumping power to the loading racks. By these means 
all the producing fields of the county had rail transportation by the latter 
part of 1902 except Midway, which was then hardly in the producing class. 

Begin Building Pipe Lines 

In the spring of 1902, also, the Standard Oil Company began its eight-inch 
pipe line from the Kern river field to Point Richmond, and in October or 
November it was practically ready for use, thus afifording a large additional 
means of handling the oil. But the production of oil and the means for 
handling it increased much faster than did the markets. In 1902 the Kern 
county fields produced 9,705,703 barrels of oil. In 1903 the amount had jumped 
to over 18.000,000 barrels. The production of the state was nearly 14,000,- 
000 barrels in 1902, and in 1903 it was over 24.000,000 barrels. The result of 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 131 

this tremendous increase m the supply of a commodity which the state had 
been getting along without only a very few years before could have but one 
consequence— a rapid and steady declme in price. In spite of the decline the 
impetus that the mdustry had gained from the first excitement carried it 
to a production of 19,600,000 barrels in Kern county in 1904. 

Then the prices went to complete ruin, and the Standard Oil Company 
built great earthen reservoirs-holding a half million to a million barrels each 
—and began filling them with oil at fifteen, twelve and a half, and finally at 
eleven and two-thirds cents per barrel. Bankruptcy stared the producers in 
the face. 

Associated Oil Company Formed 

With the first appearance of the Standard on the horizon of the Cali- 
fornia oil mdustry a number of producing companies in the Kern river and 
other fields joined in the organization of the Associated Oil Company the 
avowed object of which was protection from the aggressions of larger 'con- 
cerns and economy and efficiency in the marketing of its oil. The Associated 
early effected an alliance with the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and 
at the time of the depression in 1904 it occupied a position of great strength as 
compared with the independent, unorganized producers. In fact the^Iarge 
factors m the oil situation in the state at that time were recognized to be the 
Standard, the Associated, the Union Oil Company, the Southern Pacific Rail- 
road and the Pacific Oil & Transportation Company. 

It was early in August. 1904, that the Standard announced that it would 
pay eleven and two-thirds cents for oil in the Kern river field. Although the 
Associated and Standard were commonly supposed to have a working Agree- 
ment by which each steered clear of competition with the other officers of 
the former company gave out that for the sake of accommodating the pro- 
ducer It would pay fifteen cents. About the same time W. S. Porter, general 
manager of the Associated, estimated the overproduction of oil in the state 
at 8.000,000 barrels per year. On August 15th the Standard, which was at 
that time completing storage reservoirs in the Kern river field at the rate of 
one half-million barrel reservoir per month, announced that it did not care 
to buy Kern river oil at any price. 

Independent Agency Organized 

Oil men estimated that under twenty-five cents per barrel they could not 
produce oil, pay expenses and set aside the sinking fund to meet the value of 
their investments against the time the wells went dry. The plan of shutting 
down the wells was generally discussed, but for many of the companies this 
was wholly out of the question, either because they had leases that required 
the operation of the property or because they had creditors who would not 
consent to wait for their money. On August 23d the Morning Echo of 
Bakersfield printed an interview with H. H. Blood, one of the best known 
of the early operators in the Kern river field, in which the organization of 
the producers was strongly urged, not for the purpose of fighting, as Blood 
pointed out. but for the purpose of facilitating the sale of oil and to prevent 
the indiscrimmate, disorganized competition by means of which the pro- 
ducers were constantly opposing each others' interests. 

Blood's suggestion formed a stable point around which the random 
discussion of the situation began to crystalize, and that evening, on the 



132 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

initiative of W. D. Young, a meeting of oil men was called at the National 
Oil Supply Company's office to talk the matter over. The meeting was organ- 
ized by the election of W. S. Morton as chairman and W. D. Young as sec- 
retary, and the secretary was instructed to send out invitations to the inde- 
pendent producers of the state asking them to meet in Bakersfield on Sep- 
tember 1st for the purpose of forming a permanent organization. On the date 
named representatives of forty-four companies met at the Southern hotel 
parlor, elected Timothy Spellacy chairman and W. D. Young secretary and 
appointed a committee to name a committee of five on organization. 

At that meeting it was stated that between 9,000,000 and 10,000,000 
barrels of oil were stored in the Kern river field, mostly in the reservoirs of 
the Standard. The next day, however, the committee on organization decided 
that the job was too big for it, and another meeting was called for Sep- 
tember Sth to name a committee of ten to draft a plan for the new concern. 
This committee, duly appointed and consisting of T. Spellacy, T. Earley, 
AI. V. McQuigg, W. B. Robb, A. H. Liscomb, C. H. Ritchie, W. W. Steven- 
son, F. W. McNear, I. E. Segur and H. U. Maxfield, met on September 10th, 
with all members present, and spent the whole day and until 10 o'clock at 
night in deliberating over the task. A further meeting was held next day, 
and lawyers were called in counsel, among them being George W. Lane, who 
remained with the organization as its attorney until the present day. 

The result of all these serious and extended conferences was the formal 
organization of the Independent Oil Producers' Agency on November 3, 1904. 
On that date incorporation papers were filed in Sacramento having 
first been filed in Kern county, and the following officers were 
elected: President, M. V. McQuigg; first vice president, Timothy Spellacy; 
second vice president, F. F. Weed ; secretary, A. H. Liscomb ; treasurer, W. 

B. Robb; auditing committee, W. H. Hill, T. Turner and J. Benson Wrenn. 
The directors for the first year, each representing a producing oil 
company, were Timothy Spellacy, W. B. Robb, A. H. Liscomb, W. S. Morton, 

C. H. Ritchie, W. W. Stevenson, L. P. St. Clair, Jr., S. P. Wible, W. H. 
Hill, G. J. Planz, Lesser Hirshfeld, W. A. Ferguson, E. E. Jones, C. C. Bowles, 
J. F. Lucey, J. B. Batz, T. O. Turner, C. A. Barlow, H. A. Jastro, J. Benson 
Wrenn, W. D. Young, T. V. Doub, L. E. Doan, E. Dinkelspiel, Thomas 
Earley, J. F. Ker, F. F. Weed, L. Woodbury, E. Denicke, G. W. Lane, A. J. 
Wallace, M. V. McQuigg, T. M. Gardner, F. P. Fuller and F. N. Scofield. 

The organization, which has had so large a part and influence in the 
making of subsequent history in Kern county as to require especial detail in 
its description, was organized on a plan conspicuous both for its strength 
and its democracy. Each constituent company signed a lease of its property 
to the Agency for a period of five years, and the Agency executed a license 
and agreement giving each company the right to operate its own property, 
the Agency, however, reserving the right to handle and dispose of all the 
oil produced. Each constituent company was given one share of stock in the 
Agency, entitling it to one vote in all stockholders' meetings. The unique 
feature of this arrangement was that no matter whether the Agency company 
owned a* thousand acres of oil land and was producing 100,000 barrels per 
month or had a lease on two and a half acres and was producing 1000 barrels 
per month it had the same voice and vote in the management of the afifairs 
of the Agency. It is a matter of history, also, that the Agency has been 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY I33 

remarkable throughout ahiiost its entire career so far for the free publicity 
which has been given to its affairs and its deliberations. A great percentage 
of Its directors' meetings at which matters of vital importance have been 
discussed have been with open doors and with representatives of the press 
occupying seats about a table in the foreground. Whether or not it has been 
in any degree a result of this policy, it is a fact that the Agency, struggling 
at all times to increase the price of its product, has had the universal good- 
will of the people of the state, including the "ultimate consumer," who is 
usually supposed to be hostile to any movement for an advance in prices. 

The first plan of the Agency was not to go into the business of marketing 
of oil, and its first sales contract was with the Associated. After two weeks 
of negotiations with the executive committee of the Agency, the Associated 
agreed, on December 23. 1904. to buy. at eighteen cents per barrel, sixty per 
cent of the Agency's total output for the year, estimated at 3.500.003 barrels, 
and to store the other forty per cent at a reasonable rate. 

In view of the fact that the producers had been declaring that oil could 
not be produced under twenty-five cents per barrel and meet all expenses and 
depreciation, this contract was not hailed with absolute satisfaction. It was 
agreed, however, that the executive committee had done as well as it could 
under the circumstances, and the situation was accepted with good grace. 

The low price, hard as it bore on the individual producers, had two good 
effects on the market. It discouraged production and it encouraged consump- 
tion. The production in the Kern countv fields fell off from 19.600,000 barrels 
in 1904 to 14.487,967 barrels in 1905. In 1906 the Kern county production was 
almost the same, and the production throughout the state increased only 
3,600.000 barrels from 1904 to 1906, inclusive. 

On the completion of the first year's contract with the Associated it 
was renewed at twenty-seven and a half cents per barrel, the half cent 
representing the cost of handling the oil by the Agencv. The increase in price 
was very gratifying to the independents, but it did not result, as we have 
seen, m any great immediate increase in production. The prices for the two 
years, however, did permit the marketers to extend the use of oil to new fields 
with the result that all the stock oil in the state except what was stored in 
the Standard's reservoirs, was well cleaned up by the spring of 1908. and L. 
P. St. Clair, then president of the Agency and charged with the sale of the 
independent oil. was able to close a contract with W. S. Porter of the Asso- 
ciated for two years on the basis of sixty and a half cents for the first vear and 
sixty-three and a half cents for the second year. 

The new prices gave the oil producer some of the rewards which his 
toil and waiting had justified, and they also excited the imaginations of oil 
producers, promoters and the investing public generallv with visions of 
wealth to be taken from the Kern county oil fields. Pumps were started 
everywhere. Air compressors were installed on leases in the Kern river 
field where the wells had fallen off in their yield or had gone to water, and 
in many instances their oil productivity was revived. DriHs began dropping 
everywhere, and Bakersfield felt the blood of a new boom quickening in her 
veins. In 1907 the oil production of the countv was 15,600.000 barrels. In 1908 
It had jumped to 17,800.000 barrels, and in 1910 it reached the tremendous 
total of 39,958,000 barrels. 

Fortunately the increase throughout the state did not keep pace with 



134 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the increase in Kern county. Elsewhere the fields were restricted or devel- 
opment expensive or both, and so it happened that of the entire gain in 
yield throughout the state in 1910, five-sixths was credited to Kern county. 
This great increase in output was due only in part to the activity in drilling 
which the higher prices for oil stimulated. Operators working farther out 
from the hills to the north of Alaricopa and in the Midway valley north, 
northwest and east of Taft began reaching the great gusher sands and brought 
in the remarkable procession of flowing wells that made the year 1910 and the 
latter part of the year 1909 famous in the history of California oil. It is 
literally true that many producers got a great deal more oil than they 
expected to get which is saying much, indeed. 

As early as the spring of 1909 the men close to the marketing end of the 
industry began to sound a note of warning against another period of over- 
production, but it always has been hard for producers to curb their native 
instinct to get more oil so long as they had money in the bank to pay the 
bills, and there is something about an oil gusher that fires the imagination 
of the most staid and commonplace of men and makes him a plunger for the 
time being. Two other circumstances lured the oil men on to greater and 
greater activity in drilling new land. The bringing in of the great flowing 
wells of the Midway valley and the development of great gas wells in the 
Buena \"ista hills in the latter part of 1909 proved that the oil measures 
crossed the valley from the older portions of Midway and Sunset and rose 
in an anticline beneath the Buena Vista hills. This meant a great extension of 
the practically proven territory, and not only did operators rush in to hold 
all the land within the newly proven strip, but they located everything far 
out on the Elk hills, to the north of McKittrick and to the east of Sunset and 
Old Sunset. Then came the oil land withdrawal of September, 1909, which 
was interpreted as permitting the development of claims on which rights more 
or less shadowy had at that time been secured, but which plainly denied the 
right to any subsequent location of oil claims within the territory described in 
this order. This made it necessary to do something toward development in 
order to hold down the claims already entered, and most of the locators who 
were able to do so either began drilling themselves or leased their claims 
to someone who could proceed with development for them. Others who could 
do neither built cabins or derricks on their land or did some other work which 
they could swear was in line with and necessary to actual drilling. 

The Boom of 1910 

All these considerations and necessities brought about, on the night 
of December 31, 1909, a great rush of locators to the west side fields and 
especially to the Elk and Buena Vista hills. The rush was not heralded, but 
as dusk fell autos loaded with armed men and camping outfits began rolling 
out of Bakersfield and the west side towns, and on the morning of January 1, 
1910, the desert hills were well sprinkled with tents, armed guards and stake? 
from which fluttered the little, white location notices. Nearly all this land 
had been located before in earlier booms, sometimes bv the same narties and 
sometimes by others, and on some of the land were many conflicting claims. 
This conflict of interest caused manv encounters and manv threats of violence, 
but for the most part actual hostilities were avoided or the rival forces lay on 
their arms behind their entrenchments while their principals got together 
and divided the land or efifected a compromise on some other basis. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 135 

The whole effect of the oil boom of the spring of 1910 was to bring a 
rush of people to Bakersfield and the oil fields that would have done justice 
to any gold excitement in the history of the state. In fact the Nevada mining 
camps gave up a large share of their population to swell the rush to Bakers- 
field. All the hotel accommodations of Bakersfield, Maricopa and McKittrick 
were swamped. Taft, in the Midway field, sprang into existence during the 
year 1909 and in 1910 claimed the supremacy from Maricopa and McKittrick, 
both of which had been small but prosperous little towns since the first oil 
boom. All the lumber yards of the county were exhausted and train loads of 
derrick timbers were hurried here from all points of supply on the coast. 
The oil well supply houses were almost equally depleted. Strings of big 
teams made new roads radiating fanwise to the northward of Maricopa, Taft 
and McKittrick, and autos kept perpetual clouds of dust hanging over the 
roads from Bakersfield to the west side. Bakersfield experienced the greatest 
building boom in its history, and the new houses were filled as soon as they 
were ready for occupancy. 

Meantime important things were happening at the end of the industry 
where oil is turned into dollars. In June, 1909, an agreement was made be- 
tween the Union Oil Company, the Independent Oil Producers' Agency of 
Kern county and a similar agency which had been formed among the producers 
of Coalinga whereby the Union became a member of the agencies, putting its 
Kern county property into the Kern county Agency and its Coalinga properties 
into the Coalinga Agency, and also undertook to act as sales agent for the 
oil produced by both Agencies for a period of ten years beginning February 
1, 1910. The agreement included also the formation of the Producers' Trans- 
portation Company, and bound the Agency for a period of ten years to 
deliver its oil to the latter for transportation at certain rates fixed in the agree- 
ment. The Union was allowed by the agreement a commission of ten per 
cent on all sales of oil made for the Agency. An arbitration committee pro- 
vided for in the agreement gave the representatives of the Agencies a direct 
voice in the making of contracts and as a matter of fact, L. P. St. Clair, pres- 
ident of the Kern county Agency (and later of the consolidated Agency, 
when the Kern county and Coalinga organizations were joined in one) has 
been the active selling agent so far in the life of the Union-Independent con- 
tract. 

The Producers' Transportation Company, provided for in the Union- 
Independent agreement, built during the winter of 1909-10 a pipe line con- 
necting all the Kern county fields and Coalinga with the ocean at Port Har- 
ford. The Associated meantime had completed its Coalinga-Port Costa pine 
line down the w-est side to McKittrick and Midway, the Standard had ex- 
tended its pine line from Kern river to Midway and McKittrick and was 
planning to duplicate the entire line from the west side fields through Kern 
river to Point Richmond. 

All these pipe lines and the railroads reaching every field in the valley 
furnished the necessary transportation facilities, and the chief problem re- 
mained the expansion of the market to consume the oil produced. As a means 
of further organization of the marketing end of the industry the Agency, 
not long after the signing of the Union-Independent agreement, took into its 
fold the Doheny companies, the American Oilfields, the American Petroleum, 
the Nevada Petroleum and other big factors in the state's production, and 



136 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

late in 1910 an agreement was negotiated between L. P. St. Clair and the 
Associated Oil Company officials whereby the Associated became practically 
a partner with the Union-Independents in the marketing business. 

Briefly, the Associated-Union-Independent agreement — which was made a 
month to month affair, revocable by either party on notice — makes the Asso- 
ciated the selling agent for the Union-Independents for all the latter's unsold 
oil. The Union-Independents were to retain all their present business, the 
Associated was to retain all its present business, and so fast as the Asso- 
ciated took new contracts (which were subject to approval by the Union- 
Independents) they were to be assigned to the Union-Independents until such 
time as the monthly sales of the Union-Independents should equal the monthly 
sales of the Associated. After that the new business taken was to be divided 
equally. Under a separate contract the Associated agreed to purchase from 
the Union-Independents (which is to say the Agency) all oil which it might 
need outside its own production and present contracts to supply its sales 
contracts. 

The eft'ect of all these agreements was to make but two large factors 
in the oil industry of the coast, the Agency-Union- Associated combination and 
the Standard Oil Company. It is stated unofficially that an effort was made 
to bring the Standard into a harmonious agreement with the others to pre- 
serve and regulate the oil market in the interest of stability of price and 
production, but while the Standard's Pacific Coast representatives were dis- 
posed to look favorably on the proposition it was turned down quickly and 
decidedly when submitted to 26 Broadway for approval. 

Getting the Markets Organized 

By this organization of the marketing arrangements it has been possible 
to effect a very great saving in the expense of handling the oil. Competition 
of the small, vexatious, mutually expensive sort has been eliminated to a very 
great extent, and by the ability to insure prompt and unfailing deliveries of 
oil in large quantities it has become possible to obtain contracts from large 
consumers of fuel who could not be reached by individual producing com- 
panies or even by smaller combinations of such companies. At the present 
time the larger fuel consumers of the entire state are practically all using 
California fuel oil, and the same is true of western \\^ashington and Oregon 
except in the immediate vicinity of the coal mines or in the heavy timber 
districts. All the railroads having Pacific Coast terminals are burning oil 
in their engines. The northern railroads have installed but a comparatively 
few oil burners as yet. but the way is opened for a great extension of the 
market in this direction. Oil is used by the steamships plying between the 
Hawaiian islands and the mainland, and by coastwise vessels, and it is be- 
lieved to be but a matter of a short time before oil will constitute a large part, 
at least, of the fuel of the trans-Pacific liners. California oil has found markets 
in Arizona and the northern part of Mexico, and has reached down along the 
w'est coast of South America. 

Efforts to Check Overproduction 

But all these extensions of the field of consumption have not sufficed to 
utilize all the increase in the production and all during 1910 and the earlv 
part of 1911 the stocks in the hands of the Agencv continued to increase. Oil 
produced outside the Agencv companies, the Associated, and the Southern 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 137 

J^acitic and Santa Fe railroads has been sold chiefly to the Standard in the 
last few years, and that company also has added greatly to its stocks on 
hand. Early in the present year the Agency adopted a resolution that in the 
future only so much oil should be received from the constituent companies 
each month as would equal in aggregate the sales of the preceding month. 
Companies producing more than their share of the deliveries on this basis 
have been obliged to store their own oil or shut down their wells to the 
required output. By this means a halt has been called in the increase of 
surplus oil. but the restriction of production is not wholly satisfactory, and 
the Agency is now working on the details of a plan for providing 10,090,000 
barrels of storage for its excess oil and other plans which it is hoped may 
permit the companies to develop and pump their properties without restraint. 

The oil land withdrawals already referred to have served, also, as a bar- 
rier against over-production, although their effect will be more apparent 
in the future than at the present time. Very briefly the history of the oil 
land withdrawals follows : 

Oil Land Withdrawals 

During the summer of 1909 the news of bringing in of great flowing 
w^ells on land only recently taken up from the public domain under the placer 
mining laws began to drift east and acting in conjunction with the great 
popular demand for the conservation of natural resources and the retention 
of the title to natural resources by the government, prompted the summary 
withdrawal from further entry of all the public land in the San Joaquin valley 
which was held to be oil bearing by the government geologists. This with- 
drawal order was dated September 27. 1909. 

Strange or not. as the reader may consider it. little attention was paid 
to the withdrawal order except to stimulate claimants under locations made 
prior to the order to begin drilling or to induce others to begin drilling on 
their account. It was variously held that the executive department exceeded 
its authority in making the order without express authority from Congress, 
or that the order did not forbid drilling on lands which had been covered 
by previous locations. ]\Iost of the larger companies took leases on with- 
drawn land from men who held it under these previous locations, and either 
began drilling or indicated their intention to do so by building cabins or 
other improvements thereon and establishing guards or "lease herders" in 
charge. Smaller companies, assuming that the big fellow^s were acting under 
competent legal advice, did the same. 

The Pickett Bill 

The ensuing Congress passed what is known as the Pickett l)ill. which 
gave to the President authority to withdraw oil lands from entry, but which 
contained the following provision : 

"Provided, That the rights of any person who, at the date of withdrawal 
heretofore made, is a bona fide occupant or claimant of oil or gas-bearing lands 
and who, at such date, is in diligent prosecution of work leading to discovery 
of oil or gas — shall not be afifected or impaired by such order, so long as such 
occupant or claimant shall continue in diligent prosecution of such work." 

Following the passage of the Pickett bill. President Taft made a new 
withdrawal order, dated July 2, 1910, which included all the lands covered 
by the previous order. Subsequently other withdrawals were made, estab- 
lishing the fact that the administration's policy was to withdraw all land in 



138 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the public domain on which there was any reason to suppose that oil might 
be found. 

The Yard Decision 

Further adding to the rigors of the situation as affecting oil land locators, 
a ruling was made by the general land oftice officials to the effect that there 
could be no valid location of land mider the placer mining laws prior to the 
actual discovery of the oil or other mineral for which it was taken up, and 
another (known far and wide as the Yard decision) to the effect that "a placer 
location for 160 acres, made by eight persons and subsequently transferred to a 
single individual, in\alid because not preceded by discovery, cannot be per- 
fected ])y the transferee upon a subsequent discovery." 

Smith Remedial Bill 

By the spring of 1911 the number of acres included in the oil land with- 
draw^als had reached the enormous aggregate of nearly four and a half million. 
It should be at once understood, first that hundreds of thousands of acres 
included in the withdrawals probably will never yield a drop of oil, and second 
that the withdrawals were made in blanket fashion and included in the de- 
scriptions of land sent out great tracts which had been patented under home- 
stead claims, railroad grants and otherwise many years before. Nevertheless 
the withdrawals included an immense amount of undoubted oil land, the title 
to which remained in the government, and by far the greater part of this land 
is in Kern county. In very many cases oil companies had spent from $10,000 
to $100,C00 and upward in development w^ork on land to which they would 
have not the slightest title under these rulings and withdrawals, and the 
question of legislation for the relief of these companies and of locators of oil 
land generally became the most urgent public matter in Kern county and 
among oil men throughout the state. A committee of oil men was sent to 
\\'ashington to present the case of the locators and developers to the federal 
authorities and with their aid Congressman S. C. Smith (^f the Eighth Cali- 
fornia district, whose home was in Bakersfield, succeeded in securing the 
passage cf the Smith remedial oil land bill, which nullified the effects of 
the Yard decision so far as oil lands are concerned and also cleared away in 
part some of the other complexities which had clouded the decision. 

I)Ut while the Smith bill rescued from jeopardy millions of dollars in- 
vested in legitimate development on the public domain and enabled many 
oil com]:)anies to jjerfect title to lands which they otherwise would not have 
been able to retain, the great bulk of the withdrawals remained in full force, 
and constituted an effectual bar to further development or extension of the 
producing oil fields. In view of the present overproduction of oil this arbitrary 
restriction of devclojMiient has not been generally regarded as a thing to be 
regretted except by men who would like to assume the hazard of prospecting 
for oil on tlie jnd)lic domain. When the withdrawn land will be restored to 
entry and under what conditions is a problem for the future. It is n(-)t likely, 
however, that withdrawn land will again be subject to entr}- under the placer 
mining laws, these laws having been abundantly shown to be inadequate 
and unfit for a])])lication to oil lands. 

Asphalt and Oil Refining 

Paradoxical as it may appear, the business of manufacturing the products 
of crude petroleum in Kern county antedated the commercial production 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 139 

of the crude oil itself. As has been noted, in the early 70s a number of Italians 
began quarrying asplialtum from the great deposits which were formed in 
the McKittrick hills by the evaporation of the lighter elements of the crudic 
oil that seeped from the exposed edges of the broken oil-bearing strata. And 
from this time down to 1898, when the oil boom reached Kern county, the 
primary object of the development in the West Side fields was the production 
of asplialtum. Oil was desired only as a flux for handling the heavier product. 

There is an interesting legend, however, to the elTect that kerosene, not 
asphaltum, was the very first commercial product of the Kern county oil 
fields. Far back, about the time of the Civil war, some old chap, whose name 
the legend fails to preserve, stretched woolen blankets over the pools of 
thick, tarry oil that oozed out of the ground about Old Sunset and got a 
pretty decent quality of illuminating oil by wringing his blankets over a 
bucket after the vapors rising from the pool had saturated them. Such is 
the legend. The writer does not vouch for it. 

The history of the oil refinfng business in the county, however, begins 
with the establishment of the Jewett & Blodget refinery at Old Sunset in 
1891. From that time until the present the junior member of the firm has 
been engaged in making asphaltum, and, in later years, many other products 
of petroleum, including kerosene, gasoline, distillates, and. lubricating oils of 
different kinds. 

With the development of the Kern river field refineries were established 
there, and because of the special aptitude of the Kern county oils for the 
production of asphaltum the industry developed until, in 1907, ten refineries in 
the county were producing about 6000 tons of asphaltum per month, valued 
at about $84,000. 

The number of refineries producing asphaltum has not since increased, 
but there has been a steady gain in the quantity and quality of the output, 
until now Kern county asphaltum is held in the highest esteem by road- 
builders in every part of the United States. The National Oil Refining & 
Manufacturing Company, the Phoenix and others, also, are competing suc- 
cessfully with the Standard Oil Company in the manufacture and sale of 
illuminating oil, gasoline, distillate and all grades of lubricants. 

Natural Gas Production 

As has been noted, the presence of gas in the oil-bearing formation was 
one of the difficulties which defeated the first efforts to drill oil wells in the 
West Side fields. Nearly all of the wells of the Sunset, Midway and McKit- 
trick fields produce a greater or less quantity of gas, and in the former field 
even the thick, heavy oil from the shallow wells is forced out in intermittent 
gobs, rather than in a steady stream — by the pressure of the gas in the oil 
sands. 

Natural Gas in Bakersfield 

However, it was not until the great gas wells of the Buena Vista 
hills began to come in during 1909 that plans began to be made for the com- 
mercial utilization of natural gas on any large scale. The Standard Oil 
Company began using gas in its furnaces in the West Side fields in the early 
part of 1910, and a little later laid a gas pipe line to carry the fuel to its 
pumping stations on its oil pipe line between Midway and the Kern river 
field. Toward the last of 1910 the California Natural Gas Company, a sub- 
sidiary of the Standard, was organized, and the gas pipe line was completed 



140 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

to the city limits of Bakersfiekl, where the gas was turned into the distributing 
system of the Bakersfiekl Gas & Electric Company. 

During the past year a pipe line has been laid from Midway to Los An- 
geles to carry natural gas to that city, and late in the summer of 1913 gas was 
turned into the city mains along with the artificial product. Gas wells in the 
Buena Vista field when first brought in range in output from twelve million 
to fifty million cuImc feet per twenty-four hours, and the force with which 
the gas shoots from the ground when first released by the drill is almost 
irresistible. 

For example, a gas well belonging to the Standard Oil Company on 
section 26, 31-23, one day tore the heavy iron gate from the top of the casing, 
sent it hurtling through the derrick, knocked over six workmen as though 
they had been ninepins, and went roaring through the derrick top like a 
cyclone, while the men lay stunned on the ground, some of them with broken 
bones, until rescuers came from a neighboring derrick. 

The pressure of the gas in one of the Honolulu Consolidated Oil Com- 
pany's wells on section 6, 32-24, tore away not only the massive iron gate but 
a section of pipe to which it was fastened extending eighteen feet into the 
ground. The outer, "stovepipe" casing was uninjured, and around this was 
dug a pit fourteen feet across and thirty-seven feet deep. This pit was filled 
with concrete to serve as an anchor for another cap with which the well 
eventually was controlled. Before the Avell was finished, however, the gas 
became ignited, and formed- a giant torch, 125 feet in height, which burned 
imtil additional boilers could be installed on the lease and pipes laid with 
which to direct a great stream of steam upon the mouth of the well to smother 
the flames. Several of the great gas wells have been set on fire accidentally, 
and their great towers of flame have formed one of the most awe-inspiring 
sights of the West Side fields, where exhibitions of the power of natural forces 
are not uncommon. 

Making Gasoline From Gas 

During 1910 experiments Avere made with a process of extracting gasoline 
from gas. The method is similar to that employed in making liquid air, and 
the theory is similar. The gas is alternately compressed and cooled until it 
is reduced to a liquid form. The pressure required is about 400 pounds to 
the square foot, and in some instances two gallons of gasoline are taken from 
1000 cubic feet of gas. The amount of gasoline contained in the gas varies 
greatly, however. The extent of the coimty's proven gas belt has been 
estimated at seven miles in width and sixteen miles in length, making an area 
of about 72.000 acres. 

Some of Kern County's Famous Oil Gushers 

It is the romance of oil, the ever present possibility of sudden wealth and 
the equally ubiquitous chance of sudden disaster, that moulds the spirit of 
the oil fields, and the spirit of the oil fields was generally the spirit of Kern 
county during the period from 1899 to 1913. And there is no better means 
of setting forth the circumstances that contribute to this romance than by 
recounting the history of the great gushers that made the Sunset and Midway 
oil fields celebrated around the globe in the years 1909 and 1910. 

Great quantities of gas confined in the oil measures of the Sunset field 
have made it throughout its history a field of flowing wells. The earlier 
wells, drilled into the shallower strata of thick, heavy oil. flowed in but 
very small amounts, compared with the gushers of the later period, and in 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 141 

very many cases the flow was tlie merest trickle over the top of the casing- 
or an occasional gob of thick, tarry substance, thrown up with much guttural 
sputtering by the imprisoned gas below. But during the year 1909, wells 
drilled farther out from the hills, and particularly in the northern part of the 
field, produced a lighter oil and a larger How. Notable aniong these were 
the wells of the Ethel D., the Wellman, the Monte Cristo and the Kern 
Trading & Oil Company in sections 36, 12-24, and 1, 11-24, a mile northeast 
of Maricopa. 

In 1909, also, came the Santa Fe's famous 10,000-barrel well on section 
6, 32-23, in the North Midway field, and in section 10, 32-24, over in the 
Buena Vista hills, nearly seven miles north of Maricopa, the Honolulu's 
great gasser, drilled down into the oil sand, became an oil well, flowing 
between 3000 and 4000 barrels per day. Other wells that prepared the public 
mind for the big events that came later on the program were the St. Lawrence, 
on section 35, 32-23, the Crandall on 31, 31-25, and the Standard's big wells on 
section 30, 32-24, the largest of which flowed for some time at a rate of 10,000 
barrels per day. 

The bringing in of all these wells proved the whole of the Midway valley 
to be oil bearing, and the Honolulu's strike demonstrated that the oil sands 
extended far out under the Buena Vista hills. A strip of territory roughly 
estimated at sixteen miles in length and five or six miles in width was added 
to the proven oil belt of the Sunset-Midway field, and the cause was laid for 
the oil land boom of 1910, which swept over the whole of the Elk and Buena 
Vista hills, over the North McKittrick front and out along the hills east of 
Old Sunset, far past San Emidio. 

Gushers Start Boom of 1910 

By the end of February, 1910, the secrecy which was first observed by 
the locators who swarmed to the new territory at the beginning of the new 
year had been cast aside, and the eyes of the whole state were turned to 
the Sunset and Midway fields and the great things that were going on there. 
On March 6th the Mays gusher on section 30, 32-24, broke loose and drenched 
the surrounding country with a rain of oil. There was the widest variation 
in the estimates of the amount of oil produced, and no measurements could 
be made for the reason that very little of the oil was saved during the few 
hours' flow prior to the first sanding up. The state of the public mind, 
however, was such as to accept the biggest estimates most readily, and before 
there was time for a careful decision of the controversy the Lakeview came 
in and for many months thereafter held the center of the stage. A week 
after its first performance the Mays well broke loose a second time, tore away 
a "T" that had been placed on the casing to control the flow, wrecked the 
upper part of the derrick, wet down the desert sands about it with another 
shower of oil, and again sanded. Sometime later the well was brought under 
subjection and became a steady producer of little spectacular interest to the 
public, but of much greater profit to the stockholders. 

Lakeview Comes In 

At 8 o'clock on Alonday night on March 14, 1910, the Lakeview gusher, 
at the west end of fractional section 25, 12-24, a mile and a half due north of 
Maricopa, came in with a rush of gas that hurled the baler into the crown 
block of the derrick and followed it with a shower of oil that was estimated 
at 18,000 barrels for the first twenty-four hours' flow. Tuesday night some- 
thing happened down at the bottom of the well, 2260 feet in the earth. For a 



142 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

few seconds the flow of oil stopped and its place was taken by a torrent of 
rocks, sand and gas that filled the derrick with incandescent atoms, tore 
away the top of the derrick in wliich the baler was still hanging, and sent 
the drillers scurrying for their Hves. 

Nobody got very close to the mouth of the Lakeview for many months 
after that. Oil rained on everything for miles around as the breeze carried the 
spray from the gusher. The Union Oil Company's new camp just built on 
a nearby hill, was abandoned, and the neat green cottages soon wore a funereal 
black. Other wells drilHng in the neighborhood were left unfinished, lires 
were put out in all the boiler plants within the radius that the gas from the 
Lakeview reached. Hundreds of men and teams were rushed to the scene 
to dig ditches, build dams across gulleys and scrape reservoirs in the earth 
to catch and hold the oil. The sand that the well threw out built a mound 
fifteen or twenty feet high all about the derrick, burying the engine house. 
Gradually the derrick was torn to pieces by the rushing column of oil, and 
sections of the inner casing of the well were hurled out. The question of 
whether the casing would all be worn out by the cutting of the sand 
and the well become a great crater in the ground became a very serious one. 
The Union Oil Company's engineers tackled the job of harnessing the great 
well with faint hope of success. An hour's work in the suffocating gas and 
drenching oil about the gusher brought $4 or $5 and upward, and men did 
not seek the job at that price. The first futile device for smothering the well 
was a great wooden hood made of timbers a foot or more in thickness. But 
the stream of oil ate its way through the wood, and went on playing the 
biggest and blackest fountain the world ever saw. Every train to Sunset bore 
sightseers, and a line of guards was placed in a great circle about the well 
to prevent the possibility of any accidental ignition of the gas. 

Finally after some months of effort, when the well was largely cleared of 
sand and the upward force of the oil was less, an embankment was built about 
the gusher with sacks of sand and; earth to a height of twentv or thirtv feet, 
thus confining the oil over the mouth of the well and forming a cushion against 
which the big, black geyser could beat. By that time every vestige of the 
derrick was gone, and the well looked like an inky fountain playing in an 
inky pool. 

Meantime, down on the flat a half mile or farther away, lakes of oil were 
accumulating. By September 5,000,000 barrels of oil had been stored in these 
makeshift reservoirs. The seepage was great, and the evaporation was greater, 
and the danger of accidental fire turning the whole into a flood of flame to go 
farther down the valley was the greatest anxiety of all. 

Product Swamps Pipe Lines 
At one time the Lake view's output reached 68,000 barrels per day, twice 
the capacity of the greatest oil pipe line on the coast. There was no such 
thing as properly caring for the oil. During the months of September and 
October the Producers' Transportation Company's pipe line to the coast was 
placed almost exclusively at the service of Lakeview oil, and pumps and 
pipe lines installed by the Union were set to work forcing the oil from the 
temporary reservoirs on the flat to two new reservoirs built in the edge of the 
hills. These reservoirs, dug in a canon and protected with earth and concrete 
dams and artificial waterways cut through the hills above them, held five 
million barrels of oil. 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 143 

After ten or eleven months of continuous production the Lakeview wa? 
still delivering 8,000 or 10,000 barrels per day, but its product was a mixture 
or emulsion of oil, water, and mud called "mulsh" by the oil men, and deemed 
of no value at the then low price of good oil. Months later the flow suddenly 
stopped altogether, and after letting the giant slumber undisturbed for a 
respectful period the owners rigged a derrick over the crater, explored the 
hole with the drill, patched up the wornout casing, and finally tapped the 
sands again. The well flowed a little and gave up large quantities of gas, 
but it never resumed its place in the ranks of the big producers. 

The Consolidated Midway 
A mile east of the Lakeview was brought in the Consolidated Midway 
gusher on section 30, 12-23. It was spudded in March 2, 1910, and on June 
20th went through a thin shell into the gusher sand at 2165 feet. The 10-inch 
casing had been landed at 2145 feet and the last twenty feet of the well was 
an open hole. A gate was fixed on the 10-inch casing and the 10-inch was an- 
chored to the 12-inch, making a total load of sixty-six tons of casing with 
which to hold down the enormous gas pressure which was anticipated. The 
water in the well was baled down 600 feet when the flow started. The well 
soon sanded, but each time it responded to further baling, and each time the 
flow grew greater. Another gate was placed above the first one as a safe- 
guard against one of them being worn out by the friction of sand and oil, and 
later reducers were placed on the pipe above the upper gate to lessen the 
flow and better control the well. The result was that the well, estimated at 
10,000 barrels daily capacity, was as easily and thoroughly controlled as a 
faucet in a kitchen sink. Like most gushers, however, the Consolidated Mid- 
way finally went to water. 

A Procession of Gushers 

Other gushers of the Lakeview group include a 5,000 barrel well of the 
Maricopa-Thirty-Six, on section 36, 12-24; a well of the Sunset Monarch 
which started flowing at a 24,000-barrel rate ; the Standard's three gushers on 
section 30, 32-24, and the Sage wells on section 35, 12-24, belonging to the 
Union Oil Company. The Sage wells were chiefly .famous for the terrific bom- 
bardments of sand and rocks which they sent through the tops of their derricks 
at uncertain intervals. At the beginning of these bombardments would come 
a roll of thunder from the casing mouth ; the drillers and tool dressers would 
scamper to the lee of a neighboring hill, and the tools that happened to be 
in the well would go shrieking through the crown block, followed by the 
sand and rock and a little sprinkling of oil. Then the well would choke with 
1500 or 2000 feet of sand in the casing, and the workmen would repair the der- 
rick and tools and begin the long job of digging down toward the oil measures 
again. With a certain amount of sand removed the pent-up gas would hurl 
forth another shower, the casing would sand up again, and the whole process 
would start over again. And this kept on and on, and on, for so many months 
that everyone except the owners and the immediate neighbors finally forgot 
what eventually became of the Sage sand gushers. 

North Midway Gushers 

Next to the remarkable group of wells of which the Lakeview was chief, 
range in interest the magnificent wells of the North Midway valley. Beginning 
with the Santa Fe, St. Lawrence, the Crandall and the Mays, the" North 



144 HISTOR\ Ob KERN COUNTY 

Midway gusher population was increased by the American Oilfields' great 
No. 79, several lesser producers of the same company, the Eagle Creek, Le 
Blanc, the California Midway, Pioneer Midway, the Visalia Midway and 
Santa i-'c on section 25, 31"22, the ^Midway Premier, Midway Pive, on section 
5. 32-23, and others of lesser fame, if not of lesser merit. 

The prince of them all in North Alidway was the American Oilfields 79, 
which ranked next to the Lakeview as a producer. At its best it made 22,000 
barrels of oil per day, which is the more remarkable from the fact that it was 
finished at a little over 900 feet with a single string of 12-inch casing and 
produced 23-gravity oil. Like the Lakeview, the well made great quantities of 
sand, and it was impossible to control or diminish its flow. The only thing 
accomplished in this line was to slant a heavy shield of boiler iron over 
the mouth of the well to deflect the column of oil and prevent so much of 
it being lost in vapor. The well gave out great quantities of gas and standing 
on the edge of the great sump built about it, its roar was like that of a Kansas 
tornado heard from the conning tower of a cyclone cellar. The well was 
brought in in April, 1910, and at the end of the year it was still flowing at 
the rate of 5000 barrels per day. 

The American Oilfield Company's well No. 56 is celebrated as the first 
big ^Midway gusher to catch fire. It ignited at 1 :30 p. m. September 11 from 
a burning sump, and shortly after the well of the Honolulu Consolidated, 
formerly the Crandall, just across the section line to the east, started flowing 
and immediately was ablaze. The two great pillars of flame, 200 feet or more 
in height, burned until 5 o'clock while a frantic swarm of men from all the 
nearby country employed every efifort to keep the other flowing wells and 
oil reservoirs in the vicinity from joining in the conflagration. The task of 
putting out the two burning wells was too great to be seriously attempted, 
and a general pean of thanksgiving went up from the tired workers when 
at the last named hour both wells sanded up and went out. During the 
night No. 56 again started flowing and again took fire from the embers of the 
derrick, but it stopped once more of its own accord. 

The Eagle Creek gusher on section 31, 31-23, brought in in April, 1910, 
at 1600 feet, has the distinction of having thrown up a good portion of the 
vertebrae of some deep-buried saurian monster. When the Eagle Creek 
first came in the Santa Fe, just across the section line, stopped flowing for 
a time, and then started in at a greater rate than ever as though in rivalry 
with its new neighbor. 

Effect on the Oil Game 

The story of Kern county oil gushers might be indefinitely prolonged. 
They continue to come in to the present day, and some of the later arrivals 
rival in interest and output the American Oilfields 79 and the Lakeview 
itself. E)Ut the stories related are typical of all the gushers in a general 
way. and the partial list of big wells that were brought in in the first few- 
months of 1910 will suggest the fever of excitement and expectancy which 
spread not only over Kern county but throughout the state wherever people 
read newspapers and bought oil stocks. 

The fact that nearly all the gushers were brought in in territory wdiich 
but a few months before had been miles away from the proven oil belt gained 
credence for the promises of the wildest of wildcat oil promoters and there 
was a rush of tenderfeet into the oil game, quite regardless of the fact that the 
product of the gushers was beating the price of oil to the bankruptcy level, 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 145 

and that seasoned operators were growing more and more pessimistic as the 
stocks of oil on hand increased. 

Fortunately for the old producers and unfortunately for the tenderfeet, 
a great proportion of the drilling begun in the latter half of 1910 proved 
unproductive. Gradually the prospect holes started in the Elk hills were 
abandoned, and the companies that began pushing the line of development 
far out on the Maricopa flat went broke or got tired of paying assessments. 
By the end of 1911 most of the drilling still going on was by old hands in the 
business wdio had contracts to fill or who had capital sufficient to carry them 
over the period of low prices. 

In addition to proving the productiveness of a portion of the Maricopa 
flat and practically all of the Midway valley, the drilling since the beginning 
of 1910 has demonstrated that oil underlies the gas formation in the Buena 
Vista hills ; that if there is oil in the Elk hills it is not so easy to find as the 
first prospectors hoped; that there is a considerable amount of barren or 
excessively deep territory north of McKittrick; that just north of this seem- 
ingly barren territory is the Belridge anticline where excellent wells of light 
oil are brought in at shallow depths and that still farther north in the Lost 
Hills country is another shallow formation carrying light oil and large quan- 
tities of gas. 

To the Union Oil Company fell the lot of demonstrating the unprofitable- 
ness of the territory between the McKittrick field and Belridge. It drilled 
a number of deep holes without finding oil in paying quantities, but the big 
concern went about the job in a quiet, systematic, businesslike way that be- 
comes a strong organization that takes the lean with the fat and so there 
was little romance and only a passive public interest in its operations there. 

The same is true of the development of Belridge, w^hich was as profit- 
able as the Union's North Midway venture was unprofitable. The Belridge 
operators were stockholders in the Associated Oil Company and other sea- 
soned oil men, and they staked out the land, sunk some prospect holes, 
found the oil and exercised options on a great amount of land surrounding 
their strike before the public in general knew- what was going on. 

The Lost Hills Field 

Martin & Dudley, who were the dominant factors in the discovery and 
development of the Lost Hills field, followed the same plan, but their opera- 
tions were attended by more picturesque features, and the Lost Hills, although 
no more important than Belridge in the matter of production, perhaps, at- 
tracted vastly more attention from the outside world. 

The story of the Lost Hills field really dates from 1899, the year in which 
the Elwoods found oil at Kern river. Orlando Barton, son of one of the oldest 
of the Kern county pioneers, prospected the lonesome desert country in the 
northwestern part of the county from the Devil's Den to the swamp, includ- 
ing in his general survey the present Lost Hills field. In 1907 he helped form 
the Lost Hills Mining Company, and located the section of land on which 
the Lakeshore well, the well in which the Lost Hills discovery was made, is 
now situated — section 30, 26-21. A contract was let to Los Angeles parties 
to drill the section, but it was allowed to lapse without action. The news got 
about in the south, however, that there was government land on which oil 
might be found, and shortly all the government land in the township 
was filed upon by homesteaders. 

The Square Deal Oil Company of Hanford made an unsuccessful eft'ort 



146 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

to reach the oil sand on section 18, and this failure discouraged the home- 
steaders, most of whom abandoned their claims. The Lost Hills Mining 
Company worked its claims for gypsum, and Barton personally remained 
in possession of the land practically all of the time until the Lakeshore well 
was brought in. 

The Discovery Well 

In December, 1909, Barton interested Martin & Dudley, real estate men 
of Visalia, and after looking over the field they acted on the advice of Barton, 
who told them that they would find oil at less than 600 feet. Barton picked 
the location of Lakeshore No. 1, and very early in 1910 Martin & Dudley 
began to drill. 

On March 8, 1910, the well was down 160 feet, and there was so much oil 
in the hole that drilling was stopped, and arrangements were begun to take 
advantage of the strike which the Lakeshore Company felt sure was coming. 
Other rigs were secured, titles to land in the vicinity were looked up, and the 
plans were laid which made Martin & Dudley the complete masters of the sit- 
uation when the field came in some months later. 

The Lost Hills were far out in the midst of the lonesome west side 
desert, but oil prospectors see far, and even out there it was necessary to use 
the utmost caution to prevent premature publicity of the important find. 
Along in May some more drilling was done in the Lakeshore well, and by 
June 3d so much gas was developed that drilling was again stopped to await 
the progress of the other features of the program. The place was fenced 
and guards were left to see that inquisitive people did not get near enough 
to the well to smell the gas. 

In July work was again resumed and on July 26th, at a depth of 463 feet, 
the gas threw the water out of the hole and over the derrick top. After that 
the drillers had frequent shower baths of mud, water and oil, and on July 29th, 
at 527 feet depth the oil was struck and rose within 80 feet of the top of 
the casing, and refused to be lowered more than a dozen feet by the most 
rapid baling. 

The oil sand was not penetrated and the casing was far from the bottom 
of the hole, but Martin & Dudley did not bother about finishing their well in 
the most scientific fashion. They put a cap on it, instead, moved away the 
derrick, obliterated all traces of oil, left a guard to keep strangers outside 
the fence, and began taking options on all the land they could tie up in the 
district. 

How successful they were was demonstrated when the news of the 
strike came out. Martin- & Dudley were the big men in the new field, and 
the hundreds of oil men and tenderfeet who rushed to the Lost Hills dis- 
covered that the men from Visalia had some sort of claim on practically every 
piece of land that was worth a prospect hole. Martin & Dudley arranged 
with the Associated Oil Company to take up their options on a great body 
of land along the Lost Hills anticline, and the Associated was the first of the 
big concerns in the new field. The L^niversal and the Standard also secured 
considerable tracts of land there, and most of the development has been done 
by the three companies. 

But it took time for prospectors and would-be prospectors to find out 
how thoroughly Martin & Dudley had preempted the ground. Scores of men 
who had overlooked the opportunity to get in on the ground floor when the 
other oil fields were opened up. resolved not to sleep on their chances in the 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 147 

Lost Hills, and after the first profound skepticism concerning the genuine- 
ness of the new strike gave way to conviction, the dust got no chance to 
settle on the road between Bakersfield and the little ridge of sand that was 
understood to mark the apex of the Lost Hills anticline. It was proclaimed 
as a poor man's field. The territory was wonderfully shallow, and a well 
could be drilled with a light, portable rig and stovepipe casing, according to 
popular report. So there was presently a string of portable rigs headed 
toward the Lost Hills. Also there were men with shotguns and rifles to 
hold the claims against the rival prospectors, and later on there were law- 
suits to determine the relative value of homestead filings and mineral claims. 
Then winter came on, and showers of rain amounting to half an inch or less 
made the alkaline roads almost impassable. The Associated built a standard 
rig a little west of the anticline and drilled for weeks and months without 
finding anv oil so far as the public knew. Water and fuel were difficult to 
get, and the portable rigs were not efficient. So the tenderfoot operators got 
out with as little loss as they could manage, and the field was left to the 
big concerns. 

With a number of good walls brought in a little to the south of the 
Lakeshore, the big companies soon put Lost Hills in the list of producing 
fields, and the output continues to increase with a few strong concerns doing 
all the development. 

A Field Not Yet Arrived 

One other oil excitement punctuates the history of the industry in Kern 
coimtv. In the fall of 1912, Dr. A. H. Liscomb, a pioneer operator of the 
Kern river field, and a number of his friends, and Harry C. Rambo, a rancher 
of Semitropic. and a number of his friends formed a theory that the con- 
necting link between the West Side oil formation and that of the Kern 
river field was via the ridge of land that runs northwest past Lerdo and 
Semitropic in the general direction of Lost Hills. They were strengthened in 
this theory by the assurance of a Mrs. Brown, who used an instrument in 
detecting the presence of oil and minerals hidden in the earth. They tested 
Mrs. Brown's powers by having her expert land in proven fields and checking 
her figures against the logs of drilled wells, and finally they secured options 
on a large body of land at prices based on its probable value for agriculture, 
and began drilling two wells. The Liscomb well made the most progress, 
and early in January, 1913. a reported strike of exceedingly light oil started 
a miniature oil boom over all the territory between Wasco and the swamp. 
If any oil was found in the Liscomb well, however, it was drowned by water, 
and the well had to be abandoned. The Rambo well was a failure for the same 
reason, and although one or other of these parties have been drilling almost 
steadily throughout the year, neither has yet made a strike that the oil public 
accepts as of any value. 



148 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

CHAPTER XV 
Progress of the County From 1900 to 1913 

The events of larger and more permanent importance which have trans- 
pired in Kern county between 1900 and the summer of 1913, when this chron- 
icle closes, range themselves under four heads : Development of the oil fields, 
the beginning of a new agricultural development through the agency of 
pump irrigation, a great advance in permanent construction in Bakersfield, 
including a better class of dwellings, business structures, public buildings and 
paved streets, and a steady improvement in civic standards coincident with 
the transition of the county from a field of speculation and transient resi- 
dence to one of investment and permanent homes. 

First honors are due to the oil development, for it occupied the mosi 
conspicuous place in the public interest and because, to a very large degree, 
it made all the other developments mentioned possible. Because of theii 
importance and for the sake of continuity in the narrative, the discovery and 
development of the county's oil fields have been given a chapter to themselves 
Second place in logical sequence belongs to the development of pump irriga- 
tion and the new agricultural and horticultural enter|)rises which it opened 
up. 

Development of Pump Irrigation 

A history of the efforts of the first pump irrigators would be but a dreary 
and disheartening tale. As other portions of this narrative have shown, the 
waters of Kern river were early appropriated by the owners of the delta 
lands that lie in the lower portion of the valley, leaving only the scanty 
rainfall — averaging between six and seven inches per season — to wet the 
equally rich lands along the mesa and the higher or more distant portions of 
the plain. The efforts of the dry grain farmers demonstrated that the mesa 
lands were not only fertile but easy to work. Many of the grain farmers 
installed windmills to pump stock and domestic water, and the surplus was 
used to irrigate vegetable gardens and small family orchards. This demon- 
strated, first that good water wells were to be found in any part of the valley 
or the mesas at depths varying with the elevation of the surface ; second, 
that comparatively little water was necessary to make the soil productive, 
and third, that on the higher lands the growing season was even longer 
than in the trough of the valley, and the winter frosts were less severe. The 
magnificent area of the dry plain and mesa lands offered a tempting prize for 
successful pump irrigation, but the difffculties that faced the first experi- 
menters were practically insurmountable. 

These experimenters lived before the day of gas engine efficiency, and 
suitable fuel for steam engines, prior to the development of the oil fields, 
was not to be had. The steam engines used for threshing grain burned straw, 
and some of the first pump irrigators lifted their water with these straw- 
burners. Others used for fuel the sage brush which they cleared from their 
land. Both methods were laborious, expensive and generally unsatisfactory. 

The early pumps were inefffcient, and when a fairly successful combina- 
tion of pump and engine was effected the irrigator had trouble 'with his well. 
The first wells were well suited to windmill power, but when greatly in- 
creased drafts were made upon thpm by larger pumps great quantities of 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 149 

sand were sucked out with the water, and presently the walls of the well 
near the bottom caved in, choking off the supply of water with quantities of 
falling clay. Not a few of the early pump irrigators became insolvent trying 
to construct wells that would not cave in, and the general pessimism as to the 
possibility of obtaining water in any considerable quantities by this means 
increased. 

Simultaneously all these discouraging experiences were suft'ered in the 
vicinity of Delano, at Rio Bravo, in what is now the Wasco country, and 
on the mesa southeast of Bakersfield. Gradually the pump irrigators learned 
to make the perforations in their casing so small that only the finer grains 
of sand could be drawn through, and also to attach one pump to several wells 
so that the suction on each well would be reduced. 

A great boost was given to pump irrigation by a lowering in the price 
of gasoline and distillate that followed their manufacture in the Kern county 
oil fields, and by the production of a light oil at Coalinga that could be used 
in the gasoline engines without refining. 

In the spring of 1902 pump irrigation had reached about this stage of 
development and was being taken seriously by the people of Delano where 
Ben Thomas, Frank Schlitz, R. W. Lockridge and several others were suc- 
cessfully operating plants. At Rio Bravo, about this time, H. S. Knight was 
making about the same progress, and the Kern County Land Company had 
installed several pumps at Rosedale and Stockdale and was operating them 
with electricity to supplement canal irrigation in dry seasons. But the new- 
means of irrigation made progress very slowly so far as practical results were 
concerned and in the succeeding five years the area made productive by this 
means did not materially increase. 

Experiments at Wasco and McFarland 

With the founding of Wasco colony in the spring of 1907 the success of 
an entire community was staked on pump irrigation for the first time in Kern 
county. And the outcome for the first two years was full of doubt. Most of 
the colonists were short of funds and had to make payments on their land 
in addition to meeting their living expenses and the constant demand for 
buildings, fences and implements that goes with the founding of a new farm. 
For this reason the mutual water company which the colonists formed to 
sink wells and install pumping plants practiced a frugality far in excess of 
true economy. Second-hand pumps and engines were purchased, cheap ditches 
were built, and the inevitable poor service brought hard times to the irrigators 
and fomented one storm after another in the stockholders' meetings. 

Despite discouragements, however, the sturdy Wasco colonists gradually 
replaced their poor pumping equipment, laid cement ditches and conduits, 
and in 1911, when the San Joaquin Light & Power Corporation began cover- 
ing the farming districts of the county with transmission wires, they sub- 
stituted electric power for gasoline. From that date the advancement of the 
colony was very marked, and in a couple of years more it had come to be one 
of the show places of the county's farming districts, outranking in attractive- 
ness and evidences of prosperity the rich delta districts where cheap canal 
water had been available for many years. 

McFarland colony, founded a year later than Wasco, went through less 
hardships in its earliest infancy because Wasco's mistakes were largely 
avoided and better equipment gave good results from the start. To McFar- 



150 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

land and ^^'asco, almost equally, is due the credit of having lifted pump 
irrigation from the slough of doubt and discredit and made it generally recog- 
nized in the county as one of the greatest factors in the county's agricultural 
development. 

Development of the Citrus Belt 

What Wasco and ]\lcFarland did with pump irrigation in the alfalfa and 
deciduous fruit districts, the Edison Land & Water Company is doing in. 
the citrus belt. The company began sinking wells at Edison in the winter 
of 1908, and planted its first orange trees in the spring of 1909. It was for- 
tunate in possessing ample capital, and all the improvements were of the best 
character and workmanship. Deep well pumps were installed and electricity 
was secured from the power generating plant in Kern river cafion. An 
abundance of water was obtained where a few years previous it was sup- 
posed no considerable amount of water could be developed. The orange trees 
did well from the start, and the following year many orange growers from 
the southern part of the state became interested. In 1911 and 1912 the 
acreage planted was greatly increased. The unprecedented frosts of 1912-13 
checked planting at Edison as in every other part of the state, but the sum- 
mer of 1913 demonstrated that the trees in the Kern citrus belt had suffered 
no more than in the most favored citrus districts and that the full extent of 
the damage would not exceed the loss of a year's growth of the trees. 

Meantime pumping plants were being installed at intervals all over the 
great belt of mesa land that stretches south and southeast from Edison, around 
Delano and all along the high sloping lands to the east and southeast of that 
place. At Rio Bravo the same progress is being made, and the new colonies 
of Shafter and Lerdo are laying good foundations for a similar success. 

Pumping Plant Extension in 1912 

The Lerdo colony was founded in 1912 by a corporation controlled by 
the same men who are the dominant factors in the San Joaquin Light & 
Power Corporation, and one of the purposes in mind was to furnish a market 
for electrical power which the latter concern would supply. Wells were sunk 
and pumps and electric motors installed before any land was offered for sale. 
Active selling began in the spring of 1913. Shares in the wells and pumping 
plants go with the land, which is sold on long time payments. 

The Lerdo colony proposes to make a specialty of hemp and ramie 
culture. George W. Schlichten. inventor of an improved decorticating ma- 
chine, is taking the lead in this enterprise and promises to furnish a market 
for the product of all the lands planted to ramie as well as to assist in fur- 
nishing the plants necessary to get the ramie fields established. 

The Shafter colony is a venture of the Kern County Land Company. A 
number of wells have been sunk on the Shafter lands, but this is only for the 
purpose of demonstrating the water supply. The company does not propose 
to sell wells and pumping plants with the land, but it will let each buyer 
develop his own water. 

On the mesa south of Edison are the Sunflower colony, the Citrus Foot- 
hill Farms colony, and numerous small centers of development all estab- 
lished within the past three years. 

As a result of all these successes and promises of success the people of the 
county, who were very doubtful of the practicability of pump irrigation a 
very few years ago, have come to believe that eventually every acre of arable 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 151 

land in the valley portion of the county not irrigated from canals will be 
reclaimed by means of pumping plants. 

Conservative estimates place the number of pumping ])lants in operation 
in Kern county at the present time at not less than 1500. Of this number 
about 275 are run by electricity and the remainder by gasoline engines. The 
San Joaquin Light & Power Corporation supplies current for 250 of the pumps 
and the remainder is furnished by the ]\Iount Whitney Power Company, whose 
lines extend into the country about Delano. 

The engines and motors average about ten horsepower each, and with 
the average lift they are capable of raising water to irrigate about 45,000 
acres in the aggregate, or about thirty acres for each ten horsepower. 

Of the total number of pumps about eighty per cent were installed 
within the past five years, and about 500 were installed during the past year. 
At present about fifty are in process of installation, and between ten and 
fifteen well-drilling outfits are kept busy developing water for prospective 
pumj) irrigators. This summer Miller & Lux are preparing to install pumps 
and motors which will utilize about 700 horsepower of electricity in raising 
water to irrigate the old swamp land north of Buena Vista lake reservoir. 
This will be the first extensive use of pumping plants in this section, and their 
installation is due to dry seasons just past when Miller & Lux's share of the 
waters of Kern river have been inadequate for their needs. 

In addition to the activities of its allied corporation at Lerdo, the San 
Joaquin Light & Power Corporation is actively aiding the extension of pump 
irrigation by a liberal policy of extending its transmission lines into new 
territory where there is any prospect of building up a market for power. The 
company also is promoting experiments in the most economical use of water. 
Rates for electric power still remain at the seemingly exorbitant figure of 
$50 per horsepower per year, but the pumpers are looking forward to a sub- 
stantial reduction in rates when the use of electricity for this purpose becomes 
more general. 

At this time, the summer of 1913, electric power is available for pumping 
at Delano, McFarland, Famoso, Wasco, Shafter, Lerdo, Edison, and all the 
country south and east oi Bakersfield so far as the pump irrigators have 
ventured, which is about to the lower line of township 31. 

Planting Apples at Tehachapi 

Following close on the successful development of the valley districts as 
just related came evidence that the mountain valley country about Tehachapi 
is especially adapted to the .cultivation of apples, pears, cherries and other 
deciduous fruits of that character. Tehachapi's metamorphosis from a stock 
and grain country to a fruitgrowing district began in 1910 when B. M. Denison 
sunk a thirteen-inch well, installed a pumping plant and planted forty acres to 
Bartlett pears. The evidences of an ample water supply and the growth 
made by the young trees encouraged other ventures, and at this time 
the young orchards about the mountain town make an imposing display. 

Still later the pumping plant invaded the desert about Rosamond and 
Willow Springs, and in the far northeastern corner of the county at Inyokern. 
In the latter place a good beginning was made last spring in the planting of 
deciduous fruit trees as well as in the raising of grain and alfalfa. 

As this book is designed mainly for future reading it may be well to 
leave the future to put its ow^n appraisement on the permanent value of the 
experiments and developments recounted. Suffice it to say that they have 



152 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

been the means of awakening a new interest in the agricultural and horti- 
cultural development of the county, and also of raising the market value of 
the arid plain and mesa lands from almost imperceptible figures to anywhere 
from $20 to $100 per acre. The higher prices are paid for lands nearer the 
centers of development. Still higher prices are asked for land close to Bakers- 
field or for land on which pumping plants have been installed and water de- 
veloped. It is the common belief that these prices Avill continue to ascend, 
although the vast area subject to development and settlement and the moder- 
ate rate at which these processes so far have proceeded may make any further 
advance in values equally deliberate. 

Status of Fruit Growing in 1913 

Figures collected by Kent S. Knowlton, county horticultural commis- 
sioner, show a total of 444,000 fruit trees in the county, in the summer of 1913, 
of which 121,500 are bearing and 322,500 non-bearing, and 935 acres of grape 
vines, 660 acres of which are bearing. 

The acreage in grape vines has fallen off greatly since the early days of 
the Rosedale colony, when large numbers of raisin vineyards were planted. 
The ill success of the Rosedale colonists and years of low prices for raisins 
discouraged the raising of grapes, and no great extension of this industry is 
in sight at present. 

That oranges and apples are forging to the front as the county's leading 
fruits is shown by the following table, which is prepared by the commissioner 
and which also shows at a glance the recent progress of fruit growing in the 
county : 

Fruit Trees in Kern County in 1913 

Variety Bearing 

Apricot "^ _20,000 

Apple 10,000 

Fig _ 1,000 

Olive 4,000 

Peach 50,000 

Pear 1,500 

Plum 5,000 

Prune _ 20,000 

Orange 10,000 

These figures, of course, do not include trees in family orchards, and 
small orchards of lemons, cherries, almonds and walnuts are omitted. Most of 
the apple and pear trees are in the Tehachapi country, and the bulk of the 
orange trees are around Edison and Delano. 

Bakersfield in 1904 

As will be noted more fully in the chapters devoted to the oil industry, 
the enormous increase in oil production from 1902 to 1904 resulted in a com- 
plete demoralization of the market and brought not only the threat of bank- 
ruptcy to the producers, but general depression to all lines of business in 
Bakersfield, which by that time had become a distinctively oil town, recog- 
nized as the center of the oil industry of the state and chiefly dependent on 
tl\at industry for its prosperity and growth. As a matter of fact, Bakersfield 
continued to grow and business remained reasonably good even during the 
summer of 1904, which saw the price of oil drop to the ruinous figure of 



on-bearir 


ig 1 year 


2 year 


3 year 


4 year 


12,000 


4,000 


3,000 


3,000 


2,000 


92,500 


48,000 


30,000 


10,000 


4,500 


15,000 


15,000 








15,000 


3,000 


3,500 


3,500 


25.000 


65,000 


20,000 


35,000 


15,000 


10,000 


6,000 


2,000 


2,000 


1.000 


1,000 


2,000 


1,000 


500 


500 




115,000 


25,000 


45,000 


25,000 


20,000 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 153 

eleven and two-thirds cents per barrel. But the air was blue with pessimism. 
On the street corners it was alternately predicted that consumption never 
would overtake production, and that the Kern river field was going to water 
and its derricks would be sold for kindling wood in a few years more. 

Good Times Return 

But both prophecies failed. Kern river continued to produce, and fol- 
lowing the organization of the Independent Oil Producers' Agency prices 
began to recover. In the spring of 1908 the Agency closed a contract with the 
Associated for sixty and one-half cents per barrel, and a new oil boom began 
that presently filled Bakersfield to such a state of overflowing that visitors 
to the town were compelled to telegraph ahead at least twenty-four hours to 
secure any sort of sleeping quarters, either in the hotels or in the rooms, in 
private residences and elsewhere throughout the city, which the hotel pro- 
prietors had leased to meet the emergency. 

Under such circumstances a building boom was inevitable and in 1909 
began a rush of construction that involved a total investment in residence and 
business buildings before the close of 1910 estimated at upward of $2,500,000. 

Quite as significant as the size of the investment was the fact that the 
buildings generally were of a better character than had been erected pre- 
viously in the city's history. The cost of the business buildings erected 
during this period ranged from $10,000 to $70,000, and the residences from 
$1500 to $17,000. Among the business buildings built at this time are the 
Brower building at Nineteenth and I streets, the Manley apartments at 
Eighteenth and F, the Security Trust Company's bank at Eighteenth and 
Chester, Southern hotel annex on Twentieth street, an additional story on 
the Southern hotel, the Redlick building at Eighteenth and Chester, the Willis 
building on South Chester, the Rice building and Baer building on diagonal 
corners at Chester and Twenty-first, the Kosel hotel, Herrington-Cohn build- 
ing, Bakersfield garage, Southern garage, Kern Valley garage, Webstei" 
garage and extensive additions to the Mason & Flickinger garage. The auto- 
mobile business was in its glory. 

It is particularly w'orthy of note, also, that during this period a great 
number of well-to-do Bakersfield people who had been living in apartments or 
rented houses, manifestly because they lacked a feeling of permanence and not 
from lack of means, cast their lot with the city by building handsome and 
expensive homes. The change of sentiment that accompanied this action 
w'as very marked. Previously a very great proportion of the residents of 
the city considered themselves as sojourners only, and did not disguise from 
themselves or others their expectation of making their permanent residence 
elsewhere when they had accumulated a fortune, a competence or a working 
capital from the easv mone}- that circulated in the oil town. 

Raising the Civic Standards 

To this change of attitude may be traced a new public sentiment de- 
manding the elimination of various forms of flagrant vice that had been 
tolerated as symptoms of the general fever of speculation and endurable 
in a city of temporary sojourn, but instantly recognizable as out of place in a 
city of permanent homes. The public dance halls, conducted as adjuncts of the 
more disreputable saloons, went first as the result of a crusade in which a 
number of prominent private citizens served in the capacity of special officers 



154 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

to make arrests. Efforts to curb illegal forms of gambling continued long 
with vacillating symptoms of success and failure. Gradually the worst places 
were closed, and the professional gambler sought less troubled fields of oper- 
ation in the new West Side oil towns. The slot machines vanished in a day 
when the state law making it an offense to have them on one's premises went 
into effect. In the spring of 1911 an eff'ort on the part of the city trustees 
to narrow the boundaries of the redlight district provoked a war l)etween 
keepers of rival resorts and an injunction suit brought at the instance of one 
of the parties closed every known disorderly house in town. Strenuous efforts 
were made to effect a compromise, but pul:)lic sentiment refused to permit 
any retrogression, and two years later the old redlight district remains i)rac- 
tically deserted. 

Consolidation of Bakersfield and Kern 

Occasional movements for the consolidation of Bakersfield and the rival 
town which the Southern Pacific railroad founded under the name of Sumner 
and incorporated later under the name of Kern, resulted finally on February 
25, 1908, in an election in which the union was defeated by ten votes in 
Kern, although the voters of Bakersfield approved it by a majority of 342. On 
December 21, 1909, however, a second election resulted in a vote of 265 for, to 
154 against, in Kern, and 518 for, to 186 against, in Bakersfield. The first 
election of the consolidated city, held on July 18, 1910, resulted in the selection 
of the following officers: Trustees, W. V. Matlack. J. R. Williams, F. L. 
Gribble, H. S. Dunible, P. L. Jewett ; board of education, L. G. Pauly, George 
Hay. H. A. Blodget. G. L. Snider and Celsus Brower ; city clerk, H. F. Alur- 
dock ; city attorney, Matthew S. Platz ; marshal, James McKamy ; treasurer, 
A. Weaber ; recorder, W. H. Thomas; assessor, Ben L. Brundage. In April, 
1911, the date of the regular elections for cities of the fifth class — which class 
the consolidated city assumed — the trustees and nearly all the other city 
officials were re-elected. 

Bakersfield Paves Her Streets 

The same new feeling of permanence and proprietorshij) in the city's 
future that prompted the l:)uilding of many residences and the improvement 
of moral conditions showed further evidence in the demand for better streets, 
and following the consolidation of Bakersfield and Kern and the election of a 
new board of city trustees in the summer of 1910 systematic preparations 
for a long campaign of street paving were begun. The city leased a gravel 
pit at the west end of Panorama heights, installed a screening plant and 
purchased a steam traction roller and other street-building apparatus. All 
of these were placed at the disposal of street contractors for the i)urpose of 
inducing favorable l^ids for paving. 

The first ambitious job undertaken was the paving of East Nineteenth 
street, Grove and Park streets, connecting the business centers of East 
Bakersfield and the main portion of the city. This main thoroughfare of the 
city had been in a chronic state of bad order from time immemorial, owing 
to the heavy traffic and the light, friable soil of which the roadbed was 
made. Nothing short of a standard pavement would answer the requirements, 
and the fact that a large percentage of the abutting property was vacant and 
producing no revenue discouraged the hope that the owners would bear the 
expense of paving. However, the city trustees adopted a resolution ordering 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 155 

the work done under the \"rooman act, and the [)roceedings went through 
without protest. 

Long before the paving of East Nineteenth street was completed prop- 
erty owners on other streets began fihng petitions for similar improvements 
at their expense, and for two years the work has continued without inter- 
ruption about as fast as the facilities at hand would conveniently permit. 
During this time about 200 blocks have been paved at a cost of a little over 
half a million dollars, and indications are that the campaign will continue 
for many ensuing months. 

Bonds for County Roads 

Considerations similar to those that prompted the paving of Bakers- 
field streets, coupled with a desire to bind together the several centers of 
development in the county, led, in the summer and fall of 1912, to a county- 
wide agitation in favor of a county system of permanent roads. At this 
time the preliminary survey for the state highway had been completed 
through the county, following the Southern Pacific railroad from the north 
county line to Bakersfield, and running thence in a nearly southerly direction 
through Tejon canon to Los Angeles. People interested in the Tehachapi 
and desert sections of the county continued their elTorts to have the state 
road routed past the mountain town, but it was officially assumed that the 
Tejon route would be adopted, and the county highway commission, con- 
sisting of C. E. Getchell, A. J. Woody and J. L. Evans, laid out a proposed 
system of county roads branching from the line of the proposed state high- 
way and reaching all the important centers of population of the county save 
Randsburg and the farthest eastern portion of the desert section. This plan 
was submitted to the voters of the county on July 8, 1913, and was approved, 
together with a bond issue of $2,500,000 for carrying it out. The vote was : 
For the bonds, 2,529; against the bonds, 693. 

The bond issue as submitted to the voters provided for improving the 
following roads at the estimated costs indicated : Delano to the Tulare county 
line, 8.5 miles, $37,243; Wasco to McFarland, 11.6 miles, $66,327; Wasco to 
Lost Hills, 21.3 miles, $274,766; Rio Bravo to Wasco, 18 miles, $87,237; 
Bakersfield to McKittrick. 37.6 miles, $325,207; McKittrick to Maricopa, 25.5 
miles, $249,244; Bakersfield to Taft, 37.1 miles, $378,609; Old River school 
house to Maricopa, 28.7 miles (connecting with road from Taft to Bakersfield) 
$252,314; Bakersfield to Oil Center, 7.4 miles, $67,405; Bakersfield to Sand 
Cut, 21.5 miles, $90,086; Weed Patch loop, 13.3 miles, $69,010; all the fore- 
going graded and paved, and the following only graded : Oil Center to 
Glennville, 30.5 miles, $80,775 ; Sand Cut to Tehachapi, 28.2 miles, $300.663 ; 
Tehachapi to Mojave, 20.8 miles, $86,483 ; Caliente to Kernville, 38.5 miles, 
$80,775; Randsburg-Johannesburg-Stringer district highways, 14.5 miles, 
$53,850. 

Public Buildings of 1900-13 

The new county court house heads the list of important public buildmgs 
erected in the county in the past decade. A $400,000 bond issue for its erection 
was approved by the voters on September 14, 1909, and construction was be- 
gun in July, 1910. F. J. Amweg of San Francisco secured the contract for 
$340,827. The site, which includes two blocks on the east side of Chester 
avenue between Truxtun avenue and F'ifteenth street, was bought from 
Miller & Lux and R. E. Houghton for $16,000, and about $50,000 was spent 
on the interior furnishings and the improvement of the grounds. The build- 



156 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

ing is of white Manti stone, is three stories and basement and covers a ground 
space of eighty-two by two hundred and forty-five feet. 

The old court house occupying the block across Chester avenue to the 
west, was sold to the city of Bakersfield for a city hall for $125,000 on July 9, 
1913. Funds for the purpose and $25,000 additional for the remodelling of 
the building were voted by the city on June 18, 1912, at which time, also, 
were approved bond issues as follows : For the construction of a supple- 
mental sewer system, $210,000; for the construction of two new fire stations 
and the purchase of a new auto-driven equipment, $60,000; for a library 
building and site for East Bakersfield, $27,000. 

Church Building 

That the progress of the churches has kept pace with other lines of 
improvement during the past decade is witnessed by the fact that nearly 
every church organization has erected a new building or made extensive 
additions to its old one during that time. Handsome and commodious brick 
structures have been built by the Methodist Episcopal, Roman Catholic and 
Baptist. The German Lutheran, East Bakersfield Methodist and Christian 
Science churches have built frame buildings, the Methodist Episcopal South 
and the Christian churches have made important additions, and the Presbyte- 
rian and Congregationalist are beginning fine brick edifices. Most of the new 
church buildings are equipped for institutional work to a greater or less 
degree. The Catholic church has maintained a parochial school for three 
years past, and the Sisters of Mercy have this year completed a large brick 
hospital on West Truxtun avenue to supplement a commodious wooden 
structure which they purchased several years ago. 

Progress of the Schools 

Recent events of importance in the city and county educational systems 
include the introduction of manual training in the city schools in January, 
1903, and the addition of a thorough course of domestic science under the 
direction of Mrs. F. B. Thomas in 1906. Inspired by the same practical aim, 
the high school, which was organized in 1893, added consecutively courses 
in bookkeeping, commercial law and stenography, manual training, domestic 
science, agriculture and assaying. Land for a high school farm was leased 
in 1909, and in June, 1910, the county supervisors purchased for $16,000 the 
twenty-seven acres comprising the old Hudnut place and used just previously 
as a county fair ground. This land, which lies in the northern part of the 
city, is being improved steadily as an experiment station where high school 
pupils are taught the practical art of husbandry, propagation of plants, 
breeding of stock, dairying and poultry raising. The manual training depart- 
ment, meantime, has grown to include a well equipped machine shop, a 
wood-working department, blacksmith shop and foundry, all housed in a 
commodious manual arts building of brick and concrete floors, erected in 
1911. The first high school building was finished in 1895, and the second in 
1906. 

At the present time plans are being perfected to add to the regular 
academic course the first two years' work of the university, which will enable 
graduates of the high school to enter the state university as juniors, and will 
much better equip those who end their period of instruction with their high 
school graduation. 

In 1910 there were 5812 school children in the county, eighty school 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 157 

districts, and 168 teachers. The school property of the county was appraised 
at $470,667. In the same year Bakersfield and Kern contained 2600 children 
of school age, and $66,289.36 was expended in their education. Since that 
time the growth of the city schools has required the building of three new 
school buildings and the construction of additions practically doubling the 
capacity of two others, and during all of the time it has been necessary to 
use temporary buildings to keep pace with the demand. 

The Rescue of Lindsey B. Hicks 

No more intensely dramatic incident has happened in the history of 
Kern county than the rescue of Lindsey B. Hicks just before midnight on 
December 22, 1906, after he had been buried nearly sixteen days under thou- 
sands of tons of earth by the caving in of the great shaft of the Edison 
Electric Company at its power generating plant in Kern river cafion about 
seventeen miles above Bakersfield. The accident occurred in the process 
of putting the heavy steel and concrete lining in the shaft which carries 
the water from the forebay down to the power plant eight hundred and 
sixty-five feet below. The whole length of the shaft is seventeen hundred and 
twenty-three feet. It was mined upward from the bottom, and as the work 
progressed the walls were supported by timbers cut and fitted end to end to 
form a succession of octagons fitting against the earthen sides of the shaft 
and wedged tightly to hold them in place without nailing or cross braces. The 
placing of the sections of steel tubing followed the same direction. First 
the bottom sections were placed, and concrete tamped about between the steel 
and the walls of the shaft. 

In order to protect the workmen engaged at this task from clods or 
stones that might fall from above, a bulk head of heavy timbers was built 
across the shaft a little way above them. As the work progressed this bulk- 
head was moved higher and higher up. On the morning of Friday, December 
7th, the bulkhead had been moved successively upward until it was two-thirds 
or more of the way to the top of the shaft, and the progress of the workmen 
below had made it necessary to move it once again. 

To do this work. Hicks, Gus Anderson (foreman), George Warner, 
C. D. Robles, H. Parris and John Wilbar were sent down the shaft from the 
top. Preliminary to moving the bulkhead one of the men was ordered by 
Anderson to knock loose the lowest of the set of timbers. Some objection 
was made to doing this on the ground that it was not safe, and it was stated 
later that express orders had been given against the removal of the timbers. 
However, on the order being repeated the workman knocked out the wedge 
that released the timbers. The reader who is unfamiliar with the subject 
should understand that the timbers were held in position only by being 
wedged tightly against the walls of the shaft. No sooner was the first set of 
timbers collapsed than a cave started that released the second set of timbers. 
This let down more earth, and in turn released the third octagon. With the 
falling of the second set of timbers the men turned to flee up the steep incline 
of the shaft, but the falling of the timbers, one after another, like dominoes 
that knock each other over in a row, was too fast for them. One man 
reached a point of safety. The others were caught like rats in a deadfall. 

Hicks, who was somewhere midway in the group of men, was struck 
by a falling timber just as he reached a skip — or small car built to run 
down the shaft on an iron track — and he fell forward beside the car, with the 



158 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

timber pressing on his back, and the whole mountain above him, apparently 
thundering down to close him in. 

The superintendents and workmen about the tunnel, the shaft and the 
power plant gathered about the collapsed hole in horror. The coroner was 
notified, the news of the death of the buried men was telegraphed, and the 
tremendous task of exhuming the dead bodies began. Seventy hours later, as 
the muckers were digging away at the top of the cave. Pearl Davis, a shift 
boss, heard a faint tapping that seemed to come from deep down in the earth. 
He stood still for a moment while his flesh turned cold, and then he heard 
the tapping again. He put his ear to the tram rail that led into the collapsed 
shaft, and heard it again, clearly and distinctly. Someone, down beneath 
the crumbled mass of earth and boulders, was striking with a piece of steel 
against the rail. Davis answered the signal and was answered in turn. 

The news spread quickly that one or more of the men was alive, but it was 
not until the 11th (the cave occurred on the 7th) that definite communication 
was established between the buried miner and the men wdio now were keyed 
to the highest tension to effect his rescue. A gaspipe, cleansed and sterilized 
under the direction of the company's physician, was driven down beside the 
rail of the tram to where Hicks lay. On the eleventh this work was done and 
Hicks was breaking his four days' fast with milk and broth poured down the 
pipe. General Superintendent W. S. Cone of the Edison Electric Company 
came from San Fernando. General Manager Sinclair came from Los Angeles. 
The best miners and the cleverest engineers were summoned from the dif- 
ferent camps, and one of the finest and in many respects most remarkable 
efforts for the rescue of a human being in the history of the state was begun. 
Hicks was absolutely an unknown man, without a relative or a special friend 
on earth so far as was known then or has developed since, but the news 
of his peril and the heroic work for his rescue was telegraphed twice a day 
to every section of the United States. 

The plan of digging down froni the top of the caved shaft was abandoned 
as unsafe for both Hicks and the rescuers, and a tunnel was started in the 
shoulder of the mountain a little below and ninety-six feet distant from 
where the buried miner lay. The mouth of the new tunnel was seven hun- 
dred feet or more above the river bed. and on the face of a precipice so steep 
that a scaflfolding had to be built from which to start the work. 

The earth and crumbled rocks through which the path of the tunnel lay 
were treacherous, and it was necessary to timber nearly all the way. ^M^en 
nothing else impeded progress, the miners would run against a boulder. Some- 
times it could be cracked ; once they mined around it, rolled it out of the tun- 
nel and sent it hurtling down the mountain side. The miners worked in fre- 
quent shifts, and pick handles never cooled. The last five days the tension 
was extreme. City editors in cities a hundred and fifty miles away called 
up the Bakersfield newspapers the last moment before going to press to 
know if Hicks was rescued yet, or to know the exact number of feet and 
inches of earth that remained to be penetrated. 

Finally, when the tunnel was done, and the foreman of the rescue shift 
had shaken hands with Hicks and passed him a plug of tobacco, it was 
necessary to saw the rails of the tram in four places and haul the buried 
man under the car. .\ man had to lie on his back and saw the rail over 
his head. 

Newspaper men at the tunnel 'phoned to Bakersfield when the sawing 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 159 

began, and a crowd of thousands of people walked the streets and waited for 
further news. Arrangements had been made to ring the fire bell when the 
first word came that Hicks was safe. For two days and nights J. M. Duty, an 
old Texas ranger, with two men hired to help him. had kept his irons hot 
ready to fire a salute of anvils on the lot where the new court house stands, 
the moment the good news should come. 

At 11 o'clock at night someone "phoned to the engine house that Hicks 
was out, and Foreman Arthur Nagle sprang to the tower and turned the old 
bell loose. Duty got his anvils in action, loading them, not with powder, but 
with dynamite. The crowd on the street went frantic. Newspaper men at 
this end of the line got in touch with the watchers at the tunnel. Hicks was 
still beneath the car. A messenger hastened to the engine house, warning 
the crowds on the sidewalk as he went that the danger was not yet over, that 
the loosening of the last bit of rail might let the car fall and render fruitless 
the sixteen days of toil and care. But there was no stopping the premature 
rejoicing. By that time the engines in the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe 
yards were sending up their shrill jubilee, society women in the residence 
districts were beating tin pans, marching and laughing hysterically. Out 
in the Kern river oil fields the great steam whistles were sounding a sym- 
phony of joy that floated into Baker sfield like the rushing of a wind in the 
pine trees. Dell Gamble, custodian of the town clock, was making the big 
bell in the tower peal ofif as many hours as Hicks had lain in his living tomb. 
Church bells were ringing everywhere. 

It was a full quarter of an hour after the wild demonstration began 
before Hicks was out in the tunnel, and at least five minutes more before the 
word was shouted down from the mountain side to the man at the 'phone 
by the river and by him transmitted to Bakersfield. 

Of course Hicks went on the stage, and his first appearance was in the 
Armory in Bakersfield. An ordinary sitting room would have held the crowd. 
He fell as flat in Los Angeles, and everywhere. Hicks buried alive with 
heroic men risking their own lives to save him was an object of national 
interest. Hicks rescued dropped back to his old place and importance. He 
was a mucker, no dififerent from any other mucker, no better nor more inter- 
esting than any other man that may be carrying a hod or sweeping up the 
litter on the streets. 

The last heard of Hicks was that some widow had married him, and so 
he passed permanently from his brief pedestal of public prominence to the 
common level of domestic obscurity. 

News Notes, 1899 to 1910 

October 5, 1899 — Scribner's opera house is filled at a reception to ]\Iajor 
Frank S. Rice on his return from a campaign in the Philippines. 

October 9 — IMojave's business section is w^ped out by a fire which is 
believed to be incendiary. 

November 16 — The sidewalk-building campaign is in full blast, and prop- 
erty owners on West Nineteenth street petition for the building of concrete 
walks from Chester avenue to Oak street, a total length — counting both 
sides — of 7556 feet. 

December 15 — Bakersfield expects free mail delivery soon. 

December 21 — Bakersfield is discussing park and levee plans, and Engi- 
neers W. C. Ambrose, W. R. Macmurdo and Walter James submit a report 



160 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

estimating that a sufficient levee to guard against all danger of flood from 
the river can be built for $12,000. 

January 17, 1900 — The corner stone of the Woman's Club hall at Six- 
teenth and H streets is laid, and the Beale memorial library at Seventeenth 
and Chester is nearing completion. 

March 21 — The Sunset Railroad Company is incorporated by local men. 

March 28 — Truxtun Beale deeds the Beale library to the city as a 
memorial to his father. General E. F. Beale. 

x\pril 11 — Work starts on the electric railroad from Bakersfield to Kern. 

July 19 — A call is issued for a meeting of oil producers to organize to 
control the market and insure remunerative prices for oil. This is the begin- 
ning of the Associated Oil Company. 

July 20 — Meeting is held and a committee on organization is appointed 
consisting of C. A. Canfield, J. M. Keith, W. G. Kerckhofif, W. E. Knowles, 
E. L. Doheny, H. A. Blodget, W. H. McKenzie, Burt Green, B. F. Brooks, 

0. Scribner, H. H. Blood and D. S. Ewing. 

September 12 — Producers' Oil Association is organized as a result of 
the meetings on July 19 and 20. 

September 25 — Judge Ross of the federal court in Los Angeles decides 
against the scrippers in the cases of Pacific Land and Improvement Company 
against Elwood Oil Company, and Cosmos Exploration Company against 
Gray Eagle Oil Company. 

Electric cars will run on the new street railway soon after January 

1, 1901. 

February, 1901 — A building boom is on in East Bakersfield. 

A campaign against illegal gambling starts. The games are closed on 
Sunday but run all the week. 

April 17 — A meeting is held preliminary to the organization of the First 
National Bank of Bakersfield. 

April 18 — The famous battle at Midway between representatives of the 
Mt. Diablo Oil Company and the Superior Sunset Oil Company occurs in the 
darkness of night, and G. P. Cornell and J. T. Walker, alleged gunmen in 
the employ of the latter company, are badly wounded. The battle is over 
sections 24 and 26, 32-23. The Mt. Diablo people get the land by court de- 
cision, but long litigation follows over the shooting afifair. 

April 25 — Kern City floral carnival opens with Miss Delia Wells as 
cjueen. 

April 26 — Bakersfield gets news of a decision against the scrippers in 
the case of Kern County Oil Company against Gray Eagle Oil Company. 

May 18 — The Southern Pacific is changing its engines from coal to 
oil burners. 

May 20 — George Hinkle has hard luck in a poker game, and just as 
he gets aces up with big money in the pot his wife enters and leads him out 
by the ear. At home Hinkle gives his wife a beating, and has to leave the 
town hastily to escape a band of fellow gamblers who are warming a pot of 
tar and emptying a feather bed. 

May 23 — The Masonic temple at Chester avenue and Twentieth street 
is dedicated with elaborate ceremonies. 

May 25 — The senior academic class of the high school is suspended for 
insubordination as the result of a quarrel about the place on the stage which 




ii: 



^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 161 

the commercial class is to occupy at the graduation exercises. The trouble 
is adjusted later and all graduate happily. 

June 1 — The county supervisors are putting oil on the Rosedale road 
for the first time. 

June 10 — An agitation for the closing of the stores at 6 o'clock is started. 

June 25 — The ministers and the retail clerks join in a meeting at the 
opera house to promote the 6 o'clock and Sunday closing movement. 

July 5— Kern count v's assessment totals $20,850,000, against $15,184,000 
in 1900.' 

July 23 — A petition with 441 signers is presented to the city trustees 
urging the purchase of parks for the city. 

August 13 — The Santa Fe Railroad adopts plans for a new depot at 
Bakersfield. 

August 8 — The site for the Lowell school is purchased. 

August 20 — The Edison Electric Company announces plans for building 
a power plant in Kern river canon. 

August 28 — The Pacific Refinery (afterward the Phoenix) starts work on 
its refinery near Reeder lake, just west of Bakersfield. 

October 16 — The Standard Oil Company is securing rights of way for 
its pipe line to Point Richmond (the first pipe line built in the county). 
Producers are complaining of shortage of tank cars. 

October 16 — A party leaves Bakersfield to hunt grizzly bears in the 
mountains above Tejon. 

October 16 — The contract is let for the Lowell school. 

October 20 — The tracks of the Sunset Railroad have reached Hazelton 
in the Old Sunset field. 

November — The Kern River Power Company is organized to build 
power plants on Kern river. 

December 21 — Kern Company, Uniform Rank, Knights of Pythias, is 
mustered in. 

December 21 — The supervisors let the contract to L. Wilcox to build a 
bridge across Kern river opposite the oil fields. 

December 23 — The first train leaves for Sunset over the new road. 

December 24 — The Southern Pacific has ordered more engines to handle 
the increased business that the oil fields create. 

January 1, 1902 — The St. Paul's Episcopal church at Seventeenth and I 
streets is consecrated. 

January 3^Miller & Lux offer to give the herd of elk that has roamed 
on the company's lands for years to the Bakersfield lodge of Elks. The 
offer was accepted and the elk moved to the national park in the Sierras. 

January 14- — Work is progressing on the Producers' Savings Bank build- 
ing at Nineteenth and H streets, and the directors of the Bank of Bakersfield 
decide to build at Chester and Twentieth streets. 

There is much talk about an electric railroad to the coast, and there are 
rumors that the Denver & Rio Grande will build through Walker's pass into 
Bakersfield. 

The Januar}' shipments of oil from the Kern river field reach 3,000 cars 
and break all records. 

January 31 — The Board of Trade is organized with Frank S. Rice as presi- 
dent and the following additional members of the executive committee : L. M. 
Dinkelspiel, L. P. St. Clair, A. Weill, W. J. Doherty, Alfred Harrell, R. C. 
Hussey, L. C. Ross and S. C. Smith. 

10 



162 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

February 10 — The Southern Pacific begins building oil storage tanks 
along its tracks through the state. 

February 20 — E. F. Carter strikes a strong flow of gas on section 25, 32-23. 

March 1 — The First Congregational church celebrates its tenth anniver- 
sar3\ The church was organized on February 28, 1892. 

April 15 — The shippers lose again in contests over oil lands. 

April 22 — Miss Theresa Ellen Lacey is elected queen of the street car- 
nival to be held on ]\Iay 3d. 

May 2 — The Oil Exchange building at H and Nineteenth streets is 
formally opened. 

Alay 3 — The ^Merchants' Free Street Carnival opens with Queen Tessie 
on the throne. The coronation ball is held on Monday night, and the week 
is given over to mirth and gaiety. Governor Gage visits the city on the last 
day of the carnival. 

May 7 — Oil companies talk of building a railroad to ^Maricopa with pri- 
vate capital. 't' 

May 11 — The school census shows 2011 boys and 1911 girls of school 
age in the county. 

]\Iay 21 — Pipe is being delivered for the Standard Oil Company's pipe 
line to Point Richmond. 

May 22 — Ben Thomas is putting in a pump irrigation plant at Delano 
at a cost of $1200. 

May 25 — Company G Avins a prize as the most efficient company in the 
regiment. 

July 4 — The Kern County Democrats hold a "non-partisan" Fourth of 
July celebration with a big barbecue on West Nineteenth street. 

August 3 — The first carload of materials for the Kern River Power Com- 
pany's canal is delivered. 

September 3 — The first Labor Day celebration is held in Bakersfield. 

Many plans are discussed for building a railroad to Ventura and a meet- 
ing is held to consider a railroad to Kernville. None of these plans have yet 
materialized. 

October 17 — Dr. George C. Pardee speaks in Bakersfield. Governor 
Gage speaks at the opera house. A hot political campaign, both state and 
county, is in progress. 

December 4 — A petition is in circulation asking that the legislature create 
a second department of the superior court. The movement was successful, 
and late in the next spring Governor Pardee appointed Paul W. Bennett to 
the new office, a position which he filled continuously until his death in the 
summer of 1913. 

Tanuarv 7, 1903 — Sheriff John W. Kelly closes the illegal gambling 
games which previously had been running wide open. 

March 24^-The Associated Oil Company starts work on a 470,000 barrel 
earthen reservoir in the Kern river field. 

April 19 — The outlaw, James McKinney, after being tracked from Visalia 
through the mountains to Arizona and back to Bakersfield, is killed in a 
battle with officers on Sunday morning about 9:30 o'clock in the Chinese 
joss house on L street between Twenty-first and Twenty-second streets. 
Marshal T. J. Packard and Deputy Sheriff W. E. Tibbet are shot and killed by 
McKinney and an associate supposed to be Al Hulse, in whose room in the 
joss house the outlaw was hiding. Hulse is arrested, and B. M. Tibbet, who 
shot McKinney, is appointed marshal by the city trustees. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 163 

April 27 — The Native Sons of the Golden West hold their state parlor 
in Bakersfield. 

August 22 — City election ballots are stolen from a vault in the city clerk's 
office to prevent their being recounted in a contest filed by E. P. Davis against 
the election of T. J. Packard as city marshal. The thieves took the ballots 
to a lonely gully east of Kern city and partly destroyed them by fire. J. T. 
Wells, a rancher hauling hogs to town before daylight in the morning, saw 
the fire and two men with a buggy. He reported to Constable Stroble, who, 
with Marshal Ham Farris of Kern, went out and found the ballots on the 
24th and placed them in the safe in Justice Marion's office. The theft was 
not made public until September 10th. 

November 10 — The trial of Al Hulse begins in Judge Mahon's court. 

November 20 — The San Joaquin Valley Federation of Woman's Clubs 
meets in Bakersfield. 

December 15 — The city trustees decide on the intersection of Chester ave- 
nue and Seventeenth street as the site for the Beale memorial clock tower. 

January 5, 1904 — The election contest of E. P. Davis against T. J. Packard 
comes to a hearing before Judge Mahon after long delay, despite the death of 
Packard and the burning of the ballots, and Davis is declared elected by a vote 
of 442 to 445. Davis lost one vote and Packard nine in the hearing. 

January 15 — H. A. Jastro is elected vice president of the National Live- 
stock Association. Later he served several times as president. 

April 15 — G. P. Cornell, one of the men who were wounded in the Mid- 
way battle of April 18, 1901, enraged at the outcome of a preliminary exami- 
nation of men against whom he had brought a charge of deadly assault, fired 
seven shots from a Colt's automatic revolver at Dr. A. F. Schafer and E. J. 
Boust, one bullet passing through Boust's coat and the others flying wild 
about Nineteenth street in front of the Arlington hotel, where Cornell was 
standing at the time. One shot drew blood on the leg of a salesman stand- 
ing in the door of Weill's department store and another struck the shoe of 
John Herrick, who was standing in front of the Magnolia saloon. 

May 16 — The Knights of Pythias and Rathbone Sisters hold their state 
conventions in Bakersfield. 

May 25 — The second trial of Al Hulse for the murder of Packard and 
Tibbet begins. Hulse was convicted, but committed suicide several years 
later while still waiting in the county jail for the result of an appeal. He 
never went to prison. 

November 2 — The Independent Oil Producers" Agency files articles of 
incorporation. 

November 8 — Roosevelt carries Kern county and the Republicans elect 
an assemblyman, judge and two supervisors. Chairman E. M. Roberts of 
the Democratic county committee presents Chairman J. W. Wiley of the 
Republican committee with a new broom, which is hung out of the window 
of the Republican headquarters. 

November 19 — The Eagles celebrate the fourth anniversary of the found- 
ing of the Bakersfield aerie. 

November 23 — The Independent Oil Producers' Agency completes its 
organization and the member companies sign over to the agency leases cover- 
ing $25,000,000 worth of property. 

November 28 — The post office is moved to its present location in the 
Southern Hotel building on I street. 

December — Water is giving serious trouble in the Kern river oil field. 



164 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

December 20 — A campaign against the dance halls is in progress. 

December 29 — Litigation between the irrigating canal companies and the 
power development companies is settled and Judge Bennett issues a decree 
perpetually enjoining the Kern River Power Company from building storage 
reservoirs or from diverting water from Kern river except for power develop- 
ment purposes. 

December 30 — Water is turned through the Kern River Power Company's 
tunnel and power plant and electricity is carried to Los Angeles to run the 
street cars. 

January 4, 1905 — The county supervisors let the contract to the Edison 
Electric Company to build the road up Kern river canon for $21,000. 

January 9 — The city trustees begin hearing a protest against the open 
dance halls, and on January 16th, after a stormy session of the board, Trustee 
R. McDonald left the meeting and the other trustees declined to renew the 
licenses of the saloons having dance houses in connection. Mayor 
H. H. Fish ordered the marshal to close the saloons having no 
licenses, but the saloons evaded the issue by selling soft drinks only. The 
dance hall cases were carried from the trustees to the city recorder's court, 
and the jury disagreed. The dance hall keepers applied to the superior court 
for a w^rit of mandate to compel the trustees to issue them liquor licenses, 
but the writ was finally refused. 

March 5— Knights of Columbus lodge instituted. 

March 25 — The Catholics make plans for the new St. Francis church, 
which is to cost $40,000. 

April 9 — The new First Baptist church is dedicated. 

April 12 — The Salvation Army buys a lot at K and Twentieth street. 

Free mail delivery is to be established in Kern in June. 

April 10 — In the city election R. McDonald wins over H. H. Fish by a 
vote of 630 to 387, and Mayor Fish, in retiring from the board, declares that 
the election is a victory for the "wide open town." 

April 25 — The new board of city trustees reconsiders the action of the 
old board in refusing to issue licenses to the saloons having dance halls in 
connection. It is declared that the dance halls will not be allowed to run, 
but they are gradually reopened. 

The Redmen are raising $5000 for a Fourth of July celebration. 

May 1 — The Santa Fe railroad has bought the Chanslor-Canfield 
Midway Oil Company's great holding of oil lands at Midway. 

May 1 — H. A. Jastro, on behalf of the Kern County Land Company, 
tenders the city thirty acres of land in the western ])art of the city for a 
public park on condition that the city spend at least $3000 per year in im- 
provements until a total of at least $30,000 is expended. The city accepted 
the tender, but did not comply with the terms, and the land was withdrawn 
by the donor. 

Afay 12 — Plans are submitted for the Elks' building on South Chester. 

June 2 — Burglars roll the safe out of the Santa Fe depot and across the 
street and maul it open with sledge hammers stolen from the section crew's 
tool box. Never apprehended. 

June 17 — Kern river is shipping little oil, but is storing a lot. 

June 24 — The jury finds E. P. Cornell not guilty of assault to kill E. J. 
Boust. 

July 4 — The Redmen's Fourth of July celebration is a great success. 
Mrs. Frank Fether is Goddess of Liberty, Miss Flo Massa represents Cali- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 165 

fornia, and Miss Buxton represents Kern county in the big parade. Gov- 
ernor Pardee delivers the oration. 

August 15---Scribner's opera house and adjoining buildinys burn and a 
loud complaint concerning the fire department and the water supply results 
in a reorganization of the fire company. 

August 21 — The Standard Oil Company is pumping oil into its big 
earthen reservoirs west of the Kern river field at the rate of 30,000 barrels 
per day. 

September 1 — The Southern Pacific is corrugating the pipe for its pipe 
line between the Kern river field and Delano. 

October 12 — The dance halls are trying to get permission to run all night 
Saturday nights and until 3 o'clock in the morning other nights. 

November 14 — The county supervisors decide to build a new high school 
building to supplement the old one. The cost is estimated at $50,000. 

December 23 — The Public Ownership party is organized by Charles P. 
Fox and W. D. Young, and during the meeting, which is held in the court 
house, the heaviest earthquake shock felt in Bakersfield in many years occurs. 

January 16, 1906 — The corner stone of the new St. Francis church is laid 
by Bishop Conaty, who delivers an address in the open air to a great gathering 
of people. 

April 3 — Rev. A. M. Shaw, president of the Law and Order League of 
Kern County, issues a statement declaring war on the dance halls, but some 
years more elapse before they are finally closed, not to reopen. 

April A — The Allison Machinery Company installs a steam plant to 
furnish steam heat to downtown business houses. 

April 8 — The Buckeve Refinerv is making kerosene oil in the Kern river 
field. 

April 17 — Plans are drawn for the Bakersfield opera house. 

April 19 — A mass meeting is held at Armory hall to draft plans in aid 
of the San Francisco fire sufferers and ^2777 is subscribed by the citizens 
present. 

May 27 — Kern river reaches the highest point since 1893. 

May 30 — The contract between the Independent Oil Producers' Agency 
and the Associated Oil Company expires and producers begin shutting down 
their wells on account of the low price of oil. 

July 4 — The Bakersfield Board of Trade makes an excursion to the Ama- 
lie mining district which is showing renewed activity. 

July 7 — The Masons have placed a six-ton granite boulder in the center 
of their plot in Union cemetery. 

August 11 — Plans for the Santa Fe's new round house are announced. 

August 23 — Bakersfield's assessment roll totals $3,147,213. 

September — Northern Kern county farmers will get $300,000 for wheat 
grown on 30,000 acres. 

September 3 — The Brodek block at Nineteenth and K streets is burned. 
Loss $41,000. 

September 9 — Bakersfield trustees adopt plans for a new sewer system 
calculated to serve a ponulation of 20.000 people. 

September 10 — Bakersfield city schools open with 702 pupils : Kern 
schools, 415. 

September 29 — The new St. Francis Catholic church is nearing com- 
pletion. 

October 14 — Al Hulse, partner of Outlaw McKinney in the joss house 
battle of April 19, 1903, commits suicide in the county jail where he is await- 



166 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

ing the result of his appeal from the superior court, where he was convicted 
of murder. 

October 25 — S. C. Smith and C. A. Barlow, candidates for congress 
from the eighth district, hold a joint debate on the issues of the campaign 
at Armory hall, and one of the largest audiences that ever attended a po- 
litical meeting in Bakersfield is present. 

November 2 — Stud poker games are closed by Sherifif Kelley's order. 

November 5 — The new Bakersfield opera house is opened with Checkers, 
a character play. 

November 6 — The Democrats carrv the countv bv pluralities ranging 
from 400 to 1000. 

November 11 — Cen. \\'illiam R. Shafter, commander in chief of the San- 
tiago campaign in the Spanish-American war, died at the home of his son- 
in-law, Capt. \^^ H. McKittrick, fifteen miles south of Bakersfield. 

November 13 Bakersfield trustees are discussing dollar gas to no 

effect. 

November 17 — Delano ranchers have filled the warehouses and have 
thousands of sacks of wheat piled in the streets waiting shipment. 

November 23 — After a two days' session in the Kern river fields the 
Independent Oil Producers Agency closes a contract to sell to the Associated 
Oil Company 950,000 barrels of stored oil at twenty-five cents, and all its 
product for the ensuing year, estimated at 2,555.000 barrels at twenty-seven 
and one-half cents. 

December 6 — The shortage of cars for handling oil is causing agitation 
for the passage of the "Texas car law." 

December 7 — Lindsay B. Hicks and five other miners are buried alive 
by the collapse of the Edison Power Company's shaft in the Kern river 
canon. 

December 11 — News reaches Bakersfield that Hicks is still alive and 
work of rescuing him is begun. 

December 15 — Committee of Home Extension Association inspects 
Wasco land and decides to locate a colony there. 

December 22 — Hicks is rescued after sixteen days' imprisonment in the 
collapsed power shaft and the town of Bakersfield goes wild with joy. 

December 27 — Hicks makes his first appearance on the stage at the 
Armory and is a decided failure as a footlight hero. 

January 14. 1907 — City trustees order an election to vote bonds as fol- 
lows : For a new sewer system, $120,000; for a city hall and site, $50,000; 
for the improvement of city parks, $30,000. 

January 19 — Geologists estimate the original oil deposits of the San 
Joaquin valley fields at 1,254,000,000 barrels, of which 112,000,000 barrels 
have been taken out. 

January 18 — Cornerstone of Oil Center Congregational church is laid. 
AV. \\\ Riley, pastor. 

January 18 — Woodmen of the World initiate sixty candidates. 

January 25 — The Porter-Higgins Company buys 2000 acres north of De- 
lano and a large acreage east of Bakersfield, and plans to bring colonists 
from the east. 

February 1 — One hundred and ninety families secure allotments of land 
in AA'asco Colony. 

February 6 — State Federation of AVoman's Clubs begins its sixth annual 
session in the First Alethodist church. 

February 8 — Mrs. E. D. Buss of Bakersfield is elected president of the 
State Federation of Woman's Clubs. 

February 10 — The Standard is paying thirty cents for Midway oil. 

February 18 — The price of highballs, Tom and Jerrys, all case goods and 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 167 

fancy drinks is raised to twelve and one-half cents by Bakerslield thirst em- 
poriums. 

March 22 — Cosmopolitan hotel block burns, loss $25,000. 

March 25 — A $120,000 bond issue for building a new sewer system car- 
ries by a vote of 499 to 91. 

March 26 — The $30,000 bond issue for improving city parks is defeated 
by a vote of 321 to 219. It needed two-thirds to carry. 

March 27- — The $50,000 city hall bonds are defeated by a vote of 16 for 
and 213 against. 

April 15 — J. E. Bailey becomes mayor of Bakersfield. Truxtun Beale 
tenders two-black park to the city. 

x\pril 16 — City trustees begin investigation of fire department that re- 
sults in retirement of Chief Willow and nearly all the old firemen. 

April 16 — African Methodist conference for Northern California meets 
in Bakersfield. 

April 21 — Consolidation of Bakersfield and Kern is under discussion. 

April 22 — Many burglaries occur in Bakersfield. 

May 6 — The sixth regiment, N. G. C, is mustered out and Company G 
goes with it. 

May 15 — The Edison Electric Company's first power plant in Kern river 
canon is put in commission. 

I\Iay 16 — A month's course of lectures at the Woman's Club hall by 
State University professors is begun. Truxtun Beale, who pays the expenses 
of the course, proposes to make it an annual aft'air. 

May 2A — The Bakersfield Club is drawing plans for a club building. 

May 28 — State Aerie of Eagles meets in Bakersfield. 

]\Iay 31 — Burglars crack Attorney Claflin's safe with a sledge hammer 
and try to enter three other offices in the Bank of Bakersfield building. 

June 11 — Colored Mason's grand lodge meets in Bakersfield. Illegal gam- 
bling is being suppressed. 

June 21 — A petition for the consolidation of Bakersfield and Kern is put 
in circulation. 

July 3 — The east levee of Buena Vista lake breaks and floods the old 
swamp lands to the east border of Kern lake, doing damage estimated at 
$250,000. 

July 11 — Southern Pacific will continue its pipe line to Port Costa. 

July 12 — J. W. Wiley is appointed code commissioner. 

July 15 — Work of repairing break in Buena Vista levee begins. 

July 20 — Judge Paul W. Bennett is acting as trustee to secure titles from 
the government to Havilah town lots. Havilah was built on unsurveyed 
land, and the residents have held their lots all these years by right of occu- 
pation only. 

July 20 — Mr. and ]\Irs. S. J. Swift, driving a Ford auto from Los iVngeles 
to San Francisco on their wedding trip, let the empty machine run ofif the 
grade in Tejon cafion and fall eighty feet to the bottom. Swift, who is a 
machinist, rebuilds the car with an old saw, an axe. a jack knife and a lot of 
bailing wire and drives it into town, making a record in emergency auto re- 
pairing. 

August 6 — Trustees sell sewer bonds to Los Angeles Trust Company 
for par and accrued interest to date of delivery. 

August 9 — Enormous deposits of rich ore imcovered in Clear Creek 
canon. 

August 11 — Destructive forest fire burns over several thousand acres in 
the Greenhorn mountain. 

August 31 — Sunset Road Oil Company makes contract with the Salt 



168 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Lake Road to supply them with fuel oil for a i)eriod of five years at thirty 
to fifty cents. 

September 1-1 — Eight hundred pupils are enrolled in the city schools. 

September 17 — Illegal gambling closed again. 

September 18 — Kern county oil takes prize at the State Fair. 

September 20 — Eagles hold first meeting in new hall. 

September 25 — The pipe organ for the Episcopal church arrives. 

October 1 — Trustees order census of Kern and Bakersfield in prepara- 
tion for consolidation. 

October 10 — Truxtun Beale presents to trustees plans for a Greek the- 
atre to be built in Beale park. It is built later at Beale's expense. 

October 22 — A valuable collection of pictures, the gift of Truxtun Beale. 
was placed in the new high school building. 

October 27 — Census returns for the city of Bakersfield, 7,338, and for 
Kern, 3,422. 

October 31 — The first tract is sold in the Mountain View Colony. 

November 5 — The contract for the Hall of Records is let to Weymouth 
Crowell of Los Angeles for $44,340. 

November 1-1 — Thomas B. Larson, a pioneer of Linns Valley district 
dies in San Francisco aged eighty-two years. 

December -1 — Trustees call for bids for sewer construction. M. W. Buff- 
ington qualifies as city engineer. 

December 3 — Supervisors plan to raise saloon tax from $100 to $300. 

December 8 — A\ ork begins on Greek theatre. 

December 19— The Bakersfield band is organized. 

December 31 — Thirty-one thousand acres of the Cox ranch sold. 

January 1, 1908 — The Santa Fe is finishing its new thirty-five-stall round 
house. 

January 7 — City trustees let contract to Glass & Fisher to build new 
sewer system for $53,877. 

January 10 — City trustees call Bakersfield and Kern consolidation elec- 
tion for February 25th. 

January 11 — F. A. Tracy, pioneer, dies. 

January 11 — Congressman Smith has introduced a bill to provide a post 
office building for Bakersfield and the post office department has asked for 
statistics regarding the town and the business of the office. 

January 1-J — W. S. Tevis files libel suit against San Francisco Bulletin. 

January 31 — The Independent Agency is standing pat on its demand for 
seventy-five cents per barrel from the Associated. First meeting is held to 
organize a branch of the Lincoln-Roosevelt League in Bakersfield. 

Februarv 11 — The \\' Oman's club plans to issue bonds to cover its in- 
debtedness of $2400. 

February 18 — ]\layor Bailey introduces an ordinance to reduce the price 
of gas to $1. It never passed, but it caused a long controversy and great ex- 
pectations. 

February 19 — Independent Oil Producers Agency closes contract with 
the Associated for the sale of its oil for two years at sixty and one-half cents 
for the first year and sixty-three for the second year. 

February 25 — The first election for the consolidating of Bakersfield and 
Kern is carried in Bakersfield but is lost in Kern. 

March 4 — Disorderly saloons are under investigation and Trustee 
Everett St. Clair promises to introduce the afterward famous St. Clair ordi- 
nance, to close dance halls and side and rear entrances of the saloons. 

March 9 — St. Clair ordinances are introduced at a meeting attended by 
the largest audience the city trustees ever had. 

March 11 — ^^Municipal reform is the chief talk of the town. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 169 

March 13 — Lincoln-Roosevelt League organized by Chester H. Rowell. 

March 16 — St. Clair ordinances are passed. 

March 17 — Santa Fe round house is accepted. 

March 20 — Walter Stiern and Drury Wieman win third intercollegiate 
debate for Kern county liigh school, making three annual viccories for the 
local school. 

March 23 — Illegal gambling gets "another death blow." 

March 23 — The Thomas flyer. America's car in the International New 
York to Paris automobile race, goes through Bakersfield. 

March 24 — It is announced that a railroad will be built from Los Ange- 
les to San Francisco via the Tejon canon and the west side oil fields. (It 
has not yet materialized.) 

March 26 — Oil men meet to urge passage of Smith oil land bill. 

March 31 — To the tune of "Auld Lang Syne," "Home Sweet Home" and 
"There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight," the dance halls closed 
at midnight in compliance with the St. Clair ordinance. The Owl and Stand- 
ard will continue to sell soft drinks. 

April 5 — Gambling is in full blast again. 

April 7 — Soft drink dance halls are dull. 

April 13 — Woman's Club urges park improvement. 

April 13 — It is announced that City Trustee George A. Tilton will resign 
from the board as the result of an efifort to get him to introduce amendments 
to the St. Clair ordinances. 

April 16 — Labor council endorses Trustee Tilton and petitions are in cir- 
culation asking the trustees to appoint G. J. Planz to the expected vacancy. 
Fred Gunther is also advanced as a candidate for the place. 
• April 21 — Trustee Tilton resigned. 

April 27 — The Wasco Congregationalists are building a church. 

April 28 — The Delonega stage and four horses roll 200 feet down a cliff. 
The passengers jump and escape with varying degrees of injury. 

April 30 — Kern city is discussing municipal water w^orks, but never 
takes final action. 

May 2 — The Order of Owls, Bakersfield Nest, is organized with twenty- 
one charter members. 

^lay 2 — Ardizzi-Olcese plant five acres to oranges on the Kern Heights. 

May 3 — R. G. Hill, cattleman of Tehachapi, buys twenty-five sections of 
the Towne ranch. 

May 5 — Second movement for consolidation of Bakersfield and Kern 
starts with petitions circulating in both towns. 

Alay 7 — The funeral of A\'ellington Canfield, pioneer ranch owner, is 
held in Bakersfield. 

May 14 — Mr. and Mrs. Placido Giglo are experimenting with silk culture 
in Bakersfield. 

May 15 — Kernites saw the, big fleet of war ships at San Francisco. 

June 4 — Kern City stores close during funeral of James L. Depauli. 

June 5 — Anti-saloon league presents petition with 624 signatures asking 
the county supervisors to pass an ordinance giving each precinct local option. 
The ordinance was never passed. 

June 11— Bakersfield buys the west half of section 3. 30-28 from the 
Southern Pacific for a sewer farm. Price $2.50 an acre. 

June 27 — Bakersfield will spend $2200 celebrating the Fourth. 

June 27 — An organization of citizens is making a crusade against illegal 
gambling. Constable D. B. Newell and citizen deputies raid crap and rou- 
lette games at 1215 Twenty-first street and AI. H. Sisson swears to complaint 
against the gamblers. 



170 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

July 3 — Undersheriff T. A. Baker, Constable Newell and thirty citizens 
raid the Palace, Standard and Owl dance halls and arrest the keepers. 

July 16 — The jury disagrees in the first gambling trial. 

July 19^ — The county assessment roll shows an increase of $2,371,641 over 
1907. Present total, $26,712,953. 

July 21 — The Sisters of Mercy buy the L. P. St. Clair residence at H. and 
Fourteenth streets for a hospital. 

July 27 — Kern County Anti-saloon League organized. 

August A — State Federation of Colored Woman's Clubs meets in Bakers- 
field. Colored Odd Fellows open district lodge. 

August 6 — Charles P. Fox launches the California Oil World, a weekly 
devoted to the state oil industry. 

September 6 — The St. Clair Hospital, afterward Mercy Hospital, is opened. 

September 7 — Kern County High School opens with two new depart- 
ments, manual training and domestic science. Delano installs first street light. 

September 7 — Bakersfield city schools show attendance of 792 ; High 
School 211 ; Kern city schools 440. 

September 9 — A. F. Stoner is appointed city trustee to fill vacancy left 
by George A. Tilton's resignation. 

September 10 — New hall of records is accepted. Cost, $50,000. 

September 11 — Gamblers arrested in citizens' crusade plead guilty. Crap 
and roulette tables will be shipped to Nevada. 

September 22 — State convention of county assessors meets in Bakersfield. 

September 23 — Woodmen of the World adopt plans for building at I and 
Eighteenth streets. 

October 7 — Dance hall cases go on trial before Justice of the Peace Black 
and Slim Moore is acquitted. 

October 10 — John McWilliams buys 5000 acres of Lerdo Land from Kern 
County Land Company. 

November 13 — Building boom strikes Bakersfield. 

November 18 — First probation committee appointed. 

December 3 — Mrs. F. A. Tracy gives two acres of land to Children's 
Shelter in memory of her husband, F. A. Tracy. 

December 5 — First Children's Shelter tag day is held and $6,000 is raised. 

December 17- — Union Oil Company has leased 6000 acres of land from 
the Sunset Road Oil Company. 

December 22 — Bakersfield new sewer system is finished. 

January 15, 1909 — High water in Kern river threatens levees. The river 
is carrying about 15,000 cubic feet of water per second. 

January 21 — H. L. Packard dies in San Francisco. 

February 3 — O. D. Fish dies in Los Angeles. 

February 5 — Supervisors create Aqueduct and Standard School districts. 

February 7 — W. T. Jameson dies at his ranch. 

February 25 — The Edison Land & Water Company is organized. 

February 27 — Mrs. W. M. Beekman and four children are burned to death 
in their beds when their home is consumed by fire. The origin of the fire 
still remains a mystery. 

March 13 — The edict goes forth that illegal gambling in the West Side 
oil towns must cease. 

April 15 — The Independent Oil Producers' Agency asks producers to 
curtail the production of oil for six months on account of the increasing 
surplus. 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 171 

April 20 — Henry J. Martens lands here with fifty Mennonites to found 
the Lerdo colony. The colony failed because Martens could not give title to 
the land, and the colonists scattered to other parts of the county and the state. 
The first children's playground in Bakersfield is opened under the supervision 
of Miss Evelyn Pluss. 

April 21 — Admiral Robley D. Evans lectures in Bakersfield. 

April 25 — A Kern county steer weighing 2500 pounds live weight and 
standing twenty hands high, is slaughtered in San Francisco by Miller & Lux, 
who claim that it is the record for size. 

April 28— The Associated Oil Company votes $25,000,000 bonds to build 
pipe lines from Coalinga to Port Costa and from its west side holdings to 
Gaviota and for other improvements. 

xA.pril 29 — A $55,000 school bond election called for ]\Iay 22 to build an 
addition to the Lowell school and buy sites for two more buildings. 

May 6 — There are over 200 motor cars in Kern county. 

May 6 — The Elks are excavating for their building on South Chester. 

The Bakersfield band is playing at Nineteenth and Chester every Saturday 
night during the summer. 

May 9 — The Kern County High School captures the pennant in the 
valley inter-scholastic track meet. Lloyd Stroud, Cecil Baker, Gordon Baker, 
John Stroud, Antone Wegis and Drury Wieman are the stars. 

May 12 — William Harrison Lowell, Civil war veteran and Kern county 
pioneer, dies. 

May 21 — Plans are drawn for the Producers' Transportation Company's 
pipe line lo the coast. Capt. John Barker, pioneer, dies at his home in Bakers- 
field. 

June I — The school census shows 5039 school children in the county. 

June '^ — The supervisors decide to call an election to vote $400,000 in 
bonds fo\ a new court house. 

June 11 — The Producers' Transportation Company files incorporation 
papers. 

June II — Bakersfield merchants organize the Kern County Credit Asso- 
ciation to protect its members from bad debts. 

June 15 — Caliente is wiped out by fire. Loss, $46,800. 

June 17 — The subject of better levee protection is discussed in Bakersfield. 

July 5 — The Eagles celebrate with a big picnic and barbecue. 

July 9 — The Druids are finishing their hall in East Bakersfield. 

July 16 — ^The county supervisors decide to add an agricultural department 
to the High School. A small plot of rentrd ground was used for experimental 
purposes for a time and later the Hudnut Park tract of twenty-six acres was 
bought by the county from the Kern County Fair Association. 

July 20 — The county assessment roll totals $31,787,898. 

August 21 — The county's hay and grain crop is estimated at $1,271,000. 

August 25 — A Santa Fe freight train with forty-seven loaded cars runs 
away down the Tehachapi grade and collides with a switch engine in the 
yards at Mojave. Five men killed; property loss, $200,000. 

August 30 — Dr. A. F. Schafer is experimenting with the manufacture of 
serums for the cure of acute diseases. 

September 12 — City schools open with 965 pupils and twenty-four teach- 
ers ; High School, 205 pupils. 

September 14 — Kern county votes $400,000 to build a new court house. 

September 22 — Miller & Lux are extending the old Kern Valley Water 



172 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Company's canal north along- the west side of the swamp and plan eventu- 
ally to continue it to Tulare lake. 

September 25 — A new movement is launched to consolidate Bakersfield 
and Kern. 

September 27 — The historic oil land withdrawal order is made, and 
many thousands of acres of oil land claims in the West Side fields are clouded. 

October 1 — The Bakersfield Baseball Association is organized and a 
valley league is planned. 

October 2 — The Kern County Land Company sells five sections for the 
Mountain View colonization project. 

Much general interest is taken in oil lands on the North McKittrick front. 

October 10 — President Taft speaks to many thousands from a platform 
near the Southern Pacific depot in East Bakersfield. 

October 13 — The Edison Land & Water Company is subdividing its land 
at ^200 per acre with an interest in pumping plants and cement irrigation 
systems. 

October 22 — The town of Moron is wiped out b}' fire. Loss $35,000. 

October 28 — Two auto loads of gun fighters go out to do battle over the 
J. C. Yancey oil claims on the North McKittrick front. No blood shed. 

Business men are looking for stores to rent in Bakersfield, but none are 
to be found. 

November 2 — Bakersfield city trustees pass a 12 :30 saloon-closing 
ordinance. 

Transient visitors to Bakersfield have to telegraph several days ahead 
to secure rooms, the town is so full of people. The 1910 oil boom is getting 
under way. 

November 12 — The Children's Shelter is dedicated. 

November 25 — Flaming arc street lights are being placed along Nine- 
teenth street l)y property owners. 

December 10 — Plans are made for organizing a building trades council. 

The Producers' Transportation Company's pipe line will be -finished 
January 15th. 

December 21- — Bakersfield and Kern vote to consolidate. Bakersfield, 
518. for; 186, against. Kern, 265, for; 154, against. 

December 29 — Barney Oldfield makes a mile in 1 :10^ with an auto- 
mobile at Hudnut park, lowering the former record of 1 :12 for a mile on a 
half-mile dirt track. 

December 30 — The year's building record in Bakersfield is estimated at 
$221,300. and fifty-three buildings are under -construction. Building trades- 
men employed are: Carpenters, 180; plumbers, 25; painters, 50; brick 
masons, 30; plasterers, 15 : cement workers. 25 : inside wirers, 10; laborers, 100. 

December 30 — Fifteen Bakersfield architects banquet at the Southern 
hotel. Building activity is near the top notch in Bakersfield's history. 

December 31 — Many auto loads of armed men leave Bakersfield for the 
West Side to post oil land locations with the stroke of midnight, and usher 
in with the new year the last great contest to take and hold — by force if need 
be — the rich government oil land of the Midway valley and the Elk and 
Buena Arista hills. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 173 

CHAPTER XVI 
Brief Histories of Kern County Towns 

Ever since Bakersfield wrested the county seat from Havilah in 1874 
she has been the center of trade, growth and development in the county, 
and as such her story is closely interwoven with the story of the county, 
told in the preceding pages. It is not the purpose to repeat this story in detail 
in this chapter, but only to pick out some of the more important dates and 
events in the town's history for convenience in reference and for the purpose 
of furnishing a little clearer picture of Bakersfield's progress than the general 
history of the county affords. 

The location of Bakersfield was fore-ordained from the time the 
geography of the southern end of the San Joaquin valley was determined. 
It is located at the point where Kern river leaves the deep furrow which it 
has ploughed for itself through the higher mesa land and reaches the flat, 
alluvial plain. It is the point where the water of the river could be most 
easily and profitably diverted for irrigation, and the soil of the townsite was 
such as to tempt the first settlers in the valley to locate there. 

Bakersfield in 1859 

The first of these settlers who established permanent homes on what 
is now the site of Bakersfield came in 1859 or just before that date. At that 
time Bakersfield was not a swamp, but Kern river divided just below Pano- 
rama heights and flowed through the present townsite in two main and one 
or two lesser channels. The largest of the channels was later known as 
Panama slough and crossed the townsite diagonally to the southwest, passing 
the present corner of B and Nineteenth street. The second largest channel 
was the old south fork, the remains of which are still in evidence just west of 
the Mill ditch. 

In 1859 the Overland stage road or immigrant trail which came through 
Tejon pass ran through the Lowell addition and crossed the river somewhere 
west of Panorama heights. Immigrants entering the valley over this road 
formed the first transient settlement of what is now Bakersfield, and in the 
winter of 1861-62, at the time of the first flood that history records, this 
settlement numbered something more than half a dozen families besides na- 
tive Indians. 

The flood came the day after Christmas and cut a new channel for the 
river — the one it now follows- — as is described in more detail in chapter five 
of this book. Some of the settlers and a good part of the Indian population 
moved away when the roads got dry enough, but at least four families re- 
mained, the Shirleys. the Gilberts. Harvey S. Skiles and Lewis Reeder. 

Coming of Colonel Baker 

In 1862 came Colonel Thomas Baker and Edward Tibbet. Colonel Baker 
had a contract with the state to reclaim all the swamp land that was over- 
flowed by Kern river and immediately began the construction of a dam across 
the south fork below Panorama heights. The other settlers farmed the future 
townsite. 

In 1863 a private school was established in the settlement, and 
the first public school was opened in 1877. During the Civil war the 



174 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

mail service over the southern route was discontinued, and the settlers here 
got their mail from Los Angeles or Visalia by the courtes}^ of neighbors or 
travelers. The first post office was established at Bakersfield about 1868. 

In the winter of 1867-8 came the second flood, larger than the first, 
cutting the new channel deeper and strewing the townsite with logs from 
the mountains. 

Kern County Created 

Kern count}' was created by an act of the legislature on April 2, 1866, 
by which the county seat was fixed at Havilah. One of the first acts of the 
county super\'isors, however, was to organize reclamation districts covering 
the land all around Bakersfield, and the settlement soon took on an activity 
that foreshadowed its eclipse of the mountain town the legislature had hon- 
ored. 

Bakersfield Formally Laid Out 

On December 21, 1869, A. D. Jones, publisher of the Havilah Courier, 
moved his plant to Bakersfield, which Colonel Baker had formally laid out 
the September preceding. In January, 1870, Bakersfield had two stores, Liv- 
ermore & Chester's and Caswell & Ellis', a telegraph office, printing shop, 
carriage shop, harness shop, fifty school children, two boarding houses, one 
doctor, one lawyer and a saloon. 

In March, 1870. the town was resurveyed, and in the fall of that year 
a bill was introduced in the legislature to make it the county seat, but it did 
not become a law. At that time the whole population of "the island" was 
placed at 600. 

In September, 1871. the surveyors were running preliminary lines through 
Bakersfield for the Southern Pacific railroad, and a month later it is recorded 
that Havilah residents were moving to Bakersfield and bringing their houses 
with them. Colonel Baker died November 24, 1872. 

Bakersfield Wins the County Seat 

Eft'orts of Bakersfield to secure the county seat resulted in an election on 
February 15. 1873, in which Bakersfield was declared the winner by twelve 
votes. Havilah secured an injunction, however, and litigation followed which 
resulted in a new count of the ballots on January 26, 1874. in which the 
figures stood, Bakersfield, 354; Havilah, 332. 

For the growth which made this victory possible Bakersfield was indebted 
to the rich delta lands, which were being hungrily gathered up under the 
generous swamp reclamation laws. By this time Livermore & Chester had 
become the dominant factors in the community and were carrying on large 
operations in land reclamation, teaming, trading and other lines. The town 
was a center for sheep and cattle men, and was a stopping place for teamsters 
hauling ore and other products from the south and east to the end of the 
Southern Pacific railroad, which was then building down the valley. 

Bakersfield Is Incorporated 

In May. 1873. the county supervisors, acting on a petition of residents, 
declared Bakersfield an incorporated town, and on May 24th the first city 
officers were elected as follows: Trustees, W. S. Adams, L. S. Rogers, M. 
Jacoby. J. B. Tungate, and R. W. Withington. 

Early in 1874 W. B. Carr, the fore-runner of J. B. Haggin and the Kern 
County Land Company, arrived in Bakersfield. That spring the first Meth- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 175 

odist Episcopal church was built, in August the Southern Pacific reached 
the north side of the river; in September it was getting ready to lay out the 
town of Sumner, afterward Kern, now East Bakcrsheld. On September 1, 
1874, George B. Chester deeded to the county the old court house block, 
and on October 5th a contract was let for the erection of a court house at a 
cost of $29,999. 

Bakersfield Disincorporates 

A perusal of the fuller accounts in chapters seven and eight will show 
that this was an era of great expectation for Bakersfield. But the railroad did 
less for the town than had been expected, and a series of dry years and the 
beginning of a contest between Livermore & Chester and Haggin & Carr 
for control of the irrigation waters caused a period of waiting and uncer- 
tainty that checked the town's growth. In 1876 Bakersfield got tired of paying 
a town marshal $7o per month for doing nothing, and disincorporated. It 
was incorporated a second time January 11, 1898. 

By 1880 Billy Carr had out-generaled Julius Chester, and Haggin & Carr 
succeeded Livermore & Chester as the dominant factors in the growth of 
Bakersfield and Kern county. Then came the contest between Haggin & Carr 
and Miller & Lux told at length in preceding chapters, and the final com- 
promise by which the waters of Kern river were divided between the two 
corporations. This compromise was embodied in an agreement signed on 
July 28, 1888. 

Another Era of Progress 

A little later rumor of plans for the colonization of the Haggin lands 
began to take on apparent substance, and the years 1888 and 1889 seem to 
have been notable for community progress in Bakersfield. On December 25, 
1887, the Silsby fire engine- — revered in the memory of the pioneers — arrived 
in town. In the summer of 1888 -work was started on the Southern hotel. That 
fall L. P. St. Clair got a franchise for gas and electric works, and the next 
year H. A. Blodget, H. H. Fish and Jeff Packard got a franchise for the first 
street railway. In the spring of 1889 Haggin did put a small amount of land 
on the market, and the county voted $250,000 bonds to build a jail, a county 
hospital, an addition to the court house and to improve the county roads. 

July 7, 1889, fire swept the business section of the hopeful young city and 
left little more than some acres of ashes with a fringe of dwelling houses 
around them. 

Colonization of Rosedale 

In September, 1890, the Kern County Land Company was incorporated, 
S. W. Fergusson was made manager, and the colonization of the Rosedale 
lands was begun. Extensive advertising of the Rosedale lands, the arrival 
of colonists and the expectation of the people of Bakersfield gave the town 
its next boom. Building, mostly of a light character, went forAvard with 
feverish activity. 

On February 10, 1893. Kern river broke its levees and the water flowed 
over the northern part of the town and stood a foot deep at Nineteenth and 
I street, but in a few days it disappeared with little damage. The abundance 
of water which the flood indicated helped the Rosedale colonists — nearly all 
unaccustomed to irrigation — to over-irrigate their lands. Succeeding dry 
A'ears and a shortage in the river laro-elv remedied the error, so far as the lands 



176 HISTORY OF KERN COUxNTY 

were concerned, but the colonists meantime became doubly discouraged by 
the failure of their crops and the general hard times of 1893 and 1894. 

When the Kern County Land Company fully decided that the Rosedale 
colonization venture was a failure it withdrew its agents, stopped selling land, 
and H. A. Jastro succeeded to the management of the concern and its great 
properties in the county. 

Public Utilities in 1889-90 

The first gas plant was built in Uakersfield about the first part of 1889, 
and the first electric lighting plant, run by steam, in 1890. The Power, Tran- 
sit & Light Company finished the electric generating plant at the mouth of 
Kern river canon in 1897 and took over the street car system, which pre- 
viously had been run by horse power. In 1897, also, the Electric Water Com- 
pany took over the old Scribner Water Works and began supplying the city 
generally with water. Chapter 13 gives important events and dates of this 
period in detail. 

Kern River Oil Boom 

In May, 1899, Jonathan El wood and his son James discovered oil in the 
Kern river field, gave a great incentive to the oil boom that was beginning 
to materialize through work in the West Side fields, and started the greatest 
boom that Bakersfield had experienced up to that time in her history. In 
Bakersfield the result of this boom showed mainly in the rapid building 
of business and residence buildings to meet the swiftly expanding demand 
and the laying of miles of cement sidewalk in all parts of the city. Before 
the movement for public improvement reached the point of paving more than 
a few blocks in the business center the price of oil dropped under the weight of 
over-production. 

Bakersfield did not drop back from the effects of this boom, nor did it 
ever drop back from the effects of any boom in its history; it has always 
held all it has gained, and been ready to take advantage of the next incentive 
to growth that good fortune afforded it. 

Present Prospects 

In Chapter 15 the more recent events in the history of Bakersfield are 
related and it is unnecessary to repeat the story here. At the present time 
the city is looking forward chiefly to prospective colonization enterprises, to 
the settlement of the mesa lands through pump irrigation, and to the hope of 
electric railways joining this city and Los Angeles via the Weed Patch and 
other lines from this city to the West Side oil towns. Bonds have been voted 
for the construction of a system of paved roads connecting Bakersfield with 
all parts of the county, and by these and other means the city is hoping to 
maintain her supremacy as the trade center of the county, a destiny of no 
modest proportions when the vast resources of the county are developed. 

Towns of the West Side Oil Fields — Maricopa 
The first railroad station established in the Sunset oil field when the 
Sunset railroad was built in 1902 was called Hazelton, but the wells around 
the first terminal were small producers, and the development gradually drifted 
to the north. The railroad followed with an extension of its tracks past the 
present site of Maricopa to a point known to the railroad company as Monarch, 
but which never attained much significance in the mind of the ]mblic. ^Tost 




n 
O 



X 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 177 

of the people who bought tickets to Monarch found it more convenient to 
get of¥ at a point a mile or so to the south where many shallow wells producing 
a heavy road oil were brought in about 1902 and 1903 and thereafter, and 
gradually — because the slump in oil prices discouraged haste in those days — 
the present town of Maricopa took root and established itself as the per- 
manent trade center of the Sunset field. 

The first store was opened in 1906 by F. F. Torpey, and the first hotel 
was built by William Carter. C. W. Beatty opened a store in Maricopa in 
1908, and also served as postmaster for a number of years. 

During these years Maricopa was the only town in the West Side oil 
fields, and she therefore claims the title of Mother City of the West Side 
fields as well as the title of The Gusher City. But it was not until the gushers 
began coming in and the boom of 1909 and 1910 struck the West Side fields 
that Maricopa made any great progress toward prosperity or permanence. 

But when the Lakeview gusher baptized the town with oil and the flood 
of land locators, prospectors and genuine oil producers began to arrive, 
Maricopa arose to the occasion. In 1910 the railroad company gave up the 
fiction that Monarch was the chief point on its Sunset line and built a 
substantial and commodious depot at Maricopa. A $12,000 grammar school 
building was built, two new hotels, the Lakeview and the Lenox, were opened 
to the public, the first garage and the first steam laundry were built; the 
Wagy Water Company completed laying water pipes from springs in the 
mountains, affording the city a good supply of water for domestic purposes 
and fire protection ; 7,000 feet of private sewer main were laid, and gas and 
electric light and power service were extended to all parts of the town. 
During 1910 new houses were completed at the rate of two or three per day, 
telephone lines were extended throughout the Sunset field with a central 
oflfice in Maricopa, and later these lines were carried to all parts of the 
expanding West Side district by the Kern Mutual Telephone Company, a 
West Side concern. 

Maricopa was incorporated in July, 1911, at which time the following 
officers were elected: Trustees, C. W. Beatty, W. E. Thornton, James Wal- 
lace, H. C. Doll and C. Z. Irvine ; clerk, E. E. Ballagh ; treasurer, M. Y. 
White ; recorder, T. W. Brown ; attorney, L. R. Godward ; marshal, H. J. 
Babcock ; fire chief, Harry Parke ; engineer, L. L. Coleman. 

On June 20, 1911, about a third of Maricopa's business houses were 
destroyed by fire, but all the buildings were promptly replaced by others 
of a more enduring character. 

During the past year and a half Maricopa's growth has been a little less 
rapid owing to a falling ofT in the activity of oil development, but every 
year the permanence of the W^est Side oil fields and of the cities that depend 
upon them seems more and more assured. 

Maricopa has good banking facilities, and is well served in the field 
of journalism by the Maricopa Oil News. xAmong the prospects for the future 
is a good automobile road connecting Maricopa with the Ventura coast, and 
an electric railroad from Los Angeles via Tejon pass through Maricopa to 
the other West Side towns. The citizens of Maricopa have been actively 
promoting the coast road for a year and more past, and are now very hopeful 
that it will be built. This will place Maricopa on the line of much through 
travel from other parts of the valley to the sea, and the electric line, if it is 

11 



178 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

built, will give the people of the Sunset town quick and frequent communica- 
tion with Los Angeles. 

Taft 

The town of Taft has been at all its stages the logical outgrowth of the 
necessities of the Midway oil field, of which it is the business center. Although 
the first oil prospectors whti entered Kern county from Coalinga overran and 
located the greater part of the Midway field, the lack of transportation 
facilities, water and fuel and the depth of the oil sands as compared to that 
in the older parts of the McKittrick and Sunset fields discouraged develop- 
ment. A map of the field published in 1901 shows but six oil wells, all in 
township 32-23. At that time 900 or 1000 feet was considered the limit of 
profitable drilling, whereas the big producers of the field in later years were 
brought in, for the most part, at twice that depth, or more. 

In 1903 and thereabout, in the Midway field, occurred some of the bit- 
terest contests over oil lands that have marked the history of the industry in 
the state, but the drop in oil prices just after that period reduced the activity 
of the Midway operators almost to the vanishing point. As late as 1907 the 
production of the Midway field was only 134,174 barrels for the entire year, 
less than half what some of the later wells of the territory produced per well 
in a month. 

But with the cleaning up of the surplus oil stocks of the state during 
1907. interest turned again to the Midway field, and the train of events which 
resulted in the building of Taft began. Foreseeing that the possession of 
its own supply of fuel might some day be of great advantage, the Santa Fe 
railroad bought the extensive holdings of Chanslor & Canfield in the Midway 
field ; the Standard Oil Company also began to acquire land in Midway — the 
first venture of the big concern into the field of production in this state — 
and the construction of the Standard pipe line from the Kern river field to 
Midway was begun. Under the name of the Sunset Western, the Sunset rail- 
road was extended from Maricopa to a point a little northwest of the present 
townsite of Taft. and a side track for the unloading of lumber and oil well 
supplies was put in. In the winter of 1908-9 an excursion of Bakersiield 
people went by train to the end of the Sunset Western road and spent half 
an hour looking at the sights of the embryo metropolis of the Midway field. 
They consisted of two or three shacks and several acres of oil well casing 
and derrick timbers piled along the siding. 

But when the town began to grow it lost no time. By the summer of 1909 
it had ten or a dozen business houses and some 200 inhabitants, and in July 
of that year it was given a post oflfice with H. A. Flopkins, one of the pioneer 
merchants, as i)ostniaster. Less than two years later the population had been 
multiplied by ten. and the business had increased still faster. 

lUit there were intervening vicissitudes. Before the railroad was built 
water had to be hauled from I'uena Vista lake and cost $8 per barrel. After- 
ward it was shipped by tank cars from East Bakersfield and retailed at 
fifty cents. The town was first built on the south side of the railroad track 
on land leased from the railroad on short tenure, and the architecture was of a 
correspondingly frail and temporary character. On October 22, 1909. at five 
o'clock in the morning a drunken man tried to light a distillate burner in a 
Chinese restaurant. He turned on the distillate and struck a match. The 
match went out. and he struck another. Meantime the distillate flowed out 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 179 

of the stove and through a hole in the floor. The second match started the 
fire. There was an explosion, and in an hour and a half the business street 
of the little Midway town was in ashes. There was no such thing as a fire 
department, and the total supply of water in the town at the time was esti- 
mated at ten gallons. Some of the losers by the fire were Evans & Parish, 
general merchants; \\\ L. Alvord, confectioner; Hahri & Krull, furniture 
dealers; Max Tupper. stationer; Fred O'Brien, pool hall and barber shop; 
Harry A. Hopkins, general merchant and postmaster; S. C. Burchard, butcher; 
James & Dooley, clothing merchants ; Dr. Summers, and two or three others. 

The remainder of the town was composed of tents, tent houses and 
shacks of the lightest construction. The railroad company in July had notified 
its lessees on the south side of the track that all that ground was needed for 
sidings, and had platted a townsite on the north side of the track where 
lots were offered for sale outright, except with provisions in the deed reserv- 
ing the right to drill for oil and forbidding the sale of liquor. 

About the same time J. W. Jameson platted a townsite on the south 
side of the railroad a little distance from the tracks on section 24, and a 
sharp contest arose over the location of the post office. The railroad company 
won the post office and most of the business houses, although enough of the 
latter located on the Jameson townsite to make quite a showing and to keep 
the ultimate result of the rivalry between the two locations in doubt for a con- 
siderable time. 

Up to this time the railroad had called the new town Moro, but as there 
was an express office in San Luis Obispo county by that name an "n" was 
added to the end of the name of the Midway town. But there was a A'loron 
in Colorado, and the postal authorities objected to duplicating the name in 
California, as the abbreviations used for the two states look so much alike. 

After many weeks of debate and the vigorous rejection of several sug- 
gested names, Postmaster Hopkins, sitting in the office of Postmaster R. A. 
Edmonds in Bakersfield one day, happened to raise his eyes to a portrait of 
the president which hung above the desk. "Let's call it Taft," said Hopkins 
to Edmonds, and the suggestion finally prevailed, so far as the post office was 
concerned, although the railroad still clung to the name of Moron for its 
station. 

Up to the end of 1909 neither of the rival towns had made much progress, 
but with the beginning of 1910 both began to forge ahead with a vigor and 
enterprise that renewed the doubt as to which would gain the supremacy. 
But in September, 1910, the Jameson townsite was swept by fire, and the 
backset which it thus received put its rival hopelessly in the lead. 

A movement for the incorporation of Taft was started in April or May, 
1910, and on November 8th of that year, at an election called by the county 
supervisors, the proposition carried by a rousing vote, and the following 
officers were elected: Trustees, H. W. Blaisdell, H. A. Hopkins, E. L. Burn- 
ham, j. W. Ragesdale and J. P. Dooley; marshal, E. G. Wood; clerk. Dr. Fred 
Bolstad. The trustees appointed T. J. O'Boyle recorder, and Fred Seybolt 
city attorney. 

The Taft Public Utilities Company, the first corporation formed to 
serve the public in the new town, was incorporated in the fall of 1910. It 
shipped water from East Bakersfield by tank cars, pumped it to a couple of 
1200-barrel tanks, and delivered it thence by gravity to the consumers. On 



180 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

February 1, 1911, the company's business and distributing system was sold 
to the Consumers' Water Company, a concern controlled by stockholders of 
the Western Water Company, which pumps water through a pipe line from 
wells located not far from Buena Vista lake in the trough of the valley. 

The city is supplied with gas from the natural gas wells in the Buena 
Vista hills, and with electricity by the San Joaquin Light & Power Corpora- 
tion, whose transmission lines run through all the West Side fields. 

In November, 1912, the town of Taft voted bonds in the sum of $41,000 
for the construction of a sewer and a system of water mains for fire protection. 
The sewer was completed in June, 1913, and the fire mains and hydrants were 
put into service shortly thereafter. The city built a concrete jail at a cost of 
$1650 in 1911, and in the summer of 1913 completed a new $20,000 grammar 
school building. The concrete building used as a post office was built by popu- 
lar subscription, and free sites were offered to the city for a school building 
and to the first church that would erect a house of worship. The Catholics 
were the first to accept the latter offer. 

At the present time Taft is a well-built little city of about 3,000 people; 
has a good percentage of brick and concrete buildings ; is well supplied with 
public utilities, as has been seen ; has a daily paper. The Midway Driller, and 
a weekly oil paper, The Petroleum Reporter, edited by members of the Petro- 
leum Club. Besides the Sunset Western railroad which connects it with Mari- 
copa and Bakersfield, it has an auto stage line running to McKittrick, and is 
promised another running to Bakersfield. Within the last few weeks an- 
nouncement has been made that an electric railroad will be built from Los 
Angeles through the Tejon pass and thence west and northwest through the 
Sunset, Midway and McKittrick fields. With all these facilities and with the 
rich and steadily increasing oil field about it, the future of Taft as this history 
is closed is very bright. 

Fellows 

Fellows first appeared on the map as a railroad terminal in 1908, when 
the Sunset Western railroad was extended from Pentland Junction, near 
Maricopa, to the northern portion of the Midway field. Nothing but a grow- 
ing or diminishing pile of lumber and oil well supplies marked the spot, how- 
ever, until the rfival of interest in oil development in 1909 began to make it 
an important point for the unloading of supplies for the oil companies that 
began about that time to venture out into the upper part of the Midway val- 
ley. Then the Santa Fe, operating large oil properties in North Midway as 
tfie Chanslor-Canfield Oil Company, established headquarters at Fellows and 
made the place noteworthy by sparing enough of its expensively obtained 
domestic water to grow a row of cottonwood trees on the barren mesa. As 
the field developed Fellows became a modest trading point. James & Dooley 
established the first store in the place in 1910. Lawton & Blanck followed 
soon after with a similar establishment, in which was located the postofBce, 
and by the beginning of 1911 Fellows boasted two stores, a drug store, a 
billiard room, a livery stable and a liberal supply of saloons. 

In the last two years Fellows has taken on an air of greater stability 
by the erection of better buildings, among which is a grammar school build- 
ing that would do credit to a place of several times its age and number of 
inhabitants. The Fellows Courier, an enterprising weekly, has been estab- 
lished recently. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 181 

McKittrick 

The town of McKittrick, which is the shipping and trading- point for the 
oil fields of that name, is about forty miles west of Bakersfield. The earliest 
settlement at that place was called As])haltc). because of an asphalt mine 
located there in the early days, and the railroad, which was built to the field 
in 1891. still calls its station by the original name, although everyone else 
adopted the name McKittrick in 1895. The manufacture of asphaltum was the 
first industry of the town, and was the means of inducing the Southern Pa- 
cific to build a branch of its railroad to connect the place with Bakersfield. 
The railroad refined asphaltum under the name of the Standard Asphalt 
Company for some years. The first mail was 'distributed by Mrs. Ouarra, but 
she did the work as a matter of accommodation and not as a government 
official. When H. F. Peters built the first store in 1900 he was appointed the 
first postmaster. Prior to this date A. Randettini was conducting a hotel at 
McKittrick. The town was laid out as it now is in 1900. 

With the general activity in oil development beginning in 1900 McKit- 
trick began to grow, and it has been conspicuous among oil towns for the 
even prosperity it has enjoyed, although it never developed the booms which 
sent the population of Taft and Maricopa into the thousands. 

McKittrick now has about 500 inhabitants. It was incorporated in Sep- 
tember, 1911, with the following officers: Trustees, R. Butterfield. president; 
W. J. McCarthy, S. A. Hubbard, H. E. Phelan and Fred Ehlers ; city clerk, 
Warren Bridges. The McKittrick Clarion dispenses the local news. 

Lost Hills 

The founding of the town of Lost Hills followed the discovery of the 
oil field of that name, the story of which is told in the chapters devoted to oil. 
Martin & Dudley, discoverers of the field, laid out a townsite on sections 2 
and 3, township 27, range 21, the winter following the strike. G. T. Nighbert 
erected the first building, which was occupied by a restaurant conducted by 
Mrs. Hamilton, the first woman in the new town. Nighbert also built the 
first hotel and the first store building, the latter being leased to Crow & 
Cullen, who previously conducted the first mercantile business in Lost Hills 
in a tent. 

With the development of the Lost Hills field the town has grown 
steadily until there are now about 200 residents, and all lines of business one 
would expect to find in a city of that size are represented. Excellent tele- 
phone service with the fields and with the outside world is afforded, there 
is a daily stage to Wasco, and bonds for a school house have been voted. 

Two explanations of the origin of the name "Lost Hills" are at the dis- 
cretion of the historian. One is that a traveler approaching the district from 
the east sees from a distance what appears to be a considerable elevation of 
land, but as he comes nearer the hills seem to fade away until, when he has 
actually reached them, they appear hardly higher than the surrounding land. 
The second explanation is that the low range of hills which bear the name 
has no apparent relation to the surrounding country and the man who named 
them may have humored the conceit that thev had wandered away from the 
other foothills of the Coast range — from which they are many miles distant — 
and lost themselves on the desolate and uninhabited mesa. 

As a matter of fact, the Lost Hills are formed by a very steep anticline 



182 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

which the wash of centuries has nearly covered with alluvial sands. But it 
required expensive drilling to ascertain this fact, and so it probably did 
not influence the selection of the name. 

Towns of the Valley Farming Districts — Delano 

The town of Delano had its beginning as a railroad terminal. On July, 

1873, the Southern Pacific railroad, building from Oakland to Los Angeles, 
reached that point with its tracks, and work was suspended until August 6, 

1874. During this interval of a year and fifteen days Delano was the end of 
the line, and freight to and from Bakersfield and all the valley and mountain 
districts south and even as far away as Inyo county, was hauled to Delano 
or from Delano by big ox- and mule-teams. For some weeks before and after 
these dates Delano was headquarters for the railroad grading and track- 
laying crews, and for many years thereafter it remained a favorite gathering 
place for itinerant sheep men at the spring and fall shearing times. 

In addition to all these incentives to growth, Delano became the trading 
point for a large number of homesteaders who settled the fertile, sunny, 
attractive plains that spread between the railroad and the Sierra foot hills. 
The rainfall on these plains is scant, and the crops of wheat which the home- 
steaders raised were correspondingly meager, but the land was so easily 
tilled that one man with six horses and a gang plow could farm several hun- 
dred acres. As a result, Delano, a little later in its history, was an important 
wheat-shipping point. The more gradual development of the heavier lands to 
the west of the railroad brought a little more business to Delano. The 
organization of the Poso irrigation district, and the hope of getting gravity 
water from Kern river or from Poso creek nursed Delano's dreams of great- 
ness for some years, and when both of these i)rojects had to be abandoned, the 
town turned to the pumping plants. 

Delano was the first place in the county to build air castles on a founda- 
tion of pump irrigation, but the somewhat greater depth to water than pre- 
vailed at Wasco and McFarland, and the fact that a series of dry years and 
low prices had left the wheat ranchers too poor to risk investments in un- 
proven experiments delayed progress in the successful installation of pump 
irrigation. 

It was not until 1908 that pump irrigation began to be a considerable 
factor in the development of Delano, but from that date on it grew steadily 
in importance, and those who are familiar with the soil and the water con- 
ditions expect to see Delano take rank among the most productive and pros- 
perous farming sections of the country. 

The first store in Delano was conducted by E. Chauvin, and stood nearly 
straight across the street from the railroad depot. Chauvin also was the first 
postmaster. The principal business houses of the earliest days faced the rail- 
road, but in 1890 a fire swept most of them away, and the next street to the 
east took front rank in importance. The town now boasts two business 
streets, a fair number of brick buildings, a large grammar school building, a 
high school, opened in 1912, a bank, three churches. Baptist, Methodist and 
Catholic, two grain warehouses, and a weekly newspaper, the Delano Record. 

Wasco 
Wasco colony as founded in February, 1907, as the result of indirect 
elTorts of the Kern county board of trade. The executive committee of the 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 183 

the latter do I hard' I^r o "e tti ^ rtrh'°jM; tf'T ^^^"'? ''"^ '" 
endeavor resulted ■„ the purchase ,t '' '°"'='' .«""' "'= home-seeker. This 

Count, Land Contpan/hrihf C^ut rHrfExt: st' ir -^ ^^^H 

prospfcfve c^.on.sTs.'r.td t^' 3';;^ e^Se^.-L^^ ^^ °' """^^ '° 
meetmg of the purchasers in February 'w At Th . " " ^ 'f""<^""^' 
which was laid out in 20-acre tracts Z!,\ , I . """"« "'<= '"nd, 

^lucfoned off to the bond h<>lde ri "™" ^"' ^"'' ''"'>' ^'Pl'-'ai-sed, was 

!he appraisetnent, and'thfb ts' ^ "f/ ,t"f' / ""f""'"' ^^°^^ 
U,nd t,,e h a. hein, exchanged .or the lan'ratTh: rpp^'.air^-"' 

I he hrst settlers arrived on the colony March 1 ion? ^^•, , , , 
was under the Callowav ranan, ""ny -March 1, 1907. While the land 

water company v^as formed o "T u ™'"',°"' " "^'" "S^t, and a mutual 
year twenty-twoTvellsT e sink and"h>e "" '"'''", ^"'"P'"^ P'^"'^ '" => 
As stated elsewhere tlj need of ec ""'"P"'^ P'"""' ""*= "' °P"ation. 

hand engines, and the result Is rdrdirur'^' ,''" '""'^'''' °' ^^=°"<'- 
water in time of need until v. t. difficulty and a perennial shortage of 

Power Corpoiation"::tX' i r^Lt^ine?:: t'll: c't" -'-?"'"■ ^'^'' ^ 
were installed. ° ^^'^ colony, electric motors 

demoi!:t'rat:r::f wasc':::;,:'!:::'''?-^"""^ °^ ^--p -'^-°" -- 

farming sections of the coun^ M 'k*;: s'7d:c"d °' "? """^^ ^"^^"'^^ 

were planted bv the early colonists b,, 1 ''"""^"°"; f™"^ and grapes 

devoted at all tunes to the ZT . ,,'',1'"'^^ P"' °' ""= '^"^ ^as been 

comparative sn I water ft^a^d Th^ i '"" '"" ^'""^' f^''" -°P^- The 

The disc ™ . Tf the Lost HI ' T^,f'\''"^' ""Xe this practicable. 

excitement that developed the fnT"' " '" ""= *"""""■■ °'' '"10 and the 

as a trading point All the sticnl ! T"^..*""" ^'"' ' S'''' """^^ '° Wasco 

Santa Fe railroad at Wasco and h ,^ I "'" ""<' ^'^''^ ""'°^'''=d ''''"■^ 'he 

road to where the wonder ,n ^n ^T," "^°"' '™"^'3-one miles by dirt 

of eight, ten t eirin!, ; "°" "'"^ "^--^ ''^'"g brought in. feams 

their'^lo^ds of den ckTimh " """" 'P''"'^ ™°" °"' "'^ ^^''^ «"h 

sledding for he whtin" St /'^ "°"'' """^ ™^^^ exceedingly rough 

eager fo'rtuneseeke'rTtot1,e['rHin:"'°'"°'"" '"" '''"''' "^'^ '^^^ ^°' 

Wasco became a very necessary half-way house ,nd tl„ h ■ 
merchants trebled. Moreover one of th. business ot its 

began smking a deep well in th;co,on;.tsef"°r ^™.'"— '-" owners 
oil indications were encountered pevaed' ";' P""^""' """^^ 'I'at good 
before hope from this source was T -^^'h'"g "lore developed, but 

began drilling for oil at Se i r > a fd Dr'1 H T' ""'T T' ^^^°"'^"=^ 
his friends started a similar efFoVf , ii Liscomb and a number of 

Hills road. Both these wens r""' ^^ """ "°' f^"- f™'" 'he Lost 

the first of the follolr ""' '"^ '" "'' '^" °'' '"'2, and shortly after 
created b; report tarigl.t''";, 'hT'"''"^"'^ "™"'" "' -=■'— «'as 
estate prices fumned ,n w' f n'": '"■""' '" "'<= liscomb well. Real 

of the repc'rt but the tnkeT/ "'" "'''"""' ™"-"^>- °" ""= strength 

is still ui!:ii.s;,v: ed altl oth'tb ""''^'^'■-' ^'^ ->= "onths later the^oil 
veretl. although the prospectors are not yet discouraged. 



184 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

With or without oil, however. Wasco's future seems assured. Land 
in the colony is valued at $150 per acre with water, and at still higher 
prices with more improvements. The population of the town is about 300, 
and the business streets are well lined with brick and concrete buildings. A 
bank, four churches, a club hall and a fine new grammar school building are 
among the landmarks in the town. The colonists generally have built com- 
fortable houses and an abundance of trees and vines add to the attractiveness 
of the place. 

The Wasco News was established by J. L. Gill on November 25. 1911, 
and a year later was sold to Lawrence Lavers. the present proprietor. 

Prior to the founding of Wasco colony the Santa Fe railroad maintained 
a station at that place under the name of Dewey. The depot, a store, a black- 
smith shop and two saloons composed the town at the time the colony was 
launched. 

Famoso 

Famoso, on the Southern Pacific about midway between Bakersfield and 
Delano, took its place on the map as Poso station when the railroadi was first 
built through the valley. The name was inherited from the creek which flows 
past the place in time of freshet, and the first postolfice was established there 
under that name. Mail intended for the residents, however, got mixed with 
that intended for Pozo, San Luis Obispo county, and the government changed 
the name to Spottiswood. The natives could see neither reason nor romance 
in Spottiswood, so a protest resulted in the adoption of the name Famoso, 
which is understood to mean the city of the rolling hills. 

For many years the Kern County Land Company has maintained a large, 
warehouse, stock yard and sheep-shearing camp at that place in connec- 
tion with its Poso ranch, which adjoins the town on the west. In the earlier 
histor}^ of the town the business that developed twice a year during the 
spring and fall shearing seasons was a large factor in its commercial activity. 
The plains to the east of Famoso formerly were farmed to grain, and the 
Poso district achieved some fame by sending the first wheat to the San Fran- 
cisco market every spring. 

An ill-starred scheme to bring water from Poso creek by canal to 
irrigate the country to the east and north developed the fact that water was 
not available from that source and left the Poso irrigation district burdened 
with a heavy load of bonds and nothing to show for it save many miles of 
useless ditches. This unfortunate venture blocked the growth of Famoso 
down to the present time. Recently, however, promising efforts have been 
made to effect a mutually advantageous arrangement between the bond 
holders and the owners of the land, and it may be possible soon to clear the 
titles which have been clouded by unpaid bond assessments for nearly twenty 
years. Should this result materialize the Famoso district probably will take 
its place in the general march of progress with the country adjoining it on all 
sides. 

The first store at Famoso was conducted by John Harrington, who was 
succeeded by J. S. ISrooks. The latter previously had been station- agent for 
the Southern Pacific. 1 'rooks retired and left the mercantile field to C. E. 
Kitchen, who still occupies it with a general merchandise store and who 
also flispenses justice as a justice of the peace. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 185 

McFarland 

McFarland colony and town were founded in the spring of 1908 by 
T. B. McFarland and W. F. Laird on land purchased by McFarland the 
year previous. Up to that time a siding on the Southern Pacific railroad 
known as Hunt was the only thing that distinguished the spot from any 
other part of the miles of bare and untilled plain between Delano and Famoso, 
but through the energy of McFarland and Laird water wells were sunk, 
pumping plants installed and colonists located on the land, and in a few 
months' time the place took on the character of a permanent settlement. 

Most of the people who purchased land in McFarland had some capital, 
and the homes built and the other improvements made gave the colony from 
the start an appearance of prosperity and attractiveness. Ralph Kern opened 
the first grocery store earl}^ in 1908, and in the fall of that year he was 
appointed postmaster. The following year O. Woodard opened a general 
merchandise store and a hotel and lumber yard were established. In the 
same year the Associated Oil Company built its pipe line from the Kern river 
fields to San Francisco bay, and built one of its pumping stations at 
McFarland. 

The McFarland colonists have made a specialty of dairying, and have 
been very successful. Good land and a low water lift have formed the basis 
for a thorough demonstration of the practicability of pump irrigation, and 
to McFarland. perhaps, belongs the honor of having first answered that ques- 
tion past all shadow of doubt. In five years the place has progressed from 
a tract of absolutely virgin land to a town of 300 people and a colony of 
over 100 pumping plants, with telephone, electric light and electric power 
service, a new railroad depot, a creamery, ice plant, bank, two churches, a 
four-room grammar school built at a cost of $12,000. and exceptionally at- 
tractive homes and prosperous fields and orchards. McFarland butter is 
noted for its quality and won a gold medal at the state fair in 1911. The 
town and colony are "dry," a clause having been inserted in the deeds to 
the land forbidding the sale of liquor thereon. 

Other centers of farming development in the valley hardly ranking as 
towns are Rio Bravo, which is only a neighborhood of pioneer pump irri- 
gators about fifteen miles west of Bakersfield ; Button Willow, which is a 
shipping point and headquarters for the Miller & Lux ranches ; Shafter, 
where the Kern County Land Company is just opening a townsite in con- 
nection with a subdivision of 7000 acres now being placed on the market ; 
Rosedale, which was founded as the community center of Rosedale colony 
in 1889 and which is now holding its own with a country store, a school 
house and two churches, and Edison, which is the chief center of the new 
citrus industry just beginning on the mesa east of Bakersfield. At present 
Edison is only a little group of residences with a school house and a railroad 
station and unloading tracks, but it has reasonable prospects for a more im- 
portant place in histor}^ later on. 

Towns of the Mountain Section — Tehachapi 

The first permanent settler in the Tehachapi region, according to the 
best memory of the oldest present residents, was John Moore Brjte, who 
located in Tehachapi valley in the fall of 1854. Afterward he moved to the 
valley that now bears his name and built an adobe residence, in which he 
also kept a stock of groceries and miners' supplies to accommodate the scat- 



186 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

tered miners and stockmen who comprised the early po])ulation of the moun- 
tain district. This was the first store in the Tehachapi country. 

The first of the Cuddebacks arrived soon after John M. Brite, and he 
settled first in what is now Brites' valley, moving later to the present site 
of Tehachapi. 

The China hill placers were responsible for the first considerable immi- 
gration to the Tehachapi country. The hill turned out several thousand 
dollars in gold, and some of the miners made as much as $15 per day while 
the placers were at their best. Mining created a demand for lumber, which 
was supplied by whip-sawing the native pine logs. 

According to the best authority, the first post office in the vicinity of 
Tehachapi was opened about 1870 by John Narboe, who lived in Narboe 
canon on the stage line that ran to Havilah. Before Narboe's time the 
settlers got their mail from Los Angeles, when they or their neighbors went 
to that place for provisions. William Wiggins was the first postmaster 
at Old Town, and was also the first justice of the peace at that place. 

One of the first Fourth of July celebrations that the traditions of Kern 
county record was held under a large oak tree near the present site of 
Tehachapi in 1856. Air. and Mrs. J. M. Brite, Mrs. Smith and their families 
and a number of bachelor residents of the country helped to kindle the 
fires of patriotism in the new land. Red, white and blue calico decorations 
and a good dinner stand out among the enduring memories of the day. 

Ed. Green opened the first store, in the original Tehachapi, later known 
as Old Town, after Squire Wiggins became postmaster there, and a little 
later a man by name of Murphy, who had started a store a little distance 
away, moved his establishment into the embryo city. Ed. Green succeeded 
to the office of postmaster and retained it for many years. 

W. C. Wiggins taught the first school in Old Town in 1861. The name 
of his successor is not recorded, but the third teacher was "Doc'' Dozier. 
In May, 1867, Miss Louisa Jewett, afterward Mrs. Crites, began a term 
of several months in a log cabin that had been built for a school house 
about half way between Brites' valley and Old Town. Miss Jackson fol- 
lowed Miss Jewett, and later the old log school house was abandoned for 
a new building in Old Town. As the country settled up schools were 
started in Brites, Cummings and Bear valleys. 

Uncle Jimmie Williams built the first hotel in Old Town and also started 
a blacksmith shop, livery stable and feed corrals to care for the travellers 
and teamsters who passed that way between Los Angeles and the San Joaquin 
valley. Prior to the building of the Southern Pacific railroad a large amount 
of teaming was carried on by way of Old Town, and it became quite a 
busy and hopeful little town. 

But in the summer of 1876 the railroad was built through Tehachapi 
pass, and changes began to take place in the map. Tehachapi, meaning "the 
crow's nest," was located about three miles west of the site of the present 
town, in the edge of the hills. But the railroad chose the level land over 
which to run its tracks and on which to build its station. Anticipating the 
coming of the railroad a settlement had sprung up about a mile west of 
th€ ])resent Tehachapi station under the name of Greenwich, so called in 
honor of P. D. Green, who kept the post office there. The railroad founded 
the new town of Tehachapi, taking the name of the older place in the hills, 
which struggled against fate for a time, came to be known as Old Town 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 187 

and finally capitulated to the power of modern transportation. Greenwich 
promptly moved itself to the railroad's townsite, and Green took his post 
office there. For a time the office continued under the name of Greenwich, 
but in the end it was changed to Tehachapi, and the name Greenwich sur- 
vived only as the designation of a voting precinct. 

While the post office was at Greenwich, William N. Cuddeback, then 
but a boy, carried the mail on muleback, furnishing his own mvde. P. D. 
Green was elected justice of the peace at Tehachapi and Charles A. Lee, 
afterward county recorder, succeeded him as postmaster. 

The first store in Tehachapi (New Town) was owned by J. E. Prewett, 
now judge of the superior court of Placer county. The second store was built 
by S. Alexander, who had been a clerk for Hirshfeld Brothers at Old Town. 
The exodus from Old Town soon became general. Hirshfeld Brothers closed 
their store there, and Isidor Asher, another of their clerks, moved the re- 
mainder of the stock to Tehachapi. where he opened a business on his own 
account. 

Many of the residents of Old Town brought their houses with them 
when they moved down to the railroad. Mr. and Mrs. Kessing and Mrs. 
Mary Anne Haig moved in from "Camp 7," and established the first eating 
house in the new town. Soon after Mrs. Haig opened the first rooming 
house. Jack Eveleth built the first hotel, which stood on the corner oppo- 
site the depot. 

In 1875 a school was established in a log cabin at Greenwich, but when 
the new town got under way it followed the shifting center of population 
and was housed in a two-story frame building erected for the purpose. This 
school house did duty until 1901. when it was moved south of the rail- 
road track, made into a hotel, and its place was taken by a $10,000, three-room, 
brick building. 

The Catholics built a church early in the history of the mountain town, 
and the Protestant denominations united in the construction of a union 
church. 

At the present time Tehachapi has a population of about 600. It was 
incorporated by an election held on August 13, 1910, at which time T. P. 
Sullivan, John Hickey, J. M. Jackley, H. S. Downs and Fred Snider were 
elected as the first board of trustees ; E. V. Reed, first city clerk ; C. V. 
Barnard, first marshal, and C. O. Lee, first city treasurer. John Hickey is 
now the president of the board of trustees. 

In 1912 Tehachapi voted bonds to the amount of $14,000 and con- 
structed a public water system consisting of wells and pumping plants which 
furnish an abundant supply of good water. 

Twice Tehachapi has been almost destroyed by fire, but each time it 
has been pluckily rebuilt in more substantial form. 

For years after it was founded Tehachapi was only a trading point 
for stockmen and miners scattered through the hills and mountains, and a stop- 
ping place for the through travel over the pass. Then the fertile valleys began 
to be tilled, and it became a shipping point for grain, hay, wool and stock. 
The early settlers, however, planted little family orchards of apple and pear 
trees, and within the past five or six years experienced horticulturists 
have noted the excellence of the fruit from these trees and have established 
what promises to be a very thriving and profitable industry. In the past 
two years the acreage planted to fruit trees in the Tehachapi and other 



188 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

valleys has greatly increased, and while the young orchards are not yet 
old enough to have demonstrated their producing qualities, the growth of 
the trees is very satisfactory, and the orchardists are satisfied to trust the 
matter of fruitfulness to the evidence furnished by the old, family orchard 
trees. 

As an evidence of its faith in the future of Tehachapi as an apple country 
Kern county this summer waged a successful campaign for the election of 
Miss Ruby Brite as queen of the Watsonville apple carnival, an annual 
festival in which all the apple-growing sections of the state participate and 
in which they all compete for the honor of naming the queen. 

Glennville 

Linns valley was named for William Lynn who came to what is now 
Kern county in 1854 with his partner, George Ely. Like nearly everyone 
else who came here in those days they were attracted by the mines, but 
unlike most of the early miners they turned to agriculture and stock-raising 
instead of following the rainbow of fortune to the next mining camp. Event- 
ually Lynn returned to the east, but Ely lived out his days on a farm 
which he homesteaded in the fertile valley, and was finally buried there. 

David Lavers arrived in Linns valley in the spring of 1855. and soon 
afterward located on the farm where he still resides, a short distance above 
Glennville. In 1857 came the Glenn, Reed and Ellis families. Glennville 
was named for Martin Glenn, who took up a farm close to where the present 
town of Glennville stands. The first house in the town, an adobe, was built 
by Thomas Fitzgerald, and the first store was opened by Reed & Wilkes. 

Throughout its history thus far stock-raising, together with a small 
amount of farming in the mountain valleys and meadows, has been the 
main support of Glennville, although the prospector and his burro have 
been familiar sights along the roads thereabout through all the years, and 
some business is brought to the town by summer campers seeking the 
cool and beauty of the mountains. 

Woody 

The little foothill town of Woody took its name from S. W. Woody, 
one of the early pioneers of the mountain section. A school teacher by 
name of Gurnell was the first postmaster, and he was succeeded bv Thomas 
Hopper, who opened the first store. 

Mining and stock-raising have been Woody's chief industries, and al- 
though the latter finall}' displaced the. former, interest still remains in the 
gold ledges, and Woody residents insist that the old mines will again be 
worked. 

In 1891 Joseph Weringer opened the Greenback copper mine and 
founded the town of \\^eringdale a quarter of a mile above the old Woody 
store. This copper mine is now showing promising ore, carrying some 
gold and silver with the copper. Weringer is working day and night shifts 
and expects soon to begin shipping ore in quantity. 

Kernville 
Kernville is the successor of the early mining camp which was famous 
over the state at one time as Whiskey Flat. It lies on the west bank of 
the North l*"ork of Kern river about four miles above its junction with the 
South Fork. Kernville discarded the picturesque but undignified name of 
Whiskey Flat in 1864. The first store in the place w^as founded by Curtis 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 189 

& Davis in 1863, and Mrs. Carmel taught the first school, which was con- 
ducted in a private residence. The post office was established in 1864 with 
Adam Hamilton as postmaster. 

The Big Blue mine was the greatest factor in the early prosperity of 
Kernville, but in later years the farms and stock ranches of the mountain 
valley have maintained its business activity at a steady though not a killing 
pace. In 1883 fire destroyed a part of the business section of the town and 
many dwellings. N. P. Peterson, who lost a hotel and several dwelling 
houses, was one of the largest sufferers in the fire. 

Kernville has a good grammar school, a Methodist church, a daily stage 
to Caliente and telephone communication with the outside world via the 
same place. The store of A. Brown Company carries a very complete stock 
of general merchandise. 

Isabella 
Isabella, at the junction of the South and North Forks of Kern river, 
was laid out in 1892 by Stephen Barton on a portion of his homestead. 
G. W. King conducted the first store and was the first postmaster. The 
place numbers about fifty residents, has a grammar school, a Methodist 
church, and a justice of the peace who represents the third branch of gov- 
ernment for the surrounding mountain district. 

Weldon 

At Weldon, ten miles above Isabella on the South Fork, the A. Brown 
Company has a store and keeps the postoffice. 

Onyx 

Onyx, four miles above Weldon, boasts only a postoffice in a private 
residence. 

Bodfish 

Bodfish is a little hamlet at the foot of Hot Springs hill. For many 
years it was only a post office at the home of Mrs. Vaughn, the postmistress. 
In 1896 John Cross opened a store and stage office. There is a country 
grammar school at the place, and three miles distant, on Kern river, is the 
plant of the Pacific Light & Power Corporation. 

Havilah 

The history of Havilah is told in chapter three, along with that of the 
other early mining districts and in chapters six and seven where the story 
of its decline and the rise of Bakersfield as the dominant center of the county's 
development is recounted. Today, Havilah is little more than a memory, 
and its memory is best honored by letting the curtain fall over the years 
of its decline after it lost its gallant fight to retain the county seat and its 
people began moving not only their household goods but their houses as 
well to the more vigorous and promising city on the plain. 

Caliente 

Caliente was established first as a railroad grading camp when the 
Southern Pacific railroad began its long job of building its roadbed up the 
hills of Tehachapi. The town is located almost in the edge of the hills 
where the cafion of Caliente creek widens out into a little valley. About 
this point the railroad grade begins its difficult climbing, and the track makes 
great curves back and forth that afford the traveller recurring views of 



190 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the town from different elevations as he looks out from a car window, climbing 
or descending. 

Stage lines and mail carriers leave Caliente for Havilah, Kernville and 
other mountain points, and the town is the first shipping point for a great 
mountain section. One or two fires and a flood last summer that filled the 
streets with mud and washed two or three light houses from their founda- 
tions are among the few events that have varied the slow but even growth 
of the little village. 

Towns of the Desert — Randsburg 

Randsburg, in the extreme eastern part of the county, is the principal 
trading point for the Rand mining district, which was organized at a meeting 
of miners held on December 20, 1895. John Singleton presided. A resolu- 
tion was adopted naming the district after the famous Rand of South Africa, 
and E. B. McGinnis was elected the first mining recorder. The great Yellow 
Aster, the largest gold mine in the state, located by John Singleton, C. A. 
Burcham and Fred M. Moores, was first called the Rand mine, its name 
being changed in 1897, when the Yellow Aster Mining & Milling Company 
was organized. 

W. C. Wilson, who had been conducting a general store in Mojave, moved 
to Randsburg and opened a like establishment at the beginning of the ex- 
citement in the new camp. D. C. Kuffel was his first manager. The building 
first occupied was vacated in 1896, and a larger building, 28 by 80 feet in size, 
was moved from Garlock. S. J. Montgomery built the second store soon after, 
and both establishments, together with practically the whole of the town, 
were wiped out by fire in 1897. 

In 1898 a railroad was built from Kramer to Johannesburg, about a mile 
distant from Randsburg, but prior to that time everything the Rand mining 
district wanted from the outside world had to be hauled fifty miles by team 
from Mojave. 

The post office was established at Randsburg in 1895 with Fred Moores 
as the first post master. At the first miners' meeting in 1895 thirty-three 
votes were cast, but so rapidly did the new camp acquire fame and population 
that a year later the number of votes at a similar meeting was 687. In the 
fall of 1896 the St. Elmo hotel was built, only to be burned in the big fire the 
next June. Twice since 1897 fire has swept the mining town. 

The first school was established in 1897. In April, 1901, the present 
school building was built at a cost of $3500. 

Randsburg now has a population of about 1000, and is the metropolis 
of the greatest mining district in the state in the value of its outi)Ut. The 
principal mines are the world-famous Yellow Aster, the Consolidated Mining 
Company's properties, the Little Butte, the King Solomon group, the Baltic 
and the G. B. Mining Company's group. 

Just at present Randsburg is being given a boost by the introduction of 
electric light and power by the Southern Sierras Power Company, the installa- 
tion of dry crushing, the cyaniding of raw ore and the starting up of some 
of the larger placer mines. The town is supplied with water by the Rands- 
burg Water Company, which pipes it from Squaw and Mountain springs. 

Johannesburg 

Johannesburg, a mile south of Randsburg, was founded in the fall of 
1897 and the spring of 1898. it is said by Chauncey M. Depew and associates. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 191 

who bought a half section of school land, laid out the townsite and built the 
railroad connecting it with the Santa Fe main line at Kramer, expecting that 
the new and thriving camp of Randsburg would move over to the railroad 
en masse. In this hope they were disappointed, and the Johannesburg railroad 
was sold to the Santa Fe. 

The founders of the town piped water from Mountain spring, and this 
system later was combined with the Randsburg water system, which had its 
supply from Squaw springs. 

Johannesburg boasts the Johannesburg Reduction Works, known as the 
Red Dog, a custom mill, built in 1897; the Santa Ana, the Pioneer and the 
Windy. 

Mojave 

The town of Mojave was established by the Southern Pacific railroad 
when it laid its tracks through the desert in 1876. The first store was built 
by a man named Moon, and Mrs. Morrissey opened the Morrissey hotel, 
which was the first hostelry. Robert Charlton was the first postmaster. 
W. C. Wilson, at one time county auditor, conducted a general merchandise 
store at Mojave for some years. 

Up to the present time the railroad has been the chief reason for the 
existence of the town. It is situated at the foot of the climb from the south 
to the top of Tehachapi pass, and is therefore a convenient place for 
coupling and uncoupling helper engines. It is now the end of an oil pipe line 
carrying fuel oil over the Tehachapi mountains for the use of the railroads. 
Mojave also has been the shipping point for borax hauled from Borax lake 
and Death valley. The beds at Borax lake were discovered' by John Searles 
of Skilling & Searles, who for many years have hauled the product across the 
desert sands to Mojave with 20-mule teams, taking fifteen days for the round 
trip. 

During the early days of the Randsburg mining boom Mojave was the 
point at which miners and their provisions and materials left the railroad, 
and the trade so produced helped the town to prosper until the railroad was 
built to Johannesburg. The building of the Los Angeles aqueduct gave 
Mojave another temporary boom. 

For many years some mining has been carried on in the country tributary 
to Mojave, and recently satisfactory results have been obtained in developing 
water for pump irrigation in the vicinity of the town. The desert lands are 
rich and adapted to cultivation if a sufficient supply of water for irrigation 
can be obtained, and on the experiments in this line may depend Mojave's 
ultimate prosperity or adversity. 

During the past year a refinery has been built at Mojave for extracting 
some of the lighter elements from the oil that is piped over the mountains, the 
residue being as valuable for fuel as the native oil, and the part taken out 
selling for enough to make a very substantial reduction in the railroad's fuel 
bill. 

Two churches and a good grammar school are among Mojave's public 
assets. 

Rosamond 

Rosamond is a station on the Southern Pacific fourteen miles south of 
ATojave, near the southern line of the county. The first store was opened 
about 1888 bv a man bv name of Hvde and Miss Sarah Haves. C. P. Sutton 



192 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

was the first postmaster and was succeeded by E. S. Waite, Charles Graves 
and Miss Kinton, in the order named. Ike Boyles ran the first hotel, and 
Miss Kate Titus taught the first school. It was kept up for two seasons by 
private subscription, but not until 1908 were there enough children to warrant 
the establishment of a school district. 

Rosamond was named for a daughter of one of the Southern Pacific rail- 
road officials. 





^^^'^>o^7^ C^ ^ y^oo 




BIOGRAPHICAL 

HENRY A. J ASTRO.— A record of the life of Henry A. J astro is in 
many respects an epitome of the progress of Kern county. So long has been 
his identification with this great region and so intimate his association with 
local development that, viewing the remarkable transformation wrought 
within his memory, he may well exclaim, "All of which I saw and part of 
which I was." Great as has been his business activity, bringing to him 
prominence and prestige throughout the entire United States, it is as super- 
visor that the people of his home county know him best and regard him 
with the deepest affection. Through the period of more than twenty years 
measuring his service as a member of the board of supervisors, to which he 
was chosen by a large majority at each election and as invariably made chair- 
man of the board, mind and heart have been engrossed in the well-being of 
the county. Evidence of his unusual ability as a financier appears in the fact 
that Kern county is operated on a cash basis with the lowest tax rate in the 
state, yet there have been erected quite recently a county high school and hall 
of records, an addition to the county hospital doubling its capacity, and a 
courthouse that ranks among the finest in the state ; also, the Kern River 
bridge, one of the longest bridges in the state, built of reinforced concrete. 
Each of these buildings and structures is attractive in architecture, substan- 
tial in construction, modern in equipment and convenient in interior arrange- 
ment, each in a word a model of its kind, yet such w'as the skill of the super- 
visors as financiers, under the leadership of their chairman, that the enor- 
mous tasks w^ere completed amicably and economically without taint of graft 
or criticism of extravagance. The courthouse in particular has attracted 
architects from distant points, for its pronounced excellence invites a close 
inspection on the part of all associated with the architecture of public build- 
ings. The plans of the supervisors did not end with construction work, but 
include the ultimate transformation of the courthouse grounds into a bower 
of horticultural beauty unsurpassed in the valley of the San Joaquin. 

Born in Germany in 1850, Henry A. Jastro was thirteen years of age 
when he accompanied his family from Germany to America. Later he came 
alone to California by way of Panama and after landing in San Francisco 
traveled from there by stage to Los Angeles. With youthful enthusiasm he 
threw himself into the task of earning a livelihood in a strange country, far 
from the friends of earlier days. For a time he engaged in freighting to 
.Arizona. Another task was that of working with cattle and sheep between 
Wilmington and Catalina Islands. In the meantime he was learning much 
concerning the great undeveloped resources of the state. During 1870 he 
saw Dakersfield f( r the first time. The now flourishing city was a small ham- 
let, comprising a primitive collection 'of cabins and offering little inducement 
to the ordinary settler. But Mr. Jastro was then as he is now an optimist con- 
cerning the country. From the first he realized its possibilities and foresaw its 
future growth, alth( ugh not realizing at the time that oil and natural gas 
would form the secret of such development. Subsequent events have deepened 
his faith in Kern county and he is now a "veritable encyclopedia" concerning 
its resources. In his opinion the discoveries of oil and natural gas are the 
greatest benefits California has ever received, not excepting gold. With the 
advent of natural gas in Bakersfield, pipes were laid to convey it to San 
Francisco and Los Angeles ; while it is not inferior to manufactured gas for 
illuminating purposes, it has the advantage of a greater heat unit. After oil 
had given the state cheap fuel. California jumped from the twenty-fifth place 

12 



196 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

in manufacturing to the eleventh, and Mr. J astro beheves that within a few 
years it will rank fourth or fifth among the manufacturing states. In his 
estimation this will come through the establishment of cotton and woolen fac- 
tories. Already cotton is being produced in large quantities in the state, while 
sheep always will be raised on lands adapted fur no other purpose than graz- 
ing. 

Through his marriage to Miss May E. Baker, who died in 1894, Air. Jastro 
became allied with a notable family of Kern county, for his father-in-law, Col. 
Thomas Baker, is remembered in the annals of local history as the founder 
of Bakersfield. A si n, Harry A., and two daughters were born of the union. 
One of the daughters, now residing at Albuquerque, N. M., is the wife of M. 
O. Chadbourne, son of Colonel Chadbourne, of San Francisco. Since the death 
of his wife Mr. jastro has made his home with his widowed daughter, Mrs. 
May Cjreer, in a comfortable home in Bakersfield, and he is seldom away 
from the city except at such times as the demands of his large business inter- 
ests necessitate his presence elsewhere. His identification with Messrs. Carr 
and Haggin, the predecessors of the Kern County Land Company, began in 
1874, four years after his location in Bakersfield. From that time to the pres- 
ent, excepting a period of about four years from 1886 to 1890, he has become 
more and more a power in the profitable development of this close corporation, 
comprising the estate of Lloyd Tevis (represented by William S. Tevis) and 
the holdings of J. B. Haggin, now of New York. Stockdale, one of the com- 
pany's great ranches, is the seat of the Tevis home. The tropical splendors of 
this ranch defy any description. One of the most unusual attractions is a 
bamboo forest, where the bamboo by actual measurement has grown twenty- 
five inches in twenty-four hours. The hothouse contains rare plants and 
the artificial lake is stocked with rare water fowl, while grottoes and foun- 
tains add to the charm of the ranch. 

A colonization scheme by the manager of the company failed signally in 
1903. Mr. Jastro, who had been with the company for nineteen years in differ- 
ent capacities, was chosen manager. The properties over which he has absolute 
control include four hundred and sixty thousand acres in California, six hun- 
dred and ten thousand acres in New Mexico, one hundred thousand acres in 
Arizona, and two hundred and twenty-five thousand acres in Alexico. An ex- 
tensive irrigation scheme has been installed by the general manager on the 
San Pedro river in Arizona and this will irrigate ten thousand acres. The site 
of the government Elephant Butte dam in New Alexico is on forty thousand 
acres formerly held by the company, but taken over by the government on an 
equitable basis, ^^'ater from the reclamation project will be used on the com- 
])any land. 

As early as 1885 this company attempted to raise cotton and in that year 
they raised the first big crop of cotton ever grown in California. The product 
was of very fine quality, but labor conditions made the venture a failure. In 
order to secure the required number of cotton pickers they imported negroes, 
but they did not remain. Next they tried Chinamen, but cotton picking re- 
(juires long fingers and the short Chinese fingers tore the staple. The industry 
was then abandoned. At the ])resent time alfalfa and grain are the principal 
crops, but citrus and deciduous fruits and vines are raised, while in stock 
they have good success with every department, cattle, horses, mules, sheep 
and hogs. In Bakersfield and on the ranches the manager has established 
machine and wagon shops, warehouses, supply departments and tinshops. 
besides which he has built canals and waterworks. The cattle are raised in 
.-Vrizona and New Mexico, then brought to Kern county for fattening on 
alfalfa or corn and chopped hay. Enough beef is produced to supply regularly 
eighty thousand people. The stock business conducted upon such an enor- 
mous scale calls for rare abilities, but the general manager has proved equal 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 197 

to every emergency and has displayed a .sagacity, keen discrimination and 
wise foresight seldom equalled. 

The fact that Mr. lastro is a stanch Democrat has made no difference to 
the people in their solicitude to secure his public services. Republicans have 
displayed as much enthusiasm for him as supervisor as have the Democrats 
and during the great Roosevelt landslide in 1904, when the county gave a 
great Republican majority, he received a flattering majority for supervisor on 
the Democratic ticket. In fact, the people have divorced politics from public 
service in their desire for his able assistance in public affairs and in this 
respect they resemble Mr. Jastro himself, for one of his hobbies is the divorc- 
ing of trade relations and civic progress from politics. Five times elected 
president of the National Live Stock Association (the last time at Phoenix. 
Ariz., in January of 1913), in that office he has made a study of the tariff 
question in connection with the hides and wool schedule. It is his belief that 
the commerce of our country will not much longer permit itself to be a 
prey to political vicissitudes. As a remedial agency he favors the appointment 
of a board of tariff commissioners on a non-partisan basis, such board to be 
continuously in session and have the power to adjust the tariff duties as occa- 
sion may demand. The action of President Taft in appointing tariff commis- 
sioners he regards as a step in the right direction. As a member of the state 
board of agriculture of which he was president for three terms his able 
services have been given to the uplifting of the farmer, whose interests he 
believes to be second to none in importance if the permanent prosperity of 
our commonwealth is to be conserved. In every post of honor accepted by 
him he has given dignified and noteworthy service. With his commanding 
presence and magnetic personality, he is equally a power among the great- 
est captains of industry in the country and among the humbler worker? 
of life's great field. His name ever will stand at the very forefront in the 
annals ( f Kern county and in the history of the stock industry throughout 
the west. 

PETER GARDETTE.— A record of the life of Peter Gardette is in many 
respects an epitome of the agricultural development of Kern county, whither 
he came at a period so early that no county organization had yet been 
effected and few emigrants had endeavored to surmount the sufferings inci- 
dent to existence on plains undeveloped, unsettled and often drought-stricken. 
The tenacity of purpose which characterized him is exhibited in his fearless 
attempt to aid in the huge task of pioneer develooment. While he knew little 
of frontier hardships, he had learned to be persistent in labor and self-reliant 
in action, and every former association of his busy life had qualified' him for 
pioneering. Born near Danzig, Prussia, December 22, 1825, he had attended 
a school of navigation in youth and then had followed the sea for a livelihood. 
During 1851 the ship on which he was employed sailed around the Horn and 
came up the Pacific to San Francisco. The influx of emigrants had not 
lessened since the first excitement caused by the discovery of gold. Swept 
away from former plans by the contagion of large throngs making for the 
mines, he left his ship at San Francisco, although he did not follow the gen- 
eral example in trying his luck at the mines. Instead' he spent a winter in 
San Francisco. It was a season of great excitement. Not the least important 
of his experiences there was a participation in fighting the great fire of that 
winter which almost destroyed the city. Shortly afterward he left the city 
for the mines of Mariposa county and in April, 1854, when the first excite- 
ment was aroused through the discovery of gold at Keyesville, then in Tulare 
county, he followed the rush of travel to the new camp. 

It was the privilege of Mr. Gardette to witness the organization of Kern 
county and to be one of the very first citizens admitted by naturalization 
papers, this being abotit 1866. In partnership with Judge Sayles, later of 



198 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Fresno, now deceased, he started a "[eneral store on Greenhorn mountain at 
the present site of the camp of the forest supervisors. Within ten miles of the 
store he located a homestead on Poso Flat, where he began to raise cattle and 
sheep. His brand, the capital letter "S," was the very first to be recorded in 
Kern county and is now used by his son, Henry B., who continues the stock 
business at the old homestead. A log cabin was built on the claim as early 
as 1859 and in it the pioneer stockman kept bachelor's hall for some time. 
Eventually his means permitted him to provide better accommodations and in 
1871 he erected a frame house that still stands. Meanwhile he had put in a 
valuable irrigation system for his own use and had purchased adjacent land, 
so that five hundred and twenty acres were devoted to grain and alfalfa. 
When his children began to need educational advantages he erected a resi- 
dence on the corner of F and Twenty-first streets, Bakersfield, and there the 
family maintained their headquarters, although much of his time continued to 
be spent upun the ranch until his final retirement from heavy manual work. 
It was not until 1905 that he relinquished the management of the ranch into 
the hands of his son, Henry B., and thereupon he retired to private life, 
spending his last days quietly in Bakersfield, where he died May 19, 1911, at 
the family residence. 

The marriage of Peter Gardette occurred in San Francisco March 24, 1871, 
and united him with Miss Agnes E. A. Weber, a native of Dresden, Saxony, 
and a daughter of Henry and Augusta W. (Otto) Weber. Her father followed 
the occupation of a builder and both he and his wife remained in Saxony until 
their death. During young womanhood Mrs. Gardette left her home in Ger- 
many and came via Panama to California in 1868, settling at Visalia. Three 
years later she became the wife of Mr. Gardette and accompanied him to the 
ranch in Kern county. Since the death of her husband she has continued to 
reside in Bakersfield and has superintended her business matters with quiet, 
keen capability, one of her undertakings having been the building, with her 
son, Henry B., of the Kern Valley garage on the corner of L and Eighteenth 
streets. I'or years she has been identified with the Kern County Pioneer 
Society, to which Mr. Gardette also belonged, he having been at the time of 
his demise one of the very oldest settlers of the county. In religion she is of 
the Episcopalian faith, while he was reared in the Lutheran denomination and 
always adhered to its doctrines and creed. Their family consists of four 
children, of whom one daughter, Margaret D., is a successful teacher in the 
Bakersfield schools; a son, Henry B., continues at the old home ranch; Mrs. 
Mildred Munsey is a resident of Bakersfield, and the younger son, Helmuth C, • 
follows the occupation of an electrical engineer in Los Angeles. 

W. S. WILHELM. — The president and general manager of the Mari- 
copa Uueen ( )il Company is an lowan by birth and was born in Musca- 
tine October 16, 1864, being a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Christ) Wilhelm. 
The lineage of the family is traced' back to worthy Teutonic progenitors. 
Very early in the colonization of America members of the family crossed the 
ocean from Germany and identified themselves with the material upbuilding of 
the new country. Later generations became pioneers of Iowa. The Muscatine 
branch of the family had little means, but possessed worth of character and 
nobility of purpose. In the midst of discouragements and poverty they re- 
tained their devotion to the higher principles of life. It was not possible for 
W. S. to attend school with any regularity, yet he has become a man of the 
broadest information and widest culture. Brought up to a life of hard work on 
a farm, when only fourteen years of age he engaged in cutting wood at sixty 
cents a cord. By such work he supported himself in the months of winter. 
The summer seasons were given to farming. The sterling qualities of industry 
and thrift instilled in his mind during youth have stood him in good stead 
through his subsequent career. For a time in young manhood he was con- 




-^ 





Yh-^-n^z^ 



HISTORY OI- KI-:RX COUXTY 201 

nected with the secret service of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad 
in Missouri. While employed in that state he met and married Miss Dora J. 
Duncan, a cultured woman who in every way has promoted his success and 
enhanced his happiness. Seven children blessed their union and they still 
remain to brighten the elegant and attractive family residence in Long Beach. 
For two years after his marriage Mr. Wilhelm engaged in farming in 
-Missouri, ])ut later he removed to Colorado and interested himself in mining. 
By slow degrees he rose to wealth. Important interests were acquired not 
only in Colorado, but also in Idaho, Montana and Nevada. Since coming to 
California and establishing a home in Long Beach he has devoted much of 
his time to the interests of the Maricopa Queen Oil Company, of which he is 
president and general manager. The company has the distinction of owning 
an exceedingly valuable lease, comprising twenty acres on section 32, town- 
ship 12, range 23, in the Sunset-Midway field. There are now seven wells 
on the lease and two of these flow from fifteen hundred to two thousand 
barrels per day. In the development of this important lease Mr. Wilhelm 
has used his large means lavishly and the returns have fully justified his 
most sanguine expectations. In addition to his holdings previously men- 
tioned he has valuable mining properties in the w-est and considerable oil 
property in Texas. 

COL. E. M. ROBERTS.— >.lartial valor has been a leading characteristic 
of the Roberts family during the entire period of its known history, which in 
America dates from the colonial period of Virginian settlement and reveals a 
record of patriotic devotion guided by a high order of intelligence. It is 
worthy of note that not only the Colonel's paternal grandfather, but likewise 
his maternal grandfather, Adam Harber. served under General Jackson in 
the memorable battle of New Orleans during the war of 1812 and gave loyal 
service to the country throughout that historic struggle. Of English birth 
and honorable Anglo-Saxon lineage, Mr. Harber had immigrated to the new- 
world during young manhood, settled upon a plantation in Tennessee and 
married a southern lady. Their daughter, Annie Aletha, a native of Tennessee 
and a lifelong resident of that state, l^ecame the wife of H. B. Roberts, who 
was born in North Carolina. While still a young woman she passed away, 
leaving a family of three sons and' one daughter, the eldest son, E. M., having 
been born at Chapelhill, Marshall county, Tenn., September 11, 1843. After 
the death of the mother the children were taken to Missouri in 1849 by their 
father, who settled in Springfield in the midst of a vast tract of unimproved 
acreage. Being a skilled mechanic he opened a blacksmith's shop and there 
he made the first moldboard plow ever- seen in Springfield. With this he 
turned the first furrows in the soil of his raw land. The other settlers, seeing 
the success of his invention, engaged him to manufacture similar implements 
for their use. The first decade of his residence in Missouri brought him grati- 
fying success and, had fate spared him for later usefulness, he would have 
gained financial prosperity. Through all of his life a resident of the south, in 
svmpathy with its institutions, devoted to its people and attached to its 
policies, he naturally embraced the Confederate side at the opening of the 
Civil war. At the very outset he enlisted under General Price, but it was not 
his destiny to see the defeat of the Southern flag. Near the close of the year 
1861, while in active service, he died in Springfield at the age of forty-five 
years. 

Amc ng the memories of childhood days treasured in the mind of Col- 
onel Roberts are those associated with the removal of the family from Ten- 
nessee to Missouri when he was six years of age. In company with a train 
oi emigrants comprising probably thirty teams he and other members of 
his family journeyed in their own wagon drawn by oxen and crossed the 
^Mississippi at St. Louis in a ferry run by horsepower. The frontier of 



202 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

Missouri was the en\irunment of his boyhood. The country was new and 
settlers few, so that schools were widely scattered. About two or three 
months of each year a subscription school was held six miles from his home 
and to it he walked each day. Notwithstanding the handicap of limited 
education he became a man of broad information and fine mental attain- 
ments. During- the opening year of the Civil war he lost his father, and 
the example of that gallant Confederate soldier led him to enlist in the 
Southern army. During 1862, when scarcely nineteen years of age, he 
enlisted in Company A, Third Regiment of Missouri Cavalry, under Col, 
Dick Campbell, of Springfield, Mo., remaining at the front until he gave 
up his arms at Shreveport, La., in June of 1865. Among the engagements 
in which he bore a part were those of Pea Ridge, Cain Springs, Saline River, 
Prairie Grove, Poison Springs, Hartville (where he had a horse shot under 
him). Camden and Pine Bluff, all in Arkansas, besides Avhich he fought in 
Price's raid, where six weeks were given to continuous skirmishing, includ- 
ing the battles of Iron Mountain, Jefferson City, Herman, Little Blue and 
Big Blue, Brush Creek, Helena, Little Rock and Granby, Ark. 

During the battle of Saline River the young Southern soldier served as 
an orderly for General Shelby. ]\Iany years later, when the General was 
serving as United States Marshal of Missouri and had engaged a negro lad 
to act as deputy. Colonel Roberts met his old commander and inquired 
about the deputy. General Shelby replied that the boy's father and mother 
took care of and saved his family from danger during the Civil war and the 
gratitude which he felt caused him to recognize the undoubted worth of 
their son. Returning home at the close of the war. Colonel Roberts visited 
there for a month and then went to Kansas City in search of employment, 
landing there without a dollar. His first position, which he held for four 
years, was that of assistant in a saw mill at $33.33 per month. When he 
left the place he had saved an amount sut^cient to buy one hundred and 
sixty acres near Paola, Miami county, Kansas, and to that location he 
moved, beginning there in agricultural undertakings that continued with 
fair success until the grasshoppers in 1874 completely destroyed his crop. 
With such funds as he could secure from the disaster he came to California 
in September, 1874, and settled at Oakland, where he formed a partnership 
in the butcher business. There he not only lost the balance of his money, 
but was left in debt. Beginning anew he became buyer for H. M. Ames. 
Six months later he paid the last of his debts, besides which he had been 
able to buy a span of horses, harness and wagon. With $20 in cash and his 
team, accompanied by his wife and child, he came to the San Joaquin 
country in April of 1876. On the first of May he arrived in Kern county 
and located on one hundred and sixty acres of railroad land, which he im- 
proved with such success that the railroad company charged him $10 an 
acre for the place, an excessive amount for those days. One year after com- 
ing to the valley he became superintendent of canal work for the Kern 
County Land Company (later known as Haggin & Co.), and in addition he 
had the contract for building the Beardsley canal of thirty miles and the 
McCord canal of fifteen miles. With a partner. A^^ H. Brand, he built 
twenty-five miles of the Calloway canal and the East Side canal of twenty- 
seven miles. Under his direction about sixteen sections of desert land were 
reclaimed for the Kern County Land Company, and after ditches had been 
dug and the land brought under irrigation, settlers could legally prove u]) 
on claims. 

The trials of frontier existence are indicated by the fact that when 
Colonel Roberts began to farm in Kern county he and his wife lived in a 
brush shed for a time, then occupied a log cal)in and next had to content 
themselves witli a ]:)Ox-house 12x15. Finally, however, his increasing pros- 
perity was evidenced bv the erection of a twc-storv residence of ten rooms. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 203 

considered the finest farm liouse in the entire county in its day. besides 
raising" fine horses and mules extensively, he had one liundred milch cows 
comprising one of the largest dairy herds in the county. I^'rom time to 
time he added to his ranch until he owned three hundred and thirty-one 
acres under cultivation to alfalfa and fitted for the stock industry and 
dairy business through valuable improvements. During March of 1909 he 
sold the ranch at an excellent figure and removed to Bakersfield, where 
he owns and occupies a commodious residence at No. 2402 L street. In ad- 
dition he owns about twenty houses in Bakersfield and a ranch of one hun- 
dred and twenty acres in the county, besides being interested in oil lands. 
Throughout his long identification with the San Joaquin valley he has 
favored every enterprise for its development. From early life a Democrat, 
stanch in his adherence to party principles, he has been a local leader and 
for sixteen years or more has served as chairman of the Kern county 
Democratic central committee. For seven years he was a member of the 
beard of supervisors and during four years of that time he officiated as its 
chairman. The congressional and state central committees of his party have 
had the benefit of his ripened judgment and intense devotion to party tenets. 
At the time of the election of Governor Gage he was the Democratic nominee 
for state senator in a district that gives a customary Republican majority 
of five hundred. Notwithstanding the fact that the Republicans received 
an overwhelming majority at that election he was defeated by only thirty-two 
votes, which in itself furnishes a tribute to his popularity and high standing 
in the district. The Bakersfield Board of Trade for years has had his name 
upon its membership roll and other organizations for local progress have 
enjoyed the aid of his splendid citizenship. Fraternally he is identified 
with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, Independent Order of Odd 
I'^ellows and Ancient Order of United Workmen. 

While living in Kansas City, Mo., Colonel Roberts married Miss Lydia 
Eaton, who was born in Ontario, Canada, and descended directly from Sir 
Francis Eaton of England, who crossed the ocean to Plymouth as a pas- 
senger on the historic Mayflower. The family owned a large estate in 
England, but the American descendants were never able to secure their 
share of the propert}'. Three children of Colonel and Mrs. Roberts are now 
living and all reside in Bakersfield, viz. : Mrs. Maude Davis, Mrs. Daisy 
Pyle and Herbert. The older son, Lynn, enlisted in the Sixth California 
Regiment at the opening of the Spanish-American war and died in the 
service while stationed with his company at San Francisco. 

W. W. KAYE. — The senior member of the law firm of Kaye & Siemon, 
who is also widely known as one of the most scholarly men of Kern county 
and one of the leading representatives of the Bakersfield bar, came to the 
west from Iowa. On a farm near Riverside, Washington county, that state, 
where he was born June 26, 1869, and where he spent the first seventeen 
years of his life, his parents, Jesse I. and Anna L. (Kling) Kaye, labored with 
self-sacrificing devotion to provide a livelihood for their family. While still 
in the midst of the struggle the father died on the home farm. The mother, 
who was a native of Pennsylvania, but a resident of Iowa throughout all of 
her active life, was privileged to reap the reward of her patient industry, and 
now, at the age of eighty-four years, is passing her declining days at Boulder, 
Colo., where she is surrounded by the comforts deservedly won in those years 
of strenuous labor. It was not possible to give the son good educational ad- 
vantages, but with characteristic ambition he determined to work his way 
through school. The splendid university education which he acquired rep- 
resents his unaided exertions. At the age of seventeen he entered the Iowa 
City Academy, from which he was graduated in 1889. During the fall of 
that year he matriculated in the Iowa State University and in 1893 he was 
graduated from the classical course of that institution. Meanwhile he had 



204 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

devoted eighteen hours of each day to study or to teaching", for in order to 
pay .his expenses in the university he had taught higher arithmetic, algebra, 
geometry and physics in the academy. 

Immediately after his graduation from the university in 1893 Mr. Kaye 
went to Washington and organized the high school at Waterville, of which 
he was chosen the first principal. During the two years of his service in 
that position he placed the school upon a substantial basis and raised its 
standard so that all of its graduates were eligible to admission to any uni- 
versity, their names being placed on the accredited list according to their 
standing. After two years at Waterville he left Washington for California 
and entered the Hastings Law School of San Francisco, from which in 1898 
he received the degree of LL. B. During the same year he was admitted 
to the bar by the supreme court of California. Meanwhile he had paid all 
of his expenses in the law school. For a time he had taught school at 
Berkeley, Cal., and in addition as a traveling salesman carrying a commercial 
line he visited every town from Seattle to San Francisco. At various times 
he worked in the law offices of Judge A. W. Thompson, C. L. Tilden, AV. H. 
Payson and A. H. Ricketts. After graduating from the law college he spent 
several years with Curtis H. Lindley, author of Lindley on Mines, his special 
task being the making of an abstract on all current decisions of state and 
federal courts pertaining to mining laws. The abstract thus prepared played 
an important part in the preparation of the second edition of Lindley on 
Mines, which now is the standard text-book on mining law. When Mr. 
Lindley began to prepare data for his treatise on the Law of Waters, he 
engaged Mr. Kaye to abstract all statutes and state and federal decisions per- 
taining to the subject. Another task that commanded much of his time was 
important editorial work for a very prominent firm of publishers of law 
books. 

Upon coming to Bakersfield in 1902 and opening a law office, Mr. Kaye 
formed a partnership with C. V. Anderson under the firm name of Anderson 
& Kaye. Three years later the partnership was dissolved and Mr. Kaye 
opened an office in the Hopkins building, where he has continued ever since. 
During June of 1911 he formed a partnership with Alfred Siemon, who had 
come to Bakersfield early in the previous year and had identified himself 
with the Title Assurance Company as its secretary. The firm carry on a 
general practice in all of the courts and are consulted for every class of legal 
advice. The interests of their large clientele are protected with skill and 
success. To aid them in their practice they have one of the best law libraries 
of the San Joaquin valley, these books having been gathered together by Mr. 
Kaye during his stay in San Francisco and representing the decisions of the 
best legal lights of this and preceding eras. 

Much of the success of Mr. Kaye is due to his fondness for work. The 
most difficult and intricate case does not weary him, but spurs him vn to 
further efforts in his zeal to unravel knotty law problems. No case can be 
presented to him that he finds too intricate for his eager mind. An invet- 
erate, tireless worker, he finds his greatest pleasure in tasks that would dis- 
may men of lesser energy and to this fact may be attributed much of his 
success in the law. Good judgment is responsible for much of his financial 
success. Investments have been made sagaciously and have brought him 
gratifying returns. Included in his possessions are a ranch of two hundred 
and thirty acres with an adequate pumping plant, citrus property east of 
Kern, suburban acreage, town lots, a controlling interest in the stock of the 
Kern Citrus Realty Company, and a modern and attractive residence on 
North B street, Bakersfield. This home is brightened by the presence of his 
four children, Louise, William Minton, Emelie and Jessie, and presided over 
with dignity and grace by his accomplished wife, a woman of culture and at 
one time a teacher. Born in Oregon, she bore the maiden name of Fanny 



HISTORY OI' KERX COUNTY 207 

B. Minton and received excellent educational advantages, which she utilized 
in her chosen profession. During 1895 she became the wife of Mr. Kaye at 
Berkeley, where they established a home and resided until their removal to 
Bakersfield. Politically a Republican, Mr. Kaye has served as secretary of 
the Kern county central committee and has been very influential in local 
party affairs. Fraternally a Mason of the Shriner degree, he has been chosen 
past master of Bakersfield Lodge No. 224,, F. & A. M., also has served as 
past high priest of Bakersfield Chapter No. 75, R. A. M., and has been an 
ofhcer in Bakersfield Commandery No. 39, K. T., all of which degrees of the 
order have benefited by his devotion to their advancement and his cordial co- 
operation in all of their philanthropies. 

HON. CHARLES A. BARLOW AND WILLIAM H. HILL.— No 

industry has contributed in greater degree to the wealth of Kern county 
than that of oil de^'elopment and probably no firm has been identified more 
intimately with the advancement of the industry during the past decade than 
that of Barlow & Hill, a title familiar to all who have kept in touch with 
local progress. Since the organization of the firm in 1902 they have organized 
many companies, all of which have been successful, and the six which they 
now o]3erate have shares of stock that are quoted as gilt-edged security 
with a continuous tendency to rise in public and private markets. Besides 
the six companies they are at present interested in Maricopa and Midway 
oil properties and in addition have been successful in establishing a national 
reputation for Sunset road oil, which is extensively used in the states of 
California. Oregon, Washington, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, 
Texas and Idaho and, in fact, as far east as Kansas City. To the enter- 
prise. kiKAvledge and direction of the two members of the firm, Kern county 
is in a great measure indebted for its present high standing as an oil-pro- 
ducing section. Xo temporary discouragement has lessened their faith in the 
oil industry of this region and in the natural mineral wealth of the state. 
Thoroughly optimistic in temperament, yet conservative in action, they 
stand for that large element of loyal citizenship indissolubly associated with 
the progress of city, county and commonwealth. 

r)orn in Cleveland, Ohio. March 17, 1858, Hon. Charles Averill Barlow 
is a son of Hon. Merrill and Ann Frances (Arnold) Barlow, the former a 
distinguished attorney in Cleveland, who during the war administration 
was Selected to serve as quartermaster-general of Ohio. About 1872, when 
forty-eight years of age, he was stricken suddenly with apoplexy and passed 
from earth before he had achieved financial success, but in the midst of a 
remarkable professional career that had brought him fame as a leading crim- 
inal lawyer of Cleveland. Surviving him were his wife and four children, 
the latter named as follows : Coralinne, now the wife of James S. Rice, a 
retired orange-grower living at Tustin, Orange county. Cal. ; Charles 
Averill. of Bakersfield ; Edward Sumner, who resides on the old home farm 
at Ventura, this state ; and Belle Remington, now the wife of Frank Bates, 
of V^entura. When the family came to California about the year 1875 they 
settled at Ventura-by-the-sea and C. A., then a youth of seventeen years, 
l^egan with eagerness to study western conditions, resources and prospects, 
meanwhile earning a livelihood on farms and in various occupations in town. 
Possessing ideas that were in afh'ance of his time, he joined enthusiastically 
in many reform movements and for such work he found a favorable opening 
when he and a partner, yir. Tuley, established and conducted the Reasoner, 
a weekly paper that became the Populist organ for San Luis Obispo county. 
.As early as 1888 he began to support the free silver cause and for years 
he was the leading exponent of that movement in his part of the state. Dur- 
ing 1893 the Populist party elected him to the state legislature, where he 
served not ( nly with fidelity, but even with distinction. 

A\'ith the assistance of the votes of free silver Republicans Mr. P)arlow 



208 HISTORY OF KERX COL'XTY 

in 1896 was elected by the Populist party to the l-'ifty-tifth congress as the 
representative from the sixth congressional district, which at that time 
included the counties of Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis 
Obispo, Monterey and Santa Cruz. In congress he distinguished himself 
for his uncom])romising stand in favor of reform measures. Credited to his 
efforts w^as the passage of a bill setting aside the Pine mountain forest 
reservation, comprising several million acres of land extending south almost 
as far as Pasadena. Other measures for the permanent benefit of the state 
and the people received his steadfast aid. When the principles of the Popu- 
list party were to some extent adopted by the Democrats, he turned to the 
older party organization, in which since he has been an active worker. 
During 1912 he was chosen one of four delegates-at-large from California to 
the national Democratic convention at Baltimore that nominated VVoodrow 
Wilson for President of the United States. The American ]\lining Congress, 
of which he is a member, selected him as committeeman to propose a plank 
in the national Democratic platform of that year favorable to mining and 
the oil industry. 

During 1901 Air. Barlow and his accomplished wife, who was formerly 
Miss Elizabeth McDonell, of Ventura county, established their home in 
Bakersfield, where they erected and now occupy a beautiful residence fitted 
with all modern improvements and conveniences. Since his removal to this 
city Mr. Barlow has become a very prominent citizen and has served ably 
as president of the Kern county board of trade, besides being a large stock- 
holder and one of the directors in the new Security Trust Company. In 
business circles he enjoys a high reputation. Fraternally he has been 
actively associated with the Woodmen, Elks and Indeoendent Order of Odd 
I'^lh ws. Since 1902 he has been a partner of W. H. Hill, a resident of 
California and Bakersfield from the year 1901 and a native of Geneseo, Liv- 
ingston county, N. Y., born November 19, 1848. While yet very young Mr. 
Hill began to work in the lumber business and for years he gave to that 
occupation his entire time and attention. For twelve years he served as chair- 
man of the board of supervisors of Schoolcraft county, Mich. Since coming 
west he has become known as a well-informed, accurate business man and 
his counsel is much sought, particularly by those wishing to embark in the 
oil business. He is a stockholder and director of the First National Bank of 
Bakersfield and the Producers' Savings Bank. Like his partner, he owns a 
fine home in Bakersfield and is a firm believer in a prosperous future assured 
for the city. 

Concerning the firm of Harlow & Hill we quote the following from the oil 
review edition of the Morning Echo, Bakersfield, February 28, 1911 : "Califor- 
nia has no better known industry than oil and the oil industry has no more well 
known firm than Barlow & Hill, for the past nine years doing a large busi- 
ness in Bakersfield and Kern county as dealers in oil lands and producing 
oil companies, essentially the latter. The personnel of the firm, C. A. Barlow 
and W. H. Hill, assures its high standing and gives confidence to its con- 
stantly increasing clientele. Barlow & Hill formed a partnership in August, 
1902, to deal in oil lands. Since that time thev have organized many oil 
companies, all of which have become producers, and Barlow & Hill have 
never taken a dollar of their clients' money but what in each case the com- 
pany joined the ranks of the paying producers. They have six oil com- 
panies of their own and are extensively interested in Maricopa and Midway 
oil pro])erties. They rehabilitated three oil companies which were sold to 
eastern capitalists and have produced oil in quantities as claimed by the firm, 
frequently in excess of their estimates. Among the many successful ven- 
tures which Barlow & Hill have had to deal with was the making of the 
country-wide reputation for Sunset road oil. They took hold of the Sunset 
companies at ATaricopa when it was considered un])rofitable and well-nigh 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 209 

impracticable to handle this oil, owing to its being too heavy and hard for 
fuel purposes. But Barlow & Hill were not discouraged and by dint of their 
well-directed efforts Sunset road oil or its equivalent has become a part of 
the specifications in road-building with oil as demanded by municipalities on 
the Pacific coast and elsewhere." 

A Fialf Century of Progress. Bakersfield and Kern County, 1912, in 
mentioning the progressive business efiforts of Barlow & Hill, give the 
following summary of their work in the oil industry and the importance of 
this industry to the development of local wealth: "It should be a matter 
of the liveliest satisfaction to the people of California to know that no 
single corporation or group of individuals is controlling the destiny of the 
state's oil industry by the monopolization of territory, rate of development 
and production, or the fixing of arbitrary prices. The petroleum interests 
of California are too big for any combination of capital to swing and manipu- 
late at will for any period of time. Petroleum apparently exists in every 
sectic n of this l)ig commonwealth, so blessed by nature in the glories of 
sky and air, in the ocean about it and in its pregnant soil, blessed even in 
the bowels of its earth, which yield a rich return to man's labor almost for 
the asking. There are any number of safe investments in Kern county open 
to inspection. Money must be active to make quick and large profits. Slow 
money slowly responds with slow interest. The investor who is content 
with the latter is out of joint with the times and in the rear end of the race 
for competency and wealth. No class of speculative investment is safer or 
promises larger profits than investment in oil companies backed by unlim- 
ited capital and experience, and directed by reputable men. Such is the 
character of the six oil companies operated by Barlow & Hill, a firm estab- 
lished in 1902 to deal in oil lands, and that since has been one of the 
effectual forces in the building up of the oil industry in Kern county. Among 
their many successful ventures was the making of a country-wide reputation 
for Sunset road oil. The two partners in the firm are widely known and are 
numbered among the most influential men of the community, taking an 
active interest in all measures for the advancement of Bakersfield and her 
commercial interests." 

JOHN ALFRED FREEAR.— The superintendent of the Maricopa Queen 
Oil Company's lease of twenty acres occupies a position of importance in 
the Sunset-Midway field. Not alone a native of California, but also born in 
Kern county and practically a lifelong resident hereof, he is deeply devoted to 
this portion of the state, believes in its future possibilities and promotes with 
enthusiasm all movements for the local progress. With his twin brother, 
James Albian, likewise associated with the Maricopa Queen lease, he has 
exhibited a devotion to work, a morality of conduct and a talent for the oil 
business that reflects credit upon himself and upon his native county, the two 
men displaying an efficiency and thoroughness that came to them as an inheri- 
tance from worthy parents and patriotic ancestry. 

Born in Bakersfield August 24, 1885. John Alfred Freear was primarily 
educated in the schools of that city and in 1905 was graduated from Heald's 
Business College at Stockton. During early life he had become familiar with 
farming in the old River district, but agriculture interested him less than oil 
enter])nses and it is not strange that his preferences led him to seek employ- 
ment in the oil fields. For a short time he engaged as bookkeeper for the 
Associated and Union Oil Companies in the Kern river field and there too he 
gained practical experience in the industry through working as a roustabout. 
From this county he went to the Santa Maria oil field and remained four 
years, meanwhile learning to dress tools and to drill wells. Upon returning to 
Kern county and coming to the west side field, in 1909, he secured employment 
(Ml the Maricopa Queen lease of twenty acres, situated on section 32. township 



210 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

12, range 23. At that time the lease had one well, a gusher. Since then he 
has helped to bring in five wells on the lease, the last one, Maricopa Queen 
No, 7, brought in March 1, 1913, being a gusher yielding two thousand barrels 
per day of oil of twenty-five degrees gravity. The entire production from the 
lease averages about seventy thousand barrels per month, an almost phenom- 
enal record and one indicative of the value of the properties. The superin- 
tendent imderstands the business in every detail and has proved thoroughly 
competent to handle the many vexatious problems presenting themselves for 
daih' r<tns-'(leratii n and si Intinn. 

"harry ROSCOE LUFKIN.— The day of the oftice boy who enters a 
business establishment and soon works his way to a place of high responsi- 
bility is well nigh past. It may not be impossible for such a thing to occur 
under present conditions, but the likelihood of its occurring in the case of 
any specific office boy is very slight. To meet the strenuous economic condi- 
tions now existing young men and young women must be equipped with a 
business training thoroughly up-to-date, such as may be obtained at the 
Bakersfield Business college, of which Harry Roscoe Lufkin was the founder 
and of which he is the proprietor and manager. 

It was at Walnut Grove. Sacramento county. Cal., that Professor Lufkin 
was bt)rn June 3. 1880. a son of H. T. and Louisa J. (Wise) Lufkin. His 
father was born at Freeport. Cal.. a son of David T. Lufkin, a native of ?vlaine. 
who came to California in the early '50s and died in the East while absent 
from home on a business trip. Grandfather Lufkin farmed and mined in the 
Sacramento valley and was one of the early horticulturists in the vicinity of 
Freeport. His son, H. T. Lufkin, was in his early life a teacher and later a 
general merchant at Walnut Grove. Still later he engaged in horticulture on 
the old Lufkin homestead at Freeport, where he died in 1899. Louisa J. Wise, 
whom he married, was born at Walnut Grove, a daughter of Joseph Wise, a 
native of Missouri, who came across the plains with an ox-team train locat- 
ing in 1852 on a ranch at Walnut Grove, where he has prospered and where 
he is still living at the advanced age of eighty-four years. Mrs. Lufkin, who 
died at Freeport, bore her husband three children, of whom Harry Roscoe was 
the eldest. He lived at Walnut Grove until he was sixteen years old, attending 
public schools, then his activities were transferred for a time to Freeport. 
After having acquired a normal school education, he became a student at the 
Atkinson Business College in Sacramento, where he was graduated May 5, 
1902. He found employment as a bookkeeper in a commercial house in that 
city, but after five months was sent for by Professor Atkinson and oflfered a 
position as teacher in the commercial department of the Atkinson Business 
College, where he was in charge of actual business instruction for more than 
four years. He then went to Reno. Nev., to take the management of the 
Atkinson Business College in that city. After a year and a half he went back 
to Sacramento with a commercial house there, but at the solicitation of Pro- 
fessor Atkinson again took charge of the commercial department of the Atkin- 
son Business College in Sacramento. In 1907 he gave up his position there 
and came to Bakersfield and in September of that year opened the Bakersfield 
lousiness College in the (ialtes building, where he conducted it until in Septem- 
ber, 1910. It having outgrown its quarters he removed it to its present loca- 
ii( n at Xo. 2020 I street. The institution was a success almost from the start. 
Beginning with five students it had twenty-three before thirty days had passed 
and has been growing ever since. This popular school is conducted on strict 
business lines and its rooms are especially arranged, well lighted and ventil- 
ated, and no expense has been spared to afford to the student every possible 
con\enience. The work of imparting a business education is as systematic as 
if the institution were a real financial, commercial or industrial concern. In 
the stenographic department students work exactly as they would work in 
a Inisiness office and are instructed how to conduct themselves in a real office 




C^^Co ^ /^^ <^~/-^-7^^ «^^-^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 213 

position. Shorthand, bookkeeping, typewriting and commercial law are taught 
and a high grade of scholarship is maintained. Graduates, now filling posi- 
tions in commercial and manufacturing, railroad, real estate and law offices are 
giving satisfaction and working their way to high places in the business world. 
In politics Mr. Lufkin is a Republican. He was made a Mason in Bakers- 
field Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M. He was married at Reno, Nev., to Miss 
Myrtle G. Reel, a native of Oregon, and they have a son, Harry Roscoe 
Lufkin, Jr. 

ANDREW BROWN— A summary of the splendid life of the late An- 
drew Brown would be indeed lacking w-ere the mention of his inflvtence and 
close associations in Kern county omitted, for to him not less than to any 
other individual who has lived in that vicinity is due the advancement and 
improvement of commercial c( nditions in the county. A self-made man in 
the best sense of the word, upon coming to Kern county he lent his aid 
toward its progress, his keen foresight, wonderful business acumen and 
strict honesty early winning for him resoect and esteem from all with whom 
he had dealings. The son of Samuel Brown, a merchant and farmer in Fal- 
carragh, County Donegal, Ireland, it was in that place that Andrew was 
born September 15, 1829. Fortune brought him when a youth to Philadel- 
phia, Pa., whence in 1852 he sailed around Cape Horn and landed in San 
Francisco. Like many of the early pioneers he rushed to the mines, but 
not finding the Eldorado dreamed of he began the mercantile business and 
conducted a store in Mariposa county. Later he became a farmer and 
stockman in Tulare county, but soon afterward made his way to Kernville 
to enter the employ of Judge Joseph W. Sumner, who later became his 
father-in-law, and had charge of operating the quartz mill of the latter. 
Purchasing the store in Kernville, which later assumed such large propor- 
tions, he successfully conducted it, and later seeing an oppt rtunity opened 
to him whereby he could purchase the store and ranch at Weldon on the 
South Fork he became owner of them, continuing the mercantile business 
at Weldon in connection with his store in Kernville. At the same time 
he began farming operations on his Weldon ranch. As business increased 
he bought other farms on the South Fork and became engaged extensively 
in raising cattle, horses, sheep and hogs. Large quantities of wheat were 
raised on his land, and to achieve the best marketing results he built a flour 
mill at Weldon, where the wheat was ground into flour and prepared for 
the local trade. This saved the long haul over the mountains to the railroad. 
He next built a sawmill, where he manufactured lumber from his lands, 
much of his lumber being used in the building throughout that section. By 
additional purchases Mr. Brown became the owner of thousands of acres 
of land, among which were several thousands of acres of valuable farm lands 
on the South F^ork, which have been brought under irrigation by ditches 
from the river. Grain and alfalfa are raised in abundance. He also acquired 
large holdings at Pampa, which are now being developed with a pumping 
plant for irrigation, as the land lies in a thermal belt which bids fair to 
prove valuable citrus land. 

In 1901 Mr. Brown incorporated the North and South l-'ork interests 
as the A. Brown Company, of which he was president until his death, Octo- 
ber 12, 1909, since which time Mrs. Brown has filled that position in the 
company. He also had large real estate interests in Los Angeles which are 
still owned by Mrs. Brown and their children. In 1904, after many long, 
useful years of active participation in business, Mr. Brown retired and 
moved to Los Angeles, where he made his home until he passed away, 
leaving the imprint of his energetic and persevering career in the many im- 
provements he had accomplished in the county. Truly he was a benefactor 
to Kern county, and he was known throughout the county as one of its 
most prominent upbuilders, his unselfishness, dauntless courage and never- 



214 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

failing will power proving a splendid example for the young men of today 
to emulate. In fraternal afifiliations he was a Master Mason, while his 
religious tendencies were with the Episcopalians. A Protectionist and a 
Republican, he was ever stanch in his allegiance to party principles. For 
many years Mr. Brown was a director in the bank of Bakersfield. 

The marriage of Mr. Brown to Miss Alice M. Sumner took place in 
Kernville June 18, 1873. She was born in Lubec, Me., the daughter of Judge 
Joseph W. Sumner, a native of Newburyport, Mass., and of old Colonial 
and Revolutionary stock. Judge Sumner was a merchant in Lubec, ^Te., 
for some time, in 1849, however, becoming excited over the gold discoveries 
and coming via Panama to San Francisco. He followed mining in dififerent 
districts in California and even into British Columbia, and he was one 
of the early miners at Kernville, operating the Sumner mine and quartz 
mill until he bought his ranch on the North Fork. He spent his last days 
in Kernville, w'here he died in 1911, aged ninety-two years. Like so many 
of his comrades he had ever a deep interest in mining, which he retained 
to the last days of his existence. He served as justice of the peace for over 
thirty years and he was so well liked and esteemed in the community that 
there was not another person who held a higher place in their regard. His 
wife was Mary E. Dakin, a native of Digby, Nova Scotia. She passed away 
in Kernville two months after her husband's death, when she was eighty- 
five years old. They were the parents of three children, of whom Mrs. 
Brown was the youngest. Her girlhood was spent in Maine and in the 
schools ( f Saco she received her elementary education, later attending 
Saco Academy. Since her husband's death she has alternated her residence 
between Kernville and Los Angeles and continues to look after the large 
business interests which her husband left. She is a member of the Friday 
Morning Club as well as the Ebell Club, in Los Angeles, making her home 
at 949 South Hoover street, and she is a devout member of the Emanuel 
Presbyterian Church. Her two children are P. Sumner, in the real estate 
business in Los Angeles, and M. Elizabeth, who is the wife of Dr. Edward 
M. Pallette, of Los Angeles. Mrs. Brown is a woman much beloved, and 
numbers her friends by her acquaintances. She is charitable and kind, but 
so unostentatious in her giving that none but those receiving the benefits 
are cog'nizant of it, and refinement, intelligence and strong will power are 
her marked characteristics. 

JAMES ALBIAN FREEAR.— The name of Freear has been identified 
with the development of Kern county for a period of almost forty years, its 
first representative in this region having been Henry T. Freear, an honored 
veteran of the Civil war, a man of indomitable perseverance and a farmer of 
considerable ability. After he had served the Union for three years in the 
Civil war he received' an honorable discharge from the Seventeenth Illinois 
Cavalry and returned to his old home, there to take up the earning of a liveli- 
hood through the arts of peace. About 1875 he came to California fnni 
Nebraska, where he had engaged in general farming for a few years. In his 
trip to the west he was accompanied by his family, which at that time con- 
sisted of two children beside his wife. Settling in the Old River district of 
Kern county, he took up raw land, developed a farm, devoted himself to the 
cultivation of the land and finally retired with a competency. During the last 
years of his life he made his home in Bakersfield, where he was a leader among 
the members of the Grand Army and where he was well known for his stanch 
allegiance to the Republican party. Since his death, March 23, 1904, his 
widow, Mary (Garlick) Freear, has made her home at No. 1709 Maple avenue, 
Bakersfield, where she has a comfortable modern bungalow and where, at the 
age of sixty-three, she attends to housekeeping duties wnth much of the zest 
and energy of her younger years. In her family there are eight children. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 215 

namely : H. R. and C. H. ; Lena, wife of R. L. McCutchen, of Old River ; J. P. ; 
John Alfred and James Albian, (twins) ; Verna, who married R. W. Bess, 
lessee of the United Crude Oil Company, of Maricopa ; and Viola, wife of 
William Perry, engaged as a salesman and demonstrator at Bakersfield for 
Ben L. Brundage. 

The early years of James Albian Freear were passed in an uneventful 
manner. Work on the home farm alternated with attendance at country 
schools in Old River district. When twenty years of age in 1905 he was 
graduated from Heald's Business College at Stockton. From that time until 
1909 he was employed in the Santa Maria field, where he learned the details 
of the oil industry and studied it from the viewpoint of production. Naturally 
he began work as a roustabout. Later he learned to be a driller. More recent- 
ly he has been employed in the production department of the Maricopa Queen 
Oil Company. As gang pusher he has proved energetic, capable and ef^cient, 
well liked by the workmen, popular among other officers. The high reputation 
of the company as the owner of one of the best leases in the Sunset field may 
be attributed in no small degree to his laborious and intelligent devotion to 
the production department. 

M. W. PASCOE, M. D. — Intense devotion to the science of therapeutics 
and a thorough knowledge of the attractions, demands and possibilities of the 
profession, supplementing an excellent practical training in one of the finest 
universities of the new world, admirably qualify Dr. Pascoe for the building 
up of a substantial clientele represented by a growing practice in the city of 
Taft and the surrounding oil districts. While the period of his association 
with professional work in the west has been comparatively brief (for it was 
in September of 1911 that he came to California and to Taft), the confidence 
and patronage of the people of the community have been accorded him and he 
numbers among his friends the leading men of the locality. When he under- 
took the establishment of a general hospital at this point he received the warm 
support of the general public, for all saw the wisdom of his belief that there 
should be first-class accommodations for the care of men injured in the w'ork 
of the oil fields or for those of the community in need of surgical treatment 
or special care. The success of the hospital has been a source of gratification 
to him personally besides affording him an opportunity to ofifer to his patients 
superior advantages and experienced nursing. 

Of Canadian birth and parentage, Dr. Pascoe was born at Bowmanville, 
Ontario, May 10, 1871, and is the fourth among seven children and the young- 
est of four sons in the family of Thomas and Margaret (Hogarth) Pascoe, 
now residents of Hempton, Ontario. Excellent educational advantages were 
put within his reach and of these he availed himself to the utmost. For some 
years he pursued a special scientific course in Trinity University. Later he 
took the medical course in the Trinity Medical College, from which he was 
graduated in 1898 with the degrees of M. D. C. M. and F. T. M. C. Shortly 
after graduating he came to the States and settled at Ottumwa, Iowa, where 
he practiced for a period of twelve years. Meanwhile he developed special 
aptitude for the treatment of diseases of the eye, ear and nose, and in order to 
fit himself to specialize in these branches he took a post-graduate course in 
Chicago during 1910-11, after which he came to California and settled at 
Taft. During his residence in Ottumwa he met and married Miss Mary E. 
Hendershott and they enjoy the comforts of a cozy home in a five-room bunga- 
low erected by the Doctor shortly after coming to this place. During 1913 
he completed the general hospital which he erected at a cost of $5,000 and 
which is open to all practicing physicians and surgeons for use by their 
patients, the most experienced and skilled care being given to every inmate. 
Personally the Doctor is of genial and companionable disposition and he has 
formed many friendships through his active identification with members of 



216 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the blue lodg-e of Masonry, and with the Elks and Moose. In politics he has 
been a stanch believer in Republican principles and a firm supporter of candi- 
dates of that party. 

ORVILLE LEE CLARK. — A colonial identification with the common- 
wealth of Massachusetts and a later migration to Ohio marked the early his- 
tory of the Clark family in America, It was Orin Clark, a native of the old 
Bay state, who established his branch of the family in Ohio, settling upon 
a farm in Cuyahoga county and devoting the balance of his life to its cultiva- 
tion, excepting only the period of his service in the Sixth Ohio Infantry during 
the Civil war. The valor which he displayed in military service and the 
patriotic character of his life both in peace and in war_ were duplicated in 
the history of his son, Wallace Watson Clark, a native of Cuyahoga county, 
Ohio, and at the age of only fifteen years a volunteer in the Union army. Being 
accepted in spite of his youth, he went to the front with the Fifth Ohio Cavalry 
and served with recognized bravery and devotion for three years, until the 
struggle had ended, meanwhile receiving several wounds in battle. For 
several years after the war he worked in the employ of a large lumber con- 
cern at Saginaw, Mich., but from there returned to Cleveland, Ohio, and took 
up contracting and building. After a long period of activity in that occupa- 
tion he removed to California in 1903 and is now living retired in Los 
Angeles. During young manhood he had married Martha Celestia Newton, 
who was born in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, and died at Cleveland in February 
of 1886, leaving four children. The next to the youngest of these, Orville 
Lee, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, March 10, 1883; and was orphaned by the 
death of his mother when he was yet too young to realize his irreparable loss. 
The family continued to make their home in Cleveland for some time and he 
was sent to the grammar-schools of that city, later becoming a student in the 
high school at Huntsburg, Geauga county. Next he studied mathematics and 
mechanics at the institute in New Lyme, Ashtabula county, Ohio, and at the 
same time studied architecture with Mr. White, a prominent architect of 
Ashtabula. A breakdown in health obliged him to engage in outdoor work 
and he took up carpentering, from which he was promoted to be superintend- 
ent of construction with an Ashtabula concern. 

Coming to California during 1907 and from Los Angeles to Bakersfield 
in February of the next year, Mr. Clark embarked in business as an architect 
and engineer and since then has been engaged to design many of the most 
important buildings in the city and county. Among his contracts may be 
mentioned those for the Hotels Kosel, Olcovich, and Decatur, the addition 
to the homelike and attractive hotel Massena, the Dixon apartments and the 
Barlow, Hill and Helm residences. The Southern garage on Chester avenue 
and Twenty-fifth street represents a style of architecture which is one of his 
favorites for this climate. This building is almost absolutely fireproof and has 
a storage capacity of fifty cars. In addition he was architect and engineer of 
the Bakersfield Club building and Mercy hospital. Two school buildings at 
Taft, admittedly the most substantial of their kind in the entire county, were 
designed by him, as were also the Maricopa school house and the H. F. Wil- 
liams school house, the Franklin school house and the large wing of the 
Emerson school, the last three in Bakersfield, as well as the Pacific Telephone 
and Telegraph Company's main ofifice building on Twentieth street which is 
a fire-proof building and one of the most substantial and artistic office build- 
ings in the city. The Bakersfield Club has his name enrolled upon its mem- 
bership list. Made a Mason in Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M., he 
always has supported the philanthropic principles of the order and has been 
a most generous contributor to its charities, besides being interested warmly 
in the work of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. Among the scientific 
societies of which he is a member is the American Institute of Architects and 
the National Geographic Society of Washington, D. C. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 219 

HON. FRED H. HALL.— From whatever standpoint the life of Mr. 
Hall is viewed, whether as a deputy sheriff and marshal in his earlier years 
or as a special agent of the Santa Fe Railroad Company, whether as a mem- 
ber of the state legislature promoting measures for the welfare of his con- 
stituents, whether as the owner of alfalfa lands or as a large stockholder and 
director in oil organizations and in water companies, he is found to be a man 
of versatile abilities, possessing a high order of intelligence, devoted to the 
commonwealth of his nativity, well informed concerning its possibilities and 
eager to develop its vast resources. To such citizens may be attributed the 
great development of the state and from them and their successors must 
come all future advancement. No narrow spirit has governed his business 
enterprises, for they have been as broad-gauged as his own mental equip- 
ment and as purposeful as his own existence. Throughout the entire west 
he is well-known in many avenues of activity, where his splendid character 
and broad intelligence have left an indelible impress for good. 

A study of the Hall genealogy indicates that Fred George Hall, a native 
of Portland, Me., learned the occupation of nurseryman and horticulturist 
under his father, who for years engaged in that avocation in Maine. As 
early as 1852, when about thirty-four years of age, he came via Panama to 
San Francisco and engaged in mining at Mormon Island. During the Civil 
war he served in California and Arizona as a member of Company L Second 
California Cavalry. After receiving an honorable discharge from the army 
he became interested in horticulture and the nursery business east of Visalia, 
Tulare county, but a long period of invalidism greatly hampered his activi- 
ties. His death occurred at Visalia in July of 1893, when he was seventy-five 
years of age. During 1907 occurred the demise of his wife at Fresno, this 
state ; she bore the maiden name of Matilda Dillon and was born at Peoria, 
111. Their family comprised two sons and four daughters, but at this w^riting 
there survive only Fred H. and one of his sisters. The former was born near 
Visalia, Tulare county, this state. May 17, 1868, and from the age of four to 
twenty years he lived with his parents at Tulare. After he was ten the 
invalidism of his father prevented him from attending school and forced him 
to work not only for his own support, but also to aid the family. Indeed, 
for s. me time he was the sole support of the family. He worked in brick- 
yards, harvest fields and wherever honest labor commanded living wages. 
During 1888 he took the family back to Visalia, where he secured employ- 
ment as deputy city marshal under E. A. Gilliam. In addition he served as 
deputy sheriff. For one term, beginning about 1892, he served as marshal of 
Visalia, but he was not a candidate for re-election, continuing, however, as 
deputy sheriff and deputy city marshal and in these capacities making about 
thirty-four hundred arrests, some of the suspects proving to be desperate 
criminal characters. While acting as marshal O. P. Byrd served as his 
deputy. 

Subsequent to his service in Tulare county Mr. Hall entered the special 
agents' department of the Santa Fe Railroad, where during the first fourteen 
months his duties consisted chiefly in investigating stolen goods and the 
pilfering of box-cars. From that he was promoted step by step until finally 
he was appointed assistant chief of the department w^ith headquarters in Los 
Angeles. The duties of the position consisted in hiring men and superintend- 
ing the department work between Albuquerque and San Francisco, also in 
collecting evidence in law suits and investigating matters that came up in 
the law department. Often it was said concerning him that he was the only 
man serving in the office who left the railroad company without an enemy. 
Railroad Brotherhoods and legislative boards wrote him very complimentary 
letters of thanks for his services. In every responsibility he exhibited not 
only wise judgment and practical common sense, but also the utmost tact 
and the greatest consideration of others. 

13 



220 HISTORY OF KERN COUXTY 

Resigning from the Santa Fe railroad service in 1906 in order to engage 
in ])rivate business and bavins: previously purchased oil lands, Air. Hall be- 
came a large stockholder in the Visalia Midway Oil Company and assisted 
in the development of lands secured by that concern. From the first he has 
been vice-president and general manager of the company and under his saga- 
cious supervision the work of development has proceeded without any ne- 
cessity for an assessment of stock. On the other hand, there has been an 
assured income for investors. Near Fellows on the west side the company 
owns eighty acres, where there are five wells producing and two in process 
of drilling. It is said that the company for its size is one of the most pros- 
perous in the state. The success of the enterprise may be attributed in 
large measure to the sagacity of the general manager. The oil lands, how- 
ever, do not represent the limit of his useful activities. As vice-president 
and the largest stockholder of the Western Water Company, a company 
organized to furnish water for the west side oil fields, he has been identified 
with a movement of considerable importance. By an expenditure of over 
$500,000 the company has secured water from the artesian wells near the 
north end of Buena Vista lake. This water, pumped through a twelve-inch 
line for a distance of twelve miles to Taft and then stored in two tanks o^f 
fiftv-five thousand barrel capacity in order to furnish pressure for the villages 
of Taft and Fellows and vicinity, was the first water of good quality ever 
secured in the locality and the expense to consumers is only one-quarter for 
domestic use. and one-sixth for oil wells, of what was formerly paid for 
poor water. On the organization of the National Bank of Bakersfield he 
was elected a member of the board of directors, and is now serving as its 
vice-president. 

Included among the other interests of Mr. Hall may be mentioned his 
alfalfa and hog ranch of two hundred acres situated four miles southeast of 
Kern. One of the most important improvements of the ranch is a pumping 
plant with a one hundred-inch stream. In addition he is interested in the 
development of oil in Humboldt county, Cal., where already top oil has been 
struck. As a member of the California Oil Men's Association of Bakersfield 
he is connected with an organization that fosters this recent and prosoerous 
industry of the west. Upon the organization of the Western Oil Producers' 
Association, with headquarters in Los Angeles, he has served as a member of 
its board of directors. The advisory board of the American Mining Congress 
also has the benefit of his intelligent co-operation as one of its members. 
Mr. Hall is an active member of the Prospectors' Alliance of America. 
Having made a close study of the question of conserving our natural re- 
sources and being a man well-posted on the subject, he was selected by the 
executive committee of the board of directors as a committee of one to pre- 
sent the case to President-elect Wilson, then Governor of New Jersey. The 
chief object was to acquaint Mr. Wilson with the conditions that exist in the 
west which directly afifect the mining interests and the disposition of the 
public domain. Making the trip to New Jersey, at Trenton he visited Mr. 
^^'ilson and in the interview presented his subject and ac(|uainted the latter 
with existing conditions in the west, laying before him certain facts per- 
taining to the public domain, and he urged him to appoint a western man to 
the ofifice of Secretarv of the Interior. As his reason for this appeal he stated 
that the people of the coast states, where most of the unsettled portion of 
the country's acres lies, wanted a man for the position who would be able to 
see the needs through western eyes and make his decisions accordingly, one 
who was old-fashioned enough to believe in those principles laid down in 
the Constitution of the United States, and who would not delegate to himself 
the jiovver to abrogate the laws passed by Congress and in lieu thereof make 
rulings to conform to his own ideas and whims. A western man received 
the appointment, and the trip marked success and clever manipulation. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 221 

Keenly devoted to the development of Bakersfield, where he built and occu- 
pies a comfortable residence at No. 1915 Eighteenth street, he is serving as 
vice-president of the Board of Trade and by constant co-operation with all 
progressive movements is endeavoring to promote the growth of his home 
city. 

The marriage of Mr. Hall took place in Visalia and united him with Miss 
Ruth C. S.tokes, who was born near that city, being a daughter of Y. B. 
Stokes. Possessing an excellent education and a broad culture, she has 
found mental uplift in the activities of the Woman's Club and also has 
enjoyed the social amenities of the Eastern Star and the Women of Wood- 
craft. The marriage was blessed by four children. Rowen F., Maurice E., 
Thelma and Thalia. Fraternally Mr. Hall holds membership with the Ba- 
kersfield lodge' and chapter of IMasonry. the Woodmen of the \\'orld. and the 
Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. In politics he is a Democrat of the 
stanchest kind, loyal to all party principles. His service was recognized in 
an appreciative manner during the autumn of 1910. when he was elected to 
represent the sixty-sixth assembly district in the state legislature. During 
the thirty-ninth session, 1911, he was a member of nine committees, among 
them being those on counties and county boundaries, county and township 
government, fish and game, irrigation and drainage, manufactures and in- 
ternal improvements, mines and mining interests, oil industries and oil 
mining interests. Largely through his efforts was secured the defeat of a 
measure to appoint a third judge in Kern county. Needed legislation was 
promoted by his keen, capable discrimination. The welfare of his constit- 
uents was guarded in every emergency and he proved himself not only a 
faithful, loyal representative of the people, but also a most tactful and intel- 
ligent promoter of their interests. 

THADDEUS M. McNAMARA, LL. B.— The first representative of 
the McNamara family in America was William Murro McNamara, who after 
having served as an officer in the British navy resigned his commission and 
sought the opportunities afforded by the vast agricultural areas of the new 
world. The son of a hemp merchant in London, he was born in that city 
at No. 9 Gloucester place, and entered the navy immediately after gradua- 
tion from Sedgely Park College. LTpon crossing the ocean in 1848 he pro- 
ceeded direct to Illinois and located on one hundred and sixty acres of gov- 
ernment land in Cook county, where he transformed a tract of virgin soil 
into a productive and profitable dairy farm. At Favville. Kane county, 
February 6, 1854, occurred the birth of his only son, Thaddeus M., and on 
the old preemption claim he spent many useful, profitable years, but event- 
ually sold the tract in order to remove to California. Close to Visalia he 
bouo-ht a tract of land and established a country home. On that place he 
died March 6, 1887, at the age of sixty-five years. His wife, who bore the 
maiden name of Bridget Mary Keating, was born in Tipperary, Ireland, 
where her father, Patrick Keating, engaged in mercantile pursuits prior to 
his emigration to the United States and his settlement among the pioneer 
farmers of Kane county in the vicinity of Elgin. 

A temperament inclining him toward the acquisition of knowledge was 
fostered by the encouragement of devoted parents, so that Thaddeus M. 
McNamara had every opportunity to gain a thorough education. After he 
had completed the studies of the Elgin Academv and the University of 
Notre Dame, he m.atriculated in the Union College of Law (affiliated with 
the Northwestern University as the law department of that famous insti- 
tution) and in 1874 he was granted the degree of LL. B., UDon the comple- 
tion of the regular course of study. Believing the west to offer favorable 
opportunities for the practice of his profession, he came immediatelv to 
California and opened an office at Visalia. where he continued for fifteen 
years. Since 1875 he has practiced law in Tulare and Kern counties, with 



222 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the exception of several years" practice spent in Seattle, San Francisco and 
the Imperial valley. Besides conducting a general practice in Bakersfield, 
he has affiliated himself with movements for the material upbuilding of the 
city and also has been prominent in local fraternities, including the Wood- 
men of the World, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Fraternal Brother- 
hood, the Yeomen of America, and the Benevolent Protective Order of 
Elks. 

The first marriage of Mr. McNamara took place in Visalia, this state, 
and united him with Miss Alice Asay, who was born in Philadelphia, Pa., 
and died at Visalia in 1887. During the Civil war her father, J. L. Asay, 
M. n., had served as a surgeon in the Union army. A graduate of the 
medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, he was well qualified 
for such responsibilities through education and natural endowments. Upon 
removing from Pennsylvania to the western coast he settled in V^isalia, and 
later he became an instructor in surgery in the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons at San Francisco. In each place he built up a large practice and 
attained professional distinction. There are three children of the first mar- 
riage of Mr. McNamara, the eldest of these bearing the name of the father 
and being well-known among the physicians of Bakersfield; the second, 
Loretta, lives in Oakland, and the youngest, Agnes, is the wife of Edward 
C. Crabbe, of Honolulu. The second marriage of Mr. McNamara occurred 
in Visalia and united him with Miss Christine E. Gilmore, a native of San 
Francisco and a daughter of Samuel Gilmore, a native of New Brunswick 
and reared in Maine. In 1847 he came around Cape Horn to San Francisco, 
where he was very prominent in building up the city and also in the banking 
business as a director of the San Francisco Savings & Loan Bank, commonly 
known as the Clay Street Bank. He was married in San Francisco to Eva 
Pelty, who was a native of the Bahama Islands and came as a child to Cali- 
fornia with her parents. Mrs. McNamara was a graduate of the Girls' High 
School in San Francisco. Born to Mr. McNamara's second union were three 
children, namely : William E., now with the New York Cloak & Suit House, 
in Los Angeles; Genevieve, wife of Carl Beck, also of Los Angeles, and 
Arthur, of Bakersfield. 

PHILO LANDON JEWETT.— Although the distinction of being a 
native son of California does not belong to Mr. Jewett, who was born near 
Weybridge, Addison county, Vt., January 18, 1871, he has passed the greater 
part of his life in the west and by long residence as well as close observation 
has acquired a thorough knowledge of Kern county, both as pertaining to its 
oil fields and its agricultural lands. After his father, Solomon Jewett, the 
pioneer stock-raiser and oil-promoter of Kern county, became a citizen of 
Bakersfield, the son was sent to the local schools and later attended the 
Oakland high school until his graduation in 1889. Upon his return to Bakers- 
field he secured a position as bookkeeper in the Kern Valley Bank. Soon, 
however, he began to study the stock industry and particularly the sheep 
business. Careful observation convinced him that there were great possi- 
bilities in the raising of sheep and at the end of seven months in the bank he 
resigned in order to embark in his desired specialty. That his judgment was 
not at fault the succeeding years have proved and he still engages in the raising 
of sheep with gratifying success. It is said that he has no superior as a judge 
of a flock of sheep. His preference for this country is the Shropshire breed, 
which he carries exclusively and which seem well adapted to this climate and 
range, producing both mutton and wool in profitable measure. At first it 
was possible to range the flocks on the plains and hills of Linns valley during 
the summer months, but eventually the reservation was closed to sheep and 
this forced him to look for other quarters. Since then he has rented railroad 
lands. 

The present headquarters of Mr. Jewett's sheep industry are situated near 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 225 

Rosedale, seven miles west of IJakersfield, where he owns six hundred and 
forty acres in one tract and an adjacent property of four hundred acres. His 
mountain headquarters near Glennville contain the ranch-house known among 
the Mexicans as Casa Blanca and called b)^ others the White house. The six 
hundred and forty acres at Rosedale are in alfalfa, large crops of which are 
cut each season. The entire tract lies under the Beardsley ditch and is in the 
usual farm crops, all feed raised being used for the sheep in winter. The size 
of the flocks varies from one season to another, but there are never less than 
five thousand head and at times there have been as many as ten thousand in 
the flocks. 

W'hile recognized as one of the most resourceful and energetic sheep- 
raisers in the county, it must not be supposed that this industry represents 
the limit of Mr. Jewett's activities. In addition he owns an interest in six 
hundred and forty acres in the Midway oil field, also acts as president of the 
Jewett Oil Company operating in the McKittrick district and owning one 
hundred and sixty acres on 13 and three hundred and twenty acres on 24, 
operating thirteen wells with a production of thirty-five hundred barrels per 
week. The Republican party has received the stanch support of Mr. Jewett in 
national elections and he has been prominent in its local affairs. Upon the 
consolidation of Bakersfield and Kern in July, 1910, he was elected a member 
of the board of trustees of the new corporation and at the regular election 
held in April of the following year he was chosen by the people to fill the 
place for the next term, since which time he has acted as chairman of the 
finance committee and through that service, as well as in other ways, he has 
proved helpful to the best interests of the community. Enterprising in temper- 
ament, progressive in ideals, patriotic in citizenship and loyal to California, 
he represents that splendid class of men who are giving of their time and 
talents to further the permanent prosperity of our commonwealth. As a 
charter member of the Bakersfield Club he was identified with the early 
history of an organization now prominent and popular and he also has been 
interested in the upbuilding of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks in his 
home city. 

GEORGE HAY. — During the first half of the nineteenth century James 
H. Hay, a sturdy young Scot, left the highlands of his native country and 
crossed the ocean to the United States, where he settled upon a farm in 
Delaware. When his son, John, a native of Delaware, was a child of three 
years, in 1835, he took the family across the country to Indiana and settled 
at Indianapolis, but later moved by wagon northward to Fulton county in 
that state and took up raw land near Rochester, where he remained until his 
death. For perhaps twenty years John Hay served as assessor of Fulton 
county, where for years he ranked as a leading farmer and an honored resi- 
dent and prosperous citizen until his death, December 28, 1912, at the age of 
seventy-eight. When he was taken to Indiana there were no railroads in 
the entire state, and he recalled vividly the excitement incident to the com- 
pletion of the first railroad built into Indianapolis. In early manhood he 
married Miss Mary Myers, who was born in Fulton county, that state, and 
died there in 1900. To her father, John Myers, belonged the distinction of 
being one of the first settlers in Fulton county and he engaged in general 
farming there throughout the balance of his busy life. 

There were eleven children in the family of John and Mary Hay and 
nine of these are still living, one son, A. \\\. being now^ superintendent of 
the Union cemetery. George, who was sixth in order of birth among the 
children, was born near Rochester, Fulton county, Ind., April 15, 1869, and 
at the age of fifteen began to earn his livelihood as a farm laborer. Wlien 
seventeen years of age he was given a teachers' certificate and began to 
follow that occupation in Fulton county. By the frugal saving of his salary 
he was able to spend two years in the Northern Indiana State University at 



226 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Valparaiso, where he took the scientific course of study. During- 1889 he 
was graduated from the Terre Haute Business College, after which he taught 
school in Indiana for a few years. May 1, 1892, he arrived in Bakersfield 
with a cash capital of $5, but with an abundance of energy and determina- 
tion. Imnicdialely he found work by the day on a ranch in the Rcsedale 
section, where he remained during the summer. In the fall of the same year 
he and a brother-in-law, George Batz, rented a stock farm on the south fork 
of the Kern river, and there he engaged in raising cattle and hogs for three 
years, after which he disposed of his interests and returned to Bakersfield in 
1895. For one year he was employed by Bender & Hewitt, and there gained 
his first knowledge of the abstract business. Next for two years he served 
as deputy county assessor under Winfield Scott, and then as deputy tax col- 
lector under Charles Day, after which he returned to the employ of Bender 
& Hewitt for a year. When the county treasurer, J. B. Batz, went to San 
Francisco on account of business enterprises on the bay, he appointed Mr. 
Hay deputy county treasurer to take charge of the office during the three 
years yet remaining of his term of office. 

The Bakersfield. Abstract Company was incorporated in 1903 by J. H. 
Jordan, J. B. Batz and George Hay. The following year they bought out 
Bender & Hewitt, and thus acquired the oldest set of abstract books in the 
entire county. From the organization of the company Mr. Hay has acted 
as its secretary and manager. The office of the company is in the basement 
of the Bank of Bakersfield building, where there are private vaults for records 
and safety deposit vaults for the public use. The facilities of the concern 
embrace the ownership of books and documents constituting a complete 
record of the transfers, changes of ownership, subdivisions, and incumbrances 
covering all real estate in Kern county from government entry to date; and 
the company is prepared to issue unlimited certificates of title and complete 
abstracts of land, water and mining titles in this county. By this system 
the entire details of the examination of titles and the closing of property sales 
are assumed by the firm, which is responsible to all parties concerned for the 
correct carrying out of all instructions as well as for the correctness of the 
title, for which it issues guaranteed certificates. The company also buys 
and sells real estate, negotiates loans, takes charge of property for non- 
resident owners, writes insurance of all kinds, fire, plate-glass, accident and 
life, issues surety bonds and represents two building and loan companies 
of Los Angeles. 

Aside from his identification with the Bakersfield Abstract Company 
Mr. Hay has luimerous personal interests, having been one of the original 
stockholders of the Security Trust Company, and also owning interests in 
several oil companies. Under his ownership the West Park tract of thirty- 
three acres on Oleander avenue was subdivided and lots were placed on sale 
with building restrictions that made this one of the finest residence sections 
in Bakersfield. On some of the lots he built modern and elegant homes 
which he later sold. The Bakersfield Board of Trade has enjoyed the benefit 
of his progressive ideas. For some years he has been a member of the board 
of education, and his intelligent labors in this position have been beneficial 
to the educational interests of Bakersfield. The improvement of the schools 
has been a hobby with him. No stone has been left unturned in his eft'ort to 
raise the standard of education. New buildings have been erected, locations 
have been secured, a course in domestic science has been added and a repu- 
tation has been acquired deservedly that ranks the Bakersfield schools with 
the best in the state. While not active in politics he has been stanch in his 
allegiance to the Democratic party. The Woodmen of the World, "Benevo- 
lent Protective Order of Elks, Ancient Order of United Workmen, also the 
Bakersfield Club, number him among their members. His marriage took 
place in this city and united him with Miss Elise Stahlecker, who was born 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY - 227 

in Germany, but at an early age came to Kern county. Her father, John 
Stahlecker, is now living in this county. Mr. and Mrs. Hay are the parents 
of five children, Mildred, Gerald, Byron, George and Marjorie, 

ABIA TAYLOR LIGHTNER.— Genealogical records indicate that dur- 
ing the eighteenth century three brothers, William A., John and Nathaniel 
Lightner, crossed the ocean from Holland to America and settled in Penn- 
sylvania, where the last-named devoted the remainder of his life to farming 
in Lancaster county. Capt. Abia Taylor Lightner, son of Nathaniel, was 
born in that county in October of 1801 and at a very early age became a 
pioneer of Missouri, where at Independence he married Miss Jemima S. 
Snelling, a native of Louisville, Ky., born in September, 1809. The Snelling 
family is of Welsh lineage. During 1849 her aged mother and two brothers, 
Daniel and Benjamin Snelling, started across the plains, but in the course of 
the tedious journey the mother died at the age of about eighty-nine years. 
The brothers continued on their way, settled "in California and became men 
of some local prominence, Benjamin being the founder of the village of 
Snelling", in Merced county. 

Having decided to try his fortunes in the west. Captain Lightner out- 
fitted at Independence, Mo., and during June of 1849 started as captain of a 
train that journeyed with ox-teams along the southern route through New 
Mexico and Arizona. More than six months were spent on the way and 
often in the lonely road they were in great danger from the Indians, but 
they traveled well-armed, each family taking a large supply of guns and 
ammunition. The twenty wagons comprising the train were under his 
guidance as trainmaster and were drawn by oxen, while milch cows were 
taken along, not only in order that milk and butter might be obtained for 
daily use, but also to be used for motive power in case of accident to the 
oxen or to furnish beef if needed. In every respect the expedition was well 
equipped, hence they escaped many of the privations that befell other bands 
of Argonauts. A brief stop was made near the present site of Pomona in 
Los Angeles county, and there on New Year's day of 1850 the numerical im- 
portance of the expedition was enhanced by the birth of Abia Taylor Light- 
ner, Jr. Proceeding to the coast and thence northward, the travelers finally 
separated at Alviso, Santa Clara county, where the captain took up land 
one and one-half miles from Santa Clara and engaged not only in farming, 
but also in teaming for James Lick. During the mining excitement on the 
Kern river he made a trip of investigation and decided to remove to the 
location. As early as 1856 he bought on that river near Keyesville a mine 
later known as the Mammoth and also built a quartz mill, where he not only 
utilized rock from his own mine, but also engaged in custom work. The 
family established their home at Keyesville during 1857, but the following 
year, the milling and mining not proving profitable, he purchased the claim 
and stock owned by "Bob" Wilson in Walker's Basin and removed his wife 
and children to the new location. Ever since then the place has been occu- 
pied by members of the family and is now owned by one of his daughters, 
Mrs. Walker Rankin. While hauling a load of hay, February 12, 1867, from 
Walker's Basin to Havilah, then the county seat, he fell from the wagon and 
was run over by the team and killed. At the time of the accident he was 
alone and when found life was extinct. The widow remained at the old 
homestead until her death in 1896. Devoted to the doctrines of the Baptist 
Church and a generous contributor to denominational work, her interest and 
gifts continued until her demise; her daughters have exhibited the same in- 
tense loyalty to Baptist tenets. 

There were nine children in the parental family, but two of these died 
in Missouri prior to the date of the westward migration. Isaac died at 
\\ alker's Basin in 1^J06, and AA^illiam passed away in Calaveras county Janu- 
ary 3. 1907. while Daniel S. died in Costa Rica, Central America, in 1909. 



228 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Diana is the widow of F. T. Barrows and resides at Bandon, Coos county. 
Ore.; Mary F. married D. W. Walser, of Walker's Basin; and Lavenia E. 
is the wife of Walker Rankin, also of Walker's Basin. Abia Taylor Lightner, 
who was the youngest of the family, resides on the northwest quarter of 
section 24, township 29 south, range 28 east, this being the township in 
which the city of Bakersfield is located. Proximity to the city and the fact 
that this is a frostless belt suitable for horticulture, especially for citrus fruits, 
induced him to build his residence at this point. 

Coming to Kern county at the age of seven years, Abia Taylor Lightner 
remained here from 1857 until 1861, after which he spent a year in Santa 
Clara county with a sister, Mrs. Diana Barrows. This gave him an oppor- 
tunity to attend school, which was not possible at the time in Kern county. 
After the death of his father in 1867 he attended Vacaville College for one 
year and during 1870 he entered Heald's Business College, from which he 
was graduated in June, 1871. Returning to Kern county and resuming 
farming and stock-raising, he continued at that occupation for a time, but 
afterward engaged as a bookkeeper. The Democrats of Kern county in 1873 
nominated him to the ofifice of county clerk, but he was defeated by F. W. 
Craig. From 1876 to 1878 he served as deputy sheriff under M. P. Wells. 
During 1879 he was elected county clerk and recorder, defeating his former 
opponent. F. W . Craig. On the first Monday in ^^Farch. 1880, he entered 
upon his official duties. The new constitution went into effect during that 
year and rendered necessary another election. In the fall of 1880 he was 
again chosen for the position. At the expiration of the term of two years 
he was re-elected, serving until January of 1885. 

After having engaged in mining with a brother, Daniel S., in May of 
1886 Mr. Lightner associated himself with a brother-in-law, C. W. Fore, in 
the hotel business in Tulare. Ninety days later the hotel was burned to the 
ground. The disaster was complete and entailed a heavy loss upon Mr. 
Lightner, whose next position was that of searcher of records for Miller & 
Creighton of Visalia. Returning to Bakersfield in the spring of 1887, he 
formed a partnership with W. E. Houghton under the title of Houghton 6i 
Lightner. searchers of records. Upon being elected county assessor in the 
fall of 1890 on the Democratic ticket he retired from the abstract business. 
From January, 1891. until Jannaiy. 1805, he acted as assessor, after which, 
his former partner having died, he took up the old Houghton & Lightner 
records and resumed abstracting, which he followed f( r three years. Upon 
the incorporation of the municipality of Bakersfield he was chosen city clerk. 
At the expiration of his term in 1910 he was not a candidate for re-election. 

As an authority concerning land titles and values Mr. Lightner is said 
to have no superior in Kern county. His memory of location is unerring, 
his knowledge of valuations accurate, his judgment keen and his decisions 
seldom questioned. His office in Room 1, Producers' Savings Bank building, 
is a scene of constant business activity, for he is in demand as a searcher of 
records, a judge of land locations and values and an authority concerning 
titles. As an attorney practicing before the Interior Department, he is re- 
garded as authority in all matters relating to the procedure of acquiring 
titles to lands under the various acts of congress pertaining thereto. He is 
one of the inheritance tax appraisers for Kern county, appointed by the state 
comptroller. The accuracy of his judgment is enhanced by his broad knowl- 
edge of jurisprudence, for at an early age he was admitted to practice as an 
attorney before LTnited States land offices, his certificate of application bear- 
ing the signature of Hon. R. E. Arick. judge of the Superior Court of Kern 
county. One of the oldest native sons in California, he is also one of the most 
influential and ])rominent and further has the distinction of being the first 
past president of Bakersfield Parlor No. 42, N. S. G. W. Besides being con- 
nected with the Independent Order of Foresters, he is a charter member of 





'15?? 




HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 231 

Bakersfield Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E., and is now the oldest surviving 
member of that body. Mrs. Lig-htner, formerly Miss Tena Morrell, is also 
a native Californian and has spent her entire life in the west. There are 
two daughters in the family, Gladys and Marguerite, the elder of whom is 
the wife of B. K. Stroud, superintendent of drilling operations in Lost Hills 
for the Universal Oil Company. 

JOHN BUTLER BATZ.— The president of the Bakersfield Abstract 
Company, who is a pioneer of 1874 in Kern county, represents the fourth 
generation of the Teutonic family of Batz in America. Henry, a son of the 
original German immigrant, was born in Pennsylvania, learned the trade 
of a shoemaker and followed the same in Indiana for many years and until 
his death. When he removed from the Keystone state he was accompanied 
by his son. Benjamin, who was born and reared near Philadelphia and 
after settling in Indiana followed the trade of millwright. Near Rochester, 
Fulton county, he built a grist-mill operated by water power. Ten miles 
from the nearest town he took up a tract of raw land and from it he devel- 
oped a profitable farm, where he was still engaged in agricultural pursuits 
at the time of his death in 1863. In 1911, in that same vicinity, occurred 
the death of his wife, who bore the maiden name of Clarissa S. Rice and was 
born in Ohio. Of their six children only three are living. lohn Butler 
being the eldest of these. His two sisters are Mrs. Amelia Meredith of 
Bakersfield and Mrs. Emma Edgington of Indiana. . At the old home farm 
in Fulton county. Ind.. where he was born January 25, 1852. he passed 
the uneventful years of boyhood alternating attendance at the public schools 
with such, farm work as his size and strength permitted. At the age of 
sixteen years he began to learn the carpenter trade with a skilled con- 
tractor in the home neighborhood and when only eighteen he was able to 
take up building contracts of his own. making the doors, sash, blinds, etc.. 
by hand and finishing jobs in a manner satisfactory to customers. 

Believing that opportunities would be greater further west, in 1872 
Mr. Batz removed to Kansas and settled at Grenola. Howard county, but 
now Elk. where he engaged in carpentering. Not being entirely satisfied 
with the Sunflower state he came on to California in 1874 and settled in 
Kern county, where after a time he Avas employed as superintendent of the 
Landers stock farm in the South Fork country. Next he secured a clerkship 
with Michaels & Co.. at Kernville. \A'hile thus occupied he established 
domestic ties, being married to Miss Sophie E. Smith, a native of Oakland, 
this state, and an earnest member of the. Methodist Episcopal Church. They 
are parents of two children now living. The daughter. Daisy M., is the 
wife of J. H. Jordan, vice-president of the Bakersfield Abstract Company, 
and the son. Verne n S., is an employe of this company. Mrs. Batz is 
a daugliter of Thomas H. Smith, a native of England. Avho after crossing 
the ocean settled in Ohio. Init at the time of the discovery "of gold in Cali- 
fornia he closed out his interests in Ohio and in 1849 sailed around the Horn 
to San Francisco. Later he engaged in the mercantile business in Oakland. 

For seme years Mr. Batz engaged in stock-raising and some time after 
his marriage he bought two hundred and forty acres on South Fork, where 
he had a ])rofitable acreage in alfalfa, also engaged in horticulture and 
in addition made a specialty of the st( ck industry. For two years he served 
as under-sheriff with W. J. Graham and he also held office as trustee of the 
Scodie school district for some years. From the earlv period of his residence 
m the county he ranked among the leading Democrats and his services were 
in frequent demand as a member of the county central committee of the 
party. Nominated by the Demccrats for the ofifice of county treasurer in 
1894. he was elected by a gratifying majority and took the oath of office in 
January of 189.-i. At the expiration of his term he was re-elected by a 
greatly increased majority, a fact which bears strong evidence as to the 



232 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

satisfactor}' nature of his services. When tlie second term expired in Janu- 
ary, 1903, he was not a candidate for re-election, his business interests being 
so important as to demand his entire time and attention. Prior to that he 
had acquired stock in the Occidental Oil Company, operating a producing 
well near Maricojia. and of this company he served as treasurer and manager; 
besides he owned an interest in the Monarch Oil Company, proprietors of 
one hundred and sixty acres and managers of a well of strong productive 
capacity. After he had sold his c il interests he went to San Francisco and 
became treasurer and manager of the New Blue Jay Mining Company, owners 
of the Blue Jay mine cjn Coffee creek in Trinity county near Carrville. He 
assisted in organizing the Bakersfield Abstract Company in 1*^03 and was 
elected its first president, which position he has filled up to the present time. 
The company acquired the plant of Bender & Hewitt and thus became owners 
of the oldest set of records in the county. Employment is furnished to six- 
teen ])ersons and a business of great importance has l^een established. On 
the organization of the National Bank of Bakersfield Mr. l]atz was one of 
the incorporators and is a member of the l)oard of directors. In the midst 
of extensive business interests and large political connections, he has found 
leisure for social and fraternal activities and with his wife has l)een active 
in the Kern County Pioneer Society, while in addition he is associated with 
the Fraternal Brotherhood, the Degree c^f Honor and the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen. In the latter he is past master workman and has served 
as representative to the grand lodge. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows 
has had the benefit of long years of interested activity on his part. As past 
noble grand and representative to the grand lodge, he is a leading factor in 
local ledge work, while he further has been prominent in the encam])ment 
and the canton, in the former having been representative to the Grand En- 
campment as well as a prominent official, ^^lovements for the benefit of 
Kern county have received his stanch support and not the least of these 
is the organization and maintenance of the Bakersfield Abstract Company, 
which is a concern of vital importance to the realty affairs of the county 
and also of more than passing importance through its representation of 
insurance agencies and building and loan associations. 

C. V. ANDERSON.— As examiner of titles for the Kern County Abstract 
Company, in which he is a large stockholder and also holds the office of 
vice-president. Mr. Anderson is intimately identified with one of the leading 
concerns of its kind in the San Joaquin valley. Descended from an old 
southern family, he was born at Memphis. Tenn.. March 11. 1874, and is a 
son of James A. and Maria Anderson, the latter of whom died when C. V. 
was a very small child. After a successful career as an attorney in Memphis 
the father came to California in 1885 and opened a law office in Los Angeles, 
where he engaged in practice as a partner of the late Attorney-General Fitz- 
gerald, of California. Twice married, by the two unions he became the 
father of fifteen children, seven of w^hom are living. Out of this large family 
C. V. was thirteenth in order of birth. From an early age he expressed a 
decided preference for the profession of the law, in which his two brothers, W. 
H. and James A., Jr., have also been successful, forming the firm of Anderson 
& Anderson, well-knov^ai among the law firms of Los Angeles. 

After he had completed the studies of the public schools and St. Vincent's 
College, C. V. Anderson entered his father's office as a law student and during 
1897 was admitted to the bar. With other members of the family he then 
engaged in practice in Los Angeles, whence he came to Bakersfield during 
the latter part of 1900, influenced in this move by the recent oil discoveries 
in the Kern county fields. In 1901 he formed a partnership with W. W. Kaye 
under the firm title of Anderson & Kaye, which connection continued until 
1905 and meantime, from 1902 to 1905, he acted as adviser to the Kern County 
Abstract Company. Returning to Los Angeles in 1906 he became examiner 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 233 

of titles for the Title Insurance & Trust Company, also practiced his profession 
as a member of the firm of Anderson & Anderson, but in 1910 was induced to 
relinquish his associations in the southern metropolis in order to identify him- 
self with the Kern County Abstract Company, an important and well-estab- 
lished concern of Bakersfield. 

The marriage of Mr. Anderson took place in 1905 and united him with 
Miss Elizabeth Alexander, of Los Angeles, daughter of the late Col. Richard 
Henry Alexander, and Emily W. (Houston) Alexander, the latter still a 
resident of Los Angeles. During a long and brilliant career Colonel Alexander 
was retained successively as a surgeon in the army, as colonel on the stafif of 
General Miles and as the head of the medical department of the west. Mr. and 
Mrs. Anderson- are the parents of two daughters, Emily and Betty. The re- 
ligious home of the family is in the Episcopal Church of Bakersfield, to the 
maintenance of which Mr. Anderson has contributed generously and in whose 
philanthropies he has been a willing assistant. The Masonic Order and the 
Bakersfield Club number him among their active members and their pro- 
gressive projects have received his quiet but earnest co-operation. The Re- 
publican party embodies in its platform the principles which he believes to 
be best adapted to the welfare of the nation and he has given to it his stead- 
fast allegiance. 

JAMES EDGAR STONE.— The Kimball-Stone Drug Company ranks 
among the leading business concerns of Bakersfield. The present organi- 
zation, which dates from 1904, has been engaged in business since 1910 at 
No. 1413 Nineteenth street, where the first floor is utilized for the various 
departments of the trade and in addition the basement furnishes storage 
facilities for a large reserve stock. The modern stock of the company, 
valued at $25,C00, includes everything known to the science of medicine. 
The firm carries a full line of pure drugs and druggists' sundries, patent 
medicines of all kinds, toilet articles, perfumes, brushes and other articles 
to be found in a first-class shop of the kind. The compounding of prescrip- 
tions is a special feature of the business. For that purpose the freshest and 
purest of drugs are kept in stock. The prescription counter, unsurpassed 
by any in the state, is open to the public view by means of plate glass. The 
entire store is a model of neatness and system and indicates the thrifty 
qualities of the proprietors, whose skill as pharmacists is attested by their 
high reputation throughout the community. 

The junior member of the firm, James Edgar Stone, was born at War- 
rensburg, Mo., July 23, 1881, and is a son of John W. and Elizabeth (Emery) 
Stone, natives respectively of Kentucky and Indiana, and early settlers of 
Missouri, where they were married and where they since have made their 
home. The father has engaged in raising live stock and still makes a 
specialty of handling live-stock, through which occupation, coupled with 
general farming, he has been enabled to reach financial success. In his 
family there are six children, the eldest of whom, Nellie May, is the wife oi 
W. L. Hyer, an employe of a large packing house at Warrensburg, Mo. 
The eldest son, John XA'illiam, Jr., is engaged in the drug business in Kansas 
City. The third and sixth among the children, Josephine B. and Pansy K.. 
are teachers in the Bakersfield public schools. The fifth, Luther Brooks, 
is engaged in the stock business with his father. James Edgar, the fourth 
in order of birth, received his education in Warrensburg, where for three 
years he was a student in the Missouri State Normal, after he had com- 
pleted the regular course in the public schools. 

At the age of twenty-one years Mr. Stone matriculated in the St. Louis 
College of Pharmacy, where for two years he studied with industry, diligence 
and intelligence. At the expiration of that time he was graduated with the 
degree of Ph. G., as a member of the class of 1904, in which he had the honor 
of serving as vice-president. During the autumn of the same year he came 



234 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

to Bakersfield and purchased the interest of Dr. B. E. Morrow in the Mor- 
row-Kimball Drug Company, the predecessor of the Kimball-Stone Drug 
Company. After some years at the old stand the firm removed in 1910 to 
their present location, where they have a modern and model shop, equipped 
with every facility and improvement designed to render the business satis- 
factory and successful. Customers are treated with the most gracious cour- 
tesy and are given every possible attention. The Johnson line of remedies 
and toilet articles is prepared at the manufacturing table, back of which is 
a room for reserve stock and in the basement a large reserve stock also is 
maintained. The firm makes a specialty of poisoned wheat manufactured 
for the extermination of sqtTirr€lsL.^nd gophers. Their stock of Parke-Davis 
goods is the largest in the San Joaqut^^vvalley. Among their bacteriological 
serums is Dr. Schaefifer's phylacogeus, manufactured by a Bakersfield physi- 
cian and already having to its credit many astonishing cures. 

The marriage of Mr. Stone took place in Kern county and united him 
with Miss Mae Mouliot, daughter of Martin Mouliot, a stockman now resid- 
ing in Bakersfield. Born at Tehachapi, Mrs. Stone received her early edu- 
cation in the Bakersfield schools and later completed a course of study in the 
Chico State Normal. For three years prior to her marriage she taught in 
the schools of East Bakersfield with gratifying success. Politically Mr. 
Stone has been stanch in his allegiance to the Democratic party, and has 
maintained a warm interest in public affairs. Since coming to Bakersfield 
he has been active in Masonry, and is now a Shriner of the York Rite. 
Personally he is decidedly popular with everyone with whom he has busi- 
ness dealings or social relations. 

THOMAS NORMAN HARVEY.— The genealogy of the Harvey family 
is traced to England and includes the names of many men of sterling worth 
and patriotic spirit. During the progress of the Revolutionary struggle they 
became associated with Canadian aft'airs, and their intense sympathy with the 
cause of the Tories led to their being classed with the empire loyalists. Cul- 
tured endowments marked every generation of the past. Out of the traditions 
that lighten the obscurity of bygone ages their names emerge as educators of 
talent and as far back as the lineage can be traced their identification with 
pedagogy has been established and even at the present time their association 
with educational affairs is as pronounced as it is successful. After a lifetime 
of service in the Canadian schools, during which time he had the supervision 
of the schools at Sydenham and other Ontario towns, W. B. Harvey died at 
Toronto, Canada, January 10, 1913. One of his sons, J. F., is superintendent 
of the high schools at Peterboro, Ontario. A daughter, Catherine, married R. 
H. Cowle}', who now holds the office of superintendent of education for the 
province of Ontario and resides at Toronto. The present identification of the 
family with educational work in Canada will thus be seen to be intimate and 
influential. 

The youngest child in the family of W. B. and Jean (Watt) Harvey, (the 
latter of Scotch extraction) was Thomas Norman Harvey, whose birth 
occurred in Ontario, Canada, December 9, 1878, and whose education was 
received in his native province. After he had graduated from the Sydenham 
high school in 1896 he matriculated in the Ottawa Normal School and took 
the regular course of study in that institution, graduating with the class of 
1900. Immediately after his graduation he took up the task of teaching and 
served successively as principal of the schools at Strathroy and Parry Sound, 
Ontario, wliile in addition for a short time he acted as proprietor and publisher 
of a weekly newspaper in the village of Wyoming, a small town in Ontario, 
directly east of Port Huron, Mich. During January of 1904 he came to Cali- 
fornia and settled in the Napa valley, wdiere for six months he studied law in 
the office of W. F. Henning and then continued his studies in the Hastings 
Law School at San Francisco. During 1905. while still a student in the law 






^2.^?-:?-'>>^ 




HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 237 

school, he was admitted upon examination to the supreme court of California 
and since then he has devoted his attention to law practice. Coming^ to 
Bakersfield'in July of 1910 he opened an office and has since made a specialty 
of oil and mining law, practicing before the United States land office. His 
office is located at No. 1667 Chester avenue and there much of his time is 
devoted to tireless and effective work in behalf of clients. Earnest in the 
preparation of cases, logical in reasoning faculties, well informed in the law, 
he has demonstrated his admirable qualifications for his chosen profession. 
One month before he came to Bakersfield he was united in marriage with Miss 
Violet Salter, daughter of J. W. Salter, wfio was a prominent pioneer and 
well-known druggist of San Francisco. Mr. Harvey is the father of a son who 
bears his name. In religion he was reared in the faith of the Church of Eng- 
land and has assisted in other movements for the general advancement. 

JOSEPH WARREN SUMNER.— With the earlier events that shaped 
the histor}- cjf Kern County the name of this California pioneer of '49 was 
intimately associated and the title of Judge, by which he was long and 
familiarly known, came to him through an efficient service of more than 
thirty years as justice of the peace at Kernville. For the difficult tasks 
incident to the development of a frontier community he was well qualified by 
the inheritance of rugged traits of mind and sturdy endurance of bodv from 
a long line of American ancestors who were pioneer uobuilders. Whether 
his task was that leading occupation of earlier days, mining, or the e(iually 
arduous experiences incident to hauling freight between Los Angeles and 
Kernville; whether presiding over the justice court with keen discrimination 
and impartial judgment or with far-seeing discernment concerning future 
conditions planting and developing the first commercial orchard in the 
Kernville region, into each responsibility he threw his energies with the 
whole-si uled devotion and enthusiastic interest that made him a leader 
among pioneers. 

The genealogy of the Sumner family shows a close association with the 
colonial history of New England, where they became residents about the 
middle of the seventeenth century. The family history shows that William, 
the only son of Roger and Joan (Franklin) Sumner (the former a husband- 
man of Bicester, Oxford, England), was born in that English shire in 1605 
and some time after his marriage to Mary West he brought his family to 
America, settling at Dorchester, Mass., where for many vears he was a 
member of the general court and a prominent citizen. The next generation 
was re])resented by William, Jr., likewise a native of Bicester, England, and 
who married Elizabeth, daughter of Augustine Clement, of Dorchester, 
England. Thrcughout much of his life he followed the sea, but eventually 
he retired to Boston and there his death occurred in February, 1675. Clement, 
son of William, Jr., was born in Boston September 6, 1671, and married 
Margaret Harris, by whom he was the father of a son. Samuel Sumner, born 
in Boston August 31, 1709, and married at Charlestown. Mass.. to Abigail, 
daughter of Samuel Frothingham, of that place. The death cf Samuel 
Sumner occurred January 26, 1784. In the next generation was Ebenezer 
Sumner, born in Boston in March of 1742, married to Elizabeth Tappan and 
deceased at Newburyport, Mass., December 27, 1823. Hon. Joseph Sumner, 
son of Ebenezer, was born at Newburyport, Mass., May 26, 1783, became a 
merchant at Lubec, Me., served as a member of the Maine state legislature 
and died September 21, 1861. By his marriage to Sarah Wiggin, a lineal 
descendant of Governor Wiggin, of Alassachu setts, there was born at New- 
buryport, Mass., January 3, 1819, a son, Joseph ^^^arren Sumner, who in 
€arly manhood, after having completed an academic education, engaged in 
merchandising in Lubec, Me., and also operated a line of fishing boats from 
that isolated Atlantic port. The discovery of gold in California furnished the 
incentive for his emigration from the bleak coast of eastern Maine to the 



238 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

then unknown shores of the Pacific. A voya,^e via Panama broui^ht him to 
San Francisco, from which city he jirocceded to the mines t)f the Sierras. 
From that time he never entirely rehn(|uished his identification with minini^- 
and his interests in that work took him as far away as British Cohimbia. 
Durins^^ 1860 he became the owner of the Sumner mine at Kernville. where 
for many years he also owned and tiperated the Sumner mill, besides conduct- 
ins^- a freig;hting business to Los Angeles. As early as 18i)9 he purchased 
the Sumner ranch across the north fork from Kernville and there he embarked 
in horticulture upon a scale larger than that attemi)ted by previous experi- 
menters in that occupation. 

The marriage of Judge Sumner in Lubec, Me., August 3. 1843, united 
him with Miss Mary E. Dakin, who was born at Digby, Nova Scotia, January 
16, 1826. They were spared to a long married life of mutual service and 
helpfulness and in death were not long divided, his demise taking place at 
his l\ern\ille home March 29, 1911, when he had reached the age of ninety- 
two, while the death of his wife followed in the same year on the 31st of 
May, rounding out eighty-five useful years. Their only son, Elisha Payson 
Sumner, had passed away at Saco, Me., November 23, 1871. The older 
daughter, Mary Josephine, of Los Angeles, was the wife of the late Rev. C. G. 
Belknap, a member of the Southern California conference of the Methodist 
Episc(:pal church. The youngest member of the family circle, Alice Maude, 
is the widow of Andrew Brown, formerly a prominent merchant and banker 
of Los Angeles. From the standpoint of citizenship Judge Sumner was 
progressive, in personal character he was just and yet generous and broad. 
For many years he served as a member of the school board and aided in 
the building of school houses and the establishment of school districts. 
Fraternally he was a Master ]\Iason. Originally an old-line Whig in ]:)olitics, 
on the founding of the Republican party he transferred his allegiance to its 
principles and also supported the abolitionist movement from its inception. 
It was his privilege to vote at eighteen presidential elections, dating back to 
the exciting campaign of William Henry Llarrisc n, when even at the remote 
and isolated Maine home of the Sumner family the cry of "Tippecanoe and 
Tyler too" was the most familiar slogan of the period, and extending through 
all the years up to and including the scarcely less exciting and interesting 
Roosevelt campaigns. 

WILLIAM VANDEVER MATLACK.— The cashier of the Security 
Trust Company of Bakersfield traces his lineage to England and Holland and 
is himself a native of Philadelphia, born February 20, 1859. His parents, 
John R. and Lydia B. (Vandever) Matlack, were natives respectively of 
Philadelphia and Baltimore and for many years the former engaged in a 
manufacturing business in his native city, but after his retirement from 
business cares he came to California, and in 1896 his death occurred in this 
state. The English progenitors of the family had spelled the name Mat- 
lock and during the Revolutionary war Timothy Matlock, a leading Phila- 
delphia representative of the family, had been identified in business activi- 
ties with Robert Morris, the financier of the colonists during the first strug- 
gle with England. The maternal ancestry was of Dutch extraction. The 
records show that William Vandever, exiled from Holland during the thirty 
years' war, found a temporary refuge in Sweden and during 1682 crossed the 
Atlantic ocean to the new world in company with a colony of Swedes that 
settled in Delaware. From him descended William Vandever, a bookbinder 
by trade and a gallant soldier during the War of 1812; after the close of that 
struggle he settled in Baltimore, where occurred the birth of his daughter, 
Lydia B., later Mrs. Matlack. Her death occurred in Philadelphia. The 
oldest son in the family became a i)rominent resident of California and 
served as member of congress from Ventura county. 

In a family comprising four sons and two daughters, of whom two of 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 239 

the sons are deceased, William Vandever Matlack was third in order of 
birth and was reared m Philadelphia, where he was graduated from °he hiJh 
fn (SV h IT '"'"'■ '' '^l' " mercantile position Comm.^ to Califorrfia 
in 1887 he made a sojourn of two years in Monrovia and in 1889 settled at 
Bakersf^eld, where since he has made his home and where he has wielded I 
large inflnence as public-spirited citizen and progressive business man For 
some years he was associated with the Southern Pacific Railroad Company 
Du in' 18Q«'r''"' '".^ ^'''\ ^'.''^''^ ^'^^'^ °^ *he Bakersfield freight office' 
?r at"'res ' lasibilTw ' ^T ^"Ln'!i'^''- f ^ P^^^^"^^^ ^>^^"^' ^ position of 
Retfo-nifo^i"' Qos-; ^^^^^^\h^ fi".ed with recognized efficiency and tact. 
Resigning in 1908 to accept a position as assistant cashier of the Bank of 
Bakersheld, he entered upon his present connection with the financial affairs 
o his honie city. Since February 1, 1911, he has been cashier of the bank o 

Msf Mar^JtT mTTh"^'.'' ''''' ^^"^ ^" Philadelphia he Trried 
Vliss Margaret V. Mendenhall, who was born in that city and descended 

ES;"h,tfdt E;'Zd nil -'- ''- -'"^"'^ °' «- da4.e.s/F>Xt 
Ever since attaining his majority Mr. Matlack has voted with the Re- 
r?^ u^^^ P""""*^-- Throughout the entire period of his residence in Bakers- 
n, ;• iQoiT'"^^'"^1 ^" ""ceasing interest in civic and educational affairs, 
l^^unng 1891 he was elected a member of the Sumner school board and for 
h. n? ^^^l^A 1 served as derk of that organization, two new schoolhouses 
being erected during^ the term of his service. During April of 1908 he was 

s me V ' T'"'''' °^ '^'' ^u^™ ^""^^ °^ ^™^^^^^ and in\he summer of The 
Tame/r H p'^^'r t°''" chairman to fill a vacancy caused by the death of 
James L. de Pauli Upon the consolidation of Bakersfield and Kern in 1910 
and the organization of Bakersfield as a city of the fifth class, as decided 

"o79]0 ^nnTr'^/^.l^^ ^""'"''S^ ^°'^ '°^"^' ^ '-^^^^ ^'^^tion was held July 
10 1910, and Mr. Matlack was chosen a member of the board of trustees of 
the new city. At the organization of the board he was elected its president. 
The election of April, 1911, again made him a member of the board of 

now fiT]s''"l''f '" T' ^'^°''" P.^f ^dent of the board, which position he 
now fills, discharging its duties with characteristic energy and efficiency 
nZZ'^l%t ^'' been a leading local worker in the Benevolent Protective 
Order of Elks m which he served as Exalted Ruler, and in addition he his 

Ma" "n"" ?'^^^^^^^^^ ''f Bakersfield Club. In Pennsylvania he was made" 
.viason m i-'ort Washington Lodge. A. F. & A. M. 

• ^^^ h^'^'X'^^ J'"<^* .^?^''P^"^' °^ ^b^ch Mr. Matlack is cashier, was 
incorporated October 7, 1910, with an original .paid-up capital of $300,000, 
but_ which was increased to $500,000 on January 21, 1913, and conducts 
business at Chester avenue and Eighteenth street. A savings department 
forms an important addition to the bank. There is also a trust department 
which acts as executor, administrator, guardian, trustee, etc., and the advan- 
tages of a strong and perpetual company over individuals in these capacities 
are too apparent and too universally recognized to call for special comment- 
Ihe safety deposit department is outfitted with fire and burglar-proof vaults 
with rental compartments convenient for the needs of pa^trons. Since its 
inception the bank has pursued a conservative course in the making of loans 
?mo Ju "^p" V' ,%"fi,d^"f of a growing list of depositors. On October 19, 
lyiZ the Bank of Bakersfield was purchased and consoHdated with the Se- 
mn ^T^i "^^ '^o"^P^">^' ^^hose deposits have now reached practicallv $3,000- 
,.Pnt ^'^^/"^^^^s '^f the concern may be attributed to the sagacious judg- 
ment of Its officers and directors, who are as follows: G. I. Planz Presi- 
w"\a.^^^"|^"' ^ • Matlack, cashier; C. A. Barlow, D. L. Brown A s'Cr tes 
W^W^Colm, W. W. Frazier, H. R. Peacock, Chris Mattlev J M. Jan. on,' 
t' w S^^^'• D. Hirshfeld. L. P. St. Clair. G. I. Planz. F W. Warthorst 
J. W. Heard and W. A. Howell. ' -vxairnorst. 



240 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

WALTER OSBORN. — Education and experience alike abundantly 
qualify Mr. Osborn for able services in the profession of law. When first 
he determined upon his future calling he placed before himself a high ideal 
and aspired to gain a classical and legal education that would give him a 
standing equal to the best. Studious in childhood, always near the head of 
his class in the public schools, he carried the same devotion to scholarship into 
college and university and allowed no trivial matter to lessen his ardor for 
his books. The result was that he acquired a broad knowledge concerning 
all subjects of general importance, while in his specialty he grasped the 
principles of jurisprudence with a calm, logical and well-trained mind, and 
upon receiving his degree entered upon a professional career with every 
promise of success. During the course of his practice in Indiana he was 
more than ordinarily popular and it was only the failure of his health that 
induced him to sever ties so promising for future gains. Since he came to 
Bakersfield he has been given a place in the profession for which his talents, 
education and former record qualify him. 

The youngest of eight children, all of whom lived to maturity. Walter 
Osborn was born near Wanatah, LaPorte county, Ind., June 10, 1875, being 
a son of John and Jane (Mclntyre) Osborn, both now deceased. The father 
passed away when his youngest child was a boy of ten years, but the mother, 
a woman of energy and capability, did not permit the education of the chil- 
dren to be neglected by reason of their bereavement, and she constantly aided 
the boy in his efforts to secure the best possible advantages. After he had 
completed the high-school course at Wanatah he entered Valparaiso Uni- 
versity, where he took the commercial course. Next he matriculated in the 
classical department of Indiana University at Bloomington, from which he 
was graduated m 1902 with the degree of A.B. Continuing in the same insti- 
tution as a law student, he completed the regular course and in 1904 received 
the degree of LL.B., at the same time winning admission to the state and 
federal courts of the Indiana bar. 

Three and one-half years of association with the firm of Anderson, 
Parker & Crabill, of South Bend, Ind., proved most helpful to the young law- 
yer, who left them in order to form a partnership with Charles Weidler under 
the firm name of Weidler & Osborn. For one and one-half years he remained 
in that connection and meanwhile enjoyed a steady growth in practice, laying 
the foundation of a success that would have been permanent had not the 
failure of his health forced him to seek another climate. Altogether, his 
experience in South Bend has proved most helpful to him in later activities. 
The firm with which he first associated was one of great prominence, repre- 
senting the Grand Trunk Railroad, the Pennsylvania lines, St. Joseph County 
Savings Bank, Studebaker Bros. Manufacturing Company and other large 
corporations of that important manufacturing city. Upon leaving the state 
he spent fifteen months in the Coeur d'Alene district of Idaho, whence in 
October of 1910 he came to California, settling in Bakersfield on the 13th of 
December of the same year. On the 12th of that month he was admitted to 
practice in the courts of California, this being about six years after he had 
been admitted to practice in the St. Joseph Circuit Court of Indiana, the 
Supreme Court of that state and the Circuit Court of the United States for 
the district of Indiana. 

As an attorney Mr. Osborn is to be credited for two things particularly, 
first: he makes a very thorough preparation of each case and his briefs on 
questions of law are most thorough; second, he is a lawyer of strict integrity. 
To these particulars he clings with most unswerving fidelity, much to the 
advantage of his growing clientage. While engaged in practice in Indiana 
he married at Remington, that state, April 27, 1905, Miss Priscilla Hawkins, 
by whom he has two children, Marion B, and Priscilla J. In politics he is 




f^frA'Sc 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 243 

stanch in allegiance to Democratic principles and the present administration. 
Fraternally he holds membership with the Elks and Masons and is a firm 
believer in the principles of kindness, philanthropy and helpful comradeship 
for which these orders stand. 

PRESTON SMITH McCUTCHEN.— Very early in the colonization of 
America the AlcCutchen family became identified with the agricultural devel- 
opment of a region lying near the Atlantic seaboard. In the new world, as in 
their former home m Scotland, they evinced a forceful and resolute deter- 
mination that won local prestige. Not the least conspicuous member of the 
family and certainly one of its most gallant patriots and honored representa- 
ti\es was James Corsey McCutchen, a native of Georgia and a soldier in the 
war of 1812, where only his lack of education prevented him from winning 
an officer's commission. Upon the close of the war he engaged in the trade 
of blacksmithing in Virginia. However, while giving his days to manual 
labor, he devoted his evenings to study, for he was ambitious to make up for 
lack of early advantages. After he had attained man's estate he took up 
the common branches of study, taught himself by dint of resolute perse- 
verance and eventually became the possessor of a broad fund of information 
along every line of mental activity. Particularly was he thorough in math- 
ematics and his work in that line showed considerable native talent. Withal, 
he was a skilled mechanic, a capable blacksmith and invented a process of 
setting wagon tires which has never since been improved upon by anyone. 

While living in Virginia James Corsey McCutchen married Mrs. Mary 
Humphreys, a widow with three children, James, William and Jane. Born in 
the Old Dominion, she was a daughter of John Nevins, an Irishman who 
enlisted under the English flag and became a sailor in the British navy, but 
deserted his ship in order that he might enlist in the feeble army of patriots 
fighting for liberty during the Revolutionary war. Having served with dis- 
tinction until the close of the struggle, he then secured an honorable discharge 
and settled in Virginia to devote his remaining years to development work in 
his adopted country. In person he was stalwart and strong, the possessor of a 
splendid physique, while temperamentally he had the characteristics of the 
Celt. His daughter, Mary (or Polly, as she was called in the home circle) 
became the wife of John Humphreys, who served as a commissioned officer 
during the war of 1812 and remained at the front until he was shot in battle. 
A few years later the widow became the wife of James Corsey McCutchen. 
Nine children were born of their union, namely : John N.. Allen (who died at 
the age of hix months), Preston Smith, Robert Sloan, Nancy. Martha, ]\Iarv 
^Margery, Elizabeth and Perry. 

From Virginia the family removed to Missouri and after a brief sojourn 
in St. Louis ])roceeded up the river to St. Charles, where the second son, 
Preston Smith, was born February 24. 1820. In March of that year the 
family remoxed to Callaway county, Mo., where the father not only had a 
blacksmith shop, but also cultivated land. Leaving Missouri in 1836, he took 
the family to Iowa and settled on a tract of raw land in Van Buren county, 
where his wife died. Later he married a second time, but had no children 
l)y that union. In 1854 he died at the old Iowa homestead. When the family 
left Missouri Preston Smith AfcCutchen was a youth of sixteen, strong and 
sturdy, eager to be of use in the home and in the world. His father had not 
Dermitted any of the boys to learn blacksmithing, therefore he had turned 
his attention to farming and kindred pursuits. In those days one of the most 
important tasks on a farm was the clearing of the land and no one could use 
an axe with greater skill than he. nor could any of the young farmers of the 
locality surpass him in swinging a scythe or in cradling the grain. Agri- 
culture was then conducted in somewhat primitive fashion, for the magnifi- 

14 



244 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

cent har\esters of the present day, the drills, pulverizers, planters and other 
modern machinery had not then come into use. 

While living in \'an Buren county Air. McL'utchen married Aliss Jane 
VVilsey, a splendid young woman, who contributed much to his later success. 
Of the union there are eight children, namely: James B., Warren C, George 
W ., and Edmund V\'., who are represented elsewhere in this volume; Alary A., 
wife of C. \\ . Johnson, whose sketch appears on ancjther page; Clara J., widow 
of William G. Wallace and a resident of the vicinity of Hanford; Harriet C, 
wife of Benjamin Scott, a contractor in San Francisco; and Robert Lincoln, 
the youngest of the family, and living ten miles southwest of Bakers- 
field. The McCutchen brothers not only own some of the best producing 
wells in the Sunset Midway oil field, but also own considerable good agricul- 
tural land as well as dairy farms in the Old River district south and west of 
Bakersfield. 

The first trip made by Air. AlcCutchen across the plains occurred during 
the summer of 1850. when he accompanied an expedition of Argonauts to the 
western country. Starting from Bentonsport, Iowa, with a team of oxen and 
a wagon, he landed safely at Diamond Springs, Eldorado county, after a 
tedious trip of six months. In placer mining he met with a fair degree of 
success. Soon he was able to send $100 back to his wife and later he sent her 
$500, while in addition he furwarded $200 to pay ofl^ an indebtedness he had 
incurred. The balance of his money he took back in person, when he returned 
via Panama in 1853. The one-year old son had in his absence grown into a 
sturdy child of four years, but the success of the trip compensated him some- 
what for the long absence from his family. In 1854, accompanied by wife and 
child, he again crossed the plains with oxen and wagon. Upon his arrival in 
California he went to the mines of Placer county. After some three years 
he took his family to Sacramento county, bought land and started to develop a 
farm. Unfortunately it developed that the land was underlaid with hard pan, 
but he refused to give up until fourteen years of unsuccessful effort con- 
vinced him that it was useless to remain longer. Next he settled in the 
mountains of Alonterey county and engaged in the sheep business, but his 
sons found the work uncongenial and on their account he removed to Kings 
county, taking up land five and one-half miles northeast of Hanford, where 
after the death of his wife in 1877 he made his home with his daughter. Airs. 
Wallace. About 1911 his sons prevailed upon him to remove to Kern county 
and he now makes his home with his son, George W\, on the AlcCutchen 
Brothers Oil Company's lease near Alaricopa. Every member of the family 
is devoted to his welfare and displays the most tender consideration for his 
happiness. Notwithstanding the fact that he has been a hard-working man, 
his ninet}'-three years rest lightly upon his broad shoulders and he still looks 
out noon life with the cheerful optimism, progressive spirit and keen men- 
talitv more often found in youth than in age. 

W. A. EARDI-EY. — In the T'lioneer d?vs of any community the flouring 
mill is an imnortant enterprise. A leading concern of the kind is the 
Kern River mills, at Bakersfield. \vhich branch of the Kern Countv Land 
Cf^mnany was established to provide a demand for wheat grown in the countrv 
round about and to put a fine grade of flour on. the local market. The mills, at 
Truxtun avenue and S street, include roller machinery of the latest type and 
up-to-date appliances generally such as are requisite to success in this branch 
of manufacture. The establishment consumes all the milling wheat grown in 
Kern county and lars;e quantities of the choicest Kansas hard wheat and of the 
best wheat jiroduced in Washington. All its wheat is scientifically tested and 
each and every sack of its flour is guaranteed to be as good as any flour offered 
in competition. W'. A. Eardley, the superintendent under whose watchful care 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 245 

this business is carried on, is an exi)eriencc(l Inisiness and mill man. and has 
ion_o- been identified with the develoj^ment of Bakersfield. 

Born in England, a son of William Eardley, Mr. Eardley was brought 
when quite young to the United States by his father, who located at Granville, 
A\'ashington county, N. Y. There the son was educated in public schools and 
also acquired a practical knowledge of the mercantile business. In 1885 he 
removed to Kane county. 111., but after four years of clerking there he found 
a new field of enter irise at Salt Lake City, Utah. From there he came to Cali- 
fornia in 1893, settling in Los Angeles, where he engaged in the hotel business. 
In 1900 he removed to Bakersfield, where he was manager of the grocery 
department of Dinkelspiel Brothers until 1905. It was in the vear last men- 
tioned that his connection with the milling department of the Kern County 
Land Company was begun. 

As a citizen Mr. Eardley is progressive and thoroughly up-to-date, de- 
voted to the best interests of Bakersfield, of Kern county and of California 
He has advanced to high rank as a Mason, having been initiated into the order 
in Illinois as a member of Batavia Lodge No. 404, A. F. & A. M., with which 
he still afifiliates while holding membership in the Kern \'alley Chapter, R. A. 
M.. Bakersfield Commandery No. 39, K. T.. and Al Malaikah Tem])le, N. M. S. 
of Los Angeles. 

HON. JOSEPH H. TAM.— The attorneys of Bakersfield have gained 
distinction throughout the state by reason of their far-reaching activities, 
their broad knowledge of jurisprudence and their familiarity with cases in- 
volving intricate questions and large amounts. Not the least influential 
among these attorneys is Joseph H. Tarn, son and namesake of an honored 
California pioneer of 1849 and himself the possessor of a substantial knowl- 
edge of fundamental law, a superior intellectual culture and a gracious dig- 
nity that has established him in local prestige. To ability and high purpose 
he adds the devotion that comes from a life-long residence in the west. The 
greater part of his useful life has been passed in his native commonwealth, 
although he enjoys the advantages derived by an intimate identification with 
Alaska during a period of professional practice in that country. Residence 
in Bakersfield, although covering only a comparatively few years, has brought 
him mto prominence in many civic struggles and has led him into an unfore- 
seen political activity with increasing possibilities for useful public service. 

The discovery of gold in California was the incentive for migration hither 
on the part of Joseph H. Tarn, Sr., and his wife, who bore the maiden name 
of Sarah Glassford. For two years subsequent to his arrival the newcomer 
mined for gold, but, destiny withholding from him any great gifts in gold, he 
turned his attention to the tilling of the soil. He v/as one of the very first 
settlers upon the broad ranch lands of the San Joaquin valley, where as yet 
no attempt had been made at cultivation. On every hand the land remained 
in its primeval condition of sage brush and sand, its rich possibilities hidden 
beneath an uninviting surface, its future wealth unguessed by the most hope- 
ful of optimists. To his labors in the new field he brought the advantage ol 
an excellent education, largely acquired in a western Pennsylvania college 
(of which he was a graduate). In addition he had the advantage of fine 
native abilities, excellent judgment and business acumen. The splendid pio- 
neer element that laid the foundation of American prosperity had in him a 
forceful representative. 

Throughout his early years Joseph H. Tam, Jr., lived in Stockton, this 
state. There he was born April 8, 1862, and there he received his education 
in the public schools. It was while serving as city assessor of Stockton, to 
which office he was elected in 1884 and re-elected for a second term, that his 
attention was turned to the study of the law and his readings were con- 
ducted in the law office of Terry. Campbell & Bennett, of that city. He was 



246 HISTORY OF KERN COUXTY 

admitted to the l)ar of the state in 1887, and immediately afterward began in 
practice in his native city, where in 1890 he was elected city justice. At the 
expiration of his term of four years he was re-elected for another term and 
when he had served out that time he removed from Stockton to San Fran- 
cisco, where he engaged in a general practice for six years. Attracted to 
Alaska during 1900 by a desire to travel through and investigate conditions 
in that country, he was induced to establish a law ofBce at Nome, where he 
remained for seven years, meanwhile also engaging actively in placer mining. 
In addition to a general practice he acted as attorney for the Pioneer Mining 
Company and other corporations. 

Upon leaving Alaska to resume residence in the United States, Mr. Tam 
traveled for a time and during 1909 opened an ofBce at Bakersfield, where he 
has since become prominently identified with professional and civic enter- 
prises. In coming to this city to establish a home he was accompanied by 
his accomplished wife, whom he had married in 1896, and who was formerly 
Miss Alice Carey Treadway, of Covington, Ky. Movements for the progress 
and develooment of his home city receive his cordial support. The high 
standing which he occupies in professional circles is indicated by the fact that 
he has been chosen chairman of the board of trustees of the law library, while 
his popularity in the Republican party is evidenced in the presentation of 
his name September 3, 1912, at the party primaries as a candidate for the 
assembly from the fifty-sixth district. Although not solicitous for party 
honors, preferring indeed the quiet round of professional duties and social 
enjoyment, he is not negligent of his duties as a loyal citizen and public- 
spirited patriot, nor is he unmindful of the opportunities for efficient service 
for which his unusual abilities eminently qualify him. 

MRS. HARRIET VAN ORMAN.— Any list of the pioneers of Bakers- 
field would be incomplete without the name of Mrs. Van Orman, whose life 
has been identified with this place continuously since 1860 and who has 
witnessed the remarkable transformation of the community from a desolate, 
unpeopled spot to a large city, teeming with industry and surrounded by 
fertile, well-tilled fields. No attribute of her character is more pronounced 
than that of devotion to the community of her adoption. Every part of the 
city possesses for her a unique interest, far beyond the feeling it would 
arouse in the casual visitor. For many years she has lived at her present 
home on the corner of Seventeenth and K streets, where it is her expecta- 
tion to remain until her earth life ends and where she will continue to watch 
with unabated pleasure the upward growth of Bakersfield. ' Even in the days 
when Kern Island had no population excepting rabbits, mosquitoes and 
gnats, when the sole crop was weeds and the sole visitor an occasional 
wandering Indian, she had faith that a large city would one day stand on 
the spot, and she is equally optimistic now concerning Bakersfield's great 
future and large influence as a business center. 

Flarriet Taylor was born at Jonesboro, Tenn., September 26, 1835, and 
is a daughter of the late Skelton and Mary (McCray) Taylor, natives re- 
spectively of Virginia and South Carolina. Her paternal grandfather, Henry 
Taylor, was a soldier in the war of 1812 and her great-grandfather, Christo- 
pher, Taylor, who descended from English ancestry, served in the Revolu- 
tion. The maternal grandfather, Henry McCray, a native of Scotland, mar- 
ried a Miss Moore of South Carolina and became a large planter on the 
Chattahoochee river in (Georgia. When she was one year old her parents 
moved to Alabama and settled at Huntsville, where she was educated in 
private schools and an academy. At the age of fifteen she accompanied 
her family to Texas and there completed her education in a private school. 

At Bonham, Tex., in 1854, Miss Taylor became the wife of Robert Gil- 
bert, a native of Tennessee and for years a large land owner in Texas, 
where he built and operated a saw and grist mill on Bordeaux lake. Two 



?IISTORY OF KB:RN COUNTY 249 

children were born of their union, 'i'iie son. William (iilbcrt, became a 
niinins;- man and died at IJakerstield in 1904. The daii^q^hter, Airs. Call'.e 
Pettit, is now li^•in^- at Tejcn, Kern county. During 1859 Mr. and Airs. 
Gilbert, accompanied by their two children, removed from Texas to Cali- 
fornia, makini::: the journey via the IJutterfield stage-coach. Their destina- 
tion was San Jose. Imt in the fall of the same year they settled at Visalia 
and September 26. 1(S60. they arrived at what is now the site of Bakersfield. 
Later Mrs. (Jilbert took up a claim of a quarter section on section 18, near 
Bellevue. and afterward she became a shareholder in the canal, which made 
it possible for her to put the place under cultivation to alfalfa. Her second 
marriage united her with N. Van ( )rman. of this county. Having been Avell 
posted concerning affairs in early days and possessing a retentive memory, 
she is a very interesting conversationalist and an hour spent in her society, 
when she is in a reminiscent mood, enables one to gain a vivid comprehen- 
sion of the trials, hardships and discouragements of those far distant days. 

JAMES B. McCUTCHEN.— The position to which he has risen and the 
obstacles which he has (nercome prove the ability of Mr. McCutchen. at the 
same time indicating what it is within the power of any man of integrity, 
energy and determination to accomplish for himself. Of discouragements 
he has had many and vicissitudes not a few. yet all of these he endured with 
fortitude and conquered by persistence. Whether it w^as the misfortune of 
failure in viticulture or an attempt in peach-raising where the cost of pro- 
duction exceeded the receipts from the total sales, or whether it was long 
sojourns in Old Mexico, enduring the hardships of camp life and the native 
food, none of his disastrous experiences dampened his ardor or lessened his 
courage, but each in turn rendered possible the attainment of a final success, 
represented now by the possession of a fine alfalfa ranch of eighty acres sit- 
uated nine and one-half miles southwest of Bakersfield under the Stine canal; 
represented also by a valuable dairy herd comprising one hundred and twenty 
cows and the modern and sanitary equipment demanded by the up-to-date 
development of the dairy industry. Recently he erected on his ranch an 
attractive bungalow of ten rooms, fitted with modern conveniences, not the 
least of these being electricit}- furnished by his own electric (Gray and Davis) 
plant. 

Although not a native of California, the early recollections of James B. 
McCutchen cluster around this state and he was familiar with its development 
from a frontier community filled with gold-miners to a prosperous common- 
wealth with varied industries and great possibilities. Born at Bentonsport, 
Iowa. October 26. 1849. he was four years of age when his father, Preston S. 
McCutchen (represented elsewhere in this volume) brought the family across 
the plains and settled at Franklin. Sacramento county. During boyhood he 
attended the public schools and when not in school he aided his father on the 
home farm. At the age of twenty years he passed an examination for a 
teacher's certificate and secured a school at Stony creek in Colusa county, 
where he taught for two years. From early life he was an expert marksman 
and interested in the hunting of game. Upon giving up his school he joined 
with his brother in hunting geese, ducks and quail for the San Francisco 
markets. Their headquarters were at Tulare lake, from which place they 
hunted throughout Tulare and Kern counties. During the winter of 1874-75 
they shipped almost forty-two thousand ducks and geese, a total weight of 
forty-two tons in the one season or a little over two pounds per bird, the 
express charges on the shipments being three cents a pound. 

After having given his time to hunting game for a number of years. Mr. 
AFcCutchen in 1880 went to the Tiger mine in Arizona. In a short time he 
secured a school near Prescott and during the next four years he taught in 
^ avapai count}'. The stock-raising industrv in the Agua Fria region next 



250 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

engaged his attention. I'pon his return to California in 1890 he came to 
Bakersfielcl and purchased twenty acres in the Old River district. This tract 
forms the nucleus of his present possessions. His first attempt was to cul- 
tivate raisin grapes, but after two crops he replaced the vines with peach 
trees. The orchard developed successfully and the fruit was of the finest 
quality, but after peeling and drying the peaches he could not secure more 
than six cents per pound, which was less than the cost of production. Finding 
the enterprise unprofitable he grubbed out the trees and put the land under 
cultivation to alfalfa. While in the main he has devoted himself to the ranch 
he has had other interests in the meantime. From 1892 to 1895 he spent much 
time in Old Alexico along the west coast from California to Central America, 
hunting the aigrette and the heron for their plumes. At times he would have 
$3,000 worth of plumes in one suitcase. The dealers in New York ])aid as 
much as $30 an ounce for aigrettes and $10 an ounce for the heron plumes. 
Unfortunately the business was almost annihilated by the natives, who 
hunted ruthlessly, without any regard to the saving of the young. This ren- 
dered continuance in the business unprofitable. 

In order to secure the pasturage necessary for his large herd of milch 
cows. Mr. McCutchen has leased an alfalfa ranch of three hundred and 
twenty acres two miles from his home and on the leased propertv he main- 
tains his stock. The dairy is equipped with a modern sanitary system for the 
handling of the milk and this, during the heated season, is iced en route to 
Taft, Maricopa and Fellows, where it is sold to the local retail trade. The 
utmost care is maintained in the management of the dairy. Not the slightest 
detail is neglected and it is due to the rigid supervision that complete satis- 
faction exists among the customers. While the supervision of the dairy and 
the care of the ranch require close attention on the part of Mr. McCutchen, 
he has found time for other interests and has been particularly interested in 
oil development. With his brothers he located one hundred and sixty acres, 
forming the southwest quarter of the famous section 32, two miles east of 
Maricopa. On twenty acres of this tract there has been developed by the 
Maricopa Queen Oil Company one of the best oil wells on the west side, 
the production from the well averaging two thcjusand barrels per day of 
twenty-four gravity oil. 

The marriage of Mr. McCutchen was solemnized at Prescott, Ariz., 
December 26, 1886, and united him with Miss Margaret P. Dickson, who 
w^as born at Downey, Cal., January 27, 1868, and is a woman of refinement 
and true worth. Her parents, John and Mary (Ehle) Dickson, natives of 
Tennessee and Iowa respectively and pioneers of Los Angeles county, Cal., 
afterward became early settlers of Yavapai county, Ariz., and lived upon a 
stock ranch there for some years. In 1901, when seventy-two years of age, 
Mr. Dickson died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. McCutchen, with whom 
Mrs. Dickson, now sixty-four years of age, has since remained. There are 
four children in the McCutchen family, namely: Preston J., who is engaged 
in the retail milk business on the west side, his headquarters being at Taft; 
Ollie, a graduate of Heald's Normal and Business College at Stockton and 
now a teacher at Taft ; Van Dickson, proprietor of the Chester machine works 
in I'akersfield ; and Perry, a student in the Kern County high school. Deeply 
interested in the cause of education, Mr. McCutchen has not limited his atten- 
tion to aiding his children in securing excellent educational advantages, but 
has been desirous that every child in the community should receive a prac- 
tical education. For some years he has served as clerk of the board of 
trustees of the Old River school district. Politically he is a protectionist and a 
Republican of progressive tendencies. As a citizen he favors all movements 
for the well-being of the people, wdiile as an agriculturist he is deeply inter- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 251 

ested in the de\elopineiit df Kern count}- land and has an abiding- faith in 
the possil)ilities o\ the soil when rightly cultivated and regularly irrigated. 

JACOB NIEDERAUR.— It was the good fortune of Bakersfield to enjoy 
during its early history, as in its later era of progress, the Iryal devotion of 
men of ability, energy and progressive spirit. To the foundation laid by such 
citizens was added the superstructure of subsequent effort that rendered 
possible the .prosperity now attained by the city. In the list of capable pio- 
neers no name stands out with greater orominence and none is more worthy 
of an honorable place in local annals than that of the late Jacob Niederaur, 
who from the time of his settlement in the then struggling, insignificant 
village in 1869 until his death, February 9, 1903, contributed persistently, 
effectively and intelligently to the advancement of the town commercially, 
materially and financially, contributing his quota to every enterprise for the 
general welfare and leaving the impress of his forceful personality upon every 
civic project. It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to name an enter- 
prise of pioneer days which failed to receive his quiet but efficient support. 
A master workman, skilled in the use of tools, and without a superior in his 
trade of a cabinet-maker, he did not limit his activities to the occupation in 
which he had achieved signal success, but entered into other avenues of 
labor. From the first he appreciated the value to this county of its great 
oil resources. Nor did he fail to realize the excellent location of Bakersfield 
as a business headquarters for the oil fields. Other resources of the com- 
munity were backed by his sincere faith and generous support and the -wis- 
dom of his judgment was proved by his own large success, as well as by the 
steady advancement made by the county and city of his adoption. 

Born in Bavaria, Germany, June 15, 1841, Jacob Niederaur was nine 
years of age when brought to America by his parents, who settled at Bryan, 
Ohio. He was one of four sons, all of whom were trained by their father, 
a skilled mechanic, into a thorough knowledge of cabinet-making as soon as 
they were old enough to handle tools. In skill and quickness he soon proved 
the equal of the others and was able to earn his livelihood at the trade while 
yet very young. When he came to Bakersfield at the age of twenty-eight 
years he had no difficulty in finding employment as a cabinet-maker. Al- 
though he had no capital he was thrifty and economical and soon he was able 
to embark in the furniture business. The beginning of the business was very 
small, but as time passed he enlarged his stock of furniture and became the 
leading furniture dealer in the entire valley. Shortly after his arrival in 
Bakersfield he was impressed by the need of an undertaking establishment 
and he at once began to study the business, acquiring a thorough familiarity 
with its every detail. He is remembered today as the pioneer undertaker of 
the city. During the early days the business houses were mere shacks, but 
he became a chamuion of better buildings and himself set the example by 
erecting a substantial block, the first fioor of which he utilized for his under- 
taking establishnient and furniture, while the second floor he rented for general 
lodge, hall and lecture purposes. At the time of the incorporation of the 
Southern Hotel Company he became a stockholder in the new enterprise 
and -was enthusiastic in his efforts to secure adequate hotel accommodations 
for the growing city. Although intensely devoted to the welfare of the 
community it was net possible to secure his acceptance of public offices and 
he took no part in politics whatever aside from voting the Republican ticket. 
The only lodge to which he belonged was the Knights of Pythias, and in that 
order he ever maintained a warm interest. 

For some years after his arrival in the west Mr. Niederaur continued to 
lead a single life, and it was in this city that he met the attractive young lady 
whom he chose as his wife. She was Miss Lucy J. Williams, who was born 
in Ross county. Ohio. May 10. 1860. but grew to girlhood in Vermont, her 
mother having returned to that state after the death of the husband and 



252 HISTORY OV KERN COUNTY 

father. At the age of sixteen \cars ^liss Williams left the east to come to 
California as i^overness for the children of Philo Jewett at Bakersfield. While 
filling" this position she met ■Mr. Niederaur, whom she married August 6. 1878. 
Two children came to bless their union, Philip Williams and Helen Jewett, 
After the death of Mr. Niederaur his widow continued to make her home in 
the elegant family residence, which since her death, November 30, 1909, has 
been occupied by her daughter and son-in-law, Helen Jewett Forrest and 
Thomas W. Forrest. This young couple were married October 16, 1911, 
Mr. Forrest being vice-president of the E. H. Loveland Produce Company 
and one of the leading young business men of Bakersfield. The son, Philip 
Williams Niederaur. formerly engaged in the furniture business in Bakers- 
field, but now resides in San Francisco. 

Among the many friends whom Mr. Niederaur won through his fine qual- 
ities of heart and mind there was none to whom he was more deeply attached 
than to Franz Buckreus, for many years superintendent of the Kern county 
hospital. Between those two pioneers there was a deep bond of aflfection 
which time only served to deepen. The implicit faith which Mr. Niederaur 
reposed in his friend was shown by his selection of him as administrator of 
his estate, without bonds, and also as guardian of his children. After the 
death of his friend ]\Ir. Buckreus continued to operate the furniture and 
undertaking establishment for a time. During Alarch of 1904 he sold the 
undertaking business to Morton & Connelly, who are now in that business 
at No. 1712 Chester avenue. About the same time the furniture business 
was sold to George C. Haberfelde, who since has become a leading repre- 
sentative of this line of commercial enterprise in Bakersfield. The estate 
left by Mr. Niederaur was valued at .$70,000 and had he been spared to enjoy 
the present remarkable growth of his chosen city he would have attained 
much greater wealth, but the large estate which he accumulated is especially 
significant because it represented the unaided efforts of a man who ever 
lived up to- his hig;h ideals of honor and his lofty principles of business 
integrity. Of such pioneers the city and county may well be proud and 
their descendants may recount their activities with ]^ardonable gratification. 

E. T. EDWARDS. — Among the men of resourcefulness and executive 
force who ha\e snught out the great Alidway oil field as the center cf their 
activities, none has been welcomed more heartily and none is forging to the 
front more rapidly than Elbert T. Edwards, president and general manager 
of the California Well Drilling Company, Incorporated, whose main < fficc 
is on the well-known Supply Row in Taft. The company represented by 
Mr. Edwards is young, strong and aggressive. The special business is con- 
tract drilling of wells, whose completion is guaranteed. Besides himself 
the officers are H. G. Moss of Maricopa, vice-president, and J. H. Osgood, 
of Taft, secretary and treasurer, with \\'. V\'. Stephenson, a director, as the 
Bakersfield representative of the concern. In addition to Mr. Stephenson 
and the officers ]. F. Swank is also serving as a member of the bciard of 
directors. Incorporation was made on a capitalization of $250,000, the stock 
being divided into two hundred and fifty thousand shares, par value $1 
each. Tlie l:)usiness of the company is not limited to the Midway field but 
extends through the west side and brings to them the patronage of son^e 
of the greatest organizations doing business in Kern count}- fields, so that 
the general manager finds himself crowded to the utmost with important 
work. Tremendous responsibilities rest upon liim. These are ctnirageously 
met and intelligently discharged. In no respect is he more careful than in 
his efforts to lessen the hazards of a work which, at best, contains the ele- 
ment of danger and the constant fear of accident. The members of the 
drilling gangs pursue their work with the knowledge that the manager i-^ 
using every precaution to pre\ cut accidents and injuries to them, and tliis 





/ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 255 

knowledge is in itself a large asset in giving to the company all the work- 
men that are needed, numbering at times as many as one hundred and fifty. 
The first eighteen years in the life of Mr. Edwards were passed in Ten- 
nessee, where he was born at Nashville January /. 1881. Ever since leaving 
that state he has engaged in the oil industry and kindred ])ursuits, first at 
Plouston, l'>eauniont. Sour Lake and other Texas oil towns, and next ai 
Jennings and Welsh, La., and after 1909 in California. After a short time 
in the Kern river field he went to Coalinga and engaged as a driller with 
the Southeastern Oil Company, Limited. During the latter part of 1910 he 
came to the Midway field. In the latter part of 1911 he organized the Cali- 
fornia Well Drilling Company, which is prepared to do cementing as well 
as drilling, and which keeps- from three to fourteen strings of tools in use, 
using the rotary tools principally. Among the concerns for which the com- 
pany has drilled wells may be mentioned the West Side, Sunset Monarch, 
May's Consolidated, Pacific Crude, General Petroleum, California Counties, 
Northern. Spreckels, Maple Leaf, Northern Exploration and other oil and 
gas companies. The general manager has many heavy duties in connection 
with a business so great in magnitude. That he has been successful proves 
him to be a man of force of character and high intelligence. Since coming 
to Taft he has identified himself with the Petroleum Club. During 1912 
he erected a bungalow on North and Second streets, Taft, and here he and 
his wife, formerly Thelma Sells, a native of Kentucky, have established a 
home that is sought by their large circle of friends in Kern county. 

W. C. McCUTCHEN.— The name of the four McCutchen brothers is 
identified with many enterprises well-known in the early history of Maricopa, 
where they have been land-owners from a period antedating the memorable 
rush incident to the bringing in of the world-famous Lake View gusher. 
They were amcmg the first to discern oil possibilities in the region and events 
have proved the wisdom of their forecasts. One of the four, W. C, a man of 
great energy and a leader in every forward movement in this region, has 
spent all of his life in the west with the exception of the first four months, 
for he was born in Iowa December 4, 1853, four months before his parents, 
P. S. and Jane McCutchen, left that state fur the Pacific coast. The long 
journey across the plains was made with wagons drawn by oxen. The first 
location of the family was in Placer county, where the father engaged in 
mining for a number of years. Removing from that locality to Sacramento 
county, he took up land near Franklin and engaged in general farming. His 
next removal occurred in 1872 and took him to Monterey county, where he 
made his home in the Cholame valley near Parkfield. During 1878 he was 
bereaved by the death of his wife and afterward he went to live with his 
children, being for a time at Hanford. For some time he has resided with his 
sen, (ieorge, at Maricopa. Although now ninety-three years of age, he retains 
the possession of physical and mental faculties and exhibits a constant in- 
terest in neighborhood business affairs. 

After the death of his mother in 1878 the family home was broken 
up and W. C. McCutchen went to Arizona to engage in mining. For two 
years he worked in the silver mines near Rradshaw. Returning to California 
he located at Hanford in 1880 and took up land on the Lone Oak slough six 
miles southwest of town, where he began to improve a farm and engage in 
the raising of crops suited to the soil and climate. During 1900 he sold out 
and moved to Tipton, Tulare county, near which town he bought land and 
engaged in agricultural enterprises. Two years later he came to Bakersfield 
and about the same time located twenty acres of land at Maricopa. During 
the great gold rush to the Nevada mines he joined the Argonauts bound for 
that country and spent two years at Goldfield. finding himself, however, 
little the richer for the venture. Since 1908 he has had his headquarters at 



256 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Maricopa and has been interested in the devehjpment of property with his 
brothers, G. W., J. B. and R. L. The company organized by themselves has 
put down eight wells, six of which proved to be producers, although only 
four are now in use, being tiowing wells. In addition to bearing his share 
in the management of these wells and the putting down of new ones, Mr. 
McCutchen has devoted considerable attention to other property interests and 
is the owner of real estate in the city of Richmond as well as orange land 
near Edison. With his wife, formerly Miss Louella McClintock, he has estab- 
lished a home at Maricopa (living at the present time on the McCutchen 
Bros, oil property) and has identified himself with enterprises for the upbuild- 
ing of the new town, whose existence is dependent upon the oil industry and 
whose future has the glowing promises ofifered by that wealth-producing 
activity. By a former marriage he is the father of four children, of whom 
the two sons, G. P. and W. W. (twins), are residents of Maricopa, as is also 
the youngest child, Mrs. G. E. Fritz, while the third child and elder daughter, 
Mrs. J. A. Fritz, makes her home at Taft. 

JOHN H. CLAYMAN. — An honored place among the pioneers of Cali- 
fornia is held by John H. dayman, who has been identified with the devel- 
opment of the commonwealth for a period covering more than fifty years 
and meanwhile has himself been a large contributor to the industries of 
agriculture, horticulture and stock-raising, besides aiding in the expansion 
of the public-school system and in other projects indispensable to permanent 
prosperity. It is to such pioneers as he that the state owes its remarkable 
growth in years past and they laid well the foundation for future continued 
prosperity, so that it may be safe to predict that the development of the 
past is but the precursor of similar advances in years to come, for all of 
which due credit must be given to the pioneers. 

Much of the active life of John H. Clayman was spent upon the then 
frontier, and it was not until 1910 that he relinquished agricultural activi- 
ties, disposed of his ranch and came to Bakersfield to enjoy in his declining 
days the fruits of long-continued labors. His parents, Benjamin and Per- 
melia (Randall) dayman, were natives respectively of Pennsylvania and 
Ohio, and during their early married years lived upon a farm in Marion 
county, Ohio, where occurred the birth of John H. Clayman March 11. 1842. 
In 1845 the family removed to the then frontier of Indiana and settled upon 
a tract of unimproved land in Elkhart county, where the most arduous labor 
w^as necessary to improve a productive farm. The mother died in that 
county. Of her seven children three are now living, John H. being the 
fourth in order of birth. In 1853 the family followed the tide of migra- 
tion still further toward the setting sun and established a home on the 
desolate prairies of Nebraska. The claim which they pre-empted was 
wild land and the task of developing the property proved so formidable that 
in 1859 the father with his family crossed the plains with wagon and ox- 
teams to California and were only thirty-six hours behind the Mountain 
Meadow massacre. Accompanying them was John H., then an energetic. 
capable youth of seventeen years, ready and willing to do a man's work 
and eager to see the vast region west of the mountains. With the hopeful 
spirit of youth, he tried his luck in placer mines in Shasta county. The 
success of the experiment was so gratifying that he continued for eight 
years and at the expiration of that period had accumulated an amount 
sufficie.nt to enable him to invest in land. 

Securing a raw tract of land in Tehama county four miles east of Red 
BlufiF, Mr. Clayman at once began the task of making the property pro- 
ductive and remunerative. At first he engaged in grain-raising and in the 
stock industry, but having ascertained that certain varieties of fruit would 
thrive in the region he planted a large orchard of apples, prunes and peaches. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 257 

In some years the fruit brought him a very large income, so that he pros- 
pered beyond his early expectations. The entire estate of one hundred 
and sixty acres was placed under cultivation and when eventually sold to 
other parties brought a great advance over the original purchase price. 
Meanwhile Mr. dayman had interested himself in movements for the 
material upbuilding of his township and county. At the time of the build- 
ing of the schoolhouse in the Antelope district he served as member of 
the board of trustees and his counsel and progressive spirit proved of great 
assistance in the enterprise. Since coming to Bakersfield he has built three 
residences on the corner of Fourth street and Chester avenue and two of 
these he rents, occupying the third for a home for himself and wife. 

The marriage of John H. dayman and Catherine Elizabeth Worley was 
solemnized at Red Blufif, Cal., November 14, 1874, and was blessed with 
five children, named as follows : Carrie, now a teacher in Tehama county ; 
Elmer, a resident of Bakersfield ; Zola, wife of Joseph Percy Freear, of 
Bakersfield ; Crim and Mrs. Bessie Hosmer, also of Bakersfield. Born 
in Washington county, Iowa, Mrs. dayman is a daughter of the late James 
and Elizabeth (Albaugh) Worley, natives of Ohio and pioneer farmers 
of Washington county, Iowa. During 1859 the family crossed the plains 
with an exj^edition of wagons drawn by ox-teams. For a time Mr. Worley 
engaged in teaming in Shasta county, but later he took up farm pursuits in 
Tehama county, where he resided until death. There were two sons and 
one daughter in the Worley family and of these Mrs. dayman w^as the 
eldest. In religion she was reared in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, to which she since has adhered with earnest sincerity. Politically 
Mr. dayman is a Republican. Fraternally he has been connected with the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and with his wife holds membership 
with the Rebekahs. 

CAREY L. SEAGER.— The Producers Refining Company, of which 
Mr. Seager is secretary, treasurer and superintendent, ranks among the 
leading organizations of its kind in the Kern river field. Not only does its 
plant utilize the entire prcduct from the Lackawanna lease of eighty acres in 
the Kern river oil fields, but in addition crude oil of the W^est side fields 
is bought in large quantities. An average of twenty-five hundred barrels 
of crude oil is treated each month. From the Kern river crude oils the 
following products are made : kerosene ; 34 degrees stove distillate ; gas en- 
gine cylinder oil ; autogram, the copyrighted title of a cylinder oil particu- 
larly adapted to the use of automobiles and now winning the highest praise 
from its users ; light engine oil. heavy engine oil, steam cylinder oil, fuel 
distillate and asphalt. The crude oils of the west side are utilized in the 
manufacture of four products, viz.: gasoline; gas engine distillate of grades 
Nos. 1. 2 and 3; fuel distillate and asphalt. Th^ lubricants are admittedly 
of a superior grade. Their value is recognized even by the experts con- 
nected with the most formidable rivals and competitors of the company, 
while the quality of both kerosene and gasoline is of the highest grade. 

Of eastern descent, belonging to a family of high standing and excep- 
tional culture, Carey L. Seager was born at Randolph, Cattaraugus county, 
N. Y., August 12, 1884, and was the eldest of three children. The second 
son, Roy E.. is engaged with the Producers Refining Company, and the 
youngest child. Pearl J., is employed as a bookkeeper w'ith this concern. 
The father, George H. Seager, was born and reared on a New York farm 
and at the age of sixteen married Miss Julia F. Mack, a girl of fifteen who 
had been his schoolmate. Shortly after his early marriage he began to work 
in the oil refining industry, to which his later years have been devoted with 
such success that he now ranks as an expert in the construction and operation 
of refineries as well as in the production of kerosene, gasoline and high-grade 



258 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

lubricating oils. As assistant superintendent he had active charge of the 
construction work of the (kilf refinery owned by the Gulf Refining Com- 
pany at Port Arthur, Tex. He served as superintendent for the Union Oil 
Company at the time they constructed the addition to their refinery at 
Oleum on San I'ablo bay. At ])resent he is engaged in the buying, selling 
and mixing or compounding (if oils at Tulsa, Okla.. where he makes his 
business headquarters. 

Although a native of York state, the earliest recollections of Carey L. 
Seager are associated with Pennsylvania, for in his infancy the family 
established a home at Corry. that state, and later lived in Chester, Dela- 
ware county. R\-entually his mother established her permanent home at 
Warren, Pa., and there he spent two A'-ears in the high school. At the age of 
seventeen he was graduated from the Warren Business College. Shortly 
after graduation he joined his father at Port Arthur, Tex., where for four 
years he was connected with the Gulf Refining Company, serving first as 
assistant stillman and later as foreman. His next experience was as assist- 
ant to his father while the latter superintended the construction of the re- 
finery for the Union Oil Company at Oleum. Later he was given work for 
nine months as stillman with the Standard Oil Company at Point Rich- 
mond, Contra Costa county. Meanwhile, having determined to start a re- 
finery iif his own, he had the good fortune to meet with members of the 
San Francisco firm of W^ P. Fuller & Co., compounders, and they encouraged 
him in his project. In addition, the}^ rendered him pr.actical help, introduc- 
ing him to (icorge Calhoun of the National refinery. The latter agreed to 
form a partnership on equal terms with Mr. Seager, the two taking a 
lease of the P)uckeye refining plant and continuing together for two years. 
At the expiration of that time ^Ir. Seager took a sub-lease from C. Apple- 
garth of the Volcan Refining Company, \vhich tmder the title of C. L. 
Seager & Co., he operated for seven months. 

Through a deal with Dr. Liscomb of Pasadena, Cal., made in May of 
1911, Mr. Seager turned in his i:)roperty and took stock for it in the Pro- 
ducers Refining Company, which since has made many valuable improve- 
ments. The officers of the company besides Mr. Seager are as follows: Dr. 
A. H. Liscomb, president; \\'illiam Ellery of San Francisco, first vice- 
president; and H. S. Bridge of San Francisco, second vice-president. Em- 
ployment is furnished to six men regularly. The one ambition of every 
worker is to maintain a product of admitted perfection and a constant stim- 
ulus to their work is given them by the enthusiasm and energy of the super- 
intendent. The latter has his home in the oil fields, his family comprising a 
daughter, Margaret Pearl, and his wife, who prior to their marriage in 
New ^Vtrk state in 1902 was Miss Pearl G. Bouton. \Miile living in Penn- 
syhania he became a mem^ber of the Maccabees at Warren and later he was 
initiated into Masonry at Port Arthur. Tex., becoming a member of Cos- 
mopolitan Lodge No. 872, F. & A. M.. at that place. Since coming to the 
west the demands upon his time by business affairs have been so engrossing 
that he has not taken an active part in fraternal or political matters, 
although always ready to assist in any movement for the permanent devel- 
opment of Kern county or the ex])ansion of its great resources. 

EDWARD GARFIELD NORRIS.— When the Norris family disposed 
of their interests in Missouri and made the long journey to Bakersfield with 
the anticipation of establishing a permanent home, Edward Garfield Norris, 
whose birth had occurred near Kansas City on the 17th of April, 1881, was 
a small boy only two years of age, hence his earliest recollections cluster 
around Kern county and the associations of a lifetime endear him to the city 
of his residence and business affiliations. Educated in the grammar and 
high schools of Bakersfield. ujion the completion of the regular course of 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 261 

study he was apprenticed to the trade of plumber with C. H. Ouincy, re- 
maining with that gentleman until he had acquired a thorough preparatory 
training. Later he completed the trade in a large shop in Los Angeles, 
where he had the best possible facilities for gaining a complete knowTedge 
of the many details connected with the occupation. Upon returning 'to 
Bakersfield he secured employment as a journeyman and worked for otiiers 
for three and one-half years. Meanwhile he' had cherished the plan oi 
embarking in business for himself. During November of 1907 he carried 
out the plan and established the Kern Plumbing Company, of which he 
continued to be the sole proprietor for the first two years. At the expira- 
tion of that time he sold a one-half interest to Edward Miller and the two 
gentlemen immediately purchased a lot at No. 517 Grove street, where they 
erected a building to be used for warerooms, shop and ofifice. Since begin- 
ning in the new structure they have engaged in sheet metal work and liave 
carried a full line of plumbing and heating supplies, by their excellent busi- 
ness methods and recognized skill having been able to secure and carry to 
completion many important contracts for the plumbing and heating of public 
buildings and residences. 

For a time Mr. Norris was honored with the presidency of the ^^laster 
Plumbers' Association and he still is one of its most influential members. 
Fraternally he holds active connections with the Woodmen of the World. 
The residence which he erected at No. 815 N street he still owns, but lately 
he has built and now occupies a home at No. 615 Flower street. East 
Bakersfield. which is presided over by Mrs. Norris, whom he married in 
Bakersfield and who was Miss Mabel Hunt, a native of Missouri. The 
pleasant and comfortable home is brightened by the presence of one son. 
Kenneth Edward. 

GEORGE W. McCUTCHEN.— The genealogy of the McCutchen fam- 
ily is traced to Scotland, whence religious persecution caused a number of 
that name to seek refuge in Ireland, later generations establishing the 
family in Georgia. After having served with conspicuous valor in the War 
of 1812 James Corsey McCutchen removed from his native Georgia to Vir- 
ginia and settled upon a plantation. Marriage united him with a daughter 
of John Nevins, an Irishman by nativity and a sailor by occupation, who 
having landed in Boston during the course of the Revolution, enlisted in the 
American army and fought until the close of the war, later settling in Vir- 
ginia upon a farm. Preston S. McCutchen, son of the soldier of 1812. was 
born in St. Charles. Mo.. February 24, 1820. and at Bentonsport, Iowa, mar- 
ried Jane Wllsey. a native of Utica. N. Y. The discovery of gold in Cali- 
fornia directed his attention to this part of the country. During the summer 
of 1850 he crossed the plains from Bentonsport. Iowa, (where he was living 
at the time), and began to mine for gold, although without any special 
success. However, he was so pleased with the west that he remained until 
1853. and then returned only for the purpose of getting his family, who in 
the meantime were living in Iowa. The summer of 1854 found the family 
en route to their new home. Arriving in safety, they established themselves 
at Wisconsin Hill, Placer county, where May 6, 1855. occurred the birth of 
George W. McCutchen, the third son. His older brothers are James B. and 
Warren C. the former a dairyman living at Old River in Kern county, and 
the latter an operator in the Maricopa oil field. 

Besides these three older children five others were born during the resi- 
dence of the family in Placer and Sacramento counties. They are named 
as follows: Edmund W.. of Bakersfield; Mary A., wife of C. W. Johnson, 
who has charge of the Phoenix Distributing Company at Maricopa; Clara 
J., widow of W. G. Wallace, and a resident of Hanford. this state; Mrs. 
Harriet C. Scott, of Stockton : and Robert L.. residing at Old River in Kern 
county. After the father had lived about four years in Placer county, 



262 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

meantime engaging in placer mining and running a dairy, in 1858, he moved 
to Sacramento county, settling at Georgetown, seventeen miles south of the 
capital city. Upon a tract of land he took up in its primeval state he en- 
gaged in ranching and his children were sent to the schools of that neigh- 
borhood. After leaving school George W. began to make a business of hunt- 
ing, and with his brothers made several trips from San Francisco by steamer 
to Mexican ports, where he engaged in shooting birds of plumage. The 
feathers were marketed in New York. During 1871 he became interested 
in sheep-raising in Monterey county, and in 1877 went to Tulare county, 
where with his brothers he engaged in shooting ducks for the San Francisco 
market. Later, with his brothers, J. B. and R. L., he mined in Arizona for 
two years, thence came to Kern county in 1885 and took up ranch land at 
Old River. The ensuing years were devoted to farming and stock-raising, 
although in addition he engaged in hunting during the winter months and 
made several trips to Mexico. In 1898 he spent the summer in the Klondike, 
but his prospecting tours did not bring any reward, and he returned to 
California in October. During October of 1909 he was united in marriage 
with Mrs. Martha E. Colly, a native of Missouri. 

Upon the opening of the Sunset field Mr. McCutchen and his brother, 
Robert L., located the north one-half of section 2, township 11, range 24, and 
the west one-half of section 1, township 11, range 24, also a fractional 26-12- 
24, and all of 32-12-24. Their own ten acres at 2-11-24 is undeveloped, but 
they control a leasehold on the same section, comprising twenty acres one- 
half mile north of Maricopa, also lease twenty acres to the Maricopa Queen 
Oil Company on 32-12-23. The new Vv^ell, No. 7, brought in February 27, 
1913, is a gusher and produces sixteen hundred barrels per day, while No. 6, 
after being re-drilled and cemented, is a twelve-hundred barrel per day well. 
The firm is cc^nposed of the four brothers. Georc:e \\\ and ^^'arren C. of 
Maricopa, also Robert L. and James B., of Old River, this county. Their 
expectations have been rewarded by a large measure of success. They now 
have six producing wells with a net production of nine thousand barrels per 
month. Not only are they successful as oil operators, but in public afifairs 
they have been prominent, in ranching enterprising, in their friendships con- 
stant, and in character conscientious, typical of our fine class of American 
citizenship. 

RALPH E. GALLOWAY.— The superintendent of the Visalia Midway 
Oil Company, one of the pioneer concerns operating in the North Midway 
field, has been identified with Bakersfield and the San Joaquin valley since 
1892. the year of his graduation from college. Practically all of his active 
life has been identified with Kern county, whose resources he has aided in 
developing through the aid of his own aggressive energy and optimistic faith. 
Illinois is his native commonwealth, but in boyhood he lived mostl}^ in AVis- 
consin, where his father. Rev. John B. Galloway, an ordained minister in the 
United Presbyterian denomination, held pastorates in various towns in the 
southern part of the state. Throughout all of his life this devoted minister 
has labored with the greatest sacrifice for the welfare of the church. When 
a mere boy, in his native shire of Ayr in Scotland, he was trained to a knowl- 
edge of the Bible and a desire to become a minister of the Gospel. Scarcely 
fourteen years of age when the family crossed the ocean and settled at Sparta, 
111., he directed his studies toward theology and by his own unaided exertions 
paid his way through college, graduating from Monmouth College with the 
degree of A. B., and later taking- a complete course in theology in an institu- 
tion at Xenia, Ohio. Meanwhile the Civil war had cast its dark cloud over 
the country. Taking up the cause of the Union, he offered his services to 
his adopted country and was assigned to the One Hundred Thirty-second 
Illinois Infantry, in which he served as corporal until the end of the great 
struggle. Later, having completed his college course and entered the min- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 263 

istry of the United Presbyterian Church, he held pastorates in Southern Wis- 
consin. Since his retirement from the ministry he has made his home at 
Poynette, that state. 

By the marriage of Rev. John B. Galloway to Matilda Kiddoo, who was 
born in Pittsburg. Pa., and died at Clarence, Iowa, in 1878, there were four 
children, all but one of whom still survive. The eldest, Ralph E., was born 
at Galesburg, 111., July 1, 1872, and attended public schools in Wisconsin. 
After he had graduated from the Sparta (111.) high school he taught for two 
years in Waukesha county, Wis., earning the monev with which he defraved 
his expenses through Carroll College at Waukesha. Having received his 
diploma in 1892 from the scientific department of that institution, he left 
college to make his own way in the world and soon afterward arrived in 
Bakersfield, a small place at that time in comparison with its present metro- 
politan proportions. Brief experiences as a clerk in the Hirschfield store, as 
a law student under Judge Wiley and as a collection agent, made him fa- 
miliar with conditions in the community. During 1894 he became a reporter 
on the Echo, which at the time was published weekly. When the daily was 
established he became city editor. Employment with the Californian for two 
years, during a portion of which period he engaged as city editor, was fol- 
lowed by his appointment as editor of the Labor Journal. This editorship 
he resigned at the expiration of two and one-half years. In 1910, with F. C. 
Noel as a partner, he founded the San Joaquin Valley Farmer, the circulation 
of which he built up to large proportions. Since selling his interest in that 
paper in April, 1912. he has acted as superintendent of the Visalia Midway 
Oil Company, a concern in which he has held stock from the start and which 
has developed into one of the best producing properties of its size in Kern 
county. 

Since the organization of the Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce Mr. Gal- 
loway has been one of its active workers and interested members. Politically 
he has been independent from the time of casting his first ballot, favoring 
men and principles rather than any specified party organization. For years 
after coming to the west he remained a bachelor, but May 3, 1909, at Bakers- 
field, he established domestic ties, being then united with Mrs. Lulu M. San- 
ford, a native of Des Moines, Iowa. Of a genial, friendly temperament, he 
has found pleasure in an active association with various fraternities. Among 
the organizations of which he is a member we mention the following: Al- 
buquerque Lodge No. 461, B. P. O. E. ; Kern Lodge No. 76, K. of P., and 
Uniform Rank, in which he has served as an officer and has been a member 
of the Grand Lodge of California; Bakersfield Aerie No. 93, Order of Eagles; 
Bakersfield Camp No. 460, Woodmen of the World, and the Brotherhood of 
American Yeomen. 

HON. ROWEN IRWIN.— Very early in the colonization of the new 
world the Scotch family of Irwin left their ancestral associations in the high- 
lands and crossed the Atlantic ocean to Virginia, where they became capable 
planters. Some of the name removed to South Carolina and Isaac Irwin, a 
native of that commonwealth, established the name in Kentucky, where at 
one time he served as sherifiF of Jefferson county which has Louisville as its 
county-seat. After a short time he crossed the Ohio river into Indiana 
and there spent his last years upon a frontier farm. His son and namesake, a 
native of Frankfort, Ky., and for years a resident of Putnam county, Ind,. 
followed agricultural pursuits for a livelihood, while as a gratuitous offering 
to the cause of religion he preached in the Baptist denomination. For fifteen 
years he acted as pastor of one church, giving much of his time to its upbuild- 
ing and to the spiritual welfare of the congregation, doing all this work with- 
out thought of remuneration. In that pioneer era it was customarv for the 
brainiest of the pioneer farmers in any community to serve as preacher, fill 



264 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

tlie country pulpit on Sunda}', unite tiie ^oung couples in marriage and read 
the last prayer over the dead, l^'or such a task he was well quahfied by his 
ri\'mi)athetic heart, kindly dis})osition, s])lendid reasoning faculties and deep 
devotion to the cause of Christianity. During 1806 he removed to Nebraska 
and took up land on Elk creek, five miles south of Tecumseh, Johnson 
county, a district then beyond the confines of civilization. White settlers 
had not yet penetrated regions so remote from the east, but he did not lack 
for neighbors, the Indians being in close proximity and making frequent 
visits to his cabin in order to beg. At such times it was the custom for 
the Indian chief to come first, salute and appeal, while the others would 
remain at a distance. If his request was granted, a squaw would come to the 
cabin and carry away food or clothing that had been presented to them. 
Later white settlers began to arrive and the savages receded ; improvements 
were rapidly made and the country took on an aspect of prosperity. It was 
the privilege of the pioneer preacher to enjoy some of the later prosperity 
and when he died in 1899 the country l:)()re little resemblance to its aspect 
at the time of his arrival. 

During the period of his residence in Indiana Rev. Isaac Irwin had 
married Jane Leatherman, who was born in that state and died in Nebraska 
during 1900. Her father. Rev. John Leiatherman, a native of Germany and a 
pioneer of Putnam county, Ind., served in the ministry of the Baptist Church 
in that locality until his death. There were twelve children in the Irwin 
family and all but one of these are still living. Six reside in California, 
namely : Mrs. Avert and Mrs. Reynolds, of Hanford, and Mrs. Ball, of Los 
Angeles; John, now district attorney of Kings county; Washington, who fol- 
lows the carpenter's trade at Taft ; and Rowen, district attorney of Kern 
county. The last-named was born at Reelsville, Putnam county, Ind., May 
13, 1858, and at the age of eight years accompanied his parents to Nebraska, 
where during three months of each year he attended the country schools. 
The balance of the year was devoted to hard manual labor on the farm. A 
seeming chance occurrence decided his destiny. When a mere lad he at- 
tended a murder trial at Pawnee City, Neb. It was his first observation of 
law cases and he became deeply interested, watching with peculiar interest 
the movements of the judge. When he learned that the jurist received a 
salary of $3,000 per year his interest deepened. Afterward he mentioned the 
matter to his father, who verified the report as to salary and encouraged the 
boy when he announced that some day he would be a lawyer. His ambition 
was realized by his own later efforts. 

Upon coming to California during 1881 Rowen Irwin secured employ- 
ment in Kings county, working with headers and threshing machines during 
the season. In the fall of the same year he began to study law at Hanford. 
The following summer found him again working- on a header. In this way 
he continued until he was admitted to the bar in 1883. He won his first case 
and received a fee of $20. Admitted first to the superior court, he later was 
admitted to practice before the supreme court and carried on professional 
work at Hanford, where he served as district attorney from 1898 until 1902. 
During January of 1903 he came to Bakersfield, opened an ofifice and engaged 
in the practice of law, which he has continued with increasing success. With 
him came to this city his wife, whom he had married in Portersville, Tulare 
county, and who was Miss Mildred Barnes, a native of Missouri. In fra- 
ternal relations he holds membership with the Eagles. Politically he has 
been a Democrat ever since he began to study public questions and as bis 
party's candidate he served as member of the assembly in the state legis- 
lature during the session of 1909, also during two special sessions. .\s a 
legislator he aimed to promote the welfare of his constituents, but also gave 
stanch support to enterprises for the general good. The Democratic party 





L/ 



HISTORY- Ol^' Kl^kX COUNTY 267 

in 1910 nominated liini for district attorney and he received the verdict of 
popular api)r()val at the election. Since he took the oath of office in Jan- 
uary, 1911. for a term of four years he has devoted himself closely to the 
duties of the (^fihce and thereby has added prestige to an already enviable 
reputation. The office is one which calls for fearless honesty and more than 
ordinary al)ility. High as are its demands, he has proved equal to them and 
has met every crisis witli a clear brain, accurate judgment and admirable 
reasoning faculties. 

EDMUND W. McCUTCHEN.— The lineage of the McCutchen family 
is traced back through a line of honored ancestors in Scotland to one of the 
gallant lieutenants who served in the army of the illustrious Robert Bruce 
during the fourteenth century. The colonial period of American history 
found some of the name in the new world, established upon Virginian soil. 
Very early in the nineteenth century a member of the family left the Old 
Dominion and followed the westward tide of emigration across mountains 
and rivers into Missouri, where he took up new land and developed a farm. 
In the family of this pioneer was a son, Preston, born in Callaway county, 
Mo., and reared in Keokuk county, Iowa, where he took up agricultural 
pursuits. While living in Iowa he married Miss Jane Wilsey, a native of 
Utica, N. Y., and by that union were born five sons and three daughters, 
all still living, the fourth of these, Edmund W., having been born at Moke- 
lumne Hill, Calaveras county, Cal., October 18, 1856, about six years after 
the arrival of the family in the west. It was during 1850 that the father 
had brought his family across the plains with wagon and ox-teams and had 
settled in Calaveras county, where he engaged in mining at Mokelumne Hill. 
Not finding the occupation as profitable as he had anticipated, he deter- 
mined to devote himself to agriculture and accordingly moved to the vicin- 
ity of Sacramento, where he developed a grain and stock farm. Removing 
to Monterey county in 1872, he again took up general farming and stock- 
raising. Not far from the fertile Cholame valley he took up land and began 
to till the soil. For a long period he devoted his attention closely to farm- 
ing at that place, but eventually the infirmities of age obliged him to relin- 
quish manual labors and now at the age of ninety-three years he is living 
quietly and contentedly at Maricopa, Kern county. His wife passed away 
when advanced in years. 

After having spent his boyhood days mostly on the home farm near 
Franklin, Sacramento county, Edmund W. McCutchen accompanied his 
father to Monterey county at the age of sixteen years and continued in the 
stock business there until twenty-one. From 1877 until 1880 he engaged 
in mining in Mohave county, Ariz. Upon his return to California he be- 
came interested in farming in the San Joaquin valley. Selecting a location 
near Hanford he devoted about one thousand acres to wheat, using headers 
in the harvesting of the crops. For ten years he continued in the same 
location, but in 1890 he came to Kern county and bought a ranch of sixty 
acres nine miles southwest of Bakersfield. The land was devoted to fruit 
and alfalfa, and it was not until ten years after he had bought the property 
that he discontinued such activities for oil operations, organizing the Supe- 
rior Oil Company, with himself as a director and manager. Several wells 
were put down (Sunset field), the land was patented, and the investment 
proved profitable, but after a time the interests were sold to other parties. 
Next Mr. McCutchen became a member of the Eight Oil Company operating 
in the North Midway district and owning lands and wells of excellent value. 
In these he still retains a large interest. Besides his other enterprises he 
engaged in mining at Goldfield for two years with fairly satisfactory re- 
sults. Successful in striking oil, he ranks among the best informed men that 
Kern county has contributed to this industry and his successful operations 
have brought him financial independence. Mr. McCutchen is developing 

15 



268 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the citrus resources of Kern county, having selected for his operations forty 
acres at Trevis, fourteen miles east of Bakersfield. He sunk a well three 
hundred and twenty-five feet and installed a pumping plant which supplies 
ample water facilities. On his ranch he has a nursery of orange trees, of 
which he makes a specialty. It is a fact worthy of mention that during the 
cold winter of 1912-13 not even his seed-bed stock nor young grafts were 
injured. About one-half of the nursery is set out to navel oranges. 

With his wife, whom he married in Visalia, and who was Miss Kate 
Thompson, a native of Florence, Nebr., Mr. McCutchen is occupying his 
own comfortable residence, located on the corner of Seventeenth and D 
streets, Bakersfield. Having no children of their own, they have reared 
two of Mrs. McCutchen's nieces. Iris Taylor is now Mrs. C. W. Beatty, 
and Lizzie Taylor is the wife of R. V. Dorn, both of Maricopa. 

MYRON HOLMES. — The genealogy of the Holmes family is traced 
back tu an old family of England and a scion of that honored race founded 
the name in the new world when he crossed the ocean to New York. Will- 
iam J., a son of the original immigrant, was born in Schoharie county, N. Y., 
and early learned the rudiments of agriculture as conducted in that locality 
and era. Establishing a home of his own. he chose as his wife ]\Iiss ]Marcia 
Partridge, a native of Schoharie county and a daughter of Adelbert Part- 
ridge, for years prominent in the community as a manufacturing cooper. 
Hale and hearty notwithstanding their advanced years (for he is eighty-five 
and she eighty-one) William j. and Marcia Holmes now reside in Wellesley, 
Mass., surrounded by the comforts that have been secured through their own 
earlier, assiduous efiforts. All of their seven children are still living, but the 
third, Myron, is the only one residing in California. Born at Richmondville, 
Schoharie county, N. Y., August 15, 1860, he received public-school advan- 
tages and upon leaving school gave his whole attention to farming. With 
a desire to be independent, he bought a farm adjacent to the old homestead 
and began for himself as a general farmer and stock-raiser, which occupation 
he followed in the same locality for a number of years. 

Selling out his eastern interests in 1890 and locating in Bakersfield the 
following year, Mr. Holmes here bought the corner of I and Eleventh streets, 
built a house and has since made his home at the same place. Meanwhile 
he spent his first year in Kern county as superintendent of a farm owned by 
H. H. Fish and his second year as manager of the Kingsley dairy, after 
which he clerked for six months in a grocery. Since 1894 he has been a 
trusted employe of the Kern County Land Company. For a considerable 
period he was connected with the engineering department, but in 1900 he 
was promoted to be storekeeper for the company and since then has had 
charge of the company's stores, a position of great responsibility, for which 
duties he has proved eminently qualified. 

Throughout his entire active life Mr. Holmes has been interested in the 
development of the free-school system and since coming west he served for 
eight years as a member of the Bakersfield Board of Education. During the 
period of his service additions were built to the Emerson and Lowell schools, 
making of the buildings modern structures with comolete equipment for edu- 
cational work. The Hawthorne school was erected during his service on the 
board and a block of land was bought on A and Eighteenth streets as a site 
for a new school. In his marriage Mr. Holmes became allied with a family 
deeply interested in educational afifairs and he and his wife have worked in 
unison, striving to secure for their own children and for other children in 
the city the best advantages possible, in order that they might be qualified 
for the duties of life. 

Mr. and Mrs. Flolmes were married at Richmondville, N. Y.. January 
16, 1883, Mrs. Holmes having been Miss Lillie Mann, a native of West Ful- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 269 

ton, Schoharie county, and a daughter of Ahnarien and Hannah (Chapman) 
Mann. Her father was a native of Vermont, but spent the greater part of 
his life in New York, where his death occurred and where his widow still 
makes her home. Of their thirteen children all but one lived to mature 
years and eleven still survive, Mrs. Holmes being the sixth in order of birth. 
All have engaged in educational work as teachers or superintendents of 
schools at some period in their lives, the youngest son, Manley Burr Mann, 
a graduate of Cornell University and a successful attorney-at-law, having 
taught in young manhood in order to aid in defraying his university ex- 
penses. 

For a short time prior to her marriage Mrs. Holmes also taught school 
and she, too, was successful in the work. Of her marriage there are four 
children, namely: George Erwin, a graduate of the Kern county high school, 
now^ employed as electrical operator with the San Joaquin Light and Power 
Corporation ; Marguerite, also a graduate of the high school, now engaged 
as stenographer with the Western Water Company ; Myron Burr and 
Charles Raymond, members respectively of the high school classes of 1913 
and 1914. The eldest son married Hattie L. Davis and has four children, 
Lillian. Roy, Maynard and Ernest. Not only are both grandmothers of these 
four children still living, but it is a noteworthy fact that three of the great- 
grandmothers still survive. The Holmes family is sincere in allegiance to 
the Methodist Episcopal denomination. For years Mr. Holmes officiated as 
a trustee of the First Methodist Episcopal Church and at the time of the 
erection of the present fine house of worship he was secretary of the board. 
Fraternally he is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In 
1902 he served as foreman of the grand jury and at other times he has held 
other public responsibilities. For many years he has been a member of the 
countv central committee of the Democratic party and a local leader in that 
political organization. 

LANE S. HARMAN.— An identification of more than twenty years 
with the material upbuilding of Kern count}^ enables Mr. Harman to judge of 
values and forecast growth with an impartial judgment and keen sagacity. 
These qualities have proved helpful to him in the discharge of his duties as 
manager of the Kern City Realty Company, transacting a general business 
in real estate, dealing in property throughout the county, buying and selling 
on a commission basis and making a specialty of oil, orange and fruit lands. 
The company maintains an insurance department and underwriting is done 
in absolutely reliable organizations. In every department of the business a 
large clientele has been established. The company is doing its full share 
in advertising to the world the excellence of the climate, the fertility of the 
soil and the opportunities for agricultural and commercial prosperity. The 
manager is usually to be found at the office. No. 805>< Baker Street, East 
Bakersfield, where he has every facilit}^ for prompt investigation of lands 
and direct intercourse with possible buyers. 

Mr. Harman is of eastern birth and lineage and was born in York county. 
Pa., March 24, 1854. Primarily educated in common schools, he later attended 
Mount Union College in Ohio and completed a commercial course of study. 
The family of which he is a member comprised three children, but one of 
these died in early years. A brother, Monroe, seven years older than himself, 
has become very prominent in the silver-mining industry in the state of Wash- 
ington. Both had to make their own way unaided from youth. After he 
had taught one term of school Lane S. Harman became connected with a 
mercantile business at Wellsville, Pa., where he remained for two years. 
From 1877 until 1890 he made his home in Mansfield, Ohio, and Columbus, 
same state, and meanwhile in 1880 he married Miss Ada E. Carpenter, a 
resident of the former city. As a means of livelihood he worked as traveling 



270 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

salesman for agricultural implement houses and built up an enviable reputa- 
tion as a specialist in that line, being- indeed regarded as an expert judg^e con- 
cerning every kind of farm machinery. 

Upon resigning from the road in 1890 Mr. Harman came to California 
and settled in Kern county, where since he has made his home. Joining the 
Rosedale colony, he bought forty acres of land covered with sage brush. To 
develop the tract from its primeval state required strenuous labor. For years 
he devoted himself diligently to the task of removing the brush, cultivating 
the land, providing irrigation, planting portions of the farm to fruit and 
bringing the entire acreage to a high condition of fertility. The task was 
one of great difficulty and brought many discouragements in its wake, but 
he had the cheerful co-operation of his wife and the assistance of the chil- 
dren, so that he was able to develop the property as he had desired. In order 
that his children might have the advantages offered by the city schools he 
sold the farm and came to East Bakersfield a number of years ago, since 
which time he has engaged in the real estate and insurance business, also 
has acted as notary public and conveyancer, having offices in the First Bank 
of Kern building. In politics he is a Republican with progressive sympathies, 
while in religious connections he and his wife are members of the Congrega- 
tional Church of Bakersfield. Their family consists of ten children and it 
has been their greatest ambition in life to train and prepare their sons and 
daughters for whatever responsibilities may await their future years. The 
children are as follows: Emrie L., a carpenter, who follows his trade in 
Bakersfield; Will C, a bridge inspector on the Southern Pacific Railroad and 
a resident of East Bakersfield; Jeanette, wife of L. T. Peahl, of Bakersfield; 
Frances, who married Frank S. Wilson and lives at McMinnville, Warren 
county, Tenn.; Jo R., now Mrs. H. G. Spitler; Helen \V., how Mrs. George 
W. Jason, of Bakersfield ; Ada I., Monroe, Jr., Winifred and Alice, who are 
the youngest members of this interesting and popular family. 

WILLIS W. BOGGS.— The genealogy of the Boggs family is traced to 
the colonial era of American history. During the early part of the nine- 
teenth century Hon. Lilburn W. Boggs held an influential position in the 
public life of Missouri and he was serving as governor of that state at the 
time of the expulsion of the Mormons. By supporting the anti-Mormon ele- 
ment he incurred the hatred of the leaders of the sect, who afterward in a 
spirit of revenge sent one of their number back to the state for the purpose 
of killing the governor. Several bullets lodged in the head of the intended 
victim of their revenge, but he escaped fatal injury as by a miracle. When 
somewhat advanced in years he joined an expedition bound for California 
and shortly after his arrival in Sonoma he was appointed alcalde in place of 
lohn H. Nash, whose resignation had been asked for, but who, refusing to 
give up the office, was taken to San Francisco, thence to Monterey, in order 
that in his absence peace might be restored to the community. Ex-Governor 
I'.oggs died in the Napa valley at the age of sixty-three years. 

' During the summer of 1846 William Boggs, son of the ex-governor, 
came with his family to California. Being a man of resolute purpose, excel- 
lent judgment and commanding personality, he was chosen captain of the 
emigrant train. Arriving at Fort Bridger, a dispute arose as to the route 
to be taken. Captain Boggs insisted upon following the highway generally 
used by emigrants and he pursued that road with the larger number of the 
party, arriving in safety at his destination without loss of men or stock. 
About ninety' insisted in taking the Hastings Cut-off. They found travel 
impossible through the mountains. The sad fate of the Donner party is a 
matter of history. Just before starting across the plains in the spring of 
1846 Captain Boggs had married a young Missouri girl. Their child, Guada- 
loupe Vallejo Boggs, was the first white child born in California after the 





%JLJ(^ ^O^^i^^- 





r. 





HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 275 

government was taken out of the hands of Mexico. A younger son, Angus 
M. Boggs, who at the age of sixty-three years is living at Highland Springs, 
Lake county, was a member of the stock commission firm of Boggs & liehler, 
with offices in San Francisco and Napa. His marriage took place at Santa 
Rosa, this state, and united him with Miss Sallie Northcott, a native of 
Missouri, who came to Califcjrnia in 1861. They are the parents of eight - 
children, all living, namely: Mervin J., who spent eleven years in the Kern 
river oil field, meanwhile being foreman on the 33 and Imperial, later super- 
intendent of the Fulton at Maricopa, and is now a rancher at Lindsay, Tulare 
county; Paul N., formerly general manager for the J. F. Lucey Company at 
Bakersfield and now general manager for the same concern on the Pacific 
coast, with of^ces in Los Angeles; Leland Stanford, of Napa, a traveling 
salesman for the clothing house of Newmark & Co., in Los Angeles ; Ken- 
neth E., agent for the VVells-Fargo Express Company at Eureka, Cal. ; Willis 
W., who was born at Napa, Cal., January 24, 1886, and is now purchasing 
agent for the North American Oil Consolidated Company on section 15, 
township 32, range 23; Hugh F., who assists his father on the ranch in Lake 
county ; Lawrence B., and Elizabeth, who also remain with their parents. 

Entering the sales department of the J. F. Lucey Company at Bakers- 
field in 1908, Willis W. Boggs continued with that concern for three and 
one-half years, meanwhile going from Bakersfield to Maricopa, thence to 
Shale, next to McKittrick and finally to San Francisco. During 1911 and a 
part of 1912 he also acted as local buyer for the North American Consoli- 
dated on section 15 and engaged as salesman at the Taft store of Fairbanks, 
Morse & Co. Re-entering the service of the J. F. Lucey Company, he con- 
tinued with that corporation from February, 1912, to June, 1913, and on the 
15th of the latter month he returned to the service of the North American 
Consolidated, for which he now acts as purchasing agent, a post entailing 
large responsibilities and necessitating a thorough knowledge of oil supplies 
and valuations. 

ROBERT L. McCUTCHEN.— As a native son of California it has been 
the privilege of Mr. McCutchen to live through years marked by unparalleled 
growth along all lines of industry, in which, not content to be merely an inter- 
ested observer, he has been a prominent participant and resourceful promoter. 
Although still in the prime of a useful existence, his memory is stored with 
historical data of value and his personal activities have brought him in touch 
with the remarkable development of the west. The course of business pur- 
suits has taken him along the Pacific coast and into Mexico, so that he is 
thoroughly conversant with localities, soils, climates and opportunities. Years 
ago, when hunting geese and quail for the San Francisco market, he traversed 
the section of country now known as the west side oil fields, where frequently 
he saw owls and quail helplessly enmeshed in pools of oil and asphalt, but at 
the time no one realized the commercial importance of the discovery. Later 
developments proved the immense value of the hidden resources of the region 
and in the early progress of the oil industry he and other members of his 
family maintained an active connection, nor are his interests in the business 
less important at the present time. 

A member of a pioneer family that always has stood for integrity, honor, 
truth and high morals, and* a son of that influential citizen, Preston S. Mc- 
Cutchen, whose personal history in many respects is a history of the develop- 
ment of certain parts of the west, Robert Lincoln McCutchen was born in 
Sacramento, Cal., July 20, 1865, and at the age of seven years accompanied 
his parents to Monterey county, where he was reared on a stock ranch near 
Parkfield. During winter months he studied, first in the public schools and 
later under a private teacher, while in the summers he assisted his father in 
the care of the stock and the cultivation of the farm. Starting out for himself 



276 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

in 1882, he accompanied a brother, James B., to Arizona, where, joining- an- 
other brother, G. W., he became interested in mining at the Tiger and Peck 
mines in Yavapai county. Returning to Monterey county at the expiration of 
two years, he remained there for a year, meanwhile being interested in farming. 

Associated with his brothers, in 1885 i\Ir. McCutchen began to hunt game 
for the market. For a time he made his headquarters on the Tulare and Buena 
Vista lakes. The game was shipped to the San Francisco market, where it 
brought the highest prices. It was during the period of activity as a hunter 
that he came through Kern county on a number of trips and began to study 
the soil of this part of the state. The result of his investigations caused him 
to purchase in 1890 twenty acres of raw land in the Old River district. This 
tract he set out to vineyard, but the experiment did not prove profitable. 
After he had removed the vines he put the land under cultivation to alfalfa, 
which he has continuously raised from that time to the present. By later 
purchase he added sixty acres to his tract, so that he now owns eighty acres 
in one body, situated nine and one-half miles southwest of Bakersfield. With 
the improvement of the land he continued in his hunting expeditions and it 
was Hi t until 1899 that he abandoned hunting for the oil industry, in which 
he since has been interested. From 1892 to 1895 he and his brothers engaged 
in hunting along the west coast of Mexico, where they hunted the heron and 
aigrette for their plumage, selling the same at from $10 to $30 per ounce. On 
returning from these expeditions he more than once carried $3,000 worth of 
plumes in a suit case. Ultimately, however, the business was destroyed by 
the natives, who ruthlessly slaughtered the birds, even killing them while 
they were nesting, and thus rendering a continuation of the business un- 
profitable. 

After having developed and sold oil lands in the Sunset and Midway 
fields, during 1907 Mr. McCutchen with his brothers selected a location in 
the north edge of Maricopa, on section 2, 11-24, where they struck a seven- 
hundred barrel well of thirteen-gravity oil. This being the best well up to 
that time and one of the earl}'- gushers, attracted wide attention and created 
considerable excitement in the field. In addition the brothers located the 
famous sectiun 32, 12-23, some of which is sold and the balance leased, twenty 
acres of the tract being now operated by the Maricopa Queen Oil Company, 
that struck a two-thousand barrel well in March of 1913. In the midst of his 
many other activities, Mr. McCutchen has continued to raise alfalfa and grain 
on his ranch, where in 1914 he completed a residence of twelve rooms, mod- 
ern in every respect, equipped with every convenience and forming a most 
desiralde improvement to the property. Besides the ranch he owns valuable 
real estate on Chester avenue, Hakersfield, and in Richmond, and further has 
a ranch of eighty acres, in the Edison district where the possibilities of citrus 
culture are arousing wide interest. 

While political questions have never been made matters of moment to 
Mr. McCutchen (who believes that the highest type of citizenship is expressed 
in the character and not in the opinions), he keeps alive to the issues of the age 
and has been steadfastly Republican in his adherence to party principles. 
Fraternally he holds membership with the Woodmen of the World in Bakers- 
field. By marriage he became allied with a pioneer family of Kern county. 
In the Old River district, November 30, 1893, he -was united with Miss Lena 
Freear, a native of this district and a daughter of Henry T. Freear, an honored 
citizen of the county. Six children comprise the family of Mr. and Mrs. Mc- 
Cutchen, namely : Vernon Ingersoll and Irene Marie, who are respectively 
members of the senior and freshman classes of the Kern county high schdol; 
Harold, Ethel, Evan and Laverne. The influence of Mrs. McCutchen has 
been a benefaction in the family and the community. A resident of the same 
locality throughout all of her life, educated in its schools and reared in one of 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 277 

its finest homes, she is an honored native daughter and has a permanent place 
in the regard of many friends. 

ALBERT W. FREEMAN.— The Freeman family comes of old English 
stock and was established in America by Henry Freeman, a native of Ket- 
ton, county Kent, England, born February 28, 1828. From his birthplace, 
which was but a short distance from London, the family removed to the 
metropolis and in boyhood he had the advantages incident to schooling in 
that great city. It was his ambition from childhood to come to the United 
States and at the age of eighteen he left the scenes of youth, bade farewell 
to friends and relatives, and started on the voyage across the Atlantic. The 
sailing vessel on which he embarked ploughed its slow way over the waters 
and finally cast anchor in the harbor of New York City, whence he pro- 
ceeded to Ohio and in a short time to Illinois. At Joliet, where he found 
employment, he met and married Emma Adeline Hart, a native of that city. 
When the first call came for volunteers for three months at the opening of 
the Civil war he offered his services, enlisted, was accepted and sent to the 
front. At the expiration of the three months he again enlisted, this time 
for three years, so that his entire period of active service covered three years 
and three months. Meanwhile he bore a brave part in many memorable 
engagements, including Shiloh, the Wilderness, Lookout Mountain, Chicka- 
mauga. Bull Run and Gettysburg. Under the leadership of Sherman he 
marched to the sea and took part in the numerous skirmishes and battles of 
that great campaign. With the defeat of the Confederacy he received an 
honorable discharge from the Union service and returned to his Illinois 
home. Removing to Kansas in 1870, he took up land in Butler county 
twelve miles from Wichita and on that farm occurred the birth of his sev- 
enth child, Albert W., April 15, 1872. After years of close attention to ag- 
riculture he retired in 1899, established a home in Wichita, and there re- 
mained until his death March 17, 1906. Since his demise the widow has cou,- 
tinued to reside in Wichita. Like him. she gives earnest adherence to the 
doctrines of the Methodist Episcopal Church. All but two of their twelve 
children are still living. 

At the age of eighteen years in 1890 Albert W. Freeman left Kansas, 
where all of his previous life had been spent, and went to Arizona, where 
for si.x months he was employed in the lumbering business at Flagstaff. 
From there he returned east as far as Manzano, Valencia county, N. M., 
where he found employment in lumbering. However, at the end of six 
months he returned to x\rizona and resumed work at Flagstaff. In the fall 
of 1892 he came to Bakersfield, where for three years he was employed by 
different contractors in the building of ditches and canals. During 1895 he 
became a zanjero with the Kern County Land Company and continued as 
such until 1899, when he resigned in order to return to Arizona. Upon his 
arrival in that state he found conditions had changed since the period of his 
previous sojourn there. The outlook was unfavorable and at the end of six 
months he returned to Bakersfield, where he secured a position as clerk in 
the old Cosmonolitan hotel. During the spring of 1901 he resumed work 
with the Kern County Land Company. After a brief period as workman on 
the Calloway canal he was made foreman, also was given charge (^f the 
books, and continued steadily in the same nlace until February of 1910, when 
he was transferred to the charge of the Home ranch and made superintend- 
ent of the Kern island canal, his present post of duty. The many responsi- 
bilities incident to his position he discharges with satisfaction to all con- 
cerned. 

In politics Mr. Freeman votes with the Democratic party. .A.fter com- 
ing to California he was made a Mason in Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & 



278 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

A. M., and in addition he united with the Bakersfield Lodge No. 202, I. O. 
O. F., while also he and his wife are identified with the Rebekahs. At 
Rosedale, Kern county. June 13, 190.1, he married Mrs. Lucy (Cheney) 
Adams, who was born near Petaluma, Sonoma county, Cal., and by whom 
he has one child, Martha. Her parents. Return J- and Martha E. (Green) 
Cheney, were born in IJIoomington, 111., where their marriage was solem- 
nized March 8, 1860. As early as 1856 Mr. Cheney had made a trip across 
the plains with ox-teams and was so pleased with the country that he de- 
termined to remain. Returning to. Illinois in 1859 upon a visit to the old 
home, he married there during the spring of 1860 and then brought his 
bride via Panama to San Francisco, thence to Sonoma county, where he had 
taken up land. For years he operated one of the first threshing-machines 
brought into Sonoma county. In addition to his work as thresherman he 
developed a large tract of land in Sonoma county and was similarly inter- 
ested in Tulare county, after his removal thither in 1886. From Tulare 
county he came to Kern county in 1892 and settled at Rosedale. Of recent 
years he and his wife have made their home at Coalinga. They became the 
parents of ten children who attained mature years and all but one of these 
still survive. Mrs. Freeman, who was the youngest of the large family, was 
given high-school advantages and received the careful home training which 
has made her a notable housekeeper and efficient assistant to her husband. 

JOHN EDWARD HAMILTON.— The supervising principal of the 
Conley school district of Taft was born in New York City May 27, 1853. 
and is a son of Callaghan and Margaret (O'Connor) Hamilton, both of whom 
were natives of county Kerry, Ireland, but crossed the ocean in early life 
and were married in the city of Brooklyn. There were four children in the 
family, but two of these died in infancy, tlie present survivors being John 
Edward and Charles C, the latter an attorney in Oakland. During 1868 
the family removed to California and settled in San Francisco, but four 
years later J. E. returned east in order to receive treatment for spinal trouble. 
For a time he remained in Indianapolis. Upon coming back to California 
in 1874 he settled in Mendocino county, where his brother was teaching his 
first term of school. As he wished to take up the same line of work, he 
began to study under his l)rother preparatory to taking the teachers' exam- 
ination. February 8. 1875. he began to teach school at W'illits, Mendocino 
county. In order the better to prepare for pedagogical activities he took a 
course of study in St. Ignatius College at San Francisco. Later he secured' 
a scholarship in the Hastings College of Law, but instead of entering that 
institution he made a trip to Seattle and on his return to California settled 
again in Mendocino county. Lhitil 1886 he taught school there. Meanwhile 
in 1882 he had married Aliss Margaret E. Muir. I'y the union there are 
two children now living. Ethel M. and Charles I. After leaving Mendocino 
county he went to Santa Barbara county and for twenty-two years made 
that region his head(|uarters. Meanwhile for ten years he served as a mem- 
ber of the county board of education and for six years of the period he was 
honored with the presidency. For three years he acted as principal of the 
Los Alamos schools and for fifteen years he taught in Santa Maria. 

A newspaper experience as editor of the Santa ]\Iaria Graphic for two 
years (1891-92) supplemented the work of ^Ir. Hamilton as teacher, but 
when he was elected principal at Santa Maria he abandoned journalistic 
activities. For thirteen years he served as princioal at Santa Maria. L'pon 
resigning in 1906 he went to Kansas City to act as eastern representative 
of various enterprises operating in the middle west and on the Pacific coast. 
Upon his return to California he came to Taft in November, 1911, and se- 
cured employment as bookkeeper for Lierly & Son. During January of 
1912. the teacher in the Xorth American school ha\ing resigned, he was pre- 



[IISTORV OF KERN COUNTY 281 

vailed upon to complete the unexpired term, at the same time maintaining 
charge of the books for the firm. In June of 1912 he was chosen supervising 
principal for one year and in June of 1913 he was re-elected for four years. 
As principal he has made a record for efficiency and progressiveness. Under 
his supervision the schools are keeping pace with similar institutions 
throughout the county and have become a source of gratification and pride 
to all public-spirited citizens. In addition to his responsibilities as super- 
vising principal he has found leisure for the composing of songs and the 
writing of lectures. One of his compositions, a baseball song entitled "Base- 
ball," has become very popular among the boys in Taft. As a popular lec- 
turer he makes a specialty of literary subjects and while all of his addresses 
have been received with enthusiasm, "An Hour with Tennyson" is perhaps 
the favorite and has elicited the greatest applause from interested audiences. 

LUCAS FRANKLIN BRITE.— As one of the most extensive cattle 
growers in Kern cciunty and as a member of the board of supervisors Mr. Brite 
is well known throughout the entire length and breadth of the county where 
he has made his home from his earliest recollections. In his life work he 
follows the example set by his father, the late John Moore Brite, who for 
years engaged extensively in agricultural pursuits and at the same time was 
a prominent supervisor of Kern county. Born in Missouri, but from early 
life a resident of Texas and employed as a teamster and farmer near the 
capital city of Austin, the father crossed the plains with ox teams in 1854, 
accompanied by his family, arriving at El Monte, Los Angeles county, 
in September of that year. The same fall he located in the Tehachapi V^alley, 
where he began operations in the stock business. On his arrival he built a 
log house a little below what afterwards became known as Greenwich, resid- 
ing there until he made his location in the valley that now bears his name, 
residing there continuously with the exception of one year, 1857-58, spent in 
Walkers basin and nearly a year in El Monte. During the residence of the 
family at El Monte a son, Lucas Franklin, was born August 13, 1859. In the 
same year the father returned with his wife and children and settled in a 
small but fertile valley in the Tehachapi mountains, where he entered land and 
built an adobe house which is still standing, and continued in the stock busi- 
ness. As he was the first and principal settler in the region and as the entire 
district is now owned by some of his heirs, the name of Brite's valley appro- 
priately was given to it. During the early days it was remote from any mar- 
ket and the large crops of farm products as well as the large herds of stock had 
to be taken long distances when sold, but eventually the Southern Pacific 
railroad built to within six miles of the farm house, and from that time the 
family found conditions less irksome. 

Upon the organization of Kern county John Moore Brite was chosen a 
member of the first board of supervisors, which created the first county gov- 
ernment and directed public affairs from the county seat, then known as 
Clear Creek, but later called Havilah. For the greater part of the next six- 
teen years he was a supervisor and during part of the time was honored with 
the chairmanship of the board, being an integral factor in the difficult task 
connected with the removal of the county seat to Bakersfield. With all of his 
work donated to the early upbuilding of the county, he did not neglect the 
management of his land or the care of his stock. His herds increased in size 
and his brand, a half-moon capital J, was known all over the county, while 
his possessions in land increased until at the time of his death, during 7\pril 
of 1893, he had about two thousand acres. He is still survived by his widow, 
who was Miss Amanda Emeline Duty, a native of Austin. Tex. Their family 
consisted of thirteen children. ( )f these Martha died in Texas at two years 
of age. Mattie died in Brite's valley when two, and Mary passed away when 
seventeen. The eldest s(^ns. Joseph H. and James Moore, are extensive ranch- 



282 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

ers in Brite's valley. Lucas Franklin, of Bakersfield. was sixth in order of 
birth. Eliza Lee married W. T. Wiggins, of Brite's valley; William is living 
in the Imperial valley; John B. and Charles Richard live in Brite's valley, the 
last-named being with his mother at the old homestead; Chloe is the wife of 
E. A. Stowell, of Cummings valley; Clara married Henry O'Neal and lives at 
Stockton ; and Cora is the wife of W. H. Adams, of Stockton. The mother, 
together with her sons, Joseph, James. Charles, Richard and John, also a 
daughter, with her husband (]\lr. and Mrs. W. T. Wiggins) own all of 
Brite's valley. 

The earliest recollections of Lucas JM-anklin Brite cluster around the val- 
ley which bears the family name. Early in childhood he was a pupil in a log 
schoolhouse two and one-half miles from the old homestead, next he attended 
school in a frame building at Oldtown, four and one-half miles from home, and 
finally he completed his study of the three R's in the Cummings valley school, 
four and one-half miles from home. From school he drifted into ranching 
and when he started out for himself he located on railroad land. When this 
came into the market he bought six hundred and forty acres at $2.50 and 
^3 per acre. The land was level and fertile, comprising some of the best 
acreage in Cummings valley. At this writing he owns five thousand acres in 
this valley and of the total amount eighteen hundred acres are level. The vast 
tract represents his own industrious application and self-denying perseverance. 
With the aid of his sons he manages his large holdings, devoting about four- 
teen hundred acres to grain and the balance to stock range.. Alfalfa also is 
raised without the aid of irrigation, although he installed a pumping plant 
on his home farm, ten miles west of Tehachapi. 

The raising of grain formed the largest agricultural interest of Mr. Brite 
for many years. During early days he utilized a header and stationary 
thresher. Later he operated five headers which elevated the grain to the wag- 
ons, nets being placed in the bed of the wagons. The wagons were then 
hauled to the thresher and the nets dumped on the table of the threshing ma- 
chine. In the work as thus conducted thirty head of mules or horses were 
used cm the headers, forty head were used on the ten wagons (four to a 
wagon), two head were used for the lifting of the derrick and eight head were 
carried as extras, for special needs. About twelve thousand acres of grain 
were harvested and threshed in two months. W^hen the combined harvester 
came into use, Mr. Brite was quick to see its advantages and avail himself of 
its irnprovements over the old-fashioned methods. At one time his brother 
John arranged a plow with ten gangs hinged in the middle so that it was 
possible to turn the soil even in rough places or in hog wallows. Ten horses 
or mules were used on each plow and as many as five of the implements 
were kept in steady use during the season. The greater part of his land is 
located in the Tehachapi and Cummings valleys and is well adapted for grain 
and stock. Some very fine horses of the Percheron and French coach breeds 
have been raised on his lands, while his shorthorn Durham cattle, with their 
well-known brand of GB, have no superi(~)rs in quality throughout the entire 
county. 

The marriage of Mr. Brite took place in Brite's valley, Deceml^er ,S, 188.x 
and united him with Miss Laura Smith, who was born in Cummings valley, 
Kern county, being fourth youngest among the eleven children of John and 
Amanda E. (Stark) Smith, natives of Texas. At an early period in the settle- 
ment of the coast country the Smith family crossed the plains with wagon 
and oxen and settled in Bakersfield after a brief sojourn in Los Angeles. Mr. 
Smith died in Cummings valley, while his wife passed away in Brite's valley. 
In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Brite there are five children, of whom the two 
eldest, John Perry and Lucas Vance, are farmers and stock-raisers at the old 
homestead. The third child. FJertha, is a student in the Universitv of Cali- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 283 

fornia. The two youngest, Bonnie and Ruby, are students in the Bakersfield 
high school. It was for the purpose of giving his youngest children the ad- 
vantages of the Bakersfield schools that in 1910 Air. Brite came to this city 
and erected a residence at No. 1819 Orange street, where the family since 
have spent the school year, returning to the ranch for the summer. In his 
home city Mr. Brite has a large circle of friends, while throughout the country 
he is well known and universally respected. From early life he has been 
a supporter of Democratic principles and it was upon the regular party 
ticket that in 1902 he was elected from the second district to the board of 
county supervisors. At the expiration of his first term in 1906 he was re- 
elected, and again in 1910 he was chosen his own successor. As supervisor he 
has favored all movements for the permanent advancement of the county, has 
given his support to needed improvements and been identified with the build- 
ing of bridges and county buildings, including the addition to the county 
hospital, the new high school, manual arts building. Hall of Records and the 
imposing new court house, yet at the same time he has maintained a conserva- 
tive policy and has guarded the interests (jf taxpayers with conscientious fidel- 
ity and keen discrimination. 

THOMAS A. BROOKS.— The manager of the Pacific Telephone and 
Telegraph Company for Kern county has followed this line of business since 
the age of sixteen years and meanwhile has gained a varied experience of 
the utmost value to his present and future activities. Sent for the first time 
to Bakersfield during the early part of 1911 and for the second time in the 
spring of 1912, he has been closely in touch with the development of the 
business at this point and has forwarded with customary energy the interests 
of the company, which now reaches every important point in the county. 
The task has been and still continues to be one of no slight importance. The 
greatest tact and the highest intelligence are required in order to superin- 
tend the local interests with success. It speaks well for the manager that 
he has been able to satisfy patrons, enlarge the field of operation and at the 
same time advance the financial status of the company shareholders. The 
satisfactory growth of the business in the past betokens similar development 
in the future. 

The elder of two children, Thomas A. Brooks was born in San Fran- 
cisco June 20, 1886, and is a son of Thomas J. and Mary (Anderson) Brooks, 
natives respectively of Boston, Mass., and Bristol, England, who came to 
California, were married in Oakland, and shortly afterwards established a 
permanent home in San Francisco. In that city the mother died in 1911 
and there the father still remains. Educated in the public schools until he 
had gained a thorough knowledge of the common branches, in October of 
1502 Thomas A. Brooks began the task of earning his own livelihood. At 
that time he entered the employ of the telephone company as a solicitor in 
San Francisco. A year later he was given a clerkship in the city office. 
Later he was promoted to the division office in San Francisco as division 
commercial engineer. The splendid manner in which he discharged the 
duties of the position led to his promotion to the rank of commercial en- 
gineer in the general office. All of these promotions had occurred within a 
decade after his original identification with the business. 

The interests of the business caused Mr. Brooks to be detailed for im- 
portant duties at San Diego, Cal., and Portland, Ore., after which he was 
sent to Bakersfield in January of 1911. The result of his investigations in 
this city is apparent in the large new telephone building on Twentieth be- 
tween T and Chester. During the process of construction of this building 
he filled a similar mission in the city of Los Angeles, from which place he 
returned to Bakersfield in March, 1912, to act as manager of Kern county 
for the company, which is profiting now, as it has profited in the past, by 



284 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

his far-seeing discrimixiation and keen insight into matter jng the Hne of 
his specialty. Since coming to this city he has identifier imself with the 
Bakerstield Chib and with other organizations connected with the social and 
commercial life df the city. 

CHARLES N. SEARS.— The identification of the Scotch family of 
Sears with the new world began during the colonial period of American 
history, the first immigrant of the name having established himself on a 
plantation in Virginia, and from the Old Dominion Enoch Sears removed 
to Ohio during the early portion of the nineteenth century. Several 
generations have made their home in Guernsey county, Ohio, where 
James and Mary Sears passed the early years of their lives. When the call 
came for volunteers in the service of the Union during the Civil war he 
bade farewell to his young' wife and set forth to fight for his country, going 
to the front with an Ohio regiment of which he was a member. When the 
disastrous battle of Chickamauga was being fought he and three of his 
brothers were killed in action. The little community in Guernsey county 
where they had been born and reared mourned their tragic taking away, but 
revered their memories as heroes of the struggle. Surviving this one of the 
brothers was a son, Charles N., who was born at North Salem, Guernsey 
county, Ohio. January 13, 1861 ; he was also survived by his wife, who later 
became Airs. Wyatt and is now living in Nebraska in the city of Minden. 
The only child in the family was taken from Ohio to Illinois at the age of 
thirteen years and afterward attended school at Roseville, Warren county, 
where he prepared for college. It was his ambition to acquire a thorough 
education and with that object in view he matriculated in xA.bingdon (111.) 
College, from which in 1879 he was graduated with the degree of A. B. and 
with a high standing for excellence of scholarship. 

A desire to see more of the country and also to acquire cheap land led 
Mr. Sears with two companions to start for Nebraska. Buying a team and 
wagon and securing the necessary outfit, they drove overland to Phelps 
county and entered land near Holdrege. Later he took up a homestead of 
one hundred and sixty acres, to which in time he secured the title. To one 
of his energetic temperament the idle waiting for the expiration of his home- 
stead peric d was impossible and he passed the time profitably and pleasantly 
in acquiring a knowledge of the law. For a time he read with a prominent 
attorney and jurist at Kearney, Bufifalo county, and so well was his time 
passed that in 1887 he was admitted to the bar of Nebraska, after which he 
began to practice at Holdrege with W. P. Hall as a partner. In order to 
enlarge his professional knowledge, he took a course in the law department 
of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, from which he v/as graduated 
in 1892 with the degree of LL. B. Immediately after his graduation he en- 
gaged in the practice of law at Benton Harbor. Mich., from which point he 
came to California during the fall of 1900 and in February of the following 
year established himself in practice at Bakersfield. where he is well known 
as a man of scholarly attainments, an attorney of ripened experience, a coun- 
selor of sagacious judgment, and a citizen of the most unquestioned pa- 
triotism. Besides his professional activities he also is interested in oil opera- 
tions, while his deep devotion to and ])rominence in the Republican party 
gives him added influence in his home city. Faternally he holds member- 
ship with the Knights of Pythias. In Benton Harl)or. Mich., occurred his 
marriage to Miss Alberta Putnam, who was born in Xiles. that state, re- 
ceived excellent educational advantages and is a woman of culture and an 
earnest member of the Congregational Church of Bakersfield. The only 
child of their union is a son, Herbert Putnam Sears, a student in the 
city high school. The lineage of Mrs. vSears is historic, one of her ancestors 
having been a Revolutionary soldier. John I'utnam. of Green Mountain fame. 



a b 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 287 

and a brother of that illustrious patriot, Gen. Israel Putnam, who, when 
news came concerning the opening battle at Lexington, left his plough in 
the field at Pomfret, Conn., mounted his horse, and the next morning was 
in Concord, later led some untrained patriots in a successful assault north- 
east of Boston, and from that led from one victory to another until he was 
recognized as one of the greatest men of his day. 

ROBERT L. STOCKTON.— An epitome of the history of educational 
advancement in Kern County presents in brief a recapitulation of the life 
work of Robert L. Stockton, county superintendent of schools since January 
of 1903, also vice president of the Central California Teachers' Association 
and ex-of^cio secretary of the county board of education. In reviewing his 
identification with the educational advancement and present standard of 
scholarship in the county he might well exclaim, "All of which I saw and 
part of which I was." From the age of eighteen years he has given his 
attention with whole-hearted devotion to the tasks confronting an educator 
and no problem has been too vexatious for his patient consideration, no 
progress too great for his aspiring vision and no change too radical provided 
only that the welfare of students and the interests of the schools thereby 
are promoted. Since he entered upon the duties of county superintendent 
the school work has quadrupled entailing upon him duties far more weighty 
than the se incident to the first months of his ofificial incumbency. In addition 
to the county high school there are now eighty-eight districts, while about 
two hundred teachers are given employment in the grammar and thirty 
in the high schools, there being expended annually in the interests of county 
educational work an amount appro:^imating a half million dollars, which 
includes not only salaries of teachers, but also expenditures in new buildings, 
reoairs of old buildings, janitor service and the manifold lesser expenses 
connected with a work of such magnitude. The duties of the county super- 
intendent have expanded to such proportions that two assistants now 
are given steady employment and the superintendent's oi¥ice is a scene of 
busy activity during practically every season of the year. 

County Superintendent Stockton is proud of the fact that he can claim 
California as his native commonwealth and that his father. Dr. I. D. Stockton, 
was one of the honored pioneers of Kern County. Born at Santa Rosa 
October 25, 1863, he accompanied his parents to Kern County in 1872 and 
afterward attended the schools here. Diligent in study, intelligent in appli- 
cation and keen in mental comprehension, he acquired a wide fund of infor- 
mation notwithstanding the handicap occasioned by poorly equipped schools. 
After he had taken a course in the Los Angeles Business College he returned 
to his home county and took up educational work, for which he possessed 
inherent ability and in which he has achieved signal success. From his 
first identification with the schools as an instructor he aimed to advance the 
standard vi scholarship. He rejected as obsolete the inadequate theories 
of earlier days and injected into pedagogy the spirit of twentieth century 
progress. As a result of his efforts the schools soon gave evidence of more 
thorough work and the advancement thus begun has continued to the present 
with auspicious results. For many years he served as a member of the county 
board of education and even yet he retains a connection with that useful 
organization. As the Democratic nominee in 1902 he was elected county 
superintendent of schools after an exciting contest with the then incumbent, 
whom he defeated by a large majority. In 1906 he was re-elected and 
again in 1910, the latter time without opposition, but with the endorse- 
ment of all parties. There are now about eight thousand pupils in the public 
elementary schools of the county, besides about five hundred in the high 
schools. 

In the management of educational work so large and important he 



288 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

has the hearty co-operation and helpful assistance of the board of super- 
visors and the county board of education, all of whose members have the 
welfare of the schools as their slogan. 

It should be stated that the Kern County High school has more than quad- 
rupled in attendance in the last ten years and its departments multiplied until 
the state superintendent of public instruction pronounced it the most com- 
plete course and best high school in the state. They have added courses 
in surveying, assaying, wireless telegraphy, manual training, domestic 
science and art and agriculture, and claim the unique place of having the 
largest agricultural farm of any high school in the state. 

The marriage of Professor Stockton united him with Miss Frances Engle, 
a native of Kern County and a daughter of David Engle, a pioneer stockman 
near Granite. They are the parents of eight children, namely : Ralph, Denton, 
Warren and Marion, all of whom are graduates of the Kern County High 
school, and the two last-named are now students in the Hastings Law school 
in San Francisco ; Irving and Jesse, who are attending the Kern County High 
school ; Clara and Frank, pupils in the public schools. The oldest son is a 
mining man in Nevada and the second son is engaged in the stock industry 
in Kern County, where Professor Stockton owns a stock ranch near Granite, 
also an alfalfa ranch near Button Willow. On the former place a specialty 
is made of horses, mules and cattle, while on the latter tract alfalfa is raised 
both for hay and for seed. Besides being a member of the Bakersfield Board 
of Trade he is interested in other movements for the civic well-being of the 
community. Fraternally he holds membership with the Benevolent Protective 
Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias aad the Woodmen of the World, but the 
duties incident to educational work are so engrossing that he has had little 
leisure to participate in the activities of any of these fraternities, although in 
the heartiest accord with their philanthropies and social amenities. 

PAUL LORENTZEN.— The genealogy of the Lorentzen family is 
traced back through a long line of worthy ancestors identified with the po- 
litical and religious history of Schleswig-Holstein and transplanted to Amer- 
ican soil as a direct result of the revolution of 1848 in Germany. An unusual 
coincidence is found in the fact that the heads of three successive genera- 
tions bore the name of Paul Lorentzen and each served as a minister of the 
Lutheran Church in Schleswig-Holstein. It was the third of these three 
Pauls who bore an active part in the great revolution and as a consequence 
was forced to leave the country. America appealed to him as a land of free- 
dom of thought. Crossing the ocean to the new world, he had among his 
companions in the voyage Carl Schurz, later one of the leading German- 
American citizens of the United States. Well qualified for ministerial work 
through his graduation from Heidelberg College and his successful labors 
in the old country, he threw himself actively into the Lutheran ministry and 
held a number of important pastorates. Perhaps the most responsible of 
these was the work in the Lutheran Church at Eighth and Mound streets, 
St. Louis, and he continued in that city throughout his remaining years. 
After crossing the ocean he had married Anna Broises, who was born in 
Pennsylvania and died in Petersburg, Menard county. 111. The Revolution- 
ary participant was not the only member of the family to emigrate, for his 
father, the second Paul, also lived in Pennsylvania for some years and later 
settled in Illinois, in both commonwealths engaging in the ministry of his 
chosen denomination. 

Out of a family .of nine children, seven of whom are still living. Paul 
Lorentzen was the third youngest and he represents the fourth generation 
of the name of Paul. Unlike his ancestors, however, he did not enter the 
ministry, although he has been devoted in his allegiance to the Lutheran 
Church and a contributor to its missionary movements. Born at Mount 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 289 

Carroll, 111., September 16, 1857, he was reared at Petersburg, four miles 
from New Salem, that state, and in early boyhood attended public schools. 
At the age of fourteen he became an apprentice to the trade of carpenter. 
Having completed his time he went to Denver, Colo., in 1878, and secured 
employment as a carpenter. After two years as a day worker he was made 
a foreman in the bridge and building department of the Denver & Rio 
Grande Railroad, which position he hlled fur three years. Coming to Cali- 
fornia in 1883 he entered the employ of the Southern Pacihc Company on 
the Shasta division. Five months later the company sent him to Guatemala, 
Central America, for the purpose of acting as foreman in the building of 
the pontoon and laying of the track across lake Amatilan, also in the build- 
ing of the track to Guatemala. At the expiration of two years he was called 
back from Central America to California, where he acted as foreman of car- 
penters in building the branch from Berendo to Raymond. Next he filled a 
similar position on the Coast line between Suledad, Monterey county, and 
Templeton, San Luis Obispo county. From that division he was sent to act 
as foreman in building a bridge across the American river at Sacramento, 
after which he had charge of construction work between Napa Junction and 
Santa Rosa. In 1888 he was foreman in construction work from Templeton 
to Santa Margarita and the following year he worked on the bridge across 
the San Joaquin west of F"resno, after which he engaged as foreman on the 
line from Merced to Oakdale, Stanislaus county. The company then sent 
him to Kingsburg, Fresno county, to take charge of building a bridge across 
the Kings river, after which he was a construction foreman between Fresno 
and Kerman. 

Having engaged as foreman in the bridge and building department of 
the San Joaquin division until 1899, the Southern Pacific Company in that 
year transferred Mr. Lorentzen to Texas and stationed him in Galveston as 
general foreman of the Southern Pacific decks. The memorable flood and 
destruction of Galveston were personally witnessed by Mr. Lorentzen, who 
took an active part in the work of rebuilding the city and particularly the 
company dock. Returning to California in 1905 he here had the rare ex- 
perience of a vacation of three months, after which he was appointed road- 
master of the Tehachapi division between Bakersfield and Mojave. Since 
March 10, 1906, he has served in that capacity and his difificult position has 
been filled with admirable energy and recognized fidelity. 

The marriage of Mr. Lorentzen and Miss Pearl Hedgpeth, a native of 
Eureka Springs, Ark., was solemnized at San Lucas, [Monterey county, Cal., 
and was blessed with five children, one of whom, Ray, died in Tulare at the 
age of twenty-one years, and Genevieve died in Tehachapi May 16, 1912. The 
survivors are Paul, Anna and Harold. Paul is employed at Needles. Since 
attaining his majority Mr. Lorentzen has supported the Democratic party. 
While living at Tulare he was a leading worker in the Fraternal Aid, also 
in Tulare Lodge No. 306, I. O. O. F., and Mount Whitney Encampment No. 
82 of the same city. In addition he has been identified actively with Sum- 
ner Lodge No. 143, K. of P., in East Bakersfield. Mrs. Lorentzen is active 
in social and educational work in Tehachapi and is a member of the board 
of trustees at Tehachapi and clerk of the board. 

J. H. STEVENSON.— The hotel Metropole at East Bakersfield, of which 
Mr. Stevenson has been one of the ownerg since 1905, deservedly occupies a 
high place in the estimation of the traveling public and has become a favorite 
stopping place for people of all classes, but particularly with miners, rail- 
road employes and stockmen has its popularity been manifest and its prestige 
assured. The location of the building, at the corner of Baker and Sumner 
streets, furnishes every facility for the prompt accommodation of travelers 



290 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

on the Southern Pacific Railroad and many of the trains stop at this point 
for meals. Those desirous of quick service are accommodated at the lunch 
counter, while others find every facility for elegant service in the well- 
equipped dining room, with its large seating capacity and its supply of ex- 
cellent food at moderate prices. The management prides itself on its model 
kitchen, equipped with every convenience for cookery, ventilated in accord- 
ance with the most modern systems and finished by experts understanding 
the laws of sanitation. The hotel maintains thirty-five guest-rooms neatly 
furnished and provided with modern conveniences, a number of them having 
private baths attached. 

The senior proprietor of the hotel comes from Missouri, but has made 
Kern county his headquarters for fifteen years or more. He was born in 
Texas county. Mo., March 15, 1870, and was fourth in order of birth among 
ten children who lived to years of maturity. The father, John, died in 1904, 
and the mother, who bore the maiden name of Louisa Martin, still makes 
Missouri her home and is hale and rugged at the age of seventy-nine (1912). 
J. H., being of a venturesome disposition, fond of travel and change, consid- 
ered it no hardship that he was forced to earn his own livelihood from boy- 
hood. Work indeed interested him far more than schooling and he felt a 
special interest in mining, so it is not strange that at the age of thirteen he 
was working in quartz mines in Colorado. Ever since that time he has kept 
posted concerning mining of every kind and few men in Kern county are 
better posted than he concerning the details connected with the occupation. 
Upon leaving the Colorado mines in 1895 he went to Alaska, where he mined 
in the Klondike and the Yukon basin, remaining for eighteen months. Leav- 
ing the cold frozen north he came to California and later mined at Esmerelda, 
Calaveras county, at Pine Grove in Amador county, at Bodie in Mono county, 
besides other mining centers. In addition for three years he spent considera- 
ble of his time in Nevada mines. After having prospected in the Panamint 
range in Inyo county he was attracted to Randsbvn^g, Kern county, and to 
the Mojave district, where he was one of the first to develop prospects. One 
of his best-paying claims, the Eleven, he sold to Dr. Nelson in 1900, after 
having developed it to a high degree of profit. For some time he was iden- 
tified with the development of the Yellow Rover, and it was not until 1911 
that he disposed of his interests there, the sale bringing him an excellent 
return upon his investment. 

The first connection of Mr. Stevenson with the hotel business occurred 
in Caliente, Kern county, in 1902, when he purchased the Caliente hotel, but 
after having managed the property for two years he sold it and removed to 
East P.akersfield. For two years he conducted the hotel Metropole alone, but, 
realizing the need of co-operation in the large undertaking, he took into 
partnership James A. Bernard under the firm title, of Stevenson & Bernard. 
Subsequent changes have made the title of the firm Stevenson, Woody & 
O'Meara, the other owners being A. J. Woody and P. J. O'Meara, well-known 
real-estate men of Bakersfield. The present management dates from April 
11, 1911, and has been successful from' the first, so that each member of the 
firm is receiving a deserved return for his time, labor and investment. While 
giving close attention to the hotel, Mr. Stevenson finds time to keep posted 
concerning politics, aids the Democratic party in local afifairs and is public- 
spirited in every respect. Fraternally he holds membership with the Elks, 
Eagles and Knights of Pythias. During 1509 he was united in marriage 
with Miss May Gazzolo, a native of Coulterville, Mariposa county, this state. 
With his wife and two children, Athena and Regina, he has a comfortable 
home in East Bakersfield and finds a special delight in a happy and contented 
domestic life. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 293 

WILLIAM A. HOWELL. — From the age of thirteen years a resident of 
JJakerstield. Air. Howell is thoroughly in sympathy with the educational, com- 
mercial and material upbuilding of this city and holds it to be, in point of 
possibilities, unsurpassed by any place in our great commonwealth. Born in 
New Orleans, La.. December 11, 1863, he is the only surviving child of the 
late William and .Mary (Heavey) Howell, natives respectively of Wales and 
Ireland. After having crossed the ocean during early life, the father settled 
in New Orleans and worked his way forward until he acquired the ownership 
of a mercantile business in that city. Seeking the advantages of the west, 
he came to Bakersfield in 1876 and, finding the outlook favorable, sent for his 
wife and children, who joined him in 1877. establishing a permanent residence 
in the county-seat town. Scarcely had he established himself in business 
here when in 1879 his life came to an end. Afterward his wife remained in 
this city until her death, which occurred in 1897. Meanwhile she had given 
her only remaining son an excellent education in the public schools and had 
trained him for the responsibilities of the workaday world. While yet a mere 
lad he became proficient in stenography. The correctness of his transcripts 
attracted attention. It was deemed little less than remarkable that one so 
young should be so skilled and accurate in the reporting of cases involving 
technical terms to which he was unaccustomed. Before he became of age he 
was by stipulation of the attorneys secured to report court cases for over 
three years, and after he had attained his majority he was regularly appointed 
by the judge of the superior court as the ofificial court reporter. Ever since 
then he has filled the same position and it is said that he has the honor of 
being the oldest ofificial, in point of years of continuous service, connected 
with the courthouse of Kern county. Nor has his identification with county 
work lieen limited to stenographic service, for in addition he has been a 
deputv at dififerent times in nearly all the ofifices of the county, also for three 
terms of two years each he filled the ofifice of county auditor, there as in all 
other positions displaying accuracy, fidelity, energy and w^ise judgment. 
Mr. Howell was one of the organizers of the Security Trust Company and has 
been a member of the board of directors since its inception. 

The residence which Mr. Howell erected en the corner of H and Seven- 
teenth streets and which he still owns and occupies, has for its presiding 
genius a woman of great capability, a native daughter of the commonwealth, 
formerly Miss Elizabeth G. Dugan. who was born in Amador county, but 
made Bakersfield her home at the time of her marriage. Two children bless 
their union, Genevieve and William A., Jr. Upon the organization of the 
Knights of Columbus in Bakersfield Mr. Howell became a charter member 
and later he held the ofifice of district deputy for three years, besides which in 
other ways he has contributed to the interests of the order and to its local 
growth. For five years he has served as a member of the board ( f trustees 
of the Beale memorial library and at the same time he has promoted other 
worthy movements identified with the permanent prosperity of the city. 
The Democratic party receives his support in local and general elections. 

ANTHONY B. OLSON.— Although of American birth and tvpically 
American in mode of thought and action, he comes from Scandinavian 
forbears and is a son of John Olson, a native of Vermland, Sw^eden, the 
founder of this branch of the Olson family in the United States. Skilled in 
merchant tailoring, he followed the trade after his arrival in the new world. 
Starting in with a very srhall tailor shop on Chicago avenue, Chicago, he 
gradually built up an important business and finally had forty workmen in 
his employ. The great fire of 1871 destroyed his shop and ruined his busi- 
ness. Forced to start anew, he removed to Michigan and opened a tailor shop 
at Muskegon, where in time he recuperated his losses and attained a fair de- 
gree of financial success. Upon giving up the work of a merchant tailor, he 

16 



2SH HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

returned to Chicago and there he died in 1906. One year later occurred the 
demise of his wife, who l:)ore the maiden name of Erliana Swensen and was 
a native of Sparta. Mich. Surviving- tiiem are fc.ur children, the younq-est of 
whom. Anthony Benjamin, was born in ]\Iuske,Q"on, Mich., May 11, 1887, and 
received such advantages as the schools of that city afiforded. After having 
graduated from the Muskegon high .school in 1905 he removed to Chicago 
and there occupied clerical positions with different firms. 

Upon his arrival in California during May of 1908 Mr. Olson secured 
employment at Sanger in the office of the Hume-Bennett Lumber Company. 
A year later he was transferred to the work of a yardman and from that 
rose to be foreman of the yard, in which responsible position he proved effi- 
cient and trustwortliy. Resigning January 1, 1911, he came to McKittrick as 
an employe of the King Lumber Company, which in September of the same 
year transferred him to their Bakersfield yard to take charge of the work 
there. During February, 1912, he returned to McKittrick in the capacity of 
manager for the King Lumber Company, in wdiose interests he since has 
served with conscientious devotion and encouraging results. While living 
in Sanger he met and married Miss Carrie L. Barr, who was born in Kansas, 
but passed her girlhood almost wholly at Sanger. After graduating from 
the Sanger high school she had taken a course of study in the San Francisco 
Normal and had fitted for educational work, in wdiich she engaged with suc- 
cess prior to her marriage. In political allegiance Mr. Olson adheres to 
Democratic ])rinciples and fraternallv he holds membership with the Masons. 

MAJOR W. H. COOK, M. D.— The notable record achieved by Dr. Cook 
in sanitation and surgical work during the Spanish-American war and subse- 
quent service in the Philippines duplicates in many respects the able and 
prominent identification of his father, the late J. A. Cook, M. D., with the 
Union army during the Civil war, in which as a surgeon attached to the 
Nineteenth Army Corps he had charge of hospital boats and hastily equipped 
surgical wards on Virginian battlefields. For such responsible tasks he was 
qualified by graduation from Rush Medical College and by long service as a 
physician and surgeon with a large private patronage. Himself a native of 
Tinton I""a11s, Alonmouth county, N. J., he had married some years before the 
beginning of the war Miss Mary M. Harris, a native of Virginia, and they 
had established a home in Kendall county. 111., where the eldest of their 
four children, William Harris Cook, was born at Fox, February 19, 1855. 
Following the Civil war, a home was made at Washington, D. C, but eventu- 
ally the doctor removed to Kansas and engaged in practice at Humboldt until 
his death. The last days of the mother were passed in the home of her son, 
W. H., at McKittrick, where she passed away in 1912 at the age of eighty- 
three. 

Subsequent to graduation from the /Aurora (111.) high school and the 
Naperville (111.) branch of the commercial department of Northwestern Uni- 
versity, at the age of eighteen William Harris Cook matriculated in Rush 
Medical College and comj)leted the course in 1875, but, on account of not 
having attained his majority, he was not granted a diploma and the degree 
of M. D., until a year later, February 15, 1876. Meanwhile he had gained 
considerable experience as an assistant to his father in Aurora, 111., but after 
graduation he removed to Kansas and opened an office at Larned, Pawnee 
county, where he remained for two years. Following a period devoted to 
recuperation in Colorado he returned to Illinois and opened an office at 
Ehvood, Will county. The year 1880 found him a pioneer at Globe, Ariz., 
of which town he was a leading citizen and successful physician. On account 
of his familiarity with the language of the Mojave and Apache tribes he was 
chosen for two years to make the official count of the Indians at the White 
mountain reservation. 

A pioneer of 1887 at Bakersfield, Dr. Cook engaged in practice in this 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 295 

then small town. On the organization of Company G, Sixth California Na- 
tional Guard, he was chosen the first captain and continued as such until 
the outbreak of the war with Spain. A commission as captain in that war 
bore date of May, 1898. and expired with his honorable discharge in Decem- 
ber of the same year. Entering the medical department of the United States 
army as an assistant surgeon, he was dispatched to Fort Leavenworth and 
with the Thirty-second United States Infantry was sent to the Philippines. 
From assistant surgeon with the rank of lieutenant he was promoted in 
December, 1899, to captain with the rank of surgeon and in March of 1900 
was commissioned surgeon, on the recommendation of General Wheeler, the 
immediate cause of the promotion having been the skill displayed in the 
command of the extreme left of the firing line at the time of the advance 
on Porac. Afterward he was assigned to civil service as deputy insular health 
officer under Major C. E. Carter, in which capacity he visited every province 
but one. established boards of health and instructed the same in the best meth- 
ods of combating and preventing bubonic plague, cholera, leprosy and small- 
pox. Within less than ten months there had been over three hundred thou- 
sand deaths from cholera and one hundred eighty-five thousand deaths from 
bubonic plague. Such was the beneficent result of the fight against disease 
that contagious epidemics were almost exterminated. 

After a year in the United States, during February of 1905 Dr. Cook 
returned to the Philippines with the Eighteenth Infantry and served as 
surgeon on the island of Samar. About a year later he resigned and returned 
to New York, but in March of 1907 came to California and opened an office 
at McKittrick, where he has since engaged in practice, meanwhile forming 
associations with the county, state and American medical associations. Dur- 
ing his term of army service he became allied with the military order of 
Caribou and he is also prominent in Masonry, being connected with the 
Knights Templar, Scottish Rite Consistory and thirty-second degree. Mrs. 
Cook was formerly Lorena Williamson and was born in Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Her parents, S. Stryker and Mary E. (Hubbard) Williamson, were natives 
respectively of Brooklyn and Tinton Falls, N. J., and the latter traced her 
lineage to England, while Mr. Williamson was of old Knickerbocker blood, a 
member of a family that bore an honorable part in the Revolutionary war 
and in the activities of the colonial era. 

HON. R. J. HUDSON.— The distinction of being a native son of the 
great west belongs to Judge Hudson, who was born in Napa county, this state, 
February 20, 1857, being a son of David and Frances (Griffith) Hudson, 
natives respectively of Missouri and North Carolina, the former now deceased, 
and the latter still a resident of California. It was the privilege of Judge 
Hudson, but a privilege largely resulting from his own determined energy 
and ambition, to secure excellent educational advantages. After he had com- 
pleted the studies of the Napa high school he matriculated in the classical 
department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he took the 
regular course of study. Next he entered the law department of Cumberland 
University at Lebanon, Tenn., and in 1878 he was graduated from that insti- 
tution. Returning to California he was admitted to the bar by the supreme 
court during the same year and immediately afterward established himself in 
practice in Los Angeles, where for a year he had Judge Anson Brunson as a 
partner. From 1880 to 1882 he served as district attorney of Los Angeles 
county. The failure of his health led him to seek a change of climate and he 
established himself in Lake county, this state, where he soon rose to promi- 
nence through the prompt recognition of his splendid abilities. After a vear in 
private practice he was elected judge of the superior court of Lake county, 
which responsible office he filled for ten years, meanwhile regaining his health. 
When he retired from the judicial connection he removed to Hanford, Kings 
county, where he engaged in practice for six years, coming from there 



296 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

in 1911 to Bakersfield, where he is a member of the law firm (jf Emmons & 
Hudson, with offices in the Producers' Bank building. Much important litiga- 
tion has been given over to his charge in the various places of his residence 
and he has fully proved his broad knowledge of the law as well as his ability 
to carry through to solution intricate cases involving large issues. 

In 1882, at Napa City, Judge Hudson was united in marriage with Miss 
Panthea B. Boggs. a native of Napa county. They are the parents of two 
sons, the elder of whom, Howard, is a resident of San Francisco, while the 
younger, Marshall, is now^ in Dawson City. Ever since he became a voter 
Judge Hudson has supported Democratic principles. 

ALVIN G. LUESCHEN, M. D.— To rise out of a condition of poverty, 
to earn self-support from the age of thirteen years, to secure an excellent 
education without aid and to develop into a successful professional man and 
a cultured citizen of his community, such is an achievement calling for supe- 
rior ability and the most undaunted persistence of effort. That this is the 
record cf Dr. Lueschen affords a silent but eloquent testimony as to a self- 
reliant personality. By dint of personal energy he paid his way through 
medical college and gained not only a thorough professional education, but 
also a broad knowledge on all subjects of historical, national and scientific 
interest, thus rounding out a mental culture of breadth and dignity. 

A descendant of old Teutonic ancestry, Dr. Lueschen was born in Co- 
lumbus, Platte county, Neb., in 1880, and is a son of Gerhard Lueschen, a pio- 
neer farmer and rancher of Nebraska, and in the early days a chum of Will- 
iam F. Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill. The father, still a resident of 
Nebraska, possesses abundant health and vitality notwithstanding his early 
years of hardships. Born about 1848, he has seen much of the development 
of the west and has borne his own share therein. As previously stated, the 
poverty of the family forced Dr. Lueschen to become self-supporting when 
thirteen years of age and by dint of persevering energy he carried out a child- 
hood ambition to become a physician. During the fall of 1900 he matricu- 
lated in Creighton Medical College at Omaha, Neb., from which he was 
graduated with the class of 1904. Returning to his native town, he opened 
an office and gained his initial experience as a practitioner, and in the same 
town in 1908 he married Miss Gertrude Elias, by whom he has one son, 
Alvin Gerald. The family came to California in 1910 and settled in Bakers- 
field, where the Doctor opened an office at No. 212 Producers' Bank building 
and about the same time erected a modern and beautifully appointed bunga- 
low at No. 1917 Orange street at a cost of more than $3,000. In political 
faith he adheres to Republican principles and in religion he is a generous 
contributor to the Episcopal Church, of which his wife is an earnest member. 

JAMES NICHOLAS NORRIS.— Very early in the colonization of the 
new world the Norris family became established in South Carolina and in 
that state David Norris owned and operated a large plantation during the 
early portion of the nineteenth century. The exact date of his migration 
to Missouri is not known, but it occurred early in the century named and 
thereafter he devoted his time to the difficult task of developing a produc- 
tive farm out of a tract of raw land. Among the children in his family was 
a son, Abner, who became a man of such deep religious fervor and such 
intense spiritual zeal that he gave his services for years to the Baptist de- 
ne )minati( n without hoi)e of remuneration or thought of financial returns. 
Indeed, he made his livelihood and that of the family through his work 
as a farmer and stock-raiser, but always he was ready to sacrifice his own 
interests for those of the church with the hope that thereby the cause of 
Christianity might be promoted. Cheerfully, willingly he gave his all to 
promote religion and the ideals that possessed him he endeavored to im- 
plant in the hearts and minds of his children. In early manhood he had 
married Jane Evans, who was born in Kentucky and had gone from that 



■X 






HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 299 

state to Missouri in company with her father, Samuel Evans, a pioneer 
farmer of the middle west. Sharing with her husband his self-sacrificing 
purposes, she cared for the farm and the family during his absences on 
preaching tours and desired no recompense other than the thought of duty 
done. When advanced in years she came to Bakersfield to the home of her 
son, James Nicholas, and here her death occurred at the age of ninety-six. 

The youngest of the ten children of Rev. Abner and Jane Norris, James 
Nicholas Norris was born near St. Joseph, Mo., April 17, 1849. When the 
Civil war began he was too young to participate, but he recalls the anxieties 
and privations of that period of national trouble and individual distress. 
His schooling was meager, but he was trained well in agriculture and made 
that his occupation for some years in Dekalb county, Mo., after which he 
conducted a general mercantile business at Cosby, Andrew county. Leav- 
ing Missouri in 1883, accompanied by wife and children, he came to Cali- 
fornia and settled in Kern county, where for a brief period he devoted him- 
self to ranching. However, for the greater part of his residence in the west 
he has given his attention to carpentering and building in Bakersfield. Not 
only has he taken contracts for many residences for others, but he has built 
a number of houses for himself and he still owns two in Bakersfield and one 
in Kern (East Bakersfield). In politics he is a Republican and in religion a 
member of the Baptist Church. For one term he served as superintendent 
of streets of Bakersfield. By his marriage in Dekalb county. Mo., to Sarah 
Lee, a native of Iowa, he had a family of two daughters and two sons, 
namely: Mrs. Lillie Gamble, of Bakersfield; Mrs. Lulu J. Adams, also of 
this city ; Edward Garfield, one of the proprietors of the Kern Plumbing 
Company ; and Herbert H., property man at the Bakersfield opera house. 

HON. SYLVESTER CLARK SMITH.— The Smith genealogical rec- 
ords indicate an identification with American soil dating from the arrival in 
Massachusetts of John Smith of Puritan fame and continuing through all of 
the succeeding generations, each member stanch of purpose, earnest of soul 
and positive in achievement. The family remained resident in New England 
until finally the westward drift of emigration bore Sylvester Smith in its tide 
and planted him upon the then frontier of Northern New York. Nor did 
this represent the end of his journeyings. With true pioneer instinct he 
followed the star of empire in its course toward the prairies and plains of the 
west. When his son, Edward, a native of New York, was still a small child 
the family removed to Ohio and later traveled by wagon to Illinois. In that 
state Edward grew to manhood, rugged in body and resolute in character. 
The vicissitudes incident to frontier existence had developed within him self- 
reliance and independence and he was admirably qualified to contribute to the 
development of the middle west. As early as 1835, when Iowa was yet in the 
infancy of its agricultural progress, he removed to that state, where he met 
and married Celia Shockley, a native of Ohio. She, too, came of stanch 
pioneer ancestry. In infancy she had been taken from Ohio to Iowa by her 
parents, who became residents of the last-named state at a time when it was 
very sparsely populated. 

Taking up land in the rich but undeveloped section of southeastern Iowa 
Edward Smith gave himself entirely to the task of changing the homestead 
into a productive and remunerative farm. As the years went by he and his 
wife had the capable assistance of their children, numbering five sons and 
three daughters. \\"hile riches did not come to them, they gained that which 
is more to be desired,* the deep respect of acquaintances and the implicit 
confidence of all with whom thev had social intercourse or business dealings. 
In type they were representative of the splendid element whose labors were 
the foundation of the ultimate agricultural development of Iowa and whose 
sincere characters reappeared in a later generation of practical, sensible 
daughters and talented sons. 



300 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

The life which this narrative depicts began in the home of Edward and 
Celia Smith near Mount Pleasant, Henry county, Iowa, August 26, 1858, 
and closed at Hollywood, Cal., January 26, 1913. In early years there came 
ever and anon glimpses of the splendid mental endowment and resolute 
nature that were to bring subsequent national prominence, yet those years 
were far from eventful. More fortunate than the sons of many pioneers, he 
was allowed a term in an academy after he had completed the studies of the 
country schools. The few months spent in Howe's academy at Mount Pleas- 
ant aroused his ambition for higher educational opportunities and at the 
age of eighteen he began to teach in the spring and summer months in order 
to earn the money necessary for attending school in the winter. Coming to 
California in 1879 he secured a position as teacher in a school of Colusa 
county, where, May 7, 1882, he was united in marriage with Miss Maria Hart, 
a native of Franklin county. Mo., and soon afterward they removed to San 
Francisco in order that he might have the best advantages for the study of 
law. The summer of 1883 found them newcomers in Kern county, and from 
that time until his death the history of Mr. Smith was in many respects a 
history of the county itself, so intimately was he associated with its moral, 
educational and political growth. An ambition to complete his law studies 
led him to teach school at Tehachapi and Glenn\-ille in order that he might 
earn expenses during the course of his law education. 

. After having been admitted to the bar in October of 1885, Mr. Smith 
opened an office in Bakersfield. Chance directed that his fame should come 
in another field than that of the law. A great struggle was being waged 
between the riparian owners and the appropriators of the waters of Kern 
river. In 1886 the Kern County Echo was founded as a militant factor in the 
controversy and Mr. Smith became editor. The controversy ended, but the 
Echo, having established a place of its own in the journalistic field, has cour 
tinned with increasing circulation and popularity up to the present time and 
now, as the Morning Echo, wields a high influence for good in every avenue 
of local activity. During the early years of the existence of the paper, when 
funds were low and the future prospects at times discouraging, the editor 
made his home on a claim at the extreme southern end of the Kern mesa, 
riding horseback to and from the editorial rooms in Bakersfield. Meanwhile 
he had become a member of the first company of the National Guard organ- 
ized in this city, had helped to organize debating clubs and street improve- 
ment associations, and from the very first had been a local leader in the Re- 
publican party. Editorial work then, even more than now, necessitated the 
possession of both physical and moral courage, and that he possessed such 
qualities is evidenced by an incident that still is told among his friends. One 
evening a citizen, armed with a gun, rushed into the office exhibiting a clip- 
ping from the morning paper that had aroused his wrath. Presenting the 
gun at the head of Mr. Smith, he demanded that the editor literally eat the 
ofifending article. It was useless to argue with the infuriated man. Still 
covered with the weapon, Mr. Smith quietly asked a clerk to telephone for 
the sherifif. As he resumed writing at his desk, the angry man had time to 
become ashamed of his fury and the afTair ended amicably. Nor was Mr. 
Smith less brave morally. Always he expressed his personal convictions in 
the paper, no matter how unpopular they might be or how much they might 
seem to augur his personal defeat. Indeed, his high moral courage was one 
of his most notable attributes, and while at times bringing him criticism, in 
the end it became the foundation and the root of his great influence. From 
the day the first issue of the Echo appeared until the last day of his life (a 
period of twenty-six years, seven months and twenty-one days) his name 
appeared at the head of the editorial columns of every issue. In addition 
he was the leading editorial writer during much of that time. Even when 
official duties kept him from the city he still directed the policy of the paper. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 301 

In every step of its advancement might l)e seen his quiet l)Ut decisive influ- 
ence. Not only was he one of the oldest editors in the state in point of con- 
tinuous service, but he also had the distinction of being one of the most 
able, forceful and influential. 

The distinction attached to the career of Mr. Smith derives much interest 
from the public, service of the man. Even more important than his labors 
as editor were his disinterested services in behalf of his state and country. 
Broad as was his field of usefulness as the journalistic head of a great paper, 
helpful as was his work on the Bakersfield Board of Trade and Board of 
Health, progressive as was his co-operation with many organizations of the 
community, he realized that there was need of reform movements in the com- 
monwealth and he desired to aid in the legislative work of the state — hence 
his first campaign for the state senate in 1894. Elected not only then, but 
again in 1898, he served for eight years with honor and fidelity. Usefulness 
as a legislator paved the way for a later service in congress. As senator he 
was the author of a counties government act, the registration law of 1898, 
the constitutional amendment authorizing the use of voting machines, and 
(this he regarded as his most important public service) a bill establishing, the 
state polytechnic school at San Luis Obispo. This institution became a 
pioneer in the field of manual training. The author of the bill had in mind 
a training in agriculture, mechanics, engineering, business methods, domestic 
economy and indeed all occupations except those dealing with the profes- 
sional walks of life. When he first presented the bill in 1895 the senate 
passed it, but failure came in the assembly. In 1897 it was passed by both 
houses, only to be vetoed by the governor. Session after session he labored 
persistently until finally in 1901 it became a law and the school was estab- 
lished. His theory in urging so persistently the establishment of the school 
was that labe.r must be made more efficient and better trained, then it will be 
better paid and less irksome ; and every trained worker, if industrious and 
frugal, may reasonably hope to support his family and educate his children, 
in turn preparing them to be trained specialists in some avenue of employ- 
ment. 

When he first announced himself as a candidate for congress in 1902 
Mr. Smith was defeated in the convention on the forty-ninth ballot. The 
contest, begun in Sacramento and ended at Ventura, had been peculiarly 
strenuous and even bitter, but no trace of the bitterness lingered in the mind 
of Mr. Smith, for with characteristic enthusiasm he threw himself into the 
campaign on the side of his successful competitor. Captain Daniels, and the 
latter was elected. His own laurels came to him at a later date. August 25. 
1904, he was nominated by acclamation and in November he was elected by 
a majority of more than ten thousand. From that time until the day of his 
death he continued to represent the Eighth California district. Meanwhile 
he had been recognized in congress as a ready debater and an excellent 
committee-worker. As a member of the original commission appointed to 
revise the banking and monetary system, he served until the loss of health 
necessitated relinquishment of such duties. The present postal savings bank 
bill is a monument to his labors, supplementing those of other congressmen. 
When the speaker of the house was shorn of much of his power. Mr. Smith 
was elected a member of the new rules committee, to which was given much 
of that power. 

As was natural to one coming from Kern county, the interest maintained 
by Mr. Smith in the oil industry led him to make an eflfort to promote the 
permanent welfare of that business. A bill presented by him sought to 
extend to the taking up of oil land the essential provisions of the homestead 
law, varied of course to suit the different need. No provisions had been made 
to secure to a locator of oil land any legal right of possession until such time 
as he might make an actual discoverv of oil. Before anv such discoverv it 



302 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

was necessary to spend thousands of dollars, which under the then law was 
jeopardized. The bill limited the amount of oil land which a man or com- 
pany could acquire, but also insured peaceful possession of an oil claim 
during the time necessary to complete a well. However, although the bill 
passed in the house, it failed of the support of the senate, and before the 
next session the deluge of oil land withdrawals swept over every district of 
the west where the presence of oil was suspected. Then followed the Yard 
decision with its disastrous results ; the visits of delegations of oil men to 
Washington; the presentation of memorials to congress; and finally, under a 
suspension of rules, the Smith remedial bill was passed in February, 1911, 
when Mr. Smith, so ill that he was supported by fellow-members and so weak 
that his voice could hardly be heard a dozen paces away, asked consent for 
the passage of the measure. 

Another measure of importance presented by Mr. Smith prevents the 
monopoly of patented articles and processes by permitting any person to 
make use of an invention on the payment of a stipulated royalty to the in- 
ventor, and providing for government supervision of these royalties so that 
favoritism might be eliminated. Through his labors an appropriation of 
$2,000,000 was secured to protect the settlers in the Imperial valley from the 
ravages of the Colorado river. His highest honor in the congress came with 
his appointment in 1908 as a member of the national monetary commission. 
During 1910 he secured an appropriation of $20,000 for a site for a federal 
building in Bakersfield. Later a recommendation was made to appropriate 
$135,000 for the erection of a postofifice, and this will ensure the erection in 
the near future of a building here for federal use. In all of his official career 
his afifection remained deeply rooted in Bakersfield. When he returned 
hither after an absence he noted with intense eagerness every phase of indus- 
trial development, every improvement made, whether in an electric light or 
sewerage system, in the residence district or the business center, in the 
streets, the paving or the roads. Along every line of civic activity he had 
pronounced and progressive opinions and he had studied park systems, fire 
departments and indeed every department of importance to a growing muni- 
cipality. One of his ideas was the establishment of comfortable rest rooms 
in the lodging-house districts, where the men, necessarily idle at certain sea- 
sons of the year, might congregate in their old clothes without any feeling 
of discomfort, but with a genuine enjoyment of their own club room. Many 
of these men, disliking to loaf on the sidewalk or in the saloons, would greatly 
enjoy a plain but pleasant club room where they might meet their friends 
and enjoy conversation or games during the days of their unemployment. 
Parks also would aid in promoting the happiness of the people and give them 
healthful outdoor exercise, hence he earnestly advocated them. 

Through a long illness Congressman Smith never lost touch with the 
world of progress and particularly with his own home county. The mails 
kept him in touch with Bakersfield and Washington, the two spots of his deep- 
est interest. To his friends he sent the most encouraging messages. No word 
of discouragement was allowed to leave his room at the sanatorium, but in 
illness as in health he was brave, hopeful and dignified, always interested in 
others and constantly urging measures for the benefit of the people. In one 
of his last letters he urged better church equipment and pledged his full co- 
operation to that end. 'On his last day a public document called his atten- 
tion to the fact that sixteen members of the sixty-first congress had passed 
from earth. Before the sun had risen he was the seventeenth. He had fallen 
with his armor on, with mind alert, with reputation at its highest and with 
honor unimpeached. Surviving him were his wife and two daughters, Mrs. 
E. S. Larsen, of Washington, D. C, and Mrs. A. W. Mason, of Bakersfield. 
Relatives and a delegation of friends accompanied the body from Hollywood 
to Bakersfield. where the magnificent funeral cortege with marchers repre- 




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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 307 

senting military, labor, civic and fraternal organizations attested to his deep 
hold upon the affections of his fellow-townsmen. Thus passed into eternal 
silence one who had lived nobly and well and whose name will long stand in 
the annals of Bakersfield as that of a distinguished citizen, who climbed by 
sterling worth from obscurity into an honorable place in the councils of the 
nation. 

PAUL GALTES. — To present the biography of the pioneer merchant 
of LJakersfield is to dejjict in many respects a commercial history of the city 
itself, with the development of which he has been identified from the days 
when it sheltered only six families up to the present time with a proudly 
acclaimed population of almost seventeen thousand. A few shanties repre- 
sented the business blocks of the village at the time of his arrival in 1871. 
The railroad had not been built and passengers had no means of conveyance 
aside from the stage or their own private vehicles. On every side the barren 
land stretched out toward the sun-stricken desert and only an optimist 
could have predicted the possibilities of irrigation. The following year, 
however, found the county-seat removed from Havilah to Bakersfield and 
the prosperity of the present dates from that period. Meanwhile the young 
Spaniard had bought a shanty with a frontage of twenty-five feet on Nine- 
teenth between K street and Chester avenue and in the small building he 
stocked groceries to the amount of $600, for the greater part of which he 
had been given credit. It should be mentioned for the good of young people 
that one of the reasons that he was given so great credit was, as was stated 
by one of the prominent wholesale merchants of San Francisco of that day, 
that the mercantile agency book stated that Paul Galtes of Bakersfield never 
entered saloons nor played cards, hence his unlimited credit. From that 
time his rise was steady, his debts were met as promised, his credit became 
first-class and he entered into the financial independence whose later fruition 
has brought him every comfort of life as well as every possibility for rest, 
travel and recreation. In 1889 he returned to his native city in Spain to 
visit old friends and again in 1911 he made a trip to Barcelona, besides tour- 
ing throughout Europe and into Palestine. 

Mr. Galtes was born near Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, October 25, 1840, 
being a son of Paul Sr., a blacksmith and a manufacturer of tools for farmers. 
After he had been given an excellent education in the Spanish language the 
son was taken from school and apprenticed for four years to the trades of 
locksmith and blacksmith. Builders' hardware also was among his special- 
ties. In those days all hardware for buildings was made by hand and he 
acquired considerable skill in the art. At the expiration of four years, during 
which he had received no pay whatever, he began to work for wages and 
traveled as a journeyman throughout Europe. In 1861 he crossed the 
ocean to Cuba and secured employment in Santiago as clerk in a dry-goods 
store, where he remained for eight years. While favorably considering an 
offer of partnership in the business trouble arose with the mother country 
over the city of Independence, a revolution seemed imminent and, rather than 
take up arms against his native land, he decided to come to California. 
The attractions of the west had been depicted to him often and always 
with alluring eloquence, therefore he was prepared to find a country of 
great possibilities and unexcelled climate. Landing at San Francisco De- 
cember 23, 1868, he found himself at great disadvantage by reason of lack 
of knowledge of English. On the advice of Archbishop Alamany of San 
Francisco, who had come from the same Spanish province as himself, he 
spent four months in language study at St. Vincent's College in Los An- 
geles. .At the expiration of that time he secured work in a Los Angeles 
bakery. During the erection of the then leading hotel he was a hired work- 
man and when the building was completed he received an appointment as 
. steward, with full charge of all supplies. For fourteen months he filled the 



308 . HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

same position at ^75 per month and this gave him a little sum to invest 
in business when he came to Bakersfield, where by 1874 he had accunudated 
$27,000 in general merchandise. During 1878 he erected the first brick 
block in the city. This cost $18,000 and was his business headquarters until 
he retired from the mercantile business in 1888. At the time of his retire- 
ment his stock was valued at $40,000 and his credit was the very best. 
His confidence in Bakersfield was shown in the erection of the first two-story 
brick block with plate glass front, a building which was burned in 1889, but re- 
placed with a block equally substantial and expensive. In retiring from the 
mercantile business it was not with any desire to enter larger affairs, but 
in order that young men ambitious to become merchants might have a 
better chance to succeed. Since then he has built the Grand hotel on the 
comer of Chester avenue and Twentieth street and the Para theatre on 
Chester between Twentieth and Twenty-first, besides which he owns an ele- 
gant residence on Truxtun and F streets. 

■ Upon the incorporation of Bakersfield and the election oi the first board 

•of trustees Mr. Galtes was elected to serve as trustee, but declined re- 
election at the end of the term. In politics he has been independent and has 
voted for the man or the principle rather than the party. For some years 
he has been a leading worker in the Kern County Pioneers' Association. In 
addition he is associated with the Knights of Columbus. At San Francisco 
in 1874 he married Miss Mariana Lexague, a native of Basses-Pyrenees, 
France. Seven children were born of the union and four are now living. 
The eldest son, Paul, Jr., a graduate of Santa Clara College, has entered 
the order of Jesuits and is now a priest in St. Louis, Mo. The younger son, 
Felix, also a graduate of Santa Clara College, is employed in the Security 
Trust Company Bank of Bakersfield. The elder daughter. Sister Mary 
Christa, is stationed at Santa Monica with the Sisters of the Holy Name. 
The younger daughter, Lucy, is the wife of Edward Helbling, of Bakersfield. 
Mr. Galtes is a member of the Roman Catholic Church. 

W, S. LIERLY. — To make mention of commercial, financial or educa- 

"tional aff'airs in Taft and to omit therefrom the name of Mr. Lierly would 
be to do an injustice to one of the pioneers of the town, one of the up- 
builders of its permanent prosperity and one of the promoters of its school 
system, a man of clear brain, strong character, iron will and strict integrity. 
The importance of his identification with Taft may be inferred from the fact 
that as senior member of the firm of Lierly & Son he owns and operates 
two barns, known as the Midway stables, engages in house-moving and 
team contracting, sells and hauls sand and gravel, owns and conducts a well 
equipped blacksmith shop, also owns the Taft harness shop (an enterprise 
of no small importance), and is president of the company, incorporated for 
$25,000 and known as the Taft Ice Delivery, the purpose of which is to 
handle and deliver ice to stores and private customers. In addition the firm 
carries on an express and transfer business at Taft and owns nine small 
houses which are rented to tenants. All of this has been accomplished and 
developed since the arrival of Mr. Lierly at Taft March 10, 1909. 

Twenty-seven miles east of Quincy in Adams county, 111., W. S. Lierly 
was born and reared. His father, Elijah W. Lierly, was taken by his parents 
to Illinois at the age of only seven years and thereafter made his home in 
Adams county, where he died at Kellerville in March of 1913. Surviving 
him are two sons and the widow, Mrs. Sarah Margaret (Hargrave) Lierly, 
the latter still living at the old Illinois homestead. There were ten children 
in the family, but two of these died in early life and a sister, Nancy, died 
at about twenty-four years ; she left a husband, Albert Huffman, and one 
child, Ansil Huffman, of Sacramento. William K., a well-to-do farmer, oc- 
cupies the old homestead in Adams county. W. S., who came to California 
at the age of seventeen, spent his first year in the west with his grandfather, 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 309 

Wilson Lierly, on a ranch in Mendocino county. May 1, 1879, he arrived 
in Santa Maria, Santa Barbara county, where he worked as a farm hand 
for one year. Next with a partner he engaged in barley farming and culti- 
vated about five hundred acres. On leaving the farm he embarked in the 
livery business in Santa Maria, where for fifteen years he conducted the 
Champion barns, bought and sold horses and established a market for his 
stock in Los Angeles. In order to secure feed and pasturage for his stock 
he became interested in agricultural undertakings and at one time leased 
two thousand acres. After he had sold the livery and retired also from 
ranching he became a special agent for the Equitable Life Insurance Com- 
pany of New York, having charge of the work in Santa Barbara, San Luis 
Obispo, Kern and Ventura counties, and remaining in the business from 
1900 to 1906. Meanwhile in 1902 he was tendered a fine gold watch, neatly 
engraved, this being the gift of the officials of the Equitable in recognition 
of his having written the greatest amount of insurance of any agent of that 
company in California. On two other occasions he won the second prizes 
in similar contests. 

From 1906 to 1908 Mr. Lierly acted as manager of the Pacific V^alley 
Lumber Company in Monterey county and he still owns a considerable 
amount of stock in that concern. While still in Monterey county he handled 
oil lands for the Standard Oil Company, making King City his headquarters, 
and during that period he made a trip of inspection to Taft, with, the ex- 
pectation of speculating to a small extent in oil lands in this field. An open- 
ing for a livery business seemed so favorable that he decided to establish 
himself at this point and he has had no reason to regret the decision, for he 
has prospered to an unusual degree. Practically his only oil interests now 
lie in four sections of land at Elk Hill. The express business, teaming and 
livery oblige him to keep about one hundred horses and mules, besides one 
Packard auto truck. A blacksmith shop is maintained for the shoeing of 
his own horses, although in addition considerable custom work is done for 
outsiders. As before stated, Lierly & Son own the Taft harness shop, a 
large block of stock in the Taft Ice Delivery and an express business and 
numerous cottages in town. One of their most important lines of business 
is the moving of houses. Each member of the firm owns a residence in 
Taft, while Mr. Lierly also owns a house at Santa Maria and large interests 
in redwood timber in Monterey county. While living in Santa Maria he 
married Miss Mary A. Blosser. daughter of L. W. Blosser, of that place. 
They are the parents of five children : Clarence E., a team contractor resid- 
ing at Imperial, this state; Lorenzo William, who operates the Packard 
auto truck for the firm ; Ray Lucas, a partner with his father in the exten- 
sive business interests of the firm ; Irene and" Nellie Margaret, both at home. 

Fraternally Mr. Lierly holds membership with San Luis Obispo Lodge 
No. 322, P). P. O. E. Politically he is a staunch Democrat. Public education 
interests him deeply. No citizen of Taft has done more for its schools than 
he. Practically ever since his arrival in the town he has served as a mem- 
ber of the school board and he now fills the position of clerk. 

HERBERT V. PROUTY, M. D.— In 18.=^2 the Prouty family was estab- 
lished in California. In the summer of that year Christopher C, born in 
Ohio in 1839, crossed the plains with other members of the family, the long 
journey being made with wagons and ox-teams. Although onh^ thirteen 
years of age, he supported himself from the time of his arrival in the west 
and contributed also to the family maintenance. Mining was his first source 
of livelihood, and later he took up farm pursuits. Eventually he became a 
large stock-raiser in the vicinity of lone. Although now to a large extent 
retired from agricultural duties, he still lives at the old homestead. Some 
years after coming west he married Australia Bennett, who was born in 



310 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Missouri and during the '50s came to California with her parents. Fourteen 
children were born of their marriage. Eleven of these are still living, the 
seventh in order of birth having been Herbert V., who was born near lone, 
Amador county, February 20, 1878, and passed the years of boyhood on the 
home farm, meanwhile attending the country schools in the winter months. 
Later he was a student in the California School of Mechanical Arts in San 
Francisco. After his graduation in 1900 he matriculated in the California 
Medical College and in that institution carried on the regular studies of the 
course. In 1904 he received the degree of M. D., and became an interne in 
the City and County hospital of San Francisco, where he remained for two 
years in that capacity and as resident physician. 

Professional interests of growing importance, first in San Francisco and 
then at Richmond, where he established and superintended a hospital, gave 
to Dr. Prouty a number of busy years prior to the failure of his health and his 
removal to another climate, and since June, 1912, he has engaged in 
practice with headquarters at McKittrick. Ever since leaving college he has 
kept in touch with professional advance and developments in therapeutics. 
Membership in the California State and National Eclectic Medical Associa- 
tions keeps him in sympathy with the general progress of the profession. In 
an especial degree he finds surgery interesting and it is his ambition to keep 
abreast with the latest developments in that important art. Since coming 
to his present, location he has engaged as surgeon at McKittrick for the 
Southern Pacific Railroad. In politics he votes with the Republican party 
and fraternally he is connected with the Modern Woodmen of America. His 
marriage was solemnized in San Jose and united him with Miss Dora Hughes, 
who was born in Kansas and by whom he has a daughter, Dorothy. 

JAMES CHATHAM ROBERTS.— From the time - of his arrival in 
Bakersfield during December of 1882 up to the present time, a period of 
about thirtv years, Mr. Roberts has been a resident of Kern county and a 
contributor to the development of its agricultural and material interests. 
Prior to his removal to the coast he had called three states his home at 
different times, namely : Missouri, where he was born near Springfield 
December 7. 1855, and where he grew to manhood upon a farm ; Illinois, 
where he engaged in general farming near Decatur from 1875 until 1879; 
and Texas, where he carried on a ranch near Pilot Point from 1879 until 
his removal to California. The family of which he is a member belongs to old 
Virginia and North Carolina stock, and his parents. H. B. and Frances 
(Duke) Roberts, were natives respectively of North Carolina and Tennes- 
see, the former dying in 1861 while serving in the Confederate army under 
General Price. A son of his first marriage. Col. E. M. Roberts, came to 
California in 1874 and settled in Kern county May 1. 1876, since which 
time he has risen to prominence and influence. The family genealogy ap- 
pears in his sketch upon another page of this volume. 

Soon after settling in this county James C. Roberts bought eighty 
acres under the Johnson canal fifteen miles west of Bakersfield and there 
he engaged in raising alfalfa and stock. At the expiration of six years he 
sold the pro])erty. Meanwhile he had served as road overseer for four 
years. A trip back to Texas occurred in 1893, when he bought a section of 
land in Floyd county with the expectation of ranching, but his plans were 
changed and he sold the tract after three months, then came back to 
California and bought eighty acres under the Beardsley canal nine miles 
northwest of Bakersfield. For ten years he devoted his attention to alfalfa 
and stock-raising. Disposing of that place he bought ten acres three miles 
north of Bakersfield on the road to the oil fields and for seven years he 
made his home on his new i)urchase. after which he disposed of all oi his 
ranch property by sale and retired to liakersfield. In this city and in 
East Bakersfield he has erected eight houses and one of these, Xo. 3"7 





li^^ieM^^ 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 313 

Grove street, is his residence. Near Decatur, 111., Jannary 4, 1877, he mar- 
ried Miss Ehzabeth J. Allmon, a native of Webster county, Mo., and a 
daughter of W'illiam and Jane T. (Cowan) Allmon, who were born in 
Tennessee, but settled in Missouri at an early day. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts 
are the parents of two children. The son, Ernest, is engaged in farming and 
lives five miles northwest of Bakersfield. The daughter, Maude, is the wife 
of A. P. Offutt and resides at Glendale, this state. Although not a partisan, 
Mr. Roberts is a stanch Democrat. 

FRANCIS ALLAN HAMLIN, M. D.— Not alone through his paternal 
forbears, but also by the ancestors of his mother. Dr. Hamlin traces his lineage 
to some of the earliest settlers of New England, whose names are linked with 
the material development of that region and whose heroism in the period 
of privation and wars entitles them to an honorable place in the annals of 
their several communities. For several generations the family has been 
represented in Maine, where Charles and Etta (Sylvester) Hamlin are now 
living at Topsham, Sagadahoc county, in the enjoyment of a material 
competency secured through years of arduous application to farming pursuits. 
The chief ambition of this couple was not the acquisition of wealth, but the 
education of their sons, Francis A., Truman L. and James A., and they con- 
sidered no hardship too great that would promote the object of their desire. 
With manly enthusiasm their sons seconded their efforts. Working unitedly 
and harmoniously, each striving to help himself yet lending good cheer and 
sympathy to the others of the home circle, they rose to positions of recog- 
nized worth. The second son is now professor of mathematics in the Uni- 
versity of Maine and the youngest son acts as principal of the high school 
at Oldtown, that state. 

The eldest son in the family was born in Oxford county, Me., June 16, 
1873, and attended the public schools of Maine between the years of six and 
fourteen, after which he attended the high school at Lancaster, Mass. The 
failure of his health forced him to give up his studies and in 1890 he came 
to California with the hope that the balmy air of the west would restore his 
strength. Joining an uncle, Francis Hamlin, in Sutter county, he began to 
work in the open air and persistently sought those occupations that would 
prove of physical benefit. For two years he remained in Sutter county or at 
Geyserville in Sonoma county, and then with renewed strength he returned 
to the old Maine homestead. After he had spent two years in the scientific 
course at Rridgton Academy situated in the lake region of Cumberland 
count}' he entered the high school at Brunswick, Me., where he graduated from 
the classical course. Matriculating in Bowdoin College he there continued 
until 1898, when he was graduated with the degree of A. B. During the next 
two years he held the principalship of Bridge Academy at Dresden Mills, 
Lincoln county. Me., and then for four years served as principal of the high 
school at Wilmington, Mass. Meanwhile he had married at Portland, Me., 
in 1900, Miss Gertrude E. Wilkie, a native of Michigan, who was reared in 
California and received excellent educational advantages in Napa College and 
the University of the Pacific. 

Returning to California during the summer of 1904, accompanied by his 
family, Mr. Hamlin established a home in San Francisco and there entered 
Cooper Medical College, now the medical department of the Leland Stanford, 
Jr., University, from which he was graduated in 1908 with the degree of M. 
D. From 1908 until 1910 he took special studies under Prof. Adolphus 
Barkan, M. D., a specialist in diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. Dur- 
ing this same period he served on the staff of Lane hospital in San Francisco 
and also acted as instructor at Cooper Medical College in the department of 
the eye, ear, nose and throat. Since coming to Bakersfield in 1910 he has 
specialized in these diseases, acquiring a wide reputation and large practice. 

With his wife and two sons, Francis Kenneth and Wilkie Sylvester, Dr. 



314 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Hamlin resides at No. 2120 B street. Since coming- to this city he and his 
wife have identified themselves with the First Congreg-ational Church. \\'hile 
living- at Dresden Mills, Me., he was made a Mason in Dresden Lodge and 
now affiliates with Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M., and King- Solomon 
Lodge of Perfection No. 3, Los Angeles. Both he and his wife were leading 
officers in Acacia Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star, at Wilmington, Mass., 
and since removing to the west have placed their membership with the chapter 
at Bakersfield. \Vhile living in San Francisco he became a member of the 
Foresters of America. Although not active in politics, he is a stanch Re- 
publican and keeps well posted in national affairs. However, it is his profes- 
sion that interests him most deeply. Upon it are concentrated the hopes and 
ambitions of a lifetime of resolute purpose. That he has been successful in 
large degree, his growing practice proves, as well as his high reputation as 
a member of the Ophthalmological Society of the Pacific Coast and the 
interest evinced in his contributions to various medical journals. In pro- 
fessional acquaintances he is not limited to the line of his specialties, but 
has a host of friends among the members of the Kern County Medical 
Society (of which he acts as secretary) and is likewise identified with the 
California State and American Medical Associations. 

M. K. McKENZIE, M. D. — Through a long line of fathers and sons the 
clan of McKenzie led in the warfare that darkened the early history of Scot- 
land and in times of peace tilled the soil according to the primeval methods 
common to those days. The founder of the name in America was one 
Douglas McKenzie. a true Scot in birth and breeding, but loyal to the welfare 
of his adopted country. The early American home of the family was on a 
farm in York state and Duncan, son of Douglas, was born near Lockport, N. 
Y., at the parental homestead, where he lived until his removal to Canada 
during young manhood. By his marriage to Elizabeth Burt, a native of Scot- 
land, he became the father of fourteen children and it is a noteworthy fact 
that every one of the large family lived to years of maturity. The thirteenth 
in order of birth, M. K., was born in the province of Ontario, Canada, in 1855, 
and at the age of one year was taken to ^lichigan by his parents, who settled 
at Stockbridge, Ingham county. The father later returned to the old McKenzie 
homestead in Ontario, Canada, where he died at the age of seventy-eight, and 
the mother when sixty-eight years of age. 

When a mere child M. K. ]\TcKenzie did a man's work at the plow and 
in the harvest field, where the old-fashioned method of cradling and binding 
g-rain by hand was still followed. Timber was plentiful in that country and 
he early became an expert woodman, swinging an axe with a skill and speed 
surpassed by few. With all of his hard work in woods and field and meadow 
he kept his mind as busy as his body and was constantly endeavoring to en- 
large his store of knowledge. He seem.ed to have a natural talent for the 
medical profession and was quite -young when he commenced to read with 
Dr. Simpson at St. George, Canada, later reading with Dr. Manwaring of 
the same town. There was, however, no well-defined purpose on his part 
to become a physician and his readings were pursued from the mere love 
of the healing art. When he left home at the age of seventeen years he began 
to make his own way in the world and devoted his leisure hours to the study 
of law under an older brother, continuing indeed until he was able to pass 
an examination for the bar, but his preference for medical work caused him 
to decide in favor of that calling. During September of 1878 he entered 
the medical department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and 
studied there until his belief in the larger clinical advantages offered by the 
Detroit Medical College led him to pursue a course of study in the latter in- 
stitution. There he became we!l acquainted with Messrs. .Stanton and Brice 
and also with the wife of ex-Governor Bagley, trustees of the Woman's hos- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 315 

pital and Foundling's Home, and by them he was accorded special privileges 
in connection with these institutions. In that way he laid the foundation 
of his splendid success in obstetrical cases and treatment of the diseases of 
women. After he graduated with the class of 1881 he opened an office at 
Plainfield, Livingston county, Mich., and there he engaged in practice for 
five years. From Plainfield he removed to Laingsburg, Shiawassee county, 
same state, where he continued until the fall of 1890, when the complete 
failure of his health forced him to seek another climate. About the time of 
his graduation he had married, March 31, 1881, Miss Millison Tyler, of Shia- 
wassee county. Of their three children two survive, Misses Lois Janet and 
Florence H., both at home. 

At the time of his arrival in Bakersfield in 1890 Dr. McKenzie weighed 
only one hundred and twenty-two pounds, but the climate of Kern county 
proved beneficial and he gradually renewed his strength. Even now, not- 
withstanding a long and arduous professional career, he is in almost perfect 
health. He has given efficient service as county physician and for fourteen 
months was superintendent of the county hospital. As guardian of the public 
health, he has fully merited his enviable reputation, while as a family phvsician 
he is known and loved by many whom he has guided safely through a critical 
physical ordeal or a lingering and dangerous illness. \A"ith true professional 
devotion he has given his life to his chosen calling and it has not been possible 
for him to engage in civic enterprises or public afifairs. However, he has kept 
well posted concerning national issues and has given stanch allegiance to the 
Republican party. In fraternal relations he holds membership with the INTa- 
sonic blue lodge and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 

JOHN BRIXTON DENIC— Coincident with the early colonization of 
America began the identification of the French family of Denio with the pio- 
neers of New York, where several successive generations lived and labored. 
The first to follow the tide of migration toward the west was William W. 
Denio, a native of Akron, Genesee county, N. Y., and a pioneer of Ingham 
county, Mich., where he cleared a farm in the oak openings and gave years 
of the most arduous efl^ort to the improvement of the homestead. Event- 
ually he sought a home in the milder climate of Missouri, where his last days 
were passed in retirement from agricultural cares. During young manhood 
he had married Miss Lucia Atkins, who was born at Elba, Genesee county, 
N. Y., and died in Kern county, Cal., at eighty-two years of age. 

On the old homestead near Lansing, Ingham county, Mich., James G., 
son of William W. Denio, w^as born and reared. For about ten years he 
worked in the lumber woods in the Grand Traverse country of Michigan, and 
he also spent a number of seasons on the lakes in the lumber trade. During 
1880 he removed from Michigan to Kansas and settled on a farm in Ottawa 
county, whence in 1887, he w-ent to Cameron Junction, Clinton county. Mo., 
to take up farming pursuits in the more southerly location. The fall of 1891 
found him in California, where he since has engaged in farming and poultry- 
raising in Kern county. At this writing he and his wife (who was Mary E. 
Bacon, a native of Sycamore, Ind.) own and have charge of a place of twenty 
acres located on the Rosedale road six and one-half miles west of Bakers- 
field. Their family numbers seven children, namely: John Britton, who 
was born at the old homestead near Lansing, Mich., September 30, 1878; 
Mrs. Daisy Stewart, of Rosedale: Truman and Hugh, of Rio Bravo; Charles, 
Esther and William. 

The first years in the life of John Britton Denio were passed in Michigan, 
Kansas and Missouri, but since the age of thirteen he has lived in California, 
where he completed a grammar-school education in the Rosedale district, 
Kern countv. From early life he has been interested in farming. From 
1906 to 1909 he w^as employed by the Kern County Land Company on the 
Rosedale ranch, where he rose to be foreman, but resigned the position in 



316 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

order to engage in farming for himself. Having purchased forty acres of 
raw land under the-Beardsley canal six miles northwest of Bakersfield, he 
at once entered upon the difficult task of converting the tract into remuner- 
ative property. Checking and leveling the land, he sowed it to alfalfa and 
now devotes his attention almost wholly to the raising of hay. In addition 
to managing his own place he leases hay and grain land from the Kern 
County Land Company. Politically Mr. Denio is a Republican. 

Mr. Denio's marriage was solemnized in the Rosedale district November 
7, 1903, and united him with Miss Bingie Kuhs, who was born in Worms, 
Germany, a daughter of Carl and Mary (Kraud) Kuhs, the father deceased, 
and the mother still living. A sister, Mrs. Nelson, and a brother, John 
Kuhs, having preceded Miss Kuhs in migrating to California, she joined them 
in Kern county, where she met and married Mr. Denio. They are the parents 
of two children, Mamie and Bessie. 

FRANCIS GEORGE MUNZER.— When the Munzer family first be- 
came identified with the industrial development of America they established 
themselves in Connecticut and in that commonwealth, at Southington, Hart- 
ford county, the birth of Francis George Munzer occurred February 2, 1859, 
his parents having been the late John Bernard and Elizabeth (Balzer) Mun- 
zer. Both families are of German descent, the Munzer records being traced 
back to the fifth century in Germany, where Johan Bernard Munzer took an 
active part in one of the religious wars. Throughout the earlier years of 
his mature activities the father conducted mercantile enterprises at South- 
ington, but eventually he became a resident of Ohio and carried on busi- 
ness at Edgerton, Williams county, near the Indiana line and not far dis- 
tant from the border of Michigan. After the death of his wife, which oc- 
curred at Edgerton, he removed to Toledo and there he passed away in 
September (if 1911. Of their thirteen children seven are still living. The 
eldest of these, Francis George, attended public schools in Southington and 
then spent two years in a private school in New York City, after which he 
continued his studies in Lewis Academy at Southington, from which in 
1878 he was graduated with an excellent standing in every department. 
During vacations he had assisted his father in the mercantile business 
and he had the further advantage of one year spent in a clerkship in New 
York City. 

Removing to Edgerton, Ohio, with his father in 1878, Mr. Munzer 
secured employment there as clerk in a drug store. After two years he re- 
signed the position and removed to Illinois, where he was given charge 
of a general store owned by F. Menig at Danville. For five years he filled 
the position with characteristic energy and recognized efficiency. In order 
to engage in business for himself he resigned as manager. During the next 
year he owned and conducted a grocery business in Danville. Selling out in 
the spring of 1886 he came to California and made a tour of inspection through 
the state, eventually selecting Bakersfield as his home. Here he secured 
a very humble position with Carr & Haggin. Six weeks of persistent industry 
as driver of a four-mule buck scraper convinced his employers that he was 
capable of higher duties and they made him bookkeeper and foreman at the 
old Jackson ranch. Health considerations caused him to go to Mendocino 
county in April of 1887 and during the next six months he worked in the 
lumber camps, remaining outdoors as much as possible. In the autumn he 
resumed his former position in Kern county. Again in April of 1888 he went 
to the lumber woods of Mendocino county and spent six months in out- 
door work, resuming his position on the Jackson ranch in the fall of the 
same year. In January of 1889 he went to the Santa Clara valley in old 
Mexico at the time of the gold excitement, but a prospecting tour of two 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 319 

months proved futile and he returned to the Jackson ranch. About that time 
he was also made foreman of the Poso ranch. 

Transferred to the headquarters office at the Bellevue ranch in May 
of 1889, Mr. Munzer was appointed payroll clerk for the north side ranch 
and continued at that place until October 1, 1890, when the company moved 
its headquarters to Bakersfield and incorporated the Kern County Land 
Company, with Mr. Munzer as chief clerk of the water department. For 
a considerable period he filled the position ; meanwhile, in July, 1892, he 
resigned his position and went to Arizona, where he had charge as office 
superintendent of the Gila Bend Irrigation Company at Sentinel, Ariz. The 
Kern County Land Company, through S. W. Ferguson, the then manager, 
wired him requesting him to return at an increased salary, and on his return, 
in November, 1892, he was made assistant office superintendent and later 
he was promoted to office superintendent, in February, 1895, ever since 
which time he has filled the important position with marked ability and 
the utmost fidelity. Like the majority of the people living in Kern county, 
he is interested in oil and oil lands. In addition with W. J. Doherty as 
partner he owns the Breckenridge Lumber Company and has mills and 
timber on Mount Breckenridge. 

December 20, 1892. at Bakersfield, occurred the marriage of Francis 
(ieorge Munzer and Mary Ellen Baker, a native of Missouri and a daughter 
of Melvin Baker, one of the pioneers of Kern county. They are the parents 
of two children. Frances Alice and Bernard Melvin. Interested in the growth 
of Bakersfield and a contributor to its progress. Mr. Munzer served for five 
years as a member of its board of trustees, is now prominently connected with 
the Merchant's Association and likewise officiates as vice-president of the 
San Joaquin Valley Water Problem Association. The Democratic party 
receives his stanch support at all elections. For many years he was an 
active member of Company G. Sixth Regiment of the California National 
Guard and finally retired with the rank of second lieutenant Made a Alason 
in Bakersfield Lodge No. 224. F. & A. M.. he later rose to the chapter 
degree in this city and furthermore wnth his wife belongs to the Eastern 
Star chanter at this place. Other organizations having the benefit of his 
interested cr-operation are the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the 
Woodmen of the World and the Bakersfield Aerie of Eagles. 

HON. JACK W. MAHON.— The family patronymic of Mahon indicates 
the Celtic origin of the race. The founder of the name upon American soil 
was Henry Mahon. a native of Ireland and for many years a planter in the 
vicinity of Raleigh. N. C. where he continued to reside until his death. 
Among his children was W. J., who was born, reared and educated in North 
Carolina and during young manhood entered the ministry of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. South. To the cause of religion he gave the deepest 
devotion of his splendid mind and the self-sacrificing loyalty of his noble 
character. In order that he might engage in ministerial work upon the then 
frontier, he removed from North Carolina to Tennessee and crossing that 
then sparsely settled state almost to the banks of the Mississippi river he 
took up raw land in Dyer county and became the founder of a church at 
Dversburg. the county-seat, where he labored with consecration for the 
advancement of Christianity. Under his able efforts his denomination made 
noteworthy advances numerically and spiritualh^ While he did not accumu- 
late riches nor indeed a competency, he was successful in his labors for the 
uplifting of the race and the world was the better for his life of toil and 
sacrifice. During the Civil war he found an opportunity to engage in religious 
activities while serving as chaplain under Gen. Kirby Smith. Coming to 
California during 1875 he became a minister in San Francisco, but later as 
presiding elder became familiar with church needs in various portions of 

17 



320 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the state. For twenty years he officiated in that responsible position. Ulti- 
mately the infirmities of age obliged him to relinquish the responsibilities 
of ministerial work and after a retirement of five years he passed away at 
his home in Bakersfield. He had reached the age of eighty-eight years. 

In the counsel and companionship of a capable helpmate Rev. W. J. 
Mahon was greatly blessed. During early manhood he had married Phoebe 
Gilbert Wood, who was born in Virginia, the daughter of George Wood, 
an Englishman identified with the early development of Virginia. The 
death of Mrs. jNIahon occurred in Modesto at the age of seventy-six years. 
In their family there were four children but only two survive. One of her 
sons, Stephen Wood Mahon, an attorney by profession and for some years 
a justice of the peace, was officiating as city recorder of Bakersfield at the 
time of his demise. The youngest son, Kirby S., is now judge of the superior 
court of Sutter county, this state. Judge Jack W. Mahon was born at Dyers- 
burg, Dyer county, Tenn., February 24, 1858, and in 1875 accompanied his 
parents to California, where later he was graduated from the Gilroy high 
school. At the completion of high-school studies he began the study of law 
under R. H. Ward, of Merced. Possessing a quick intelligence and receptive 
mind, he advanced rapidly in his readings and during 1883 was admitted to 
the bar of California. Immediately afterward he opened an office in Bakers- 
field, where he soon rose to a position of recognition as a promising young 
attorney, whose knowledge of jurisprudence was broad and whose devotion 
to the profession was intense. It soon became apparent that he was as well 
qualified for the bench as for the bar and during 1896 the Democratic party 
of Kern county nominated him for judge of the superior court. The nomina- 
tion was endorsed by the Populists. The election brought him a handsome 
majority and in January of 1897 he took the oath of office. At the expiration 
of the first term in 1902 he was re-elected and again in 1908 he was chosen 
to be his own successor. The success of his official labors was shown in 
the fact that in the campaign of 1908 he had no opposition, all parties 
appreciating his able service to such an extent that they brought forward no 
other candidate for the office. 

Reared in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, Judge 
Mahon has never swerved from his allegiance to the denomination so long 
honored by the faithful ministerial labors of his father. While not deeply 
interested in fraternities, he was won by the philanthropic tenets of the 
Masonic Order and entered its blue lodge, later rising to the Royal Arch 
degree. His marriage took place in Bakersfield and united him with Miss 
Rachel E. Nash, a native of Dyer county, Tenn., and a graduate of an educa- 
tional institution in New York state. Of the union two children were born, 
the elder, Ruth Estabrook, being now the wife of Ernest Alston, of Los 
Angeles, while the younger. Jack Howell, is a student in the Vanderbilt 
University at Nashville, Tenn. It is said of Judge Mahon that no enterprise 
for the permanent progress of Bakersfield lacks his intelligent co-operation. 
On the contrary, he has been generous in his sympathetic assistance given 
to civic measures and has proved public-spirited and progressive in his broad 
comprehension of and tactful participation in movements of far-reaching value 
to permanent civic prosperity. 

GRANVILLE L. BROWN, D. D. S.— The family represented by this 
well-known practitioner of Bakersfield comes from Kentuckian and Virgin- 
ian ancestry and he himself claims Kentucky as his native commonwealth, 
having been born in Allen county, January 12, 1859. Likewise the Blue 
Grass state was the native home of his parents, Henry and Margaret (Patton) 
Brown, both of whom remained in the state throughout their lives, the 
father following the occupation of a farmer as a source of livelihood. Of 
this union there were four children, the third being Granville L., who was 
reared on the old Kentucky farm and received a fair education in local 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 323 

schools. For a time he en^aj^ed in teachin,2^ in the public schools and with 
the earninij-s of his labor he entered into mercantile enterprises with a 
brother at Scottsville, Allen county. It was not. however, his intention to 
devote his life either to pedagoc^y or to business, for he had early been inter- 
ested in the profession of dentistry and had an ambition to enter its study 
and practice. Throuq-h a course in the dental department of the University 
of Tennessee he gained a fair knowledge of the profession and, not having" 
the means necessary to complete the regular course, he entered upon dental 
practice before he had been graduated. Later he was able to return to the 
university, complete the course and finish the regular work, so that in 1890, 
when he was g^raduated with a very high standing, he received the degree 
of D. D. S. from the institution. 

Prior to gfraduation Dr. Rrown not only had practiced for two years at 
Burkesville, Cumberland county, Ky.. but also had entered upon a very 
successful professional connection with the city of Glasgow. Ky.. where 
altogether he practiced about ten years. Meanwhile he had met and mar- 
ried Miss Clara Dickey, who was born, reared and educated in that Kentuckv 
town, and is a representative of a cultured old Southern family. Upon 
leaving- Kentuckv to engage in practice in California in 1892, the Doctor 
chose Bakersfield on account of its excellent prospects for material growth, 
its healthful climate and its professional opportunities, and he certainlv has 
had no cause to regret his decision. At first he had an ofiice in the Galtes 
building, but removed to the Scribner opera building, on the comple- 
tion of that structure and when the Producers' Bank building was com- 
pleted he leased a suite of rooms in it. his present location. With his wife 
and son. Arthur B., he resides in a comfortable home in East Bakersfield, 
the same having been planned and built by himself. Since coming to Bakers- 
field he has been a member of the Southern California Dental Association, in 
which his ability well qualifies him for a leadership which his characteristic 
modesty prevents him from claiming. In politics he votes with the Republi- 
can party. 

f^IMON W. WIBLE.— Born near Greensburg. Pa.. Mr. Wible reinoved 
to Illinois with his father, Peter Wible, and had settled near Mendon. Adams 
county. The difficult task of transforming a raw tract of land into a produc- 
tive farm had filled his boyhood years with strenuous labor and had prevented 
him from attending school regularly, although during the winter months 
it was his custom to study in a near-by log schoolhouse, which with its slab 
benches and puncheon floors presented a striking contrast to the educational 
equipment of the present generation. When old enough to start out for 
himself he determined to follow the tide of emigration to California and 
accordinclv during the spring of 1852 he joined an expedition bound for the 
west, making the trip with wagons and oxen. Later he returned east and 
broue-ht out a second wagon-train. During the svimmer of 1858 he piloted 
a third train through, but on that trip he met with trouble, for the Indians 
senarated the train by a stampede and not only stole all of the stock, but 
killed a number of the emigrants. Forced to flee for his life and left without 
a horse, the young captain of the train walked to Fort Laramie, where he 
found an opnortunity to join another expedition and thus came through to 
the coast. For years he engaged in mining and, indeed, he never lost his 
interest in the occupation, for at the time of his death he owned and operated 
a valuable mine in Alaska. Meanwhile he picked up a thorough knowledge 
of surveying and came to be reckoned among the most efficient surveyors and 
civil engineers on the coast. Much of his work was done for the government. 

It was about 1872 when Mr. Wible took up a homestead claim tw^elve 
miles west of Bakersfield and began to cultivate the land and raise crops 
suited to the soil and climate. From time to time he bought stock and finally 
he ranked among the extensive sheepmen of the county. Other interests 



324 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

filled his days with busy activities. The original work on the Pioneer canal 
was unsatisfactory and on that account it was turned over to him. Under 
his charge as superintendent an improvement was made. When Henry 
Miller came to Bakersfield to look up matters pertaining to the reclamation 
of the ^liller & Lux lands, which some man had attempted to drain, but only 
with partial success, he sought out Mr. Wible and asked his opinion. Mr. 
Wil)le claimed the lands could be reclaimed and he could do it, providing he 
had the money. Instantly Mr. Miller responded that he -had the money. 
Thereupon Mr^ Wible made plans and these proved satisfactory to Mr. Miller, 
who appointed him to superintend the work. Under his supervision the 
dam and Buena Vista reservoir were built, an outlet or drainage canal was 
dug and levees made to turn the water in and out of the lake, also a canal to 
carry the water to the lake. The venture proved an overwhelming success. 
Farming land was made out of the once worthless tules. Seventy-five thou- 
sand acres were placed under cultivation as a result of this great feat of engi- 
neering. During the process of building Mr. Wible checked as desired against 
the Miller & Lux account without the necessity of any O. K.'s, being the only 
man ever permitted to do so. After the completion of this task he continued 
with the same firm as general manager of their ranches until about 1900, 
when he retired from active labors. However, he did not relinquish all in- 
terests, for he retained the management of his large mine near Sunrise on 
the Kenai peninsula in Alaska and each summer for eleven years he went to 
that region to superintend the operation of the mine. Upon his return from 
his eleventh trip of this kind he was taken ill and died in San Francisco 
September 13, 1911, at the age of eighty years. 

The death of Mr. Wible marked the passing of one of the most influential 
pioneers of Kern county. Every line of activity had felt the impetus of his 
large endeavors. The Bank of Bakersfield was organized under his efficient 
supervision and he continued to serve as president as long as he lived. When 
in 1858 he joined lone Lodge of Odd Fellows, he had the distinction of 
being one of the first to be initiated into that order in the entire state. The 
fruit industry num.bered him among its progressive pioneers and his enthusi- 
asm in starting an orchard and vineyard encouraged many others to follow 
his example. He was one of the very first to succeed in horticulture in Kern 
county and the orchard of four hundred and eighty acres which he planted 
continued under his personal oversight until it was sold during 1910. When 
the water works were in an embryonic phase of development he and W. H. 
Scribner took charge of the enterprise, developed the plant, built a complete 
line of mains into every part of the city, turned an uncertain project into a 
valuable system and he continued to act as president of the Bakersfield 
\A^ater Company until its interests were sold to the Kern County Land Co. 

DIXON DOUGHERTY.— Since the age of twelve years Dixon Dough- 
erty has lived in California. Born at Old Vincennes, Ind., January 6, 1861, 
he was one of seven children, of whom only himself and his brother, 
C. A., are still living. The parents, both of whom died in Indiana, were 
Joseph A. and Palace (Horsey) Dougherty, natives respectively of Pennsyl- 
vania and Paoli, Orange county, Ind., the former a farmer for many years, 
but also for a time a merchant in Vincennes. J. P. was the first of the sons 
to come to California, and in 1873 C. A. and Dixon came together to join 
their older brother, with whom they spent a short time at Pleasanton, Ala- 
meda county. Next they went to San Diego with the intention of proceed- 
ing to Mexico and there embarking in the cattle business, but the fierce 
Apaches were on the war path at the time and the older brother advised 
against the expedition. Accordingly Dixon went to Sacramento and found 
employment. After his first trip to Bakersfield in 1875 he went to Los An- 
geles and from there to the suburb of Artesia, where with his brothers he 
engaged in farming for two years. Upon returning to Kern county in 1877 




m 



V//': 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 327 

he found employment on a ranch owned by Charles Jewett and located in 
the Breckenridge mountains. After eighteen months on the ranch he was 
brought to Bakersfield by Mr. Jewett, who gave him employment as driver 
of an ice wagon and in that position he continued for two years. Meanwhile 
having married Miss Mary Kubovec, a native of Austria, he and his wife 
found a desirable opening for a hotel business and for three years operated 
the American Exchange on Eighteenth street. 

An opportunity to secure a homestead took Mr. Dougherty back to the 
Breckenridge mountains, where he entered the southeast quarter of section 
18, township 29. range 31, and established headquarters at Dripping Springs 
ranch. On the land he put up necessary buildings. The place was fenced 
and cross-fenced, so that he could handle his stock advantageously, and also 
that he might devote some fields to the raising of grain. For years he made 
a specialty of the shorthorn Durham breed of cattle and in stock-raising 
operations he was more than ordinarily successful. Meantime he had added 
to the original claim until his ranch comprised three hundred and twenty 
acres, besides using other ranges for his stock, bearing the 7L brand. After 
he and his wife had lived on the mountain ranch about five years he estab- 
lished a home for the family in East Bakersfield, in order that the two sons 
might attend the city schools, but he himself remained on the ranch and 
gave personal attention to the cattle. After he disposed of the property in 
1913 he came to East Bakersfield to remain, and since has given attention 
to the supervision of his alfalfa farm near the city, and also to the care of 
the various residences he has built here, five of which houses still remain in 
his possession. His younger son, Joseph A., assists him in his various 
enterprises, while the older son, Charles R., has embarked in the stock busi- 
ness independently and now conducts a stock ranch at Adobe Station. 

HARRY QUINN. — The Quinn family springs from Scottish ancestry 
and has an honorable history extending back to eras far antedating the relig- 
ious persecutions in that country. About that time some of the name, forced 
to flee from their native land on account of their religious views, found a 
safe and permanent refuge in the north of Ireland, where, at Kilkeel, county 
Down, Harry Quinn was born on Christmas day of 1843 and where during 
boyhood he attended the national schools. He was the son of Thomas and 
Margaret (Donaldson) Quinn, the latter the daughter of William Donald- 
son, who was a wholesale baker and confectioner in Kilkeel. The paternal 
grandfather, William Quinn, was a farmer and also a linen merchant. In 
his family of ten children there were seven sons, all successful business or 
trades men. Thomas Quinn, the seventh child in order of birth, became a 
farmer near Kilkeel and resided there throughout the remainder of his life. 

The necessity of earning his own livelihood sent Harry Quinn to Aus- 
tralia at the age of fifteen years and there he prospected and mined, but with- 
out success. After this experience he worked on stock ranches and thus 
was enabled to save an amount of money sufficient for another stake. ^Vhile 
on his way from Melbourne to Queensland he heard of a new strike, but 
returning miners brought back discouraging reports and while waiting there 
he saw the American barque Penang, which, on account of the fact that it 
was Sunday, was displaying American flags. Mr. Quinn remarked to his 
companions: "Boys, there is my flag and my country," and the next day 
he not only purchased a ticket for himself to San Francisco, but also for 
three companions. Two of them afterward repaid him at the first oppor- 
tunity, and the third paid one-fifth of his indebtedness. It was about May, 
1868, that Mr. Quinn landed at San Francisco, a stranger in a strange land. 
\^ orking his way from place to place he was able to see much of the state, 
but did not find a location or an opportunity suited to his condition. He 
had been reared to a knowledge of the sheep industry, so it was his desire 



328 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

to buy sheep and rent land for their pasturage, but at the time sheep were 
held at a figure far beyond his reach. As early as 1868 he came to Kern 
county for the first time, but did not locate here permanently then. In 
1872 he found employment with Archibald Leitch, an extensive sheep-raiser 
and large land-owner in Stanislaus county, who, being pleased with the 
energy and ability of young Quinn, sent him into Kern county as pilot for 
his flocks, and at the end of two years took him into partnership. The 
connection continued with mutual profit until the death of Mr. Leitch in 
1896, and afterward with the estate until 1906, whereu]K)n the interest in the 
land and sheep was purchased by Mr. Quinn. 

It was during the year 1873 that ^Ir. Quinn purchased one-half interest 
in twenty-two hundred head of sheep and also took up a pre-emption claim 
of one hundred and sixty acres where his residence now stands. Besides this 
he bought railroad land and also acquired large tracts from homesteaders who 
were unable to prove up on their claims. During the early days in the history 
of Kern cnunty the Ouinn farm was the only place in miles where a traveler 
could obtain water and hence emigrants headed for the ranch from every 
direction, watering their stock and resting awhile as they enjoyed the never- 
failing hospitality and cheerful welcome of Mr. Quinn. At his home the 
latch-string was always hanging out and no one was too humble or too 
poor to feel the hearty inspiration of his welcoming hand. His splendid 
hospitality made him known to and loved by early settlers throughout all 
this part of the country. At one time he owned as high as twenty-two 
thousand acres, but in 1906 he sold a large tract to a company of promoters 
and it is now being planted to orange trees. At present he still owns fifteen 
thousand acres. 

While in the main successful in his enterprises and particularly so in 
his sheep-raising ventures, Mr. Quinn had his share of misfortune. During" 
the serious drought of 1877 he was forced to seek new ranges for his sheep. 
With a flock of eighteen thousand six hundred and sixty sheep he went 
into Nevada and at first found abundant pasturage, but while at Fish Lake 
valley he was caught in a severe snow-storm and fifteen thousand sheep 
perished at one time. On his return to Kern county he had only twenty- 
seven hundred head of sheep and was $5,000 in debt. Undismayed by a 
catastrophe that would have discouraged most men, he started in anew 
and in a few years had paid olT his debt, enlarged his Bc^k and secured 
another foothold financially. For many years he was engaged in raising 
thoroughbred French merinos, and the high grade of the stock can be esti- 
mated when it is known that his sheep were not onlv shipped into all parts 
of the United States for breeding purposes, l)ut also to Mexico, South 
.America and Africa. After a long association with the sheep industry he 
sold the last of his flock about 1911 and since then has devoted his attention 
wholly to raising Short-horn Durham cattle. Not only was he the first set- 
tler on the plains east of Delano in Kern county, but besides he merits men- 
tion because he is one of the few successful men who have engaged in dry 
farming and stock-raising on the plains. The Quinn ranch is located ten 
miles east of Delano and lies principally in Rag gulch, although some parts 
of it lie in the Sierra Nevadas inside of the forest reserve. The ranch i> well 
improved with a new, modern residence, which was completed in Decem- 
ber, 1912, and is also ecpiipped with the needed farm buildings and three 
pum!)ing plants. The sons are now preparing to set out forty acres to 
oranges. 

Several of tlie state conventions of the Democratic party have been 
attended by Mr. Quinn, who maintains a warm interest in political aifairs. 
For vears he has served as a trustee of the local schools. Fraternallv he is 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY • 329 

a charter member of I'nrter Lods^e, I. ( ). (). V., was made a .Mason in 
\isalia Lodge No. 123, !•". & A. AI., is a member of Visalia Chai)ter Xo. 44, 
R. A. M.. Visalia Commandery, K. T., \'isalia Consistory. Scottish Rite, 
thirty-second degree, and is also a member of Islam Temple, X. .M. S., 
of San Francisco. Mr. Ouinn's marriage, solemnized in Robertson county, 
X. C., December 15, 1886, united him with Miss Katie Robertson, who was 
born in Robertson county, X. C. on the last day of the year 1858. Seven 
chihben wet e born of the union and to each has been given the educational 
training essential to a thorough preparation for life's activities. The eldest 
daughter. ]\,larguerite, is the wife of Xelson Smith. The eldest son, John, 
who graduated with the class of 1912, l^niversity of California, at Berkeley, 
with the degree of P.. S., is assisting his father in the management of the 
ranch. Tom, the second son, has charge of his father's stock. The third 
son. Archie, a graduate of the Bakersfield high school, class of 1912, is also 
assisting in the care of the stock. The youngest daughters, Marv and Mil- 
dred, are attending college at Oakland during the winter months, while 
in the summer they are with their parents on the ranch near Delano. The 
youngest son. Cletus, is attending the Kern county high school at P.akersfield! 

HERBERT C. MOSHER.— The secretary and treasurer of the Toroey 
& Jones Company, Incorporated, of INTaricopa, has been a resident of Califor- 
nia almost from his earliest recollections. Born in Georgia October 25, 
1872. he was scarcely four years of age when in 1876 the family became resi- 
dents of Los Angeles, where he received such advantages as the public 
schools then ofTered. supplemented bv a course of studv in the normal school. 
After his graduation from the normal in 1892 he began to teach in the schools 
of Goleta, Santa Barbara comity, where he continued in the same school for 
two years, and then devoted the next two vears to similar work in the Los 
Angeles city schools. Resigning- his position and retiring from educational 
pursuits, he turned to an industrv then newly inaugurated in the state. This 
was the raising of sugar beets. At that time Oxnard was the only center 
of the industry in the state and he took up land in Ventura county near the 
Oxnard factory, where he engaged in raising beets for a few years. 

Coming to Bakersfield in 1899 Mr. Mosher began an active and prominent 
identification with the upbuilding of Kern county, an association that at first 
lent helpful aid to the making of good roads. Forming a partnership with 
his brother. T. W. Mosher, he organized the firm of Mosher Brothers, which 
in 1900, under the oversight of Supervisor H. A. Jastro, oiled the first roads 
in the entire San Joaquin valley. Their contract called for the oiling of about 
seventy miles of road and the results were so satisfactory that thev were 
called to different parts of the state by those desirous of securing good roads 
in their communities. Eventually J. W. Mosher established headquarters for 
the business at Stockton and with that as a center he carries on a large busi- 
ness in the oiling of roads, an interest in the concern being retained by Her- 
bert C. Mosher, who, however, of recent years has given over to the brother 
the active management of the entire enterprise. 

The business identification of Air. Mosher with the new town of Mari- 
copa began in 1909, when he organized the Gate City Oil Company and pur- 
chased forty acres owmed by the Maricopa Oil Company. After a period as 
manager of the Gate City he resigned in order to give his attention to other 
interests, but he still holds stock in the concern. As secretary and treasurer 
of Torpey & Jones Company, Incorporated, he is connected with a pioneer 
mercantile enterprise of Maricopa, having during June of 1909 purchased 
the interest of J. D. Jones in the firm. At that time the company occupied 
twelve hundred feet of floor space, but since then they have erected addi- 
tional rooms and now use five thousand feet of floor space. The same com- 
pany also supplies the town with water, controlling the stock in the Maricopa 



330 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Water Company. Prior to tlie organization of that concern water was 
shipped in from Bakersfiekl and was consequently so expensive that its use 
was limited to the most stern necessities. Torpey & Jones conduct business 
upon the department system and each department is practically a complete 
store in itself. The groceries, dry-goods, ladies' and gent's furnishings, sup- 
plies for oil men, wines and hardware, are indicative of the lines carried in 
stock and of the quality of the same. The first president, F. T. Torpey, was 
the pioneer merchant of Maricopa and the remarkable growth of the business 
is largely due to the substantial foundations laid by him at the start. The 
firm passed through the disastrous fire of June 20, 1911, and aided in the 
work of rebuilding. They promoted the incorporation of Maricopa as a city, 
which occurred July 20, 1911, and since then all members of the company 
have given liberally of time and means to further civic projects, Mr. Mosher 
having served first by appointment as a member of the board of trustees, later 
elected to the position April 8, 1912, after which he was chosen chairman of 
the board, a position equivalent to that of mayor. He resigned from said 
board on account of very pressing business duties in May, 1913. 

FRANZ BUCKREUS.— The superintendent of the Kern county hos- 
pital is of German birth and the descendant of a long line of honored Teutonic 
ancestors, his parents having been Dr. Michael and Babetta (Sauer) Buck- 
reus, the former a graduate physician and the son of a Bavarian millwright. 
For a long period Dr. Buckreus engaged in professional labors in the pros- 
perous village of Bamberg, lying along the banks of the Main river in Ober- 
franken, Bavaria, and there occurred the birth of his third child, Franz. 
November 30, 1845. After he had been given the advantages of the national 
schools and gymnasiums he was taken into the doctor's office and taught the 
principles of surgery as well as the treatment of disease. The death of the 
father in 1866 prevented him from gaining a comprehensive knowledge of 
materia medica and obliged him to work diligently to support the family. 
At first he engaged in nursing the sick and during the Franco-Prussian war 
he held a position in the sanitary department of the army. Coming to the 
United States in 1871 he followed the barber's trade in New York, New 
Jersey and Connecticut successively. January of 187S found him in Cali- 
fornia and during March of the same year he came to Bakersfield. where 
he worked as a journeyman barber for six months, and then established a 
shop on Chester avenue on the present site of Scribner's opera house. Later 
he conducted a shop in the Arlington hotel, but in 1883 he sold out to accept 
the position of superintendent of the Kern county hospital, which had been 
established in 1881. Since then his own history has been practically that 
of the institution which he manages. 

The early home of the hospital was on G between Thirteenth and Four- 
teenth streets and there it was conducted until the inadequacy of the facilities 
there afforded compelled a dififerent location and larger quarters. During 
1895 removal was made to Nineteenth and Oak streets, where there are six 
acres of grounds picturesquely adorned with trees and shrubs planted by 
the superintendent, whose good taste and artistic ability are reflected in the 
entire arrangement of the place. Under his trained judgment the grounds 
have been converted into an attractive park with permanent walks and lawn, 
beautified further by flowers and ornamental trees. However, the superin- 
tendent has proved more than a successful landscape gardener, for in the 
management of the institution he has been efficient, reliable and capable. 
The main building, two stories in height with a frontage of two hundred and 
twenty feet, proved too small, and in 1911 the company added a sixty-foot 
wing on the east to be utilized partly as a surgical ward and operating room. 
The capacity has been increased from seventy-five to one hundred patients. 
An excellent system of heating, lighting and ventilation has been introduced 
and the entire equipment bespeaks the oversight of a wise intelligence. 





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//^^ U\M^^ijx^/\^i ^fliiO/M^iU. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 335 

In the days when it was impossible for Kern county to pay a health 
officer Mr. Buckreus served in that position gratuitously. When the county 
was able to give him some recompense for his services, he was paid $25 
per month. The service without pay lasted for six years and the service 
with pay covered eight years, at the expiration of which time the state legis- 
lature passed a bill requiring all health officers to possess medical diplomas. 
In politics Mr. Buckreus has been a Democrat ever since he became familiar 
with the national issues of his adopted country. For twelve years he 
officiated as county coroner and public administrator, having been appointed 
to fill a vacancy in 1890. At the expiration of that term in 1892 he was elected 
for two years. During 1894 he was elected for a term of four years and 
again in 1898 for four years, holding the office until January of 1903, when 
he retired. Upon the organization of the Benevolent Protective Order of 
Elks in Bakersfield he became a charter member of Lodge No. 266, in the 
upbuilding of which he has maintained a warm interest. In addition he has 
been actively associated with the Knights of Pythias. 

CHRISTIAN MATTLY.— A gratifying degree of success has rewarded 
the industrious effcirts of Mr. Mattly, whose profitable management of a 
dairy industry in Kern county furnishes evidence as to the possibilities of the 
business in this part of the state and also bears testimony concerning his own 
abilities in that direction. The fact that he comes of a long line of Swiss 
ancestors, among whom were not a few famous cheese-makers and skilled 
dairymen, may account in part for his own talents in the same direction. 
When it is considered that he was only seven years of age when he lost his 
father and that he had no influential friends to assist him in getting a start 
in California when he landed here without means, his present high standing 
indicates his determination of character and energy of temperament. Born 
at Zillis, Canton Graubunden, Switzerland. March 30, 1852, he was a son of 
Leonard and Menga (Cayori) Mattly, natives of the same canton as himself 
and lifelong residents thereof, the father dying in 1859 and the mother in 
1885. There were five children in the family and four of these are still living. 
Christian having been next to the youngest of the number. After he had 
attended school for some years he was apprenticed to the trade of a stone- 
cutter and from that time earned his own way in the world. During 1873 
he came from Europe to the United States and settled at Gilroy, Cal., but 
after eight months of work he removed to Marin county and secured employ- 
ment in a dairy at Point Reyes. Another six months were passed there and in 
1874 he came to Kern county, where he pre-empted one hundred and sixty 
acres on Kern Island, fifteen miles from Bakersfield. 

Six years spent upon the pre-emption claim were followed by employ- 
ment with W. Canfield, owner of a dairy, in which Mr. Mattly engaged 
a^ foreman and buttermaker. Previous experience aided him in the work 
and he soon proved himself to be skilled in that occupation. Encouraged 
by his evident fitness for the calling, in 1885 he embarked in the dairy busi- 
ness for himself, buying three hundred and twenty acres fourteen miles south- 
west of Bakersfield and at once starting a herd of milch cows. The land 
was under irrigation and the raising of alfalfa was thus made possible. From 
the first he was prosperous. Industry and wise management brought their 
deserved returns. Skill in the manufacture of butter and cheese brought him a 
steadily growing business. As time passed he added to his possessions until 
he had acquired five hundred and fifty-three acres in one body, all under 
irrigation and well suited to alfalfa. All of the hay raised was fed to the 
stock during the winter months. A specialty was made of the shorthorn red 
Durham cattle and at times he milked as many as one hundred and twenty 
cows with the aid of his hired help. When he first settled on the ranch he 
manufactured butter in the old-fashioned way. but this soon proved to be too 
tedious and so he began to put in machinery and at the time he rented the 



336 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

dairy to others in 1903 he had it fitted out with modern conveniences of the 
most approved desij^ns. Upon leavino^ that farm he settled four miles south 
of Bakersfield, where he had bought an alfalfa ranch of eighty acres. On the 
new farm he started another dairy and this he conducted until 1910 with 
continued success, eventually renting tlie property and then selling it to 
others. Retiring from the arduous labors that had filled his life from early 
manhood, in 1910 he erected an attractive and commodious residence on the 
corner of Eighteenth and B streets, where he and his family since have made 
their home. While residing on the big ranch he established family ties, the 
ceremony occurring April 6, 1896. His wife, formerly Nina Weichelt, is a 
native of the same part of Switzerland as himself and came in 1893 to Cali- 
fornia, where she was married in Kern county. Born of their union are three 
sons, Leonard, Gotleib and Christian. The family are identified with the 
Lutheran denomination and Mr. Mattly has been a regular contributor to 
religious enterprises. Since becoming a citizen of the United States he has 
voted with the Republican party. Upon the organization of the Security 
Trust Company he was elected a director and since then he has continued 
a member of the board. Fraternally he is associated with the Knights of 
Pythias and the Uniform Rank, K. P. Buth himself and wife are members 
of the Kern County Pioneer Society. Always interested in educational work 
and a stanch believer in the free-school system, for some years he officiated 
as director of the Old River school district and during that time of service 
he promoted the school work and advanced the grade of scholarship through 
his capable and constant support. 

ANGUS J. CRITES. — The honored and influential pioneer family of 
Crites, founded in Kern county during the latter part of the '50s by Angus 
M. Crites and connected by marriage with another leading old family, that 
of Jewett, has lost none of its early prestige or long-time popularity through 
the commercial activities of the present generation, one of whom, Angus 
J. Crites, has acquired a wide reputation as a successful and efficient super- 
intendent in the Kern river oil fields. It is said by competent judges that 
the Kern river district holds no better oil lease than that of the Peerless Oil 
Company, the high standing of which results from the able supervision of 
the manager. Having filled his present position since 1904, he has become 
familiar with the entire district and especially with the growing possibilities 
of the Peerless at Oil Center, which had thirty-four wells at the time of his 
original association with the company, but has increased its leases until in 
1913 it has fifty-eight wells, all of them productive and remunerative. 

Relative to the family history, it may be stated that Angus M. Crites 
settled at Kernville about the year 1858 and was one of the original miners 
at Havilah, then the county-seat. By his marriage to Louisa Jewett, he be- 
came a brother-in-law of Solomon Jewett, one of the most influential pio- 
neers of the county. For years he engaged in ranching and stock-raising 
and at times had as many as five hundred head of cattle on his range. 
Having valuable water rights on Clear creek, he was able to engage in the 
stock business with more success than many. /\mong his children was 
Arthur Saxe, who as Colonel Crites has been prominently connected with 
the Second California National Guard and at this writing also fills the posi- 
tion of cashier of the First Bank of Kern. Another son, Angus J., whose 
name introduces this article, was born in Bakersfield April 26, 1874, and 
passed the years of boyhood on the family ranch near Tehachapi. When a 
public school was established at Keene he became one of the first pupils 
and there gained a practical education. In company with his father he 
engaged in mining in Caliente valley, also in the vicinity of Sageland and 
Red Rock. At the age of twenty-three he entered the employ of the Jewett 
& Blodgett Oil Company. During the seven years of his association with 
the company he helped to develop oil fields in the Sunset, Hazleton and 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 337 

Maricopa districts. When thirty years of age he became connected with 
the Peerless Oil Company, first acting as superintendent of their lands at 
Coalinga, then coming to the Kern river field as superintendent at Oil Cen- 
ter. The Peerless, which under his management has become one of the 
most profitable properties in the entire field, utilizes about twenty-four hun- 
dred horse-power day and night and has successfully installed an air-lift 
system as well as other modern improvements. The storage capacity has 
been increased until now it aggregates two hundred thousand barrels. Mr. 
Crites is a Republican and belongs to the Masons and Elks. 

By Mr. Crites' marriage to Miss Mary Kirkpatrick, a native of Dry Run, 
Pa., he has two daughters, Dorothea and Catharine. The family maintain 
their residence on the Peerless lease. Mr. Crites is an enthusiast on the 
subject of good roads, and with such men taking hold of the project it is 
safe to say that Kern county will soon have first-class county roads. 

THOMAS J. O'BOYLE.— Born at Scran ton, Pa., October 19, 1833, he was 
the son of a poor miner who lost his life in the coal mines during 1863. The 
struggle to support the family, always most difificult, was rendered doubly 
acute by this catastrophe and the boy of ten years soon had to go into the 
mines, where he was employed in driving a mule and in picking the slate 
from the coal. The death of his mother left him wholly orphaned and de- 
pendent upon his own efforts for food and clothing. Needless to say that 
he suffered from the lack of necessities, yet he bore his hardships with 
patience and worked with the good cheer sometimes lacking in those older 
than he was at the time. At the age of eighteen he became an apprentice 
to the trade of a machinist in the shops of the Delaware, Lackawanna & 
Western Railroad, where he remained until he had completed his time. 
During 1873 he became clerk in a dry-goods store and remained in that 
business for four years, after which he secured employment in the oil fields 
of Pennsylvania. Meanwhile the lure of the west had weakened the ties 
that bound him to his native commonwealth. Traveling by way of Cincin- 
nati toward the west, he w^orked for a time in Arkansas and followed the 
machinist's trade as well as the dry-goods business. 

Upon coming to California in 1879 Mr. O'Boyle first settled at Sutter 
creek in Amador county, where he found employment in a dry-goods store. 
Two years later he came to Bakersfield. His search for employment met 
with success in the machine shops of the Southern Pacific Railroad at Kern. 
From the first he was interested in local affairs. When the village of Sum- 
ner was incorporated as the city of Kern he was one of the enthusiastic 
supporters of the project and was elected a member of the first board of 
trustees, serving as such for six years. From 1887 to 1889 he engaged in 
the general mercantile business at Kern and later bought and started to con- 
duct the Paul Gates store in Bakersfield, but in 1889 he lost everything by 
fire. Lacking the necessary capital to embark anew in mercantile pursuits, 
he took a position as bookkeeper and accountant. The Democrats of the 
town co-operated to secure the Kern postmastership for him during the 
administration of Grover Cleveland and he filled the position acceptably for 
four years, besides which he served as justice of the peace at Kern for some 
years. During the early period of his identification with Kern county he 
purchased the Cosmopolitan hotel from John E. Bailey and conducted the 
same for three years. 

The department store of Heard & Painter was started at Taft during 
March of 1909 by J. W. Heard and C. C. Painter and Judge O'Boyle came 
to the village shortly afterward for the purpose of keeping books for the 
new firm. Later he was placed in the dry-goods department as a salesman. 
Upon the organization of the district in the fall of 1910 he was elected 
justice of the peace, which position he had filled previously by appointment. 
As an indication of his high standing it may be stated that in Midway 



338 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

precinct No. 2 only eight votes were cast against him out of a total of five 
hundred and fifty, while in the other precincts every ballot was in his favor. 
Since then he has given his attention to the duties of the office, which he 
has filled with an impartial spirit and a comprehensive knowledge of the 
law. He is a member of the Eagles and Foresters. 

The first marriage of Judge O'Boyle took place in 1882 and united him 
with IMiss Margaret Dugan, who died after a few years. Two of their 
children, Thomas and Monica, also are deceased, the sole survivor being 
Edward, assistant cashier of the First Bank of Kern. During 1890 occurred 
the marriage of Judge O'Boyle to Miss Nellie Moore, by whom he became 
the father of two children. The son, Thomas, is deceased. The daughter. 
Miss Alary, is now employed as bookkeeper in the California market. 

REGINALD A. FERGUSSON, M. D.— The genealogy of the Fergusson 
family is traced 1)ack to the old Scotch clan of that name in Fergus 
Castle in Stirlingshire. In the midst of such picturesque but isolated sur- 
roundings was passed the early life of William Long Fergusson, M. D., 
whose professional skill and splendid Scotch qualities of mind and heart 
brought him a large circle of friends and admirers. For a considerable 
period prior to the memorable revolution that culminated in the execution 
of Alaximilian in 1867 he had officiated as private physician to that ill-fated 
emperor. Upon returning to Great Britain he took up the practice of 
medicine in Claremont Square, London, where he remained until his death, 
meanwhile rising to professional prominence in the metropolis of the world. 
While living at New Granada he had been bereaved by the death of his 
wife, who was a Miss Chapman, of English birth and education. The only 
son of that union, Reginald Archibald, was born in New Granada in 1857 
and received a classical education in England and Scotland. After having 
graduated from Oxford he took his medical course in the Royal College of 
Physicians in Edinburgh, from which he received the degree of M. D. Later 
he took a post-graduate course in London and then embarked in practice 
at Corn Hill Exchange in that city. 

Coming to Southern California in 1881, Dr. Fergusson opened an office 
in Los Angeles. A year later he removed to Bakersfield, where soon his 
professional skill became recognized. A constantly increasing practice 
filled the ensuing years. Among his co-laborers his standing was the high- 
est. It is said that he was without exception the leading physician of his 
day and locality, and combined with professional prominence was the pres- 
tige associated with culture acquired by association with people of the high- 
est refinement and by travels throughout different countries. At the time 
of his demise, which occurred September 4, 1899, he held the position of 
president of the San Joaquin Valley Medical Society, besides being actively 
associated with the California State and American Medical Associations. 
While his profession had engrossed his energies and called forth the highest 
powers of his fine mind, he had found leisure for the amenities of society 
and for the pleasurable relations of fraternities, having been one of the 
founders and charter members of Bakersfield Lodge No. 266. B. P. O. E., 
in whose development he retained a deep interest to the last. 

The marriage of Dr. Fergusson was solemnized at Brighton, England, 
in 1880, and united him with Miss Bertha Maud Shriber, who was born in 
Calcutta, India, and received a classical education in England. Her parents 
were Dr. Edward and Eulalia (Alexander) Shriber, the former a native of 
London and a graduate of Guy's Hospital College with the degree of M. D., 
afterward a surgeon in the English army, stationed in India for many years. 
Upon his retirement he returned to England to spend his last days amid the 
scenes familiar to his youthful years. A year after her marriage Mrs. Fer- 
gusson accompanied her husband to the United States and since then has 
made California her home, having since the demise of the Doctor continued 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 341 

to occupy the family residence at No. 1521 Seventeenth street, Bakersfield, 
and giving her attention to the management of her varied business interests, 
the enjoyment of the society of warm friends of many years' standing and 
the benefactions of the Episcopal Church, to which she has given a devoted 
allegiance from childhood. 

HECK BROS. — Established in June of 1910, almost simultaneously with 
the founding of Fellows, the history of the mercantile firm of Heck Bros, 
has been one of steady growth and progressive development. The erection 
of a suitable building followed the arrival of the two brothers in Fellows 
during December of 1909, and as soon as possible they put in the new build- 
ing a suitable stock of goods, since which they have conducted a department 
store with ability and tact. The trade is not limited to Fellows, but in addition 
two teams furnish excellent delivery service to the territory within a radius 
of seven miles of Fellows. 

Upon beginning business in their two-story building the Heck Bros, 
utilized the upper floor of their block for hotel purposes, while devoting the 
entire first story to their stock of merchandise and household articles. Upon 
the establishment of an ofBce at Fellows for Wells, Fargo & Co., they were 
appointed to act as agents October 24, 1910. Numerous other private and 
pulilic enterprises occupy some of their time, but thev are men of such stirring 
energy and such indomitable perseverance that their work is their chief joy, 
and the busier they are, likewise the happier. Their pride in the growth of 
the community has been warranted by their efforts in its behalf. It is their 
ambition to continue to promote the progress of Fellows and to assist m its 
permanent upbuilding, so that from a commercial and social standpoint it 
may represent appropriately the rich oil section of which it is the center. 

C). C. Heck is a native of Iowa and in January of 1898 married Miss 
Fannie Dustin, of Selma. E. P. Heck, a native of Missouri, was united in 
marriage in 1904 with Miss Ada Sturgis, of Kansas. During October of 1894 
the brothers came from Fort Scott, Kan., to California and settled at Selma, 
Fresno county, where they engaged in farming and teaming. From that 
place they came to Oil Center and identified themselves with the oil industry 
on their own account, developing the Walker-Heck Oil Company. In addi- 
tion they engaged in the mercantile business. Since coming to Fellows they 
have continued their mercantile and oil interests and have acquired oil hold- 
ings here and at McKittrick. Quite recently they have undertaken to de- 
veloD all of section 6. township 29, range 22, and have ofificiated as directors 
in the Eagle Creek Company, of which O. C. Heck served as vice-president 
at one time. 

W. L. CUNNINGHAM. — More of shadow than of sunshine surrounded 
the early years of Mr. Cunningham, who as the eldest son in a large family 
experienced many privations and made many sacrifices in order that the 
younger children might have an opportunity to secure educational advan- 
tages. When a mere lad he became self-supporting. However, it was not 
enough that he should support himself. With characteristic generosity he 
used his earnings to aid in the maintenance of the family, hence it has been 
only of recent years that he has recorded any individual progress, but it is 
sufficiently rapid to recompense for past delays and sacrifices. Now in the 
prime of manhood, he may look forward to long years of business and occu- 
pative activity, years that will enhance his reputation as a competent engi- 
neer and a successful production foreman in the oil fields. 

A native son of the state, Mr. Cunningham was born at Lakeport. Lake 
county, February 3, 1880, and was the second child and eldest son in a family 
numbering nine children. When yet very young he accompanied his par- 
ents to Fresno and there attended the public schools as opportunity offered. 
At the age of seventeen years, after he had been self-supporting for a con- 
siderable period, he secured employment in the Copper King mine in Fresno 



342 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

county and there he became familiar with the work of an engineer. In this 
occupation he is said to be an expert. About 1908 he came to the Kern 
river oil field and secured work as a pumper on the Overland lease, whence 
in 1910 he came to the West Shore lease. Since then he has continued with 
the West Shore Oil Company and now is discharging the duties of foreman 
with characteristic fidelity and intelligence. At San Jose, on Christmas day 
of. 1902, he was united in marriage with Miss Georgia Johnson of that city 
and they have a son, Wayland. The family formerly occupied a comfort- 
able cottage on the company property on section 32, township 28, range 28, 
in the Kern river field, but now live on the home ranch south of Waits. 

HUGH L. McNEW, M.D.— Born October 12, 1869, Dr. McNew is the eld- 
est child of James H. and Olivia (Kincaid) McNew, parents of ten chil- 
dren. James H. is now a resident of Texas, his wife having passed away 
some vears ago. Reared in Cam])l)ell county, Tenn., the place of his l)irth, 
Hugh L. McNew became interested in the study of medicine at an early age, 
and after diligent and patient work was graduated from the University of 
Tennessee with the class of 1888. receiving the degree of B.S., after which 
he entered the medical department of Columbia University, at Washington. 
He was later, in 1892, graduated from the Nashville Medical College, with 
the degree of M.D., and he immediately started in to practice, choosing as 
his field of labor Honey Grove, Tex., where he remained for ten years. 
During this period he found time to take post graduate courses in 1893 in 
the New York Polytechnic, in 1896 at the Chicago Polytechnic, and in 1898 
at the New York Postgraduate school. 

In Texas Dr. McNew married Miss Nannie A. Williamson, daughter 
(if J. M. Williamson, a merchant and cotton planter there, and they moved 
to Dallas, where he practiced medicine, and held the chair of physiology in 
the Dallas Medical College for two years. The following two years he held 
the chair of professorship on the practice of medicine. In 1907 he came to 
Nevada, and then to Los Angeles, Cal., remaining two years, when he came 
to Bakersfield, to make it his home, and since that time has devoted his 
time and attention to real estate, in which he has become highly successful. 
He was instrumental in the organization vi the Bakersfield Realty & Building 
Company, of which he is now vice president, the other officials being 
Joseph H. Tarn, president, N. A. McNew, secretary and treasurer, and the 
company has offices at No. 3 Hopkins building, where its wide interests are 
handled. They laid out the following additions: Santa Fe, Sunset tract and 
Mayflower, which ha\e nearly all been sold in lots. Individually Dr. McNew 
is also engaged in the real estate business in Los Angeles, having Liffices 
at No. 202 Mercantile Place, where he spends part of his time keeping in 
close touch with land values and where he has been very successful in in- 
creasing his record of big sales. 

Dr. McNew has a fine residence on Nineteenth street, where he and his 
wife make their home, and they move in the best social circles of the citv. 
He lias in\este(l largel}- in farm lands, and his interests in the countv cover 
a large area. 

C. B. COLBY. — A native of Iowa, born in Henry county October 18, 
1866, Mr. Colby came west without means, but with an abundance 
of energy and determination and possessing a fine intelligent and well- 
trained mind that enabled him to lay the foundation for subsequent success. 
Since settling at Oakland, Cal., in the year 1899 he has witnessed the 
steady and interesting development of the state and has himself been a 
large contributor thereto, his great energy and broad intelligence having 
been directed toward nK)venients, not alone for his own advancement, but 
also for the permanent well-being of the commonwealth. While attaining 
large wealth, at the same time he has been a constant factor in the material 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY • 343 

development of his chosen place of residence and his most recent project, 
the Western Water Company, already has proved of inestimable value to the 
oil regions, l)esides bringing to its promoters returns larger than their most 
optimistic lK)pes had anticipated. 

Long association with the oil fields convinced Air. Colby of the neces- 
sity of cheaper water than they had been able to secure. While acting as 
manager of the Columbian, AI. & S., Lorenzo and Minnehaha Oil Companies, 
and the IL A. ( )il & Water Company (all of which organizations were made 
successful through his efficient management and energetic supervision), he 
saw the need of a more adequate water supply for the west side oil fields. 
With him the first step was to see the necessity, the next step was to create 
an opportunity. The Western Water Company of Bakersfield was organized 
in April, 1911, and incorporated under the laws of the state of California. 
After months of strenuous activity they began to deliver water to customers 
December 18, 1911, and since then the demand for water has been twice 
what its promoters anticipated, although no more than they are prepared to 
supply. Exclusive of the office force, the company now employs twenty men. 
Having a private telephone system of its own, the officers and workmen can 
ci mmunicate with every plant in the system. Every modern facility has 
been adopted that will promote the success of the organization. Capitalized 
at $200,000, the company has two hundred shares at $1,000 each, and as the 
stock is almost wholly taken in Bakersfield, it is strictly a local enterprise. 

Water is drawn from two deep wells, affording an unlimited supply of 
pure drinking water, used for domestic purposes and for the oil regi^^ns at 
Midway, Taft, Fellows and Maricopa. At the time the company began to 
pump water the oil fields were paying at the rate of ten to twenty cents per 
barrel, but this company is now supplying water to the same fields at about 
three cents a barrel. It is stated that $600,0C0 was expended on the water 
system to Taft from the district around Rio Bravo, fourteen miles. W^ater is 
distributed to all parts of the district through fourteen miles of twelve-inch 
line and forty-two miles of eight and six-inch line. Two five hundred-foot 
wells are pumped at station No. 1, where three two hundred and fifty horse- 
power gas engines are installed. Large high-pressure pumps force the water 
to Taft, where the Consumers' Water Company (which recently took over 
the Taft Public Utilities' Company's holdings of five miles of city lines) 
delivers the water for domestic use at a price of from four and one-half cents 
to nine cents per barrel. The W^estern Water Company is now handling 
forty thousand barrels a day, the capacity of its lines, and at a reduced 
price of from three cents to one and three-fourths cents on a sliding scale to 
the oil companies, a reduction of fifty per cent over what it was six months 
ago to operators and the cities. The engines of this company are run by 
steam at Taft and the boilers are fired by natural gas, the large gas engines 
at their station No. 1 being operated by gas supplied by the California Nat- 
ural Gas Company. The four pumps (one electric and three steam) are 
driven by six one hundred-horse power boilers. On the highest point of the 
neighborhood the company has installed a steel tank with a capacity of fifty- 
five thousand barrels and this tank is utilized to conserve the surplus water 
pumped. 

From Taft the distributing system" runs twelve and one-half miles north 
and west and twelve miles south and east. The entire cost of the plant 
approximated $600,000. but enormous as was the outlay, the company is in a 
very prosperous financial condition and its shares of stock represent a safe 
and profitable investment, all of which satisfactory result may be attributed 
to the wise management of the company's president, C. B. Colby, admittedly 
one of the most talented business men of Bakersfield, a promoter of ability, 
a financier whose insight rises almost to genius and a leader who combines 



344 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

a conservative spirit with progressive ])olicies. Realizing" the vast resources 
of Kern county, he has not hesitated to promote local movements when 
once their need is apparent and tlieir pt;ssible success made manifest. In 
every respect he ranks among the most influential, energetic and capable 
l)usiness leaders of Rakersfield. Early in 1912 he completed one of the most 
costly and elegant residences in r>akersfield and here he and his wife, 
daughter, Patricia, and son. Charles Bertram, jr.. have established a home 
whose refinement and hospitality has attracted a host of admiring friends. 
Mrs. Colby, prior to their marriage in 1907, was Miss F"lorence Xelson, of 
Bakersfield. 

KATHARYN W. ELLIS, M. D.— W^hen in 1890 she was graduated from 
the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery it was with the highest 
honors of the class, her expenses at the institution being partially defrayed 
by her services as a school teacher. Wider professional knowledge came to 
her through a post-graduate course at the Women's Medical College of Cin- 
cinnati and the degree of M. D. also was conferred upon her by that well- 
known institution in 1893. 

A member of the old Wadsworth family of New England, Dr. Ellis traces 
her ancestry to the illustrious Captain Wadsworth of Hartford, who in Oc- 
tober, 1687, upon the appearance of Andros in Hartford at the head of a troop 
of soldiers demanding the surrender of the Connecticut charter, allowed the 
debate to continue until evening, then ordered all of the candles suddenly ex- 
tinguished and in the subsequent confusion seized the charter from its box 
and hid it in a hollow oak on the grounds of Samuel Wyllys, one of the 
magistrates. Always afterward the tree was known in history as the charter 
oak. Some years later when Governor Fletcher, of New York, appointed 
to his office by King William and Queen Mary, attempted to usurp authority 
in Connecticut and appeared in person at Hartford with his troops for the 
purpose of reading his instructions, Captain Wadsworth commanded his 
troops to drum so loudly that the voice of the reader was completely lost in 
the tumult of noise, so that Fletcher was forced to retreat without having 
carried out his plan of usurpation. 

The parents of Dr. Ellis are Henry and Statira (Goshorn) Wadsworth, 
natives respectively of Pittsburg, Pa., and Youngstown, Ohio, and now re- 
siding on their country estate near Falmouth, Pendleton county, Ky. During 
early manhood Mr. Wadsworth engaged in manufacturing enterprises, but 
later he turned his attention to farming and settled on a plantation near 
Gardnersville, Ky., where occurred the birth of his daughter, Katharyn W. 
the eldest of six children. From early life she displayed exceptional ability 
and a great desire for knowledge. At the age of sixteen she was graduated 
from the high school and at eighteen completed the studies of the scientific 
course at the Central Normal College at Danville, Ind. A portion of each 
year was then devoted to teaching school in order to add to the funds neces- 
sary for a professional education. Upon her graduation in medicine she 
opened an office at Covington, Ky., and while engaged in practice there she 
became the wife of James F. Ellis, an attorney-at-law. Afterward she built 
up an important practice at Butler, Ky., and later spent three years at Evan- 
ston, Wyo., where her clientele included patients for miles in every direction, 
the conduct of so large a practice entailing many physical hardships, yet 
bringing rich returns in the satisfaction of realizing a helpful service to hu- 
manity. During 1901 she came to Kern, now East Bakersfield, and opened 
an office on Baker street, where since she has conducted a general practice 
in medicine and surgery. Hbr only child, Leland Wadsworth Ellis, graduated 
from the Kern county high school, class of 1913, at the age of sixteen. Since 
coming to her present location she has identified herself with the Kern 
County and the California State Medical Associations and has acted as med- 
ical examiner for the women's auxiliary of the Foresters and the Ladies of 



f 





HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 347 

the Maccabees. In religion she is a member of the Christian Church. Po- 
litically she supports Republican principles. In addition to having- acquired 
valuable property in East Bakersfield she has invested elsewhere in Cali- 
fornia, her chief investment comprising an orange grove of fifty acres at 
Portersville, a property of great and growing horticultural importance. 

WILLIAM N. CUDDEBACK.— The early colonization of America at- 
tracted from all parts nf the world men and women of resolute spirit and 
energetic temperament. The nation was still in the infancy of its historv 
when the Cudaback family crossed the ocean from Holland -and established 
themselves among the Dutch residents of Manhattan island. Some of the 
name (which it may be noted was spelled differently at that period from 
the present form) became early settlers of Orange county on the Hudson 
and there founded a village which to this day bears the name of Cudde- 
backville. 

In the family of Peter Cuddeback of Cuddebackville, N. Y., there was 
a son, Grant Price, who was put to service as a tow boy on the Erie canal 
on boats owned by the earlier-day Vanderbilts, but finding the work diffi- 
cult and illy-paid he ran away to seek his fortune in the then unknown west, 
of whose mysterious solitudes he long had dreamed with the hopeful visions 
of youth. The path to success proved a toilsome road. Many adventures 
befell him ere finally he had found his way to the Pacific coast. During 
the memorable year of 1849 he arrived in Kern county and took up land 
north of Tehachapi. developing the ranch now known as the old Hale place, 
besides which he improved a large ranch near the old Lake farm east 
of Tehachapi. Throughout the Tehachapi valley he was known as a warm 
friend of the Indians. Their interests were ever safe in his care. With 
wise counsel he directed many of their undertakings and they came to hold 
him with affectionate regard. By an Indian ceremony he was made a 
brother of Chief Phillipe, an adopted relationship that by the terms of the 
ceremony descended to his sons and daughters and to their descendants 
forever. Eventually he removed to Orange county and acquired one of the 
oldest orange groves in that locality, where his interests became very im- 
portant and extensive. During L^bruary of 1905 death removed him from 
the sphere of his usefulness and terminated the activities that had crowned 
an honorable existence. 

In his marriage Grant Price Cuddeback w'as united with Almira Hale, 
a niece of President Franklin Pierce and a descendant of Nathan Hale, the 
Revolutionary martyr, also connected by family ties with the two presidents, 
William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison. There were five sons and 
three daughters in the family of Grant Price Cuddeback. None of these had 
college educations, for the western schools of their childhood were poorly 
e(iuipi)ed and inefificiently instructed. William N., who was born in San 
l>ernardino county Alarch 13, 1861, attended the Los Angeles schools for a 
time, but his present broad fund of information comes from self-culture and 
habits of close observation. When a babe in arms he was brought into the 
Tehachapi region, Kern county, l-'or many years he and his younger brother, 
John P., were associated together as ranchers and cattlemen. When only 
thirteen years of age he began to be a wage-earner, starting at fiftv cents 
a flay, and working up until he earned $1.50 a day and therefore, aside from 
what his father left to him, he has become wealthy in his own right, nor 
has his brother been less successful. Their partnership was dissolved in 
July of 1908, at which time W^illiam N. bought the famous old Norboe Salt 
Lake 1 ".:^ch of thirty-two hundred acres, five miles east of Tehachapi. For 
a number of years he kept his herd of cattle on that ranch and also raised 
grain there in large quantities, besides shipping thousands of tons of salt 
from the lake. Some years ago the city of Los Angeles bought the greater 



348 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

part of this ranch as a site fur a ceiiK-nt ])lant, the lake havinti- proved to 
possess a bed of purest clay, excei)ti<)nall_v valuable for the making of cement. 
Me used to graze his cattle in San Bernardino county and Cuddeback lake 
was named for him. 

With the opening and early development of the Imperial valley Mr. 
Cuddeback, who had watched the vast enterprise with the deepest interest 
from its inauguration, purchased land which has been devoted to alfalfa, 
hog-raising and a dairy industry. The ranch proved a very profitable in- 
vestment and was sold at a high figure. A few years later he bought from 
Hon. Fred J<:aton, former mayor of Los Angeles, an alfalfa and hog ranch 
in Inyo county. He still manages two hundred and eighty acres of it with 
gratifving success, raising and feeding stock. During 1910 he became inter- 
ested ni the S. W'atkins Live Stock Auctioneering Company and the old 
Ivashion stables in Los Angeles, at the time buying an elegant city residence 
in the southwest district, where the family spend the winter months, return- 
ing for the summers to their residence in Tehachapi. Lately Mr. Cuddeback 
purchased five hundred and eighty acres of land in Palos Verdes valley. 
Riverside county, which he is developing into a large alfalfa farm. For 
about twenty-five years he ran a meat market in Tehachapi. but he now 
rents it. Fraternally Mr. Cuddeback is a member of Tehacha!)i Lodge No. 
313. F. & A. AL. in which he has held a number of offices. In politics he and 
his sons are stanch Republicans. May 10. 1883. he married Miriam Jane 
Chitwood. a native of Sonoma county and a daughter of Russell and Frances 
(Hubbard) Chitwood. of the Tehachapi valley, and a niece of the famous 
superior C( urt judge, Hon. James E. Prewett. of Auburn, this state. Their 
family comprises eight children, all living, as follows: Cate M.. Mrs. Bone- 
shell, of Orange, Cal. ; Delia, wife of A. J. Blackley. of Alhambra ; Samuel G.. 
who married Elizabeth Erbel. of Inyo county; Margie, who married Arthur 
Weldon. of Tehachapi ; Bertha. Mrs. Victor Phillips, of Monolith ; Ruth, 
wife of A\''ils; n Easley. of Hayden. Ariz.; and Charles and Murray, who 
make their home with their parents. 

A. D. FORBES. — The allied companies knovvn as the American Oil- 
fields, Limited, and the Midland Oilfields, Limited, operating respectively on 
section 32, 32-24, and section 32, 12-23, have as their assistant superintendent 
A. D. Forbes, one of the capable young men to ascend to an important place 
in the Sunset-Midway fields, having made good in a comparatively brief 
period of identification with the industry. Rapid promotion has resulted 
from the exercise of industry, intelligence, energy and perseverance. Prac- 
tical experience in almost every department of work gives him a thorough 
knowledge of the oil business and qualifies him for still further advancement. 
While his work has been mainly confined to California districts, he has been 
outside of the state and has worked in connection with the drilling of wells 
for water and oil in Oregon not far from the city of Portland. To a large 
extent his life has been passed in California, but he was born in Nova Scotia 
at Truro, March 26, 1885. The earliest memories of life cluster around the 
Pacific coast country, for in 1887 his father, J. F. Forbes, brought the family 
to California, settling in Ventura county. Removal was made to Coalinga 
during 1891 and in 1906 he established himself at Orcutt, w^here he is now 
postmaster and an influential citizen. 

The eldest of four children, all of whom remain in California, A. D. 
Forbes was educated in the public schools of Coalinga and in 1900 at the age 
of fifteen years he went to Bakersfield, from there proceeding to the Kern 
river oil field. For a year he worked as a pumper on the Kern RLer Oil 
Company's lease. From 1901 to 1903 he was employed at Fullerton. Return- 
ing to Coalinga. he found work in the oil fields there. June 27, 1907, he left 
Coalinga for Portland to take up the work of drilling water and oil wells. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 349 

The drilling for oil was in the nature of a wild-cat proposition. During 1910 
he returned to California and later worked in various districts until June of 
1912, when he first became associated with the American and Midland Oil- 
fields, Limited, which companies promoted him to be assistant superintendent 
July 20, 1913, by this promotion recognizing his efficiency and his ability to 
aid in the management of the two important leases controlled by the concerns. 
While giving his attention very closely to the arduous duties on the leases, 
he has found leisure to identify himself with the other oil operators in the 
field, has become popular among his co-workers and also has been active in 
Maricopa Lodge No. 831, Loyal Order of Moose. 

GEORGE H. TODD.— In 1909 Mr. Todd came to California . and 
began to be interested in oil production and oil-well supplies. A member of 
an old Missouri family, he was born in St. Joe, February 14, 1876, and is a 
son of John H. and Martha (Frazier) Todd, natives of Missouri. The 
latter is deceased, but the former, hale and vigorous at the age of eighty- 
two, still makes St. Jue his home. The family numbered four children 
who attained maturity, namely: B. O., an electrician in Oklahoma; William 
M., a farmer at Savannah, near St. Joe, j\Io. ; George H., of California; and 
Nora, who married George W. Carter, an electrician, and at her death left 
one child, I. D. Carter. During the winters George H. Todd attended school 
in St. Joe, while in summer he helped his father, who was proprietor of a 
mercantile establishment. After he had graduated from the St. Joe high 
school with the class of 1892 he took a course of normal study in a branch of 
the Kirksville (Mo.) Normal. From 1893 until 1904 he engaged in teach- 
ing school in Missouri and established a splendid record for efficienc}^ in 
instruction and discipline. Both in Andrew and Buchanan counties he is 
still remembered with affection by former pupils and old-time friends. 

Engaging in the United States Indian school service in 1904, Mr. Todd 
continued in the employ of the government until 1909. For two years of 
this period he taught in the Grand Portage (Minn.) Indian reservation and 
for one year he acted as disciplinarian at the Crow agency in Crow, Alont., 
after which for one year he was principal of the Northern Cheyenne train- 
ing school at Rosebud, Mont. The last year of Indian educational work 
was spent in Kansas as a teacher in the Kickapoo training school at lior- 
ton. Coming to Los Angeles in 1909, he soon became cost clerk for the 
Los Angeles Manufacturing Company. In their interests he came to 
Kern county, where he took charge of the Maricopa branch, later was trans- 
ferred to Taft, where he is now a member of the Petroleum Club and one of 
the best-known men in the oil circles of the west side. While still living 
in Missouri he was married, at St. Joe in 1901, to Miss Maude F. Roberts, 
daughter of J. P. Roberts, president of the Rea Banking Company of Rea, 
Andrew county, that state. Since coming to Taft Mr. Todd and his wife 
have established a comfortable heme in the company's residence and he 
has identified himself with the town as a public-spirited citizen and pro- 
gressive business man. In his busy life there has not been much leisure for 
political or fraternal activities, but he is well posted in national problems, 
supports Democratic principles, and while still making his home in Mis- 
souri took an active part m the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, be- 
longing to the lodge at Whitesville, Andrew county. 

F. F. HILL.— While much of the life of Mr. Hill has been lived in Cali- 
fornia, he is a native of Kansas City, AIo. (born January 5, 1876), and from 
1878 to 1889 was on a cattle ranch near Bozeman, Mont., his father being 
both a merchant and a stock-raiser in Montana, but now a resident of Los 
Angeles. Coming to California in 1889 and settling at Santa Paula, Ventura 
county, he became a warehouse boy with the Union Oil Company when he 
was eighteen years of age, and from that time to the present he has been with 



350 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the same corporation, with the exception of two years devoted to drilling 
and development work for himself at Newhall and for various companies in 
the Los Angeles and Santa Paula fields. It has been his privilege to witness 
the development of the Union Oil Company of California from a modest be- 
ginning to its present vast influence and enormous holdings, and with sat- 
isfaction he may view his own association with the concern, for which he 
worked in various capacities, including tool-dressing and drilling. Recogni- 
tion of his ability and faithfulness came in 1903 with his promotion to be 
field superintendent and from that in 1912 he was assigned to the place of 
superintendent of development, since which time he has had his oflfice in the 
Union Oil Company's building in Los Angeles and has had charge of all 
development work in the California fields, viz.: Fullerton, Lompoc, Santa 
Maria, Ventura county, Coalinga, Lost Hills, McKittrick, Midway, Maricopa, 
Sunset and the Kern river oil fields. His home is in Los Angeles, where he 
has erected and now occupies a residence at No. 709 South Hope street, and 
his family consists of his wife (formerly Miss Blanche Pitt, of Los Angelesj 
and their two children, Wayne and Wanda F. Hill. 

EUGENE B. DUNCAN. — Among the bright and active young business 
men of Bakersfield whose splendid energy and modern methods have con- 
tributed not a little to the rapid development of the community is Eugene 
B. Duncan, who is now filling the responsible position of assistant cashier 
in the Security Trust Co. Bank of Bakersfield. The son of M. A. and 
Emma (Lehman) Duncan, he was born October 9, 1878, in Quincy, Adams 
county. 111., where he was reared and educated. Taking a business course at 
Gem City College in order to further his business knowledge he was gradu- 
ated therefrom and in March, 1899, came to Bakersfield to make his home. 
From that year to 1904 he worked with Sam Wible in the laundry business, 
filling the position of office foreman. In 1904 he took a position in the 
water department of the Kern County Land Co., and remained as one of 
their most trusted employes for seven years. Since the time of the organ- 
ization of the Security Trust Co., on March 1, 1911, Mr. Duncan has been 
connected with it, being a stockholder in the company and now ably filling 
the position of assistant cashier. He is also director in the First Bank of 
Kern and has been actively identified with the financial business world of 
his community in the last few years. 

In October, 1909, Mr. Duncan was married to Miss Caroline K. Duncan 
of Quincy, 111., and they now make their home at No. 829 D street, where 
they have a beautiful and comfortable cottage. Mr. Duncan has a creditable 
military record, having served six years (1906-1911) as commanding officer 
of Company L, State Militia National Guard, being commissioned captain. 

ALFRED RUPP. — It was as a driller that Mr. Rupp first became asso- 
ciated with Kern county. On New Year's day of 1900, when for the first 
time he came to Bakersfield and from here rode across the country to the 
Kern river fields, he found only six derricks in that entire district. The rapid 
development of the oil industry he witnessed with interest. As superintendent 
for the Dolton & Fuller Company he engaged extensively in drilling in this 
field and shortly after his arrival, becoming a partner in the company, he took 
contracts for drilling throughout all of the district, spending a little more 
than two years in the work in Kern county. Later he became superintendent 
lor S. Pierson & Son and, acting in their interests, he conveyed an oil rig to 
Mexico and put down the first two wells in the state of Vera Cruz. After a 
year in that part of Mexico he returned to Bakersfield, where he has since 
made his home. 

Born near Pitston, Luzerne county, Pa., December 17, 1870, Alfred Rupp 
accompanied his parents to Kansas at the age of seven years and settled with 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 353 

them on a frontier homestead in Hodgeman county, far from the railroad 
and remote from other homesteaders. The isolaticjn oi the family and tlie 
incessant labor necessary to the improvement of the land prevented him from 
ha\-in^- any special educational advantages, although he was sent to school 
whenever possible. The most of his time in boyhood was devoted to the till- 
ing of the soil and the care of the stock. At the age of twenty years he 
started out to make his own way in the world, going first to Colorado and 
later to Utah, where he worked at any occupation that ofifered a source of 
income. Returning to visit the family in Kansas, he there came to a deter- 
mination to locate in California and the spring of 1894 found him a new- 
comer in Los Angeles, where he found employment and remained for several 
years. h>om that city he went to Summerland. .Santa l>arbara county. There 
he first became interested in the C)il industrv and learned to be an expert 
driller. After three years in the oil business in that field he came to the Kern 
river field shortly after its first opening and here he experienced the hardships 
and successes incident to the industry. Since leaving this line of work he has 
been proprietor of the Midland hotel on Nineteenth street, Bakersfield. In 
addition he has mining interests in the Rreckenridge mountains, where he and 
his partner, Arthur W'orthington, owm a number of valuable claims and have 
erected machinery at their jirincipal mine, called the Crystal and Hercules, 
situated thirty-two miles northeast of Bakersfield. Mr. RuiDp was married in 
San Diego to Miss Nora Forest, a native of Kansas. In fraternal relations he 
holds membership with the Eagles. 

JOHN PRICE CUDDEBACK.— A family long known and honored 
throughout Kern county, particularly in the Tehachapi valley, has lost none of 
its prestige through the forceful business career of John P. Cuddeback, whose 
splendid energies and dauntless courage have enabled him to amass an inde- 
pendent fortune. He was born in this picturesque valley September 18, 1865, 
the son of Grant P. and Almira (Hale) Cuddeback, who came across the 
plains with their respective families in 1849, and were married in El Monte. 
Later they became the second permanent family to settle in the Tehachapi 
valley, where the elder Cuddeback followed cattle raising. He was also 
interested in mining in the Panamint mountains, being associated in this 
enterprise with John Narbo and Moses Hale, but the Indians proved so 
menacing that they were forced to leave the locality. What is now the site of 
Goler ajid Randsburg was the scene of their mining attempt. The following 
children comprised the parental family : Clinton ; Celestia, Mrs. E. A. Honey ; 
Bertha, Mrs. Chappel, now deceased; George G. ; William N.; Mary, Mrs. 
Powell, deceased ; John Price ; David A. ; Ernest and Alonzo, the last two 
mentioned also deceased. The mother of these children passed away in Los 
Angeles in 1872, while the father died in Orange about 1902. 

In the valley where he was born, John P. Cuddeback still retains important 
property interests and worthily upholds a name as highly honored as it is 
widely known. It would, however, be doing an injustice to his rare talents 
and attractive personality to limit the influence of his life to any one county, 
for almost any portion of Southern California has been benefited by the fine 
business abilities of himself and brothers. He and his brother. Will N., have 
worked together from boyhood harmoniously and successfully. When John 
Price was about ten and Will N. about thirteen, their brother George sent 
them to deliver to a neighbor a bunch of grape-cuttings, stating that they 
should ask $10, but be willing to take $7.50. The boy of ten was so eager to 
sell that he promptly exclaimed : "^^'e want $10, but will take $7.50." Needless 
to say that they received $7.50. The incident, which greatly amused the entire 
family, taught the child a lesson of self-reliance, and in later years, when 
planning his own operations, he learned to keep his prices to himself. Though 



354 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

educational achantaqes were limited, John P. Cuddeback ccintinued to add to 
his store of knowledge whenever he could be spared from work, and his dili- 
gence and application have made him a man of broad education. The same 
penetration and readiness to learn exhibited in his youth are still shown in 
every phase of commercial, industrial, social, and educaticmal development 
that comes before his notice. 

Such is his fondness for his old birth-place that when the opportunity 
arose he purchased his father's old homestead which is now included in 
his large ranch. Although once and always a cattle man and rancher, hav- 
ing added section after section until today he is among the largest 
individual land owners and cattle growers ni Kern county, it must not 
be understood that his activities have been limited to land and cattle. For 
many years he and his brother, Will N., were engaged in the butcher business 
in Tehachapi, and were also pioneer business men of Randsburg, when that 
camp was started. Many years before the placer mines at Goler and the 
ledge of the Yellow Aster were discovered, the Cuddeback brothers ranged 
their cattle over the region. It was necessary for them to dig wells at ditterent 
places and put up windmills and horsepower pumps that their cattle might have 
watering-places. Ihey were fortunate in tinding water within twelve feet 
of the surface in places, thus demonstrating the feasibility of obtaining on the 
desert that which meant so much not only to themselves, but also to other 
cattle men for utilizing the abundance of dry feed. When they tirst began 
occupying that range, Jfanamint Tom still held sway and was the leader of 
the Panamint Indians. Ihese frequently came to the brothers' camp, where 
they were fed and treated like the friendly Indians they had become. Ihis 
was a good illustration of the change that had of necessity come to poor 
Lo since the time he had driven the elder Cuddeback and his companions out 
of the country. As the brothers were pioneers of that region, Cuddeback Lake, 
to the east ot Randsburg, was named in their honor. 

After the dissolution of the partnership, John P. formed a real-estate 
partnership in Los Angeles with Charles L. Cooper, whose daughter, Miss 
Ethel, who was born in Ventura, he married May 6, 1907. At Manvel, in the 
Searchlight district in San Bernardino county, he carried on the largest cattle 
ranch in the county, having as partners George Briggs and Dan Murphy of 
Needles. More recently he has associated himself with Lawrence B. Burke in 
the purchase of the Sacramento ranch of fifty thousand acres near Paso 
Robles, San Luis Obispo county, to the management of which he devotes the 
greater part of his time, and in so doing he is carrying out his pet project 
in breeding and raising Shorthorn and Hereford cattle and saddle horses. 

To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. John P. Cuddeback three children were 
born, Virginia Ethelwyn, Alzada Brooks, and John P., Jr. During the win- 
ters the family make their residence in San Gabriel, and the summers are spent 
at the country home on the ranch in the Tehachapi valley, where Mr. Cudde- 
back enjoys the refinements and luxuries rendered possible by his brilliant 
business career. In early youth he became identified with the Knights of 
Pythias at Tehachapi, and he still retains his membership in the order, besides 
being a member of the San Gabriel Country Club. When it is remembered 
that he started out to earn a livelihood at an early age without the aid of 
financial friends to assist him, his remarkable success in business and the 
position of influence to which he has risen prove the truth of the old adage 
to the eff^ect that "What man wills to be he can be." Still in the prime of life, 
with many possible years of continued usefulness before him, already he 
has attained a commercial prestige and landed authority reached l\v few 
in long lives of capable endeavor. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 355 

HARRY A. HOPKINS.— Cpon tlie incorporation of tlic Taft Tee De- 
livery Company, January 3, 1913, twenty-tive thousand sliares oi stock were 
sold at par value of $1 each and these were bought by al)out thirty stock- 
holders, all residents of this community. The officers and directors are: 
W. S. Lierly, president; S. J. Dunhip, vice-president; H. A. Ho])kins, secre- 
tary-treasurer; A. I. Scott, A. B. Green, E. A. Henderson and F. \\\ O'Brien. 

Regarding the personal history of Mr. Hopkins, it may be stated that he 
represents a family identified with America ever since the landing of the 
Mayflower. His father, A. A. Hopkins, a native of Springfield, 111., and now 
a resident of Los Angeles, is a relative of Hon. H. A. Hopkins, of Aurora, 
111. Himself a contractor and builder, he is w^ell known in Taft, where he 
built eight houses and a large proportion of the business buildings in the 
town. Ba^ his marriage to Elizabeth Shrader, who was born in Detroit. 
Mich., of German ancestry, he had a family of four sons, namely: Albert J., 
who died unmarried in 1903 at the age of thirty-one years; Benjamin P., pro- 
prietor of The Apparel Shop on Third and Hill streets, Los Angeles, and 
also owner of The Colton People's Store at Colton, this state; Harry A., of 
Taft, and Ray R., proprietor of the Puritas Tea and Coffee Company on Los 
Angeles street, between Third and Fourth streets, Los Angeles. The third 
son, Harry A., was born at Ogden, Utah, March 28, 1882, and was six years of 
age when the family settled in San Diego, Cal., only to remove thence in a 
short time to Los Angeles. In 1903 he w^as graduated from the Commercial 
high school of Los Angeles. Long before this, however, he had been earning 
his own livelihood. When only thirteen he had begun to learn the trade of 
printer. After school and on the Saturday vacation he learned to feed the 
press and to set type in the composing room of the American Typefounders" 
Company. For a time he w^orked in the printing department of the Los 
Angeles Daily Times and he also was with the Los Angeles Herald, earning 
in that way the money necessary for his high school course. 

While with George Rice & Son, printers of the magazine supplement of 
the Los Angeles Herald, Mr. Hopkins was accustomed to go to work imme- 
diately after leaving school at three o'clock on Friday afternoon and he con- 
tinued uninterruptedly at work until midnight Saturday. Notwithstanding 
this long period of constant work without rest or sleep, he was able to resume 
his studies on Monday and at the time he completed the high school course 
he was earning $18 per w^eek. After his graduation he secured employment 
as a bookkeeper. For a time he engaged as tracing clerk and stenographer 
with the Santa Fe Railroad Company in Los Angeles. Later he worked for 
the Wilmington Transportation Company at San Pedro. In the interests of 
the Easton-Eldridge Company he engaged in selling acreage in the Hemet 
valley of Riverside county, after which he became an employe of the Barber 
Asphalt Paving Company of Los Angeles. 

Arriving at McKittrick, July 10, 1904, Mr. Hopkins assumed charge of 
the Midway office of the Chanslor-Canfield Midway Oil Company. The 
present site of Taft then showed nothing but sage brush and jack rabbits. 
Water was hauled from Lake Buena Vista and cost $8 per barrel. During 
1906 he spent seven months in the Indian Territory and engaged in drilling a 
number of wells as a partner of Cremins Brothers. Upon his return to Mc- 
Kittrick he took charge of the National Supply Company, with whom he 
continued for eighteen months. Later he was placed in charge of the Kern 
county business of the J. F. Lucey Company, with offices in the Producers' 
Bank building, Bakersfield. Meanwhile he had been interested in the land 
around the present town of Taft. Close inspection had convinced him that 
the place offered favorable openings for great oil development. Upon re- 
signing his position in Bakersfield he came to the present site of Taft, where 
he opened the first general mercantile store and was commissioned post- 



356 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

master, in July, 1909. uiuler President Taft. The new town had been o^iven 
the name of Moro. On account of there being a Wells-Fargo express office 
in San Luis Obispo county known by the name of Moro, considerable confu- 
sion resulted. The Southern Pacific Railroad Company, hoping to end the 
confusion of names, added an "n" to the word, making it Moron, but there 
being a post office of that name in Colorado the government objected, nor did 
the name satisfy the people. The question of another change of name was 
then agitated. Postmaster Hopkins then met Postmaster 1\. .\. Edmonds 
of LJakersfield and discussed the matter. The office desk of Mr. Kdmonds 
was graced b\ a ])icture of President Taft. Hai)pening to glance at 
it, Mr. Hopkins immediately exclaimed : ''Name it Taft," which suggestion 
was seconded heartily by Air. Edmonds. These are the real facts connected 
with the naming of the now celebrated oil town. 

Jn the great fire Mr. Hopkins, carrying only an insurance of thirty per 
cent, lost about $12,000 and the date of the conflagration, October 22, 1909, 
reinains therefore indelibly impressed ujion his mind as a time of the deepest 
discouragement. However, with characteristic courage he set himself reso- 
lutelv to the task of recouping his losses. After the fire the Southern Pacific 
notified the business men that they must move to the north side of the track. 
There was some protest to the move. Some of the business men accepted 
the ofifer of J. W. Jameson and went on his tract south of the tracks, but a 
majority moved to the north side, where they could own property for them- 
selves. In September of 1910 the buildings on the south side were destroyed 
by fire and this put an end to efforts for the upbuilding of that section. 

After three months in the real-estate and oil-land business, Mr. Hopkins 
put up a building on the corner of Fourth and Center streets on the north 
side. The block is now occupied by the Mission Drug Company and other 
establishments. His next move was the starting of the Taft Public Utilities 
Company, a concern formed for the purpose of supplying water, which was 
shipped in tank cars from Kern, pumped into two tanks with a capacity of 
tw^elve hundred barrels and then distributed among consumers in Taft. Upon 
the organization of the company in October, 1910, J. P. Dooly was elected 
president, and Harry A. Hopkins secretary and manager. February 1, 1912, 
the company sold out to the Consumers' Water Company, which is still in 
existence. Returning to the real-estate business. Mi. Hopkins handled acre- 
age in Mono county and became interested in an irrigation project in that 
county, retaining indeed at the present time considerable stock in the Mono 
Home and Canal Company. During December of 1912 he inaugurated a 
movement looking toward supplying the people of Taft with ice. The fol- 
lowing month the company was incorporated. Since then it has rapidly de- 
veloped into one of the leading business enterprises of the place. In addi- 
tion to being the first postmaster of Taft, he has served as a city trustee since 
November, 1910, and has been identified with civic affairs to an important 
extent. As a Republican he has been influential in the political life of the 
community. Fraternally he is identified with the Benevolent Protective 
Order of Elks at Bakersfield and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at 
Los Angeles. His family comprises two children, Zuva Belle and Harry A., 
Jr., and his wife, whom he married in Riverside, this state, and who was 
Miss Zuva Tyler, daughter of William Tyler, a sergeant on the i)olice force 
of I>os Angeles. 

CHARLES DRADER.— h>om the earliest recollections of childhood to 
the intelligent efforts of maturity Mr. Drader has been associated with the 
oil industry and thus has become familiar with every phase of the business. 
Even the name of his native village in the western part of the province of 
Ontario suggests his occupation, for he is a native of Petrolia, a well-known 
town in the oil fields of Canada, where his father, the late Ernest Drader, 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 359 

who died November 19, 1912, was one of the leading pioneers and owned 
extensive interests. In a home in the midst of such an environment his 
birth occurred' March 22, 1874, and there he passed the uneventful years 
of youth. Under the keen oversight of his father he was taught every branch 
of the work and thus developed a judgment not always seen in young men of 
his years. It was this judgment and accuracy of discrimination that led a 
prominent English corporation to engage his services in the capacity of 
manager of their company, known as the Canadian Oil Fields, Limited, and 
he continued to fill the position with conspicuous energy and fidelity until 
the property was sold to other parties. 

Leaving his old Canadian home to inspect other oil districts, Mr. Drad'er 
visited Mexico and engaged in the industry at Tampico for a brief period, 
dating from December of 1910. While the oil in Canada has a parafifine 
base, he soon found that the Tampico oil has an asphalt base and the two 
therefore differed in mode of operation and in by-products. The work in 
Mexico he found as intensely interesting as that of Canada, but the enervat- 
ing climate proved unhealthful and he came to the Kern river oil fields, 
where since April 1, 1912, he has ably served as superintendent of the Kern 
River Oil Fields of California, Limited. On coming to this district he 
brought with him his wife, who was formerly Miss Margaret Parker of 
Petrolia, Canada, and their two children, Lorna M., born in 1900, and Ernest 
O., born in 1906. 

The Kern River Oil Fields of California, Limited, was bought in 1910 
by a group of capitalists, mainly residents of London, England, and the 
new corporation engaged the services of Ernest V. Benjamin and W. W. 
Orcutt as members of the management committee, and subsequently em- 
ployed Mr. Drader in the capacity of superintendent. The company was 
incorporated in London with a capital stock of $6,000,000, of which all 
but $1,000,000 has been paid in. Their holdings are very large and valu- 
able, including six hundred and forty acres comprising section 33, town- 
ship 28, range 28; all of section 1, township 29, range 28; four hundred 
and eighty acres on section 25, township 28, range 27; three hundred and 
seventy acres on section 19, township 28, range 28; also lands in the Santa 
Maria and other fields. 

GUSTAVUS SCHAMBLIN.— The possibilities which Bakersfield offers 
to men of ability and integrity appear in the successful business career of 
"Gns" Schamblin, president and general manager of the Piuneer Mercantile 
Company, president and a director of the Barker Investment Company, vice- 
president and a director of the Successus Oil Company operating in the Mc- 
Kittrick field, and secretary and a director of the Mannel-Minor Petroleum 
Company operating a tract of two hundred acres on Bellridge front. The 
growth of the Pioneer Mercantile Company has been little short of remark- 
able and indicates the business qualifications of its promoter. When he opened 
the business in 1899 he rented a building, 12x14 in dimensions, on Chester 
avenue between Seventeenth and Eighteenth streets. Soon he was forced to 
seek larger quarters. His next location was on the corner of Twentieth 
and I streets. h>om there he soon moved to a larger place on Nineteenth 
between H and I streets. Forced to secure still larger quarters, in 1905 he 
secured space t)n I street between Nineteenth and Twentieth, double the 
size of his original space, the building being 66x80 feet in dimensions, with 
a basement 66x200 for storage purposes. Having again outgrown his (|uar- 
ters Mr. Schamblin found it necessary to secure larger space, and in March, 
1913, concluded the lease of a new concrete building on the corner of Twen- 
tieth and I streets. Here he has the entire basement, first floor and mez- 
zanine floor, the building covering a floor space 72x116 feet, and being 
equipped with every modern convenience and elevator service. 



360 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Born at Waldenburg, Switzerland. August 30, 1855, Mr. Schamblin and 
•his sister, Mrs. Selina Tschude, now of Waldenburg. were the only children 
of the late Mathias and Eliza (Schneider) Schamblin, lifelong residents of 
that part of Switzerland, where for thirty-five years before his death the 
father served by continuous re-election as county clerk of Waldenburg. The 
ojily son was educated in the local high school and gymnasium and after 
graduating at the age of eighteen began an apprenticeship in a large watch 
factory at Waldenburg, but later he studied bookkeeping and business corre- 
spondence in German and French. Coming to the United States in 1877 he 
spent a year in New York City and there enlisted as a private in Company 
B, Twentieth United States Infantry. With his command he spent two years 
at Fort Gibson in the Indian Territory. From there he was transferred v/ith 
his regiment to Fort Assinniboine, Mont., where he was detailed as adju- 
tant's clerk with the rank and commission of sergeant. In 1883 he was hon- 
orably discharged from the army. From the fort in Montana he came to 
California and secured employment on the bay at San Francisco. The year 
1886 found him a newcomer in Bakersfield, where for a number of years he 
filled clerical positions. During 1892 he entered the employ of the Kern 
County Land Company as warehouse man in the Sumner warehouse. The 
faithful discharge of duties led to his promotion to be foreman of that 
warehouse, from which he was raised to the position of superintendent of all 
the company's warehouses in the county. Resigning from the empky of the 
Kern County Land Company in 1899, he embarked in business for himself 
in a small room, then and there laying the foundation of the now prosper- 
ous Pioneer Mercantile Company, which he incorporated in 1911 with a cap- 
ital stock of $150,000. The ccmpany now ranks among the largest and most 
successful of the kind in the county. Mr. Schamblin is interested in the 
First National Bank of Bakersfield, and since its organization has been a 
stockholder in the Security Trust Company. 

The marriage of Mr. Schamblin and Miss Florence Smith, a native of 
Hollister, this state, was solemnized in Bakersfield and has been blessed with 
four children, Frank, Charles, Flora and Leo. The Merchants' Association 
numbers Mr. Schamblin among its leading meml)ers. Formerly he served as 
a member of the executive committee of the Bakersfield Board of Trade and 
he still maintains a warm interest in the welfare of that organization. Politi- 
cally he votes with the Republican party. For some years he has been 
identified with Bakersfield Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E. Whde serving with 
the army in the Indian Territory he was made a Mason in Alpha Lodge No. 
12 at Fort Gibson. Since coming to this city he has transferred his member- 
ship to Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M.. l)esides which he is con- 
nected with Kern Valley Chapter No. 75, R. A. 'M., Bakersfield Commandery 
No. 39, K. T., in his home city, and Al Malaikah Temple, N. M. S.. of Los 
Angeles, as well as Los Angeles Consistory No. 3, Scottish Rite. 

WILLIAM S. BOGGS. — The genealogy of the Boggs family in America 
begins with the arrival of six brothers from Scotland and their subsequent 
settlement in Maryland, Alabama, Illinois and Missouri. The first of the 
name to establish himself and family in California was Hon. Lilburn W. 
Boggs. ex-Governor of Missouri, who shortly after the expiration of his term 
in the gubernatorial chair determined to identify his future interests with 
the development of the then unknown west. As chief executive of Missouri 
he had witnessed many stormy scenes and often had been in great personal 
danger, the principal cause of the trouble having been the colonization of 
Mormons in the state after they had been driven from Hancock county. 111., 
where they had erected a temple at Nauvoo on the banks of the Mississippi. 
Not being desired in Missouri, they were notified to leave and apparently 
obeyed orders, but soon returned. Then it became necessary to use force 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 361 

in driving them from the state. In the skirmish Lieutenant-Governor Sterling 
Price was killed. In the excitement and turmoil that followed the governor 
was shot while seated in his office in the Missouri state capital. The wound, 
although painful, did not provt- dangerous and he had fully recovered before 
he started for the west. Aft^^r his arrival at Petaluma Mission, Sonoma 
county, he served as alcalde nf the northern district of California and en- 
gaged in merchandising at Soi--oma, then the county-seat of Sonoma county. 
His death occurred in 1863. After the death of his first wife, who was a 
Miss Dent, he had married Miss Panthia G. Boone of Missouri, a daughter 
of Jesse Boone and granddaughter of Daniel Boone, the famous Indian 
fighter, whose name is indissolubly associated with the history of both Ken- 
tucky and Missouri. 

Among the children of Governor Boggs there was a son, William M., a 
native of Jackson county. Mo., who inherited the love of adventure and the 
fearlessness characteristic of his ancestors. Intrepedity of nature led him to 
the plains when only thirteen years of age. While acting as a guide and 
helper to Kit Carson he learned the different tribal languages of the Indians, 
gained a thorough knowledge of their customs and became an adept in cir- 
cumventing their cunning devices. During the early days he was employed 
at Fort Laramie, Toas and Santa Fe, where his expertness wath the rifle and 
familiarity with the tribal dialects brought him the friendship of the Indians. 
After his return to Missouri he married Miss Sonora Hickman, a native of 
Cass county, that state, and the daughter of W^illiam Hickman, who had been 
a large planter in Virginia prior to his removal to Missouri. Early in 1845 
Mr. Boggs started with family and friends across the plains and en route 
overtook a party from Sangamon county, 111., consisting, among others, of 
Jacob Donner with wife and seven children, and George Donner with wife 
and five children, who had left Springfield, 111., April 15, 1845. The two par- 
ties traveled together with William M. Boggs as captain. The expedition 
reached the Little Sandy river on the 19th of July, 1846, and there a discus- 
sion arose as to the best route to follow. The Donner party had heard of a 
cut-ofif by way of the south end of Salt Lake and believed bv taking it they 
could save over two hundred miles. Captain Boggs would not risk that 
route, but resolved to adhere to the Oregon trail. As the event proved, he 
chose wisely and well. When he found the Donner party determined to 
take the other road he divided provisions and equipment equallv with them 
and brought his own party safely on to the old fort at Petaluma Mission, 
Sonoma county. Meanwhile the Donner party had met with misfortune from 
the moment of separation. Their cattle, some dead and others lost, were left 
on the desert. After a wearisome journey through LTtah and Nevada thev 
were imprisoned in the snows of the Sierra Nevadas, where many perished 
from starvation. When finally rescuers arrived George Donner was dving 
and his wife refused to leave his side, but bade her children a last farewell 
as they were carried away toward the far-distant haven of Sutter's Fort. 

The Boggs family had been in California but a short time when hostilities 
arose with Mexico. As soon as Captain Boggs had settled his family in com- 
iort he enlisted eiffht recruits and with them journeyed to the old Plaza in 
San Francisco, where the men were added to a company then forming and 
sent to Monterey, where the captain served as first sergeant. At the close 
of the war he was honorably discharged and thereafter was variously em- 
ployed, acting as secretary to General Vallejo and as recorder of Sonoma 
county, also engaging in general farming and fruit-raising. Besides owning 
apart of the old Buena Vista grant, he owned a large tract in the Oak Knoll 
district, Napa county, where now stand Yountville and the Soldiers' Home. 
The comfortable dwelling-house, erected under his supervision, was located 
on that beautiful spot. After he had sold a portion of the large ranch to Mr. 



362 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Yount he established a home at Napa and there spent his last years, but died 
April 22, 1910, while visiting his son at Bakersfield. A Mason from early 
life, be had been a member of the old California Lodge at Sonoma. Promi- 
nent in the state councils of the Democratic party and a leader during the 
nieniorable Hearst campaign, he had at one time ofificiated as chairman of the 
state central committee and throughout the entire commonwealth he long 
wielded a large influence in his party. Nor was his ability limited to agri- 
culture and politics. Notwithstanding his almost entire lack of early educa- 
tion, he became a man of literary talent and was well known by his contri- 
butions to the literature of his day. Particularly was he interested in early 
California history and his excellent memory, supplementing a fluent use of 
the pen, enabled him to give permanency to many early happenings that with- 
out him would have been unrecorded and forgotten. In Bancroft's history 
of California his contributions are especially numerous and interesting, and 
all his stories are told in a very interesting, realistic manner. For many years 
he served as president of the Sonoma County Association of California Pio- 
neers and among its members he was highly honored and greatly admired. 

The family of William M. Boggs comprised seven children, whose mother 
died in Napa county in 1902. The eldest child. Guadelupe Vallejo, born in 
June of 1847 at the headquarters of General Vallejo, is now a resident of 
Salem, Ore. Lilburn W. is living at Susanville, Cal., and Angus M. in Lake 
county. Mary Finley Boggs, a graduate of Napa College and Napa Ladies' 
Seminary, was for eighteen years librarian at Napa, dying in that city, where 
she was known as an artist of remarkable ability. Jefferson D. Boggs is now 
principal of the schools of Watsonville, this state. Sterling Price Boggs died 
when only eight years of age. The youngest member of the family, William 
S. Boggs, was born in the Yountville district, Napa county, Cal., August 19, 
1864, and in boyhood was a pupil in the Oak Mound school, Napa. He is a 
graduate of Napa College and also took a course at Heald's Business College. 
After a brief period as a clerk at Napa he went to Portland, Ore., where he 
was employed as a bookkeeper and also engaged in merchandising. Upon 
his return to California in 1888 he engaged in business in San Francisco, 
but soon went back to Oregon and found employment at Salem, thence re- 
turning to Portland in 1891 and acting as bookkeeper in the East Portland 
Bank. When next he went to San Francisco in 1894 he engaged as account- 
ant with the Iron Mountain Company, going to Shasta as manager of the 
purchasing department in their general offices. Later he held a position with 
the Sunset Telephone Company. Wlien he came to Bakersfield in 1900 he 
took charge of the properties of the Imperial Oil Company and the 33-Oil 
Company in the Kern river field. Under his management the organizations 
were prospered and their wells became producers. When the properties were 
sold to an English syndicate he continued to manage them for two years, 
but in March of 1912 resigned in order that he might take charge of his in- 
dividual interests. Previous to this he had promoted the Alturas Oil Com- 
pany in the Kern river field ; after one well had been developed, the holdings 
of this company were sold. In addition he organized the Boston Petroleum 
Company in the Kern river field, which developed twelve wells and then sold 
its holdings to Boston capitalists. Afterward he formed and promoted the 
Coalinga Eight Oil Company in the Coalinga field, which owns a tract of 
eighty acres and has developed three producing wells. Besides being vice- 
president of this company he acts as general manager and has been instru- 
mental in its profitable development. 

The family of Mr. Boggs comprises his wife, who was Miss Nellie Smith, 
a native of Shasta county, and their three children, Irma, Helen and William 
S., Jr. Upon the organization of the Bakersfield Club he was a charter mem- 
ber and afterwards served one term as president. After coming to Bakersfield 



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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 365 

he was made a Mason in Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M., and later 

became identified with Los Angeles Consistory No. 3 of the jurisdiction of 
Southern California, Scottish Rite, thirty-second degree, and Al Malaikah 
Temple, N. M. S., of Los Angeles. In politics he has been stanch in his 
allegiance to Democratic principles. For eight years he was a member of 
Company G, First Regiment of Oregon National Guard, and after returnine" 
to California he became identified with Company H, Second Regiment of 
National (iuard, with which he served in San Francisco during the strike 
of 1894 when called out to assist in quelling the outbreak and restoring order. 

CHRISTIAN RUEDY.— In Zillis, Canton Graubunden, Switzerland, 
Christian Ruedy was born June 24, 1872, fourth in a family of five born to 
John and Anna (Thoeny) Ruedy, farmers, the former of whom passed away in 
1889. and the latter in 1902. Christian Ruedy received good training in the 
public and high schtols of his native place, all of which was received ])rior 
to his seventeenth year, for it was then that he left his native land and came 
to the United States. In April, 1890, he came to Kern county, and in Bakers- 
field he procured work in a dairy. Profiting by the experience which this 
employment gave him, in the year 1897, with Peter Gilli as a partner, he 
leased one hundred and sixty acres from Mrs. Chubb. In 1900, associated 
with his brother, John G. Ruedy, and his uncle, Anton Thoeny, he bought 
forty acres of land that forms a part of his present property, upon which he 
established a dairy business. Later the brothers bought out their uncle and 
in 1904 they bought eighty acres more. During this period, Mr. Ruedy with 
his brother John G., Peter Gilli and John Koch, organized the American- 
Swiss Creamery and built a modern creamery plant on his place operated by 
a steam engine. Here they engaged in the manufacture of butter for the 
Bakersfield market for about six years, when the dairy herd was sold and 
Christian Ruedy then engaged in raising mules. Ultimately he purchased 
his brother's interest in the property and he now owns the entire tract, com- 
prising one hundred and twenty acres, which is all in a high state of culti- 
vation, planted to corn and alfalfa. The raising of mules is also an important 
feature of the ranch income, Mr. Ruedy owning Blue Bird, a jack imported 
from Maltese Island, Spain. The ranch, which lies about nine miles south- 
west of Bakersfield, is all under irrigation from the Farmers canal, and is 
improved with a handsome residence and large farm buildings. 

In IJakersfield, on October 2, 1907, Mr. Ruedy was married to Adeline 
Ursula Pesante, a native daughter born in Bakersfield, in December. 1890, 
the daughter of John and Adeline (Lehner) Pesante, both natives of Canton 
Graubunden. Switzerland. Mr. and Mrs. Ruedy are the parents of two 
children. John Christian and Vernon Lehner. Mr. Ruedy is widely known 
in fraternal circles, being a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows, Wcodmen of the World and the Independent Order of Eagles. In 
their religious views Mr. and Mrs. Ruedy are Lutherans, while jiolitically 
they favor Republican principles. 

PERCY A. WILLIAMS. — In comprehensive grasp of technicalities and 
keen insight into the intricate problems connected with the oil industry the 
field superintendent of the Kern Trading and Oil Company has gained a rep- 
utation that is not limited to the particular field of his efTort, but extends 
throughout the entire oil district and among men connected with other lines 
of business as well. The property of the company, usually known as the 
Southern Pacific lease, comprises four hundred and forty acres lying on 
section 3, township 29, range 28, located very close to the EUwood lease on 
the Thomas A. Means farm where oil was first discovered. On the entire 
tract there are two hundred and seven producing wells which have been 
drilled as follows: Fifty-seven prior to 1906; seventy-three in 1906 and 
1907; eight in 1910; thirty-four during 1911; and thirty-five in 1912. Well 



366 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

No. 1 was completed December 8, 1899 and, although the oldest well on the 
lease, is still a producer. 

Born at South Vallejo, Solano county, Cal., on Christmas day of 1881, 
Percy A. Williams is a son of Alton and"^ Kate (CuUom) Williams, natives 
respectively of New York and Pennsylvania. The father is an employe of 
the company store of the Kern Trading and Oil Company and here he and 
his wife make their home, the latter a woman of capability, energy and ac- 
tivity, and at the age of sixty-six physically and mentally well preserved. The 
son received his education in San Francisco schools. In youth he was a 
member of the state militia and in the spring of 1898 he enlisted as a private 
in Company B, First California Volunteer Infantry, which sailed for the 
Philippines on the 23d of May and landed at Cavite on the 2d of July. During 
the thirteen months of his service on the islands he took part in the siege of 
Manila, the insurrection of the Filipinos and other army affairs. When peace 
was restored he was mustered out of the service and arrived back in San 
Francisco September 21, 1899. Shortly afterward he entered the California 
School of Mechanical Arts, an institution affiliated with the James Lick Poly- 
technic College, in San Francisco, and upon the completion of the regular 
course he was graduated in 1901. Securing a position as draftsman in the 
office of Stetson G. Hindes, of San Francisco, he had six months of valuable 
experience there. In addition he engaged in drafting with the engineer of 
the City Street Improvement Company of San Francisco and for a time was 
under James T. Ludlow in the Vulcan iron works. 

After his arrival in Kern county in November of 1901 Mr. Williams took 
charge of the 1901 Oil Company at McKittrick. During 1904 he became an 
office man with the Kern Trading and Oil Company and in 1906 he was placed 
in charge of the McKittrick field, which he relinquished in order to undertake 
the superintendency of the Kern river oil lease in 1909. Since then he has 
established a reputation for drilling more wells than any other foreman in 
the oil fields. The ingenuity which he possesses has found tangible evidence 
in a pumping-jack system by which as many as thirty wells are pumped from 
one central power-house. It is his present plan to introduce the same system 
throughout the entire field. His ability is unquestioned and being an inde- 
fatigable worker, with a thorough grasp of all details, he manages the prop- 
erty with a skill and tact that are little short of remarkable. Fraternally he 
is connected with the Masons and Elks at Bakersfield. In 1906 at McKittrick, 
he married Miss Gertrude Bishop, of Oregon, who died in 1909, leaving two 
daughters, Kathleen and Gertrude. 

JOHN J. GALLMAN. — Thrcnigh various changes antl in different locali- 
ties he gained a thorough experience with every phase and each department 
of the industry. In the early days of Taft he came to the Midway field, 
where since February of 1909 he has engaged as superintendent of the Fair- 
banks Oil Company, a corporation capitalized at $50,000 and operating a 
tract of forty acres with six producing wells. Under Ben Stroude, the first 
superintendent of the lease, one well had been drilled, but this is now 
abandoned, and the six wells in use, producing an average of ten thousand 
barrels per month, have been drilled under the personal supervision of 
Mr. Gallman, who in addition to being superintendent is also a small stock- 
holder in the company. 

Although he has lived in California for considerably more than twenty 
years, Mr. Gallman is a native of Iowa and a member of a German-American 
family connected with the agricultural upbuilding of the Mississippi valley. 
His father, John Jacob Gallman, a native of Germany and a pioneer of 
Iowa, enlisted in the Union army at the outbreak of the Civil war, was 
assigned to the First Minnesota Infantry, accompanied his regiment to the 
front and served throughout the war. Upon receiving an honorable dis- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 367 

charge he returned to the northwest, took up land in Bremer county, Towa, 
there married Miss Catharine Zimmerman, and for years devoted himself to 
agricultural duties. At his death he was survived by the widow, now a 
resident of Waverly, Iowa, and by three children, viz. : John J. ; Ida and 
Anna, both of whom married farmers and are living in Bremer county. 
The only son was born in Bremer county September 25, 1869, worked on 
the home farm as soon as old enough to be of service and during the winter 
months walked between four and five miles to a country school. Leaving 
home in 1888, he came to California, where he successively had employment 
in lumber yards and with grading crews in Pasadena, on a dairy ranch at 
El Monte and as a laborer on a stock ranch at Puente. The owner of the 
ranch, Mr. Roland, in 1889 sent him to work as a roustabout for the 
Puente Oil Company in Los Angeles county and in that way he acquired 
his first knowledge of the oil industry. From roustabout he worked up 
to be pumper, then tool-dresser and finally driller. The company of which 
Mr. Roland was president engaged him to drill in the Puente field, but when 
the wells were shut down he was obliged to seek work elsewhere. 

An opportunity to engage with Will Kellerman, a contract driller, took 
Mr. Gallnian into a wild-cat venture in dry territory, but he continued with 
the same operator for perhaps seven years. Happening to meet Mr. Roland 
one day, he was asked to return to the Puente field, but intimated that he 
considered the chance for promotion there too meager, to which Mr. Roland 
replied: "Come back to me and you may yet get to be superintendent of the 
Puente." Accordingly, upon finishing a job at Newhall, he went back to 
the Puente field, where he was first drilling foreman and then superintendent. 
Two and one-half years later the Puente bought an adjoining oil lease and 
the management of the whole was given over to the superintendent of the 
company thus absorbed, whereupon Mr. Gallman became a real-estate dealer 
in Los Angeles. Not meeting with success, he returned to the oil business 
and for a time worked with the Union Oil Company near Lompoc and at 
Santa Maria. In the latter field he drilled on the celebrated Hartnell gusher. 
Next he operated a boarding house on the Union and Fox lease, after 
which he engaged in the restaurant business for six months in Los Angeles. 
The excellent profit made when he sold that restaurant was lost in the 
later operation of the Delmar Cafe at Long Beach. Forced to begin anew 
at the bottom, he returned to the oil fields and drilled at Santa Rosa and 
for the Paso Robles Oil Company. Since February of 1909 he has been 
superintendent of the Fairbanks Oil Company in the Midway field and 
meanwhile has become well known among the oil men of Taft, where he is 
an interested member of the Petroleum Club. His marriage took place at 
FuUerton, this state, and united him with Miss Myrtle Sprague, whose father 
was at one time engaged in the grocery business at Fullerton, but now 
engages in the manufacture and sale of monuments at Los Angeles. Mr. and 
Mrs. Gallman have one son, Woodley J. Gallman. 

REUBEN A. EDMONDS.— The expansion of the Bakersfield postoffice 
since Mr. Edmonds was first appointed postmaster under the administra- 
tion of President McKinley has been almost startlingly swift and has 
oft'ered another evidence concerning the prosperity and material upbuilding 
of the city. When he took the oath of office for the first time, July 12, 
1898, he found a postoffice of the second-class, employing two clerks and 
having annual receipts not exceeding $9,000. Since then he has continued 
in the ofiice by appointments under Presidents Roosevelt and Taft and 
meanwhile he has witnessed and aided in the development of the local 
business, until now it afifords him gratification to report that as a first-class 
office the annual receipts reach $65,000 and employment is furnished to 
thirty-two persons. Free delivery was established in the city in 1900 and 



368 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

four years later rural free delivery was started, there being now six routes 
out of llakersfield, each one with a substantial list of patrons. The office 
was promoted to the first class in July of 1910, at which time the genial, 
successful postmaster was the recijjient of merited congratulations from 
those familiar with his work and a])preciative of his energetic application to 
official duties. There has lately been added the postal savings bank and 
the parcel post system, this postoffice being the depository for all the postal 
savings banks in Kern county. 

Born near Eugene, Lane county. Ore., in 1859, Reuben A. Edmonds 
is a son of William and Adeline (Draper) Edmonds, and a grandson of 
Reuben A. Draper, an Illinois pioneer who, accompanied by relatives and 
friends, crossed the plains with wagons and oxen and settled in Oregon, 
where he developed raw lands in Lane county. Eventually he came to 
California and passed his last days in Sonoma county. William Edmonds, 
a native of Carlisle, Cumberland county. Pa., and a pioneer of Illinois, 
came to the Pacific coast with his father-in-law and settled near him in 
Oregon, where he developed a large farm. However, he was not satisfied 
with conditions in Lane county, so he packed his household efifects, put 
his wife and children in a "prairie schooner" and drove along the coast 
route into California, crossing the mountains and settling near Sebastopol, 
Sonoma county. That was in 1867 and the next year his wife died at 
Sebastopol. Afterward he drifted into Nevada and followed mining pur- 
suits. The same occupation engaged his attention when he returned to 
California. In 1906 he was accidentally drowned in the Kern river. Of his 
three sons the eldest, Reuben A., is the sole survivor ; the others, William 
and Joseph, both died in Bakersfield. The three daughters were ^frs. 
Rachael Maio, Mrs. Lavina Kratzmer, both of I>akersfield, and Mrs. Mary 
Burgin, who died in Portland, Ore. 

Reuben A. Edmonds accompanied the others from Oregon to Cali- 
fornia in 1867 aiUl settled in Sonoma county, but during 1874 removed to 
Napa. In 1880 he was graduated from the Napa high school- and the fol- 
lowing year he completed the course of study in the commercial department 
of Napa College, after which he came at once to Bakersfield in 1881. Here 
he embarked in the dry-goods business on Chester avenue near Eighteenth 
street as a member of the firm of Hotz & Edmonds. The business con- 
tinued with fair success until the great fire of 1889, which caused him 
a heavy loss. Forced to start anew, he secured employment as a bookkeeper 
and continued in that capacity until he was appointed postmaster at Bakers- 
field. Besides this office he also served as city assessor for one term. 
Fraternally he is a charter member of the Knights of Pythias in Bakersfield 
fin which he has served in important offices) and also belongs to the 
Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. After he had established a home in 
Bakersfield he formed domestic ties, being united in marriage with Miss 
Lizzie L. Hallet, a native of Napa, this state. They are the parents of two 
children, Shirlie and Reubelle, both of whom are now students in the 
Notre Dame College at San Francisco. 

JOHN A. GARDNER. — The ( iardner family possesses qualities that 
bring success in the oil industry. A brother of John A., Eugene, is a tool- 
dresser for the Midway Premier, while their father, the late Daniel Gardner, 
was an expert driller and well-known oil oj^erator, following the business prin- 
cipally in his native Pennsylvania, although often called temporarily to other 
places to aid in the drilling of wells. By his marriage to Margaret Mays, 
likewise now deceased, there were two sons and four daughters. Of these 
John A. was born in Emlenton, Venango county, Pa., March 20, 1873, and at 
an early age learned the oil business under the capable oversight of his 
father, with whom he worked both as a tool-dresser and driller in Pennsyl- 




Jnctrruia (^.JrUaMA 



HISTORY OF KERK COUNTY 371 

vania, Ohio and Indiana. For seven years his father engaged with the 
Burmah Oil Company in India and during" five years of that time John A. 
worked with him, going out to India in 1900 via Liverpool, Port Said and 
the Suez canal to Rangoon, and traveling inland a distance of five hundred 
miles. After five years of steady work as a driller, without rest or vacation, 
he returned to the United States, pleased to again identify himself with the 
business under more favorable conditions than existed in India. After an 
unsuccessful venture in the buying of wells at Geneva, Ind., in 1908 he came 
to California and engaged in drilling for the Standard Oil Company at New- 
hall, from which place in 1910 he came to the Midway. After having drilled 
two wells for the Midway Five Oil Company, he began to drill for the Mid- 
way Premier Oil Company and in 1911 became its superintendent, which 
responsible position he since has filled with credit to himself and most fortu- 
nate results for the company. His family consists of three daughters, Mar- 
garet, Edna and Mary, and his wife, whom he married in Toledo, Ohio, and 
who was formerly Miss Frances Cook, of that city. 

THOMAS A. MEANS.— A good history oi California would not be 
complete without the name of Thomas A. Means, who, through his discovery 
of oil in Kern River field and his long identification with that industry, 
became known as the "Apostle of Petroleum." He owned a small ranch near 
Kern river, and being a man of much learning, natural intelligence and 
close observation, he early became convinced in his own mind that that 
territory was underlaid with oil. Accordingly he talked oil to everyone 
who would listen to him and was naturally ridiculed by many, but firm in 
his belief he continued to deliver himself of his convictions on the streets 
of Bakersfield arid no argument would dissuade him from his ideas. 

It was after some experience in the McKittrick field that Judson Ellwood 
came to Bakersfield, where a brother. James Monroe Ellwood, had a small 
woody ard. During a conversation on the subject of oil the latter told his 
brother that he had heard of the Tom Means ranch and how Means had for 
years foretold the coming great era of oil. Subsequently James Monroe 
Ellwood went to Mr. Means to talk about cutting some wood, but the latter 
immediately changed the subject to his favorite topic of oil, and so enthusi- 
astic was he on the subject, that Ellwood leased a portion of the ranch 
for oil and induced his father, Jonathan Ellwood, to come to Bakersfield. 
The two then began to dig for oil. and that in the true sense of the word, 
as they were obliged to use the only tools they had — an ordinary shovel 
and a hand auger. In May, 1899. they started work on the north bank of 
the Kern river about seven miles from Bakersfield, beginning the rude well 
under the edge of the clifT. They went down with the hand auger seventy- 
five feet, when they struck good oil indications. Then they secured a steam 
rig and at three hundred and forty-three feet they drilled into oil, whereupon 
young Ellwo(xl rushed to Tom Means and shouted: "Your prophecy has 
been fulfilled !" But Means only smiled and said, 'T knew it was there." 
However, in that moment, through his faith and preaching, Tom Means had 
brought to California a new oil field, whose vastness and wealth have aston- 
ished the world. 

Mr. Means was a native of New^ Brunswick, November 9. 1840. being 
the date of his birth. Receiving an excellent educational training in youth 
he possessed a special fondness for the study of languages, and he was able 
to speak all the Latin tongues, or as it has been said of him, he was able to 
keep silent in many languages. As early as 1868 he came to Bakersfield, 
which then boasted of one house, that of Colonel Baker, and one store, that 
of Mr. Chester. During 1871-72 he worked in Inyo county, but returning 
to Kern county he began to ranch and raise .stock, acquiring later a farm 
of two hundred and fifteen acres. It was during the earlv '80s that Mr. 



372 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Means first discovered oil indications in Kern county on the south bank of 
the Kern river on section three, 29-28, and it was entirely due to his stead- 
fast refusal to be discouraged in his endeavor to interest capital and promote 
enthusiasm that the oil industry was developed in this community. At 
the time of his death, which occurred in Mercy hospital August 4, 1912, ^Nlr. 
Means owned considerable real estate in Bakersfield and San Francisco. 

TERENCE B. McMANUS.— As early as 1876 .Air. AlcAIanus first came 
to the west and spent a short time in San Francisco. Again in 1902 he 
visited that city, but returned to his ^Minnesota home after a brief vacation. 
During 1912 he was called to Bakersfield by the demise of his brother, the 
late Thomas A. Means, and being himself the nearest surviving relative he 
was named as administrator of the estate. Halving therefore business inter- 
ests here and being pleased with the appearance of this lively, prosperous 
city he determined to bring his family hither and establish a home. Since 
doing so he has become interested in the real-estate business and also has 
acquired farming interests. 

A son of Terence and Thirza (Brownell) AIcAIanus. T. B. McManus was 
born in A\'estmoreland county. N. B.. May 22, 1849. During boyhood he 
attended the common schools and aided in the w^ork on the home farm. After 
leaving home he became connected with a mercantile business and also 
engaged in contracting at Memramcook. X. B. Removing to Minnesota 
during 1883 he settled near Crookston. purchased land and improved a large 
farm in the Red River valley, where he engaged extensively in wheat-growing 
and passed many busy, useful years. Meanwhile in 1893 President Cleveland 
appointed him deputy collector of internal revenue for the Ninth congres- 
sional district, embracing a territory three hundred miles in length. For 
five years he discharged the duties of that responsible position. In 1905 
Governor John A. Johnson appointed him a member of the board of grain 
appeal of Minnesota, with headquarters in Duluth. At the expiration of 
his first term in 1907 he was again chosen for the same post and in 1909 
he was reappointed, the last appointment bearing date of September 13, 
1909, having been the last official act of Governor Johnson before his fatal 
illness. After five years on the board he retired in July of 1910, leaving a 
record of creditable and honorable service to the farmers of Minnesota. 
Subsequent to his retirement he continued to make Duluth his home until 
April, 1912, when he came to Bakersfield on business matters and shortly 
thereafter he established a home in this city. His family consists of his 
wife, formerly Aliss Helen Hachey, of New Brunswick, and their five chil- 
dren, Thomas W'., Loretta, Lucile, Arthur and Charles, all yet remaining at 
home, and the eldest being now associated with his father in the real-estate 
business as T. B. AIcManus & Son, having established their ofiices in the 
Bank of Bakersfield building, where they already have a large clientele. 

MRS. WALTER WRIGHT.— Mrs. Wright is the elder of two daughters 
of the late William Millen, a drilling contractor in the oil fields of West A^ir- 
ginia and at Marietta, Ohio. By his marriage to Mary St. Clair he became 
the father of two daughters, Agnes F. and Edith. The latter is the wife of 
Lloyd Halsell, a druggist at Jamestown, N. Y., where Mrs. Millen also 
makes her home. After having graduated from the Holy Angels' Academy, 
an institution for girls, at Buffalo, N. Y., Agnes F. Millen entered the Nurses' 
Training School connected with the hospital of the Johns Hopkins Univer- 
sity at Baltimore, Md. The best professional opportunities awaited her 
there and of these she availed herself to the fullest extent. Flaving gradu- 
ated from the training school with the class of 1902, she returned to New 
York state and engaged in professional work at Jamestown and Bufifalo. 
For a time she was employed in the Sisters' Hospital at Meadville, Pa. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 373 

Another important position was held in the Municipal hospital at James- 
town. Later she engag-ed in private nursing at Bradford, Pa., and in that 
city formed the acquaintance of Walter Wright, to whom she was married at 
Olean, Cattaraugus county, N. Y. Ever since her marriage she has pur- 
sued her professional duties. During November of 1912 she came to Taft 
with Mr. Wright, who is a surveyor, now engaged in the Midway oil fields. 
Upon the opening of the hospital May 2. 1913. she became superintendent 
and general manager and since then she has devoted herself to the discharge 
of the duties of the position, which she fills with recognized capabilitv and 
executive sagacity. 

GENERAL HOSPITAL OF TAFT.— The General hospital of Taft, 
financed and erected under the supervision of M. W. Pascoe, M. D., and 
opened to the public May 2, 1913, has entered upon its history of useful 
service to humanity under the capable oversight of Mrs. Walter Wright as 
general manager. The modern equipment of the hospital, the sanitary con- 
ditions rigidly observed, the services of graduate nurses and of a trained 
dietitian bespeak a most earnest and sincere purpose to surround the patients 
with skilled attendants and scientific supervision. The building contains 
fifteen rooms and is so arranged as to furnish accommodations for twenty- 
five patients. For convenience and comfort a hall was built through the 
entire length of the hospital, rendering possible a free circulation of air 
that mitigates the heat of summer. On the left as the visitor enters the 
building is the reception room, furnished in mission style and decorated in 
soft shades of green and brown soothing and restful to the eye. The hand- 
some clock on the wall of this room was the gift of A. T. Connard. On the 
right of the entrance is the operating room, finished in pure white and 
equipped with the most modern surgical appliances. 

The spacious hall terminates in the dining room and diet kitchen, off 
which the nurses and hospital staff have their quarters. A screened porch, 
large enough for perhaps eight beds, will be used to accommodate patients 
who prefer the open air. In connection with the other conveniences there 
is a laboratory where all prescriptions are compounded. While the hos- 
pital was made possible almost wholly through the energy and progressive 
spirit of Dr. Pascoe, other physicians are invited to take their patients there 
and the utmost courtesy is shown to all. Besides Mrs. Wright there are 
three graduate nurses. Miss Julia Trabuca. Mrs. Catherine Spann and ]\Irs. 
Agnes Marlin. The two first-named are graduates of the Los Angeles city 
and county hospital, while Mrs. Marlin comes from the Post-Graduate hos- 
pital of Chicago. Mrs. Lora Dennison, of Santa Cruz, has been engaged as 
dietarian and prepares the food for the patients in accordance with the most 
modern laws of science and sanitation. 

HIPPOLYTE SEINTURIER.— A resident of Kern ccainty since 1901 
and a prosperous sheepman since 1904, ]\Ir. Seinturier was born at Ancel. 
Hautes-Alpes, France, in June. 1877. being the youngest in a family of eight 
children, six now living, whose parents, ^lartin and Hiopolyte (Espitallier ) 
Seinturier, have been lifelong farmers in France. As a boy he was taught 
the rudiments of agriculture as conducted in France. From an early age he 
was familiar with farming and stock-raising. Upon leaving home in 1901 
he came to California and at Delano joined a brother, Joseph, who years 
before had established himself in Kern county. Lender the oversight of 
the elder brother the young emigrant learned the sheep business as fol- 
lowed in this part of the world. For a year he helped the brother in the 
herding of a flock of sheep. Later he worked for other sheepmen. During 
1904 he bought a small flock of sheep and started in the business for 
himself. Ever since then he has ranged his flocks in the vicinity of Delano 
and in the Tehachapi region. In the main he has been successful. His 



374 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

flock has increased in size and has been maintained in health, so that he is 
well satisfied with the results of his California venture. Since becoming 
a citizen of our country he has voted th(f Republican ticket. At Los Angeles, 
in June of 1908, he married Miss Marie Horel, who was born at Ancel, 
France, and came to Kern county in 1907. There are three children of the 
union, l')erthe, Martha and Edna. During 1912 Mr. Seinturier bought a 
modern residence on the corner of Humboldt and Tulare streets in East 
Bakersfield and here the family have since made their home. 

ROMULUS ORCIER was born in Bussard, Hautes-Alpes, France, 
where he received his education in the public schools, remaining on the 
home farm until 1890. In that year he migrated to San Francisco and the 
same year came to Delano, Kern county, where he found employment with 
his brothers, Fred and Theophil Orcier, who were owners of large flocks of 
sheep on Poso creek. Two years later he bought a band of sheep, ranging 
them in Kern and Inyo counties. He was successful in the venture, but in 
1905 sold his sheep and the same year opened the Pioneer hotel at Famoso, 
of which he has since been the proprietor. He also built and opened a 
livery stable for the accommodation of travelers. 

On August 5, 1903, in East Bakersfield, occurred the marriage of Mr. 
Orcier with Miss Marie Morel, a native daughter of Los Angeles, the 
daughter of Jullien Morel, a pioneer stockman of Southern California and 
afterwards of Kern county. Mr. and Mrs. ( Jrcier are the parents of three 
children, Clementine, Julia and Romulus, Jr. Fraternally he is an active 
member of Aerie No. 93, F. O. E., in Bakersfield. He is a Republican. 

CHARLES FRANK HABERKERN.— Although from his earliest rec- 
ollections a resident of California, Mr. Haberkern claims Illinois as his 
native commonwealth and was born in Princeton, August 26, 1865. The 
death of his father, Charles, who had been an industrious farmer of that 
locality, occurred during the infancy of the son, who thereafter became the 
charge of his aunt, Mrs. George Zimmerman. The latter had accompanied 
her husband to California in 1850 and at the expiration of their tedious 
journey across the plains had settled in Sonoma county, taking up agricul- 
tural pursuits in that section. During 1865 they returned to Illinois for 
their orphaned nephew^ and in December of that year brought him to Cali- 
fornia, where he was reared partly on a farm in Sonoma county and partly 
in San Francisco. For some years he attended the Lincoln school, on 
Market and Fifth streets, San Francisco, and upon leaving school he began 
to learn the butcher's trade in that city, where he remained until he had 
acquired a thorough knowledge of the occupation. While following the 
trade he engaged to some extent in the buying and selling of cattle. 

Coming to Bakersfield in 1888, three years later Mr. Haberkern became 
interested in the raising of grain and stock in the Tejon district and con- 
tinued there until 1897, when he bought property on Kern Island. Although 
since 1908 he has maintained his residence in Bakersfield, he still owns the 
ranch and superintends it personally, this being possible through the fact 
that the tract of ninety acres lies only three miles from the city. Alfalfa is 
the principal product grown and this, instead of being sold, is fed to the 
horses and mules that are raised there for the markets. The excellent 
condition of the property and its profitable maintenance reflect credit upon 
the owner, who is considered a skilled stockman and capable farmer. Since 
coming to Bakersfield he became one of the original stockholders in the 
Security Trust Company. The Bakersfield Club numbers him among its 
well-known members. 

A pioneer in the oil industry, Mr. Haberkern dates his connection with 
the Kern county fields from 1899. During that year he became interested 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 377 

in property at the present site of ]Maricopa. With others he formed a 
company that put down a well and struck oil in paying quantities at a depth 
of five hundred and nineteen feet, this being the first well brought in on the 
flat. Two other wells were then put down. The venture proved profitable 
and the company later sold at a profit. Since then Mr. Haberkern has 
continued in the development of oil lands in North Midway and from the 
organization of the Eight Oil Company has been a director and stockholder. 
While his success in oil operations has been excellent and now gives him 
financial independence, it is abundantly merited by his arduous labors during 
the incipiency of the industry. When first he began to drill wells water 
was so scarce that it was the custom for the men to drive two miles with 
a team and tank and with buckets dip the water to fill the tank. It was 
then brought to the well, so that the work might be continued without 
delay. If any break occurred in the machinery he would start at once, 
night or day, for Bakersfield. a drive of forty-five miles, in order that repairs 
might be secured at once, and there were many times when he started on 
these long trips at midnight. Drinking-water was brought to the lease by 
their teams from the' mountains, costing them about $1.25 per barrel. Those 
were days of hardship, privation and unceasing labor, but he has seen the 
reward of his efforts and is now enjoying the fruits of his toil. 

WILLIAM MILES HOUSER.— The immediate cause of Mr. Houser's 
removal to this place from the .Santa Clara valley, where he had enjoyed 
a long and successful identification with the Palo Alto ranch, was the fact that 
a brother, A. W. Houser, had become a resident of the place, had acquired a 
livery stable and hotel business here and was meeting with results so encour- 
aging that the incentive to join him was sufficient to bring about his de- 
parture from the more northerly section of the state. Nor did he ever have 
reason to regret the decision to cast in his lot with Kern county, for as 
president of the Amber Oil Company, as supervisor of the first district and as 
owner of mines around Randsburg, he reaped the benefit of a prosperity that 
marked this section of the country and at the same time Avas instrumental in 
promoting the welfare of the people of his district. 

Born in Pittsburgh, Pa., January 27, 1865, William Miles Houser came 
to California at the age of six years and settled with his parents at Stockton, 
where he attended school until fifteen years of age. The father, William, a 
native of Pennsylvania, had been a coal miner in that state from early life 
until the failure of his health necessitated a complete change of occupation 
and of climate. Thereupon he came to California, but he was benefited only 
temporarily. His death occurred in April of 1875. The mother, who bore the 
maiden name of Barbara Schwagard, was born in Pittsburgh, Pa.. December 
12, 1833, and still makes her home in San Joaquin county. 

Upon leaving school and taking up for himself the problem of self- 
support, ^^■illiam Miles Houser secured employment on a stock ranch owned 
by G. W. Trahern, for whom he worked during the following six years. 
Meanwhile the care of stock, their needs and moneyed values became as 
an open book to him. As a judge of animals he established an enviable 
reputation in his locality and when the ranch where he had labored was sold 
to the trustees of the Leland Stanford University he was invited to remain in 
the capacity of stock-trainer and superintendent of one of the ranch depart- 
ments, later as foreman of the ranch. In appreciation of his faithful and intelli- 
gent services he was paid excellent wages. For eighteen years he remained 
on the Palo .\lto ranch, relinquishing the position eventually in 1900 that he 
might cast his fortunes in with those of the mining community of Rands- 
burg. where the following year he bought the livery stable and leased the 
hotel owned by his brother, A. W. After he had conducted these two enter- 
prises with success for two years, he ga\e up the hotel to continue the livery 



378 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Inisiness and mining. Meanwhile he had acquired an interest in oil wells at 
P'ellows, Kern county, and these wells by subsequent development became 
very valuable, so that he reaped financial benefit from an early and judicious 
investment. Besides acting as president of the x\mber Oil Company, he was 
owner of the Houser group of mines, adjoining the Yellow Aster mine (the 
largest in the state of California). His holdings were further increased by the 
purchase of Eas}' Street mine at Randsburg. In addition he owned a tungsten 
mine in San Bernardino county and many other properties. 

When only twenty-one years of age iVIr. Houser became a member of 
I he Independent Order of Odd Fellows and later he enlarged his fraternal 
relations by identification with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and 
the Eagles. As a stanch supporter of the Democratic party he was a leading 
local politician, while the larger interests of the county were promoted by 
his earnest service as supervisor of the first district, to which office he was 
elected in 1908. May 20, 1890. he married Miss Ella Gofif, who was born at 
Stockton, this state, the daughter of Russell and Lucy fPhelps) Goff, na- 
tives of Michigan and Boston, Mass.. respectively. In 1847, when a mere lad, 
Mr. Gofi:" came via Panama to San Francisco. He remained in the state for a 
number of years after the discovery of gold, then returned east and in 1852 
he again returned to California, becoming interested in mining and farming. 
He spent his last days with Mrs. Houser in Randsburg, where he died in 
1907 aged seventy-seven years. Mrs. Gofif came with her mother in 18,52 via 
Panama to join her father. Capt. \\'. G. Phelps, who had brought a sailing 
vessel around Cape Plorn to San Francisco in 1849. A man of force and 
determination, he became well known on the coast, especially in the vicinity 
of Stockton, where he had large ranch interests. Mrs. Gofif who now 
makes her home in Los Angeles, was the mother of four children, all living. 
Mrs. Houser. who was the eldest, passed her childhood and obtained her 
education in the schools of Stockton. 

To Mr. and Mrs. \\\ M. Houser were born eight children, namely: Ella 
May, deceased ; Lillian, Mrs. F. E. Hill of Los Angeles ; Ellen Geraldine. 
Mrs. F. P. Hill, of Los Angeles; M. Melvin, deceased; Edith Gertrude; 
William Miles. Jr.; Reginald Leland, deceased; and Wilma Elaine, who was 
1)1. rn four months after her father's death. The death of Mr. Houser, August 
11, 1912, removed from his community one of its most dependable citizens. 

ANDREW C. SILVER. — Almost forty years intervened between the 
first visit of John F. Silver and his second removal to the western coast. 
During that long era many changes had 1)een made. Railroads had spanned 
the continent, so that, instead of traveling with wagons and ox-teams, as 
in the first trip, he came speedily, surrounded by every comfort of modern 
travel. At the time of his first trip he was a young man and as yet unmar- 
ried. In the interim of his western trips he had married and reared a family, 
only one of whom, Andrew C, survives at the present writing. The father 
himself passed away in 1909 and his wife, who bore the maiden name 
of Mary Craig and was born in Indiana, now makes her home in Oklahoma, 
so that Andrew C. is the sole representative of the family on the western 
coast. The trade at which he is an expert, that of brick-laying, was the 
one which his father followed for years, first as a day laborer and later as 
a contractor. Not having gained a fortune in the California mines during 
the four years he engaged in that work, he returned to Michigan in 1853 
and resumed the trade of bricklayer. He had removed to Michigan from 
his native New Hampshire and from Michigan he went to Illinois, where he. 
became a brick contractor at Shelbyville. The next move took him to 
Kansas, where he settled at Winfield in 1879 and immediately became 
identified with the contracting business as a specialist in brick. From 
that place he came to California in 1887 and after two years in Los Angeles 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 379 

proceeded to Bakersfield, where he engaged at his trade as long as his 
health permitted. 

The eldest among four children. Andrew C. Silver was born at Shelby- 
ville, Shelby county, 111., August 24, 1863, and remained in Illinois until 
sixteen years of age, meanwhile attending the grammar and high schools 
of his native city. During 1879 he accompanied his father to Kansas. His 
employment in that state was as a clerk. Going to Colorado in 1882 he 
learned the trade of bricklayer while employed with the Denver & Rio 
Grande Railroad Company. Two years later he returned to Winfield, Kan., 
to take up work at that occupation. With his father he removed to Los 
Angeles in 1887 and found emj^loyment in laying brick. During 1889 
he became a resident of Bakersfield and here he since has built up an 
established reputation for skill in his chosen occupation. Entering the 
employ of C. J. Lindgren, he soon rose to be foreman and in that capacity 
he aided in the construction of a number of large buildings. Upon the 
removal of Mr. Lindgren to San Francisco in 1907 Mr. Silver purchased 
his outfit and ever since has engaged in contracting and building, mean- 
wdiile having charge of many important jobs, including the Sanger building, 
Druid's hall, Estribou residence and others. Ever since the organization of 
the Builders' Exchange he has been an interested worker, while politically 
he has maintained a warm interest in the principles of the Democratic 
party, which he always supports by ballot and influence. The family resi- 
dence at No. 212 Eureka street is presided over by Mrs. Silver, who w^as 
Miss Adeline M. Jasper, a native of Santa Cruz, this state, but a resident of 
Bakersfield for a time prior to their marriage. They are the parents of 
four children, Andrew, Edna, Esther and Homer. 

LEO G. PAULY. — The founder of the Pauly family in America was 
Antone, the son of a prosperous German merchant and himself of German 
birth and education, but after 1860 a resident of the United States and during 
the Civil war the proprietor of an omnibus line in Washington, D. C. The 
duties of his business necessitated his frequent travel through different 
sections of the country and in order that he might not be discommoded by 
delays he secured passes from General Miles and General Beauregard. 
With the aid of these indispensable papers, which now are in the posses- 
sion of his only son, he was able to travel back and forth between the lines 
and at no time did he suiTer delay or inconvenience. At the close of the 
war he sought the cheap lands of the Mississippi valley and was induced to 
settle at Nauvoo. in Hancock county. 111., whence some years before the 
Mormons had been driven by citizens not in sympathy with their religious 
views. Before he had developed a farm into profitable condition he was 
obliged to leave owing to a pulmonar}- affection, for w^hich physicians 
recommended the climate of California. Accompanied by his family he 
came to Los Angeles in 1869, but. securing no relief, he w^as advised to 
seek a higher altitude and in this way he first became associated wMth 
Kern county. The family secured a team and wagon and followed the 
customary path of travel to the Tehachapi pass, where, finding a suitable 
location at the desired elevation, they took up a tract of government land. 
Later adjacent property was purchased. Sheep and cattle were bought and 
a large industry developed, there being as many as three thousand sheep in 
the flock at one time. By thrift and wise management the father acquired 
seventeen hundred acres adjoining the village of Tehachapi and he laid 
out two additions to that towm, where for five years he engaged in the 
butcher business. The climate enabled him to regain his health. He en- 
joyed many seasons of agricultural and business activity and became a man 
of note in his community. Finally, at an advanced age and after a life 
of usefulness, he i)assed awav November 18, 1893. For many years he was 



380 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

survived by his wife, whose d^ath occurred January 7, 1911. in Kern. Born 
and reared in Kulmbadi, Germany, and known by the maiden name of 
Catherine Zink, she came to this country in young girlhood and was 
married at \\^ashington, D. C. 

Out of the nine children forming the parental family onh- three are 
now living, the two daughters being Mrs. Clara Parks of Los Angeles and 
Rose, Mrs. H. F. Keeler. of Lancaster, this state. The only son, Leo G., 
was born at Tehachapi, this county, July 26, 1875. and received his primary 
education in that village. During November of 1895 he was graduated 
from the San Jose State Normal, after which he became principal of the 
Tehachapi school and continued in the position for two years. When 
twenty-two years of age, in 1897. he was ofifered the principalship of the 
Kern school and accepted the post. At that time there were five teachers 
in a building of six rooms. As principal he advanced the standard of schol- 
arship and made the school as thorough as any in the county. Other 
buildings were erected during his tenure of the office, including the Lincoln 
school of four rooms and the addition of four rooms and an assembly hall to 
ihe Washington school. \\'hen finally he resigned in ^larch of 1909 he was 
at the head of a successful educational force of fourteen teachers with 
modern equipment and every facility for thorough work. Since June of 
1896 he has been a member of the county board of education and for 
twelve years of this period he officiated as president of the board. Upon 
the consolidation of Bakersfield and Kern in July, 1910, he was chosen a 
member of the city board of education and at the regular election in April, 
1911. he was again placed in this position. 

Since relinquishing his educational work ]\lr. Pauly has been connected 
with the Ardizzi-Olcese Company of East Bakersfield. an incorporated con- 
cern and the oldest mercantile establishment in Kern county. Entering 
as manager in ]\Iarch of 1909, at the expiration of the first year he became 
financially interested and was elected secretary of the corporation. 

The marriage of Mr. Pauly and Miss Essa Davis was solemnized in 
Tehachapi and has been blessed with three children. Harold. Leo A. and 
Catherine. Mrs. Pauly was born in Los Angeles county and grew to 
womanhood in iiakersfield, her father, J. L. Davis, having been a pioneer 
farmer of Kern county. In national politics Mr. Pauly votes with the 
Republican party. I-Vaternally he holds membership with Bakersfield Lodge 
No. 266, B. P. O. E., and has been a prominent officer, being Past Exalted 
Ruler. Upon the organization of the old volunteer fire department in Kern 
he became a member, realizing the great need of adequate fire protection. 
At the time of the consolidation he was serving as chief of the depart- 
ment and he still retains his interest in its equipment and management. The 
old homestead of seventeen hundred acres still belongs to the family, but 
for years has been leased to tenants for farming purposes. 

JAMES FREDERICK HYDRON.— A responsible position with the 
Kern County Land Company is filled by Mr. Hydron, who has been a 
resident of Bakersfield since 1894 and an employe of the company for 
practically the same length of time. Chance attracted him to the great 
west. \\'hen twenty-one years of age he had the good fortune to visit the 
World's Fair in Chicago and made a careful study of state exhibits. The 
old mission building occupied by the California exhibit drew him to a careful 
inspection and he udted with amazement and admiration the wonderful 
array of citrus and deciduous fruits, and of grains, vegetables and other 
products. For the first time his attention was directed to the Pacific coast 
and it was this exhiliit which caused him to come to California the fol- 
lowing year, since which time he has made Bakersfield his home and the 
scene of his business activities. 



■'M 





TfduJ'^L-^ 





^;;^y^^^S^<->-L , 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 385 

Born at Louisville, Ky.. February 11, 1872, James Frederick Hydron is 
a son of William and Alary (Roman) Hydron, members of old southern 
families, the former a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, and the latter born near 
Louisville, Ky. For a considerable period the father engaged in the car- 
riage-maker's business at Louisville and during the Civil war he enlisted 
from that city with a Confederate regiment of soldiers, serving at the front 
until the expiration of his term. During the 70s he removed to Indiana 
and established a business at Jeffersonville, where he continued to make 
his home until his death in 1903 at the age of sixty-seven years. All of 
the children, four sons and two daughters, are still living and their mother 
also survives, making Louisville her home at the present time. ' The fourth 
among the six children was James Frederick, the only member of the 
family in California. After he had received a common-school education 
in Jeffersonville he aided his father until he came to California in 1894 and 
settled in Kern county. Immediately he found employment with the Kern 
County Land Company. His first task was that of driving mules and a 
scraper. Soon he was transferred to the surveying department, where 
he remained for two years. During his connection with the surveying corps 
he helped to survey the tunnel at Kern river canyon. Later he served on 
the street-car line as a conductor and continued with the land company 
in that capacity for three years. April 15, 1906, he was placed in charge 
of the Bakersfield warehouse owned by the company and since then he 
has filled the difficult position with efficiency. In every capacity he has 
proved himself a man of sterling worth and integrity. Politically he votes 
with the Democratic party. For some years he has held office as banker 
of the local lodge, Modern Woodmen of America, in the work of which 
he has been influential and active. Some years after coming to Bakersfield 
he married Miss Cora Cowing, a native of Kern county and a daughter 
of John Cowing, a California pioneer, identified for a long period with the 
agricultural development of this county, but more recently a resident of 
Moneta, Los Angeles county. Mr. and Mrs. Hydron have an only son, 
Harry Edward. 

HENRY W. KLIPSTEIN.— The genealogy of the Klipstein family is 
traced to an ancient and noble race in Germany, where a coat of arms pro- 
claimed their distinguished lineage and honorable station. The history of the 
family can be traced back to George Klipstein, a citizen and turner of Eisen- 
ach, Avho had a son Hans, a forester of Einhaus. and the latter a son Casper, 
of Hesse-Darmstadt, who was chief forester of the principalities of Batten- 
burg, Reidenkoff and Itter. Casper Klipstein had a son John Casper, who was 
preceptor and organist at Gladenbach, and his son, John Conrad Theodore, 
was a forester. The son of the last-mentioned. Philip, was born in Hesse- 
Darmstadt and became a surgeon of note. In the capacity of surgeon he came 
to America with the Hessian troops and served in the Revolutionary war. 
When peace was declared he was honorably discharged and settled down to 
the practice of his profession in Winchester, Va. This Philip Klipstein was 
the great-grandfather of our subject. The grandfather, Philip Augustin, was a 
native of Virginia, born in 1791. He was a minister of the old "Ironside" 
Baptist denomination, preached the Gospel in the Old Dominion and held higli 
rank among the people of his faith. The next generation was represented by 
Thomas E. Klipstein, who lived and died in Virginia. His marriage to Mary 
Frances Hampton brought him into connection with a distinguished family 
of his state, whose most noted member was Gen. Wade Hampton. In the 
family of Thomas E. Klipstein there were five children, of whom four grew up; 
Sallie, Mrs. A. R. Ijartenstein, of Fauquier county, Va. ; Eliza Peyton, Mrs. 
W. G. Bartenstein, who died at Virginia Colony, Kern county ; Catherine 
Hampton, Mrs. Basey, of \^irginia Colony; and Henry \\'. 



386 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

The home of the Klipstein family was in Fauquier county, Va., and 
there February 13, 1852, occurred the l:>irth of a son, Henry W., who being 
a mere lad at the time of the Civil war could not enter the army, yet witnessed 
much of the horrors of warfare. The family home, only forty miles from Wash- 
ington, was often threatened by opposing forces and its inmates were in peril 
of their lives as the fierce struggle waged around them. In their immediate 
neighborhood occurred the sanguinary contests of Bull Run during 1861 and 
1862. The community became disrupted by strife and schools were closed, 
so that the young lad studied his lessons at home under the careful oversight 
of his mother. When the war had ended and schools again opened for study, 
he took up educational work and finally obtained a common-school education, 
after which he began to make his own way in the world. 

The marriage of Henry W. Klipstein took place in \'irginia in A])ril, 1876. 
and united him with Miss Martha Jennings Rixey, the daughter of Smith H. 
and Catherine E. (Triplet) Rixey. The father was a planter in Culpeper 
county, Va., where Mrs. Klipstein was born. She is a near relative of Con- 
gressman John Rixey of the Old Dominion and also of Dr. Preston Rixey, phy- 
sician to President McKinley and also Surgeon General of the Navy in the Mc- 
Kinley and Roosevelt administrations. For a number of successive generations 
the Rixey family has been prominent in the annals of Virginia, whose ad- 
vancement has been promoted by their patriotic efTorts and progressive spirit. 
A member of a family including seven children (six daughters and one son), 
Mrs. Klipstein was reared in the home of an aunt, Martha Rixey, and while 
t.-till a young girl became the wife of Henry \V. Klipstein, whom she accom- 
panied to California in 1888, his ill health having been the cause of their re- 
moval to the genial western climate. Arriving at Bakersfield on Christmas 
day, they at once sought a means (^f livelihood and began in the dairy indus- 
try. Being given an opportunity to buy the dairy then owned by the Kern 
County Land Company, they availed themselves of the chance and were 
prospered by the undertaking. As his means permitted, Mr. Klipstein began to 
buy land and cattle. At this writing they own the Klipstein ranch of about 
twelve thousand acres, located near Maricopa, and also about three thousand 
acres of the old Wagy ranch and farm, and on account of the location of the 
ranches they control about seventy-five thousand acres of government range 
land. In the land and cattle business he is in partnership with his sons, Henry 
W. and Phil A., and on their ranches range more than three thousand head 
of cattle. The move to the west proved fortunate to him, as he has regained his 
health and also has been greatly prospered in ranching and stock-raising. For 
years he has been closely connected with the Kern County Land Company 
in business matters. Besides his vast landed possessions, comprising the 
cattle ranches with their commodious ranch houses, he owns improved and 
unimproved property in Bakersfield and here has a modern residence at the 
foot of Dracena street built on a natural mound at an elevation of about 
twenty feet above the surrounding country. 

Nine children comprised the family of Mr. and Airs. Klipstein, of whom 
seven grew up and six are still living. The eldest, Thomas E., a successful 
oil operator and formerly connected with the Kern County Abstract Com- 
pany, is well and favorably known in Bakersfield and represented elsewhere 
in this volume. The eldest daughter, Kate Hampton, deceased, was the wife 
of J. H. Hillard, of San Francisco and at her death left one child, Ramona 
Frances, now living with Mr. and Mrs. Klipstein and attending the Ramona 
convent. The two youngest sons, Henry W. and Phil A., are energetic young 
ranchers and excellent judges of stock, their specialty being cattle. The former 
is first lieutenant of Troop A, California National Guard. Eugenia is the wife 
of G. E. Ruckstell, formerly of San h^rancisco, now proprietor of a garage at 
Maricopa. Mildred M. married J. II. Bacon and lives at Fellows. The youngest 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 387 

member of the family circle, Mattie Rixey, resides with her parents. Politi- 
cally Mr. Klipstein is a Democrat. 

E. L. WILLOW. — The discovery of gold proved the attraction that 
brought to the west Elias Willow, a Pennsylvanian by birth and a cooper by 
trade. At an early age he had accompanied his parents to Ohio and had 
settled in Sandusky. The even tenor of his life was changed by the 
news concerning the discovery of gold in California and as soon as pos- 
sible he started for the coast. Joining an expedition that made the trip 
with wagons and ox-teams, he crossed the plains during the summer of 
1850 and arrived in due time in Eldorado county, where he engaged in 
placer mining. As no special fortune rewarded his efforts he turned his 
attention to merchandising in the same county. As he not only con- 
ducted a general store, but also acted as postmaster of his little village and 
as agent for the Wells Fargo Express Company, he formed the acquaint- 
ance of the people throughout all that section of the country. During the 
early days he knew by name practically all of the pioneers of his section and 
by all of them he was regarded as a friend. More than one was indebted to 
him for timely help. Indeed, his benefactions in those days of frontier 
existence were often in excess of his means, but his nature was so kindly 
that he could turn a deaf ear to no appeal for assistance. When he decided 
to leave Eldorado county he loaded his household necessities in a wagon, put 
his wife and children in the vehicle, and drove south until May 13, 1874, 
at which time he arrived at Bakersfield. Here he established a permanent 
home. For ten years he had the contract for sprinkling the streets, using 
for that purpose a water-wagon of his own manufacture. After he discon- 
tinued that business he became secretary of the county board of horticultural 
commissioners and at his death in 1891 he was still filling that position. As 
road overseer for several terms he had charge of the highways of his dis- 
trict, while in addition for many years he filled the office of school trustee. 

The marriage of Elias Willow united him with ^liss Ann Eliza Pavey. 
who was born in Coldwater, Mich., April 26, 1843, and died at Bakersfield 
in October, 1909. Her father, Henry Pavey, had crossed the plains for the 
first time during the summer of 1850. After he had remained long enough 
to investigate conditions he decided that he would like to settle perma- 
nently in the west, therefore he returned to Michigan for his family, who 
accompanied him across the plains in 1852, making the trip with ox-teams. 
For many years and until his death he engaged in the horticultural in- 
dustry and also conducted a nursery business in Eldorado county. There 
were but two children in the family of Elias Willow, the daughter being 
]Mrs. Flora Ellen Stanley, of Fairbank, Ariz. The son, E. L.. was born 
in the village of Mud Springs, Eldorado county, Cal., May 14, 1864, and 
has been a resident of Bakersfield since May 13, 1874, during which year 
he entered the public schools of this place. After he had completed the 
studies of the local schools he entered the commercial department of the 
University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he remained until 
his graduation. As early as ten years of age he began to learn the furniture 
business, his employer having been J- Neiderauer, of Bakersfield. During 
early life he learned the trade of a cabinet-maker. In starting out at the 
trade he earned $8 per week, but in one month his wages were raised to $Q. 
After his graduation he returned to the Neiderauer store and continued 
to work as a cal)inet-maker, but in a short time began to learn the em- 
balming business, of which in due time he acquired a recognized proficiency. 

The firm of Willow & Kelsey started in the furniture and undertaking 
business in January, 1889, on Twentieth street and Chester avenue, the 
present site of the Bank of Bakersfield. During July of the same year the 
store burned to the ground and the entire stock of goods was destroyed. 



388 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

entailing an almost total loss. Next ]\Ir. Willow engaged in the cabinet- 
making business at No. 1219 Nineteenth street. From boyhood he had 
been active in the old volunteer department as a member of the Eureka 
Engine Cdmpany. I'pon the organization of the Alert Hook & Ladder 
Company he became a charter member and was elected foreman. Later 
he became chief of the volunteer fire department. \\'hen the paid depart- 
ment was organized he was chosen the first chief of the department, re- 
ceiving sixty out of sixty-one votes cast. For sixteen years he continued 
in this responsible position. Meanwhile the signal 'phone alarm system 
was introduced and other imprt)vements made. All of the horses in the 
department were personally trained by him and they knew his voice so well 
that even now, when he speaks to them, they instantly recognize him. 
During April of 1907 he resigned as lire chief, having previously purchased 
the furniture business which he has conducted ever since. To show how 
much he was appreciated by the men in the department it is a significant 
fact that at the time he tendered his resignation every man in the depart- 
ment excepting two also handed in their resignations. The ^^^illow building, 
erected in 1904 at No. 1227 Nineteenth street, extends one hundred and 
thirty-two feet on Nineteenth street and has a depth of one hundred and 
fifteen and one-half feet on L street. The location is unexcelled for building 
up a large trade, but the patronage is not limited to Bakersfield itself, for 
Mr. Willow has customers from all parts of the county. From the organiza- 
tion of the Merchants' Association he has served as its treasurer and he also 
has been a prominent member of Kern county board of trade. In national 
politics he votes with the Republican party. His marriage took place at 
San Francisco and united him with Miss Frances A. Foran. who was born 
at Mariposa, this state. 

HENRY BOHNA. — The name of Bohna is of peculiar interest to the 
people of luikersfield bv reason of the fact that Christian Bohna, who arrived 
here February 1, 18()0, built the first house on what is now the town site. 
When he brought the family to this region he found conditions most unat- 
tractive. By reason v)f the numerous swamps covered with willow trees the 
location was most unhealthful and during 1860 the family suffered constantly 
from sickness. The first step which he took after his arrival was to secure 
a shelter for wife and children. The house which he built was constructed of 
Cottonwood timber, with a roof of flag-tule, and were it still standing, it 
would be an object of great interest to the present large population of the 
city. After he had provided a home for the family he cleared ten acres of the 
land and planted a crop of corn, from which he gathered as many as one 
hundred and ten bushels to the acre. Encouraged by the success of the under- 
taking, he cleared more land and in 1861 planted a large field of corn, from 
which he secured a good crop, but the great flood of 1861-62 was so huge that 
he became entirely discouraged and moved awav as soon as the water went 
down. There were few to suffer from the reverses that overtook him, for 
at the time his nearest neighbors (only two families being at that place) 
were nine miles distant. 

In many respects Christian Bohna was a remarkable man. One of his 
striking characteristics was a love of travel and adventure. It did not satisfy 
him to remain for years in one location, no matter how dear might be the 
friends there nor how promising the opportunities. He wished to see all of 
our great country and as facilities for travel were limited in those days he 
spent large sums of money in taking his family from one state to another. 
Had he been less fond of travel, more willing to remain in one place, un- 
doubtedly he would have accumulated a fortune, but as it was he left little 
means for his family. However, he did leave something more to be desired, 
the respect of accpiaintances and a reputation for integrity and the highest 
I)rinciples of honor. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 391 

Born in Saxony, Germany, December 28, 1805, Christian Bohna followed 
the usual procedure among- the youth of his country, viz. : attendance at school 
until fourteen, apprenticeship at a trade until eighteen and then three years 
of service in the army of his country. After having been honorably dis- 
charged from the army at the age of twenty-one he came to the new world, 
prepared for work by a thorough knowledge of blacksmithing, which he 
followed in New York City. With a desire to see the country he traveled 
through Ohio, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas, besides making brief stops in 
intervening states. Meanwhile his trade earned him an honest livelihood. 
When he started across the plains in the spring of 1853 he had his wagon 
fitted out with blacksmith's tools of every description and thus he was enabled 
to earn his way as he traveled toward the west. Landing in Calaveras county 
he set up a shop and made considerable money by his trade, but invested the 
most of this capital in mines in that locality. During the fall of 1856 he 
returned to Arkansas and settled in Pike county, where he took up farm pur- 
suits. Soon, however, he found himself dissatisfied, eager to return to the 
west. Accordingly in 1859 he sold the Arkansas farm and came to the 
west, arriving at El Monte in the fall of 1859, and from there coming to what 
is now Bakersfield, February 1, 1860. The mishaps of the next two years have 
been recorded previously and furnish the reason for his removal to Oregon. 
From that state he soon moved to Idaho. In both places he engaged in 
farming and mining. The year 1867 found him back in Kern county, where 
he settled at Woody, retiring to some extent from active labors. He passed 
away in 1872 and was interred in the cemetery of Linn's valley. 

During the residence of Christian Bohna in Pike county, Ark., his son, 
Henry, was born October 15, 1842. By reason of the frequent removals of the 
family and their isolation in remote mining camps, he was deprived of educa- 
tional advantages. His entire attendance at school was limited to three weeks, 
when he was a pupil in a subscription school. During 1859 he arrived in 
E\ Monte, Cal., with his parents, and in February, 1860, he came with them to 
the present site of Bakersfield. In 1862 he began to mine in the White river 
district, where he took up a mining claim. In November of 1863 he joined 
his parents in Idaho, where he engaged in mining in 1864 and 1865. The fall 
of the latter year found him in Montana, where he bought a claim at Last 
Chance gulch and engaged in mining. Returning to Oregon in the fall of 
1866. he spent a few months in and near Portland and in 1867 returned to 
Kern county with his father, settling at Woody. Up to 1872 he devoted his 
attention to mining, but after that he engaged exclusivelv in farming and 
stock-raising. He had taken up and improved one hundred and sixty acres, 
but in 1882 the railroad took one-half of the tract from him. During 1882 he 
took up a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres in the Greenhorn range 
and moved to the land in 1883, but again in 1892 the railroad took eightv 
acres from this tract. W^hile living in the mountains he purchased from settlers 
title to six hundred and forty acres, which he used as a summer range for 
cattle. This place, which is known as Shiloh, he still owns. During 1904 he 
bought the old Maltby tract of four hundred acres at Woody, and in 1905 
he moved to this place. In the meantime he has purchased three hundred 
and twenty acres adjoining and now owns and successfully operates eight 
hundred and eighty acres of well-improved land. Being profuselv wooded 
with native oak the place has been appropriately named Oak Lodge. 

Since the age of twenty-one years Mr. Bohna has been an active worker 
in the local ranks of the Democratic party. During 1894 he was elected 
supervisor of the third district and in that responsible position he served with 
the greatest efficiency for four years. Elected a trustee of schools in the 
Blake district, he was clerk of the board for six years. From early life he has 
been a member of the Christian Church and a generous contributor to its 
maintenance. His marriage took place in Woody February 16, 1876, and 



392 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

united him with Miss Annie E. Rutledge, who was born in Tuolumne county, 
Cal., September 7, 1856, being a daughter of Paschal and Mary Ann (Mc- 
Elroy) Rutledge. Her father was born at Greenville, S. C, July 15, 1823, 
and during the great excitement of 1849 joined an expedition bound for Cali- 
fornia, where he was a pioneer tinner in San Francisco. After a time he 
added a stock of hardware and carried on an extensive trade in his line. Sep- 
tember 24. 1846. he had married Miss AIcElroy, who w^as born in Philadelphia, 
Pa., Januarv 1, 1824, and who came alone to California, making the trip via 
Panama. After having lived temporarily in various parts of the state Mr. 
Rutledge removed to Woody, Kern county, and here his body lies buried ; this 
also is the last resting place of his wife, who passed away in 1893. The family 
of Henry and Annie E. Bohna comprises nine children, the eldest of whom 
are high-school graduates and three of the daughters have taught school 
with success. Paschal married IMiss Birdie JMorse December 25, 1899; Chris- 
tine M. taught school for a time, and February 8, 1903, became the wife of 
F. H. Jameson ; Evelena Paralee taught school for some years, and August 15, 
1909, became the wife of Henry B. Gardette ; Clara J. married Harvey Buf- 
fington November 15, 1905 ; Marianna, after completing high-school, took up 
teaching with energy and intelligent application ; Roy H. now manages the 
ranch in the Greenhorn mountains; Alice Muriel, Thomas Hugh, and Lillian 
Rae complete the family. 

JULES RUFENER.— Where the foothills stretch from the Jura range 
of the lofty Alps westward toward the sunny slopes of France lies the 
thriving Swiss city known as La Chaux de Fonds, Canton Neuchatel. In 
that place Jules Rufener was born July 24, 1865, there he passed the unevent- 
ful years of childhood and there also he learned the tedious lessons so 
indispensable to educational or occupative progress. The family for several 
generations was noted for skill in watchmaking. The men of the race 
seemed to possess a natural talent for the delicate mechanism so essential 
to the trade and they therefore gained local prestige in a calling requiring 
exceptional delicacy of touch and accuracy of vision. Jacob, the father of 
Jules, was born at Interlocken in the Alps and has devoted his entire active 
life with success to the manufacture of watches. Even now, although he 
has reached the age of seventy-three, he is still regarded by the people of 
La Chaux de Fonds, where the firm of Rufener & Co. wields the influence 
due to long identification with the business of the city, as the leading watch- 
maker and most competent jeweler m the entire community. 

The marriage of Jacob Rufener united him with Barbara Gertsch, who 
at her death in 1911 was survived by seven of her ten children. It is a 
noteworthy fact that four sons became very skilled watchmakers. Of these 
the second child, Jules, was the only one to engage in business in America. 
Fritz until his death in 1910 carried on a large business as a watchmaker 
and jeweler in Bombay, India, while Charles, also identified with business 
in India, is a Avholesale dealer in watches and jewelry in Lucknovv. The 
only one of the sons continuing in business in his native city is Alfred, a 
manufacturer of watches, well known throughout Canton Neuchatel. At 
the age of sixteen Jules was apprenticed to his father and later was sent 
to a factory in order that he might become familiar with every department 
in the trade of watchmaker. Coming to the United States in 1890, he first 
engaged at his trade in Johnson, Nemaha county. Neb., and later in Niobrara, 
Knox county, same state, whence in 1897 he came to California and secured 
work at his trade in San Jose. The following year he arrived in Bakers- 
field, where he had no difficulty in securing a position suited to his ability. 
From 1901 to 1906 he engaged in business on Beacon street, San Pedro, 
where he still owns two residences close in. Upon selling the business at 
that point he returned to Kern county and secured a position in East 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 393 

Bakersfield. In April of 1908 he bought a one-half interest in a business 
established by his cousin, H. Oppliger, and later known as the Kern Jewelry 
Company. When in 1910 he bought the interest of his partner he changed 
the title of the business, which is now conducted under his own name, 
occupying a convenient location at No. 818 Baker street. After coming 
to East Bakersfield he married in 1901 Miss Marie Louise Nouguier, who 
was born in Hautes Alpes, France, and by whom he has one son, Jules Eli. 
He is a Republican and belongs to the Tribe of Ben Hur and the Woodmen 
of the World. 

BEDELL SMITH. — The first American representatives of the Smith 
family, which is of mingled Scotch and English lineage, lived on Long 
Island and even to this day many of the name remain in that portion of 
New York. Benjamin Smith, the son of a native of Queens county, was 
likewise born and reared on Long Island and remained there until death. 
For eight years under the presidential administrations of Franklin Pierce 
and James Buchanan he held a position as keeper of the Fire Island light- 
house, retiring to a farm in 1861 and dying three years afterward. In young 
manhood he had married Miss Hannah Bedell, a native of Queens county 
and a descendant of Teutonic ancestry. According to the family traditions 
three brothers came from Germany in a very early period of the American 
colonization. One brother settled on Long Island, another went into the 
northern part of New York and the third migrated as far west as Ohio. 
From the Long Island settler Mrs. Smith was descended and she passed 
her entire life in that part of New York, dying there about 1866. Of her 
marriage there had been born ten sons and two daughters, of whom the 
daughters and six of the sons attained maturity, and at this writing four 
sons and one daughter survive. The third from the youngest and the only 
one of the large family to settle in the west was Bedell, whose birth occurred 
at the family home near Freeport, Queens county, N. Y., November 1, 1851, 
and who was given the name of his mother's people. From 1853 until 1861 
he lived at the Fire Island lighthouse, after which he was taken by the 
parents to a farm near Freeport and sent to the schools of that Long 
Island town. When he was thirteen he lost his father and two years 
later his mother passed away, leaving him without a home and thrown 
upon his own resources for a livelihood. Immediately he secured employ- 
ment as clerk in a general store at Freeport. In that position he learned 
his first business lessons. At the age of nineteen he went to New York 
City and secured a clerkship in a tea store on Eighth avenue, where he 
remained until sickness caused the loss of the position. 

June of 1874 found Bedell Smith a newcomer in St. Paul, Minn., and 
eight months later he arrived in Denver, Colo., where he found employ- 
ment in business. During 1875 and 1876 he spent one month visiting with 
relatives and friends in the east and on the 15th of January, 1876, he boarded 
the Acapulco in New York harbor, with the Isthmus of Panama as his first 
destination. From there he traveled across to the Pacific coast, then 
shipped on the Colorado to San Francisco, where he landed on the 11th of 
February. In the same year of 1876 he saw Bakersfield for the first time 
while making a trip of inspection through the valley. Later he was en- 
gaged as a clerk in the New York Exchange hotel at San Jose for four 
years, and upon resigning the position he spent two years in travel through 
Utah, Idaho, Montana and Nevada. Returning to San Francisco, he then 
proceeded toward the southwest and traveled through Arizona and New 
Mexico. After his arrival in Texas he secured a position as clerk in a 
store in El Paso, where he remained for eighteen months. Next he went 
to Los Angeles and secured work as clerk and bookkeeper. March 14, 1890, 
he arrived in Bakersfield with the intention of becoming a permanent resi- 



394 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

dent. For nine years he engaged in a restaurant and hotel business. Since 
January, 1899, he has served as deputy county clerk and as clerk of depart- 
ment No. 1 of the superior court. Meanwhile he has been a warm sup- 
porter of Democratic policies and has served as a member of the county 
central committee. In San Francisco he married Miss Maggie Larkin, who 
was born in Ireland and during 1875 came from New York to California via 
Panama. Six children were born of their union, but only two of the number 
attained mature years, these being Millicent and Edna, the former now the 
wife of Lawrence Lavers, editor of the Wasco News, of Wasco, Kern 
county, and the latter the wife of E. F. Britton, attorney at law, of 
Bakersfield. 

WALTER JAMES. — The irrigation project developed by the Kern 
County Land Company into a system famous throughout the entire world 
owes much of its remarkable success to the genius and skill of Walter James, 
who came to Bakersfield during 1871 and secured employment as civil 
engineer on the vast estate that eventually was merged into the holdings 
of the organization named. To him belongs the distinction of having been 
at the head of the irrigation system that has made the county famous. 
From the inception of the enterprise he planned and superintended the con- 
struction of the greater portion of the works, which were the first in the 
entire country to be instituted upon so large a scale. Everything connected 
with the plans originated in the minds of the men having the enterprise in 
charge, Mr. James having been foremost among these. That his ability has 
been recognized admits of no question. The works have been visited by 
engineers from every country in the world where irrigation is practiced. In 
addition they are mentioned at length in almost every book that has been 
published bearing upon the subject. 

Born near jMarion, Ohio, April 21, 1837, Mr. James can scarcely recall a 
time when he was not interested in engineering and matters pertaining to 
the subject, and surveying as well. At the opening of the Civil war, during 
1862, he enlisted as a member of the Ninety-sixth Ohio Infantry and was 
assigned to Company E. Later he was transferred to the signal corps and 
served in that position until the war had been brought to an end. On the 
4th of July, 1865, he was honorably discharged at New (Jrleans, and he then 
returned to his home in Ohio, where he was united in marriage with Miss 
Lauretta (j. Gillespie, of Marion, that state, and they became the i)arents of 
a daughter, Dora, who married Charles M. Clark, of Los Angeles. Mrs. 
James, who has been a resident of the west since 1865 and of the county 
since 1871, is one of the pioneer women of Kern county and has given of 
her best efforts to enhance its educational, literary and social advancement. 
She is the daughter of Noah and Emily (Owens) Gillespie, and was born in 
Marion, Ohio, where she completed her education in the high school, and 
later followed teaching until her marriage in November, 1865. Of late years 
Mr. and Mrs. James have resided in Los Angeles, having a comfortable home 
at No. 1050 West Forty-eighth street. Mrs. James is a member of the 
Unitarian Church. 

Immediately after the close of his army service Mr. James and his wife 
came to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and he at once 
entered the employ of his brother, I. E. James, with whom they made their 
home. The latter was a civil engineer employed on the Com stock lode, 
and while working with him Mr. James acquired some valuable experience 
in railroading and other engineering works. In partnership the two 
brothers became interested in a mining enterprise in Eldorado county, 
Cal., and later engaged in farming in the San Joaquin valley near what is 
now Newman, Stanislaus county. In 1871 Mr. James began farming in 
Kern county on what is still known as the James ranch, now a part of the 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 397 

IJellevue, and he has ever since been identified with the county. Some 
vears later, in 1874, he was employed by the firm known as Carr & Haggin, 
predecessors of the present Kern County Land Co., entering upon his long 
and successful association with that company, whose irrigation works bear 
silent but eloquent testimony as to the splendid resources of his mind, the 
wisdom of his judgment and the original nature of his ideas. The irrigation 
system was installed and promoted by the Kern County Land Co. and its 
predecessors at a large cost. The investment has proved to be profitable, 
and its success has encouraged other companies seeking in a similar manner 
to conserve the use of fertile soil in dry countries. Water for irrigation in 
Kern county is almost entirely taken from Kern river, which has its source 
at Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the United States and covered with 
per[)etual snow. With the Kern river as the channel and conveyer, the water 
passes into canals and ditches and thence is brought to each tract at stated 
intervals. The importance of the enterprise to the agricultural development 
of Kern county cannot be overestimated, for the availability of water at a 
reasonable price has been the basis of all improvement of lands and profitable 
cultivation of farms. 

Although ^Ir. James' time was given very closely to business affairs he 
ne\ertheless served as county surveyor for one term, from 1873 to 1875. 
Fraternally he is identified with Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M.. 
Kern Valley Chapter No. 75, R. A. M., was one of the early members of 
Bakersfield Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E., and is a member of Hurlburt Post 
No. 127, G. A. R., of which he is a past commander. 

CHARLES FREDERICK OFF.— Ancient and honorable Teutonic line- 
age appears in the genealogy of the Ofif family and it is worthy of note that 
six successive generations have had male representatives bearing the name 
of Charles Frederick. Three generations of the family have been associated 
with Los Angeles : The late Rev. Charles Frederick Ofif, formerly a leading 
minister in the German Evangelical Church of North America ; Charles Fred- 
erick (more commonly known as Charles), who is superintendent of the 
celebrated Lakeview Oil Company and in the discharge of official duties 
spends much time in the Sunset-Midway field; and Charles Frederick, the 
youngesi: son of the oil superintendent and a bright boy now attending the 
city schools. 

From early life the German Evangelical minister showed fine mental 
qualities. Born at Canstadt, Wurtemberg, Germany, and educated at Basel, 
Switzerland, he engaged in educational and ministerial work throughout 
much of his career. At St. Joseph, Mo., he married Miss Louise Meister, 
who was born at Zurich, Switzerland, and crossed the ocean to the United 
States in 1850 with her parents, settling in Missouri. Her death occurred 
in 1903 at Stockholm, Sweden, and since that time the minister, having 
retired from professional labors, has made his home with his eldest son 
in Los Angeles. For years he was a man of great influence in his chosen 
denomination. Following a service of eight years as a professor of music 
in Elmhurst College near Chicago, he was given charge of the missionary 
work of the Iowa and Nebraska synod of the German Evangelical Church, 
and while serving in that capacity and temporarily stationed in Hardin 
county, Iowa, a son. Charles Frederick, was born May 13, 1866. There was 
one child older than he, a daughter, Louisa A., who died at the age of 
thirty-three years. The other members of the family are as follows : John 
W. A., a retired capitalist residing in Los Angeles; Julia Maude, a teacher 
of music; Theofil R.. who died in childhood; and Edward T., of Pasadena. 

Although he did not attend school after the age of thirteen, Charles 
Frederick OfT is a man of unusually broad information and is well educated 
■iz both German and English, besides having considerable knowledge cV 
so 



398 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

both piano and organ. When only thirteen he began to be self-supporting. 
For three years he engaged as a clerk in a general mercantile store at 
Plymouth, Sheboygan county. Wis. On resigning that position he removed 
to Denver, Colo., where he was employed for three years in a music store. 
January 1, 1884, he came to Los Angeles with his mother and sister, who 
were invalids. Since then he has made his home on the northeast corner 
of First and Union avenue, where he owns a residence. Shortly after his 
arrival in Los Angeles he purchased a stationery store at No. 148 North 
Spring street and from the first he met with a fair degree of success in the 
business. In 1895 he made the acquaintance of Miss Grace Maude Bemis, 
formerly of Evansville, Wis. Their marriage was solemnized in 1897 at the 
old homestead under an arch where three older sisters had previously stood 
as they took the marriage vows. Four children bless the union. Lillian 
Merle. Howard J.. Teddy R. and Charles Frederick. 

The Pacific Truck Company, started by Mr. OfT as a ten-cent delivery, 
developed into a large incorporated concern that made a specialty of heavy 
trucking and hauled the stone for the City Hall, Court-FIouse and Phillips 
Block. As the business grew with startling rapidity and as the president, 
Mr. Ofif, was obliged to devote his time very closely to the books and 
office work of the company, his health began to be impaired by the con- 
finement and in December, 1889. he sold his interest in the business. In 
order that he might have outdoor occupation, he bought land near Whittier, 
east of Los Angeles, and began to raise standard-bred horses and milch 
cows. Unfortunately a serious drought soon came on, feed became scarce 
and horses valueless, thus entailing a heavy loss in the venture. 

As a contractor in the well-drilling business in the W^hittier district, 
Mr. Ofif retrieved former loses. In addition he engaged in leveling lands 
and ])lanting trees for others under contract. In 1895 he left the Whittier 
district and put down his first oil well in the Los Angeles field, Thomas 
O'Donnell and Max Whittier doing the work of drilling. After having put 
down about six wells in the city he leased eighty acres of oil land at 
Whittier, where he drilled wells under the incorporated title of the Whittier 
Crude Oil Company. At this writing he still serves as manager of the 
company, which owns twelve wells in operation. Having completed the 
work of drilling these twelve wells, he went to the Santa Maria field as 
organizer of the Rice Ranch Oil Company at Orcutt and there he had 
charge of the drilling of seven wells. Desiring to extend the company's 
interests in 1908 he came to Kern county on a tour of investigation. After 
an inspection of the Sunset-Midway field he leased the property now 
controlled by the Lakeview Oil Company. From the first he was convinced 
of the value of the property, but when he submitted the details to the direc- 
tors of the Rice Ranch Oil Company he found a majority of them decidedly 
against investing in a new field. However, the president of the company, 
R. D. Wade, of Los Angeles, joined him in forming the new company and 
through the assistance of F. E. Dunlap of Los Angeles a twenty-year lease 
was secured from the locators. 

Under the management of Mr. Ofif drilling was begun at wells Nos. 
L 2 and 3. Financial necessities forced the management to sell fifty-one 
per cent of the stock to the Union Oil Company. Under the contract the 
management remained with that compan}- for three years, from June 1, 1909, 
to June 1. 1912. At the latter date the management was again returned to 
the minority and Mr. Ofi" was chosen superintendent. Under his supervision 
two wells, Nos. 9 and 10 are prospective successful pumpers, and No. 11 is 
now nearing completion and it is the expectation to begin drilling on No. 12. 
Lakeview No. 1, popularly known as the Lakeview gusher, is probably the 
most famous Avell in the entire country. During the period of the gushing. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 401 

from March 15, 1910, to September 12. 1911, it is conservatively estimated 
to have produced ten million barrels. Such an enormous output naturally 
gained world-wide attention and the success of the well permanently placed 
the Sunset-Midway field upon the map of the world's oil industry. At 
great expense LakevicAv No. 1 was re-drilled and was brought in as a forty- 
barrel per day pumper, with a strong flow of gas sufficient to fire eleven 
boilers and equal to one hundred and fifty barrels of crude oil per day, 
besides furnishing natural gas to about twenty private families. The 
association of Mr. Off with this famous property on section 25, township 12, 
range 24, has been long and intimate. 

STONEWALL A. WOODY.— The auditor of Kern county traces his 
lineage to a colonial family of Old Virginia. As the tide of migration 
drifted toward the west one branch of the name became established in 
Missouri and from there Sparrell W. Woody, M. D., crossed the plains to 
California during the exciting period of '49, identifying himself with the 
permanent growth of the then unknown coast countrv. Fjorn in Virginia in 
1826, he was taken to Missouri by his parents in 1835, and had endured the 
vicissitudes of frontier existence while aiding in the clearing and improving 
of a tract of raw land in Boone county. After he had received his degree 
from the St. Louis Medical College he engaged in professional work in 
Missouri for a year, but plans for a quiet continuance of his practice gave 
way before the more alluring visions offered by the unknown west. During 
the summer of 1849 he crossed the plains with wagon and cxen and upon 
his arrival in California began to mine on the American river, later, however, 
turning his attention to the management of an hotel and livery stable in 
Auburn. At the expiration of seven years he sold the business and spent 
a year in the Hawaiian Islands. Returning to San Francisco he came on 
to Kern county in 1860 and settled on the present site of Bakersfield, where 
he engaged in raising grain, corn and potatoes. The great flood of 1862 
brought him losses that would have discouraged a less optimistic pioneer 
and he was further handicaoped by ill health. However, his was not the 
spirit to be depressed by adventitious circumstances. The flood taught him 
the necessity to ranching on higher ground, so he removed near the present 
site of Woody, and when later the village was started it was named in his 
honor. Soon he regained his health and recuperated his losses. Eventually 
he acquired a grain and stock ranch aggregating four thousand acres, the 
ranch house standing three miles from the town of Woody, which still 
affords a convenient market for many of the farm products. 

While the demands of his large landed possessions were so great that 
Dr. Woody had no leisure for professional practice and only responded to 
calls when there w^as no other physician near and the suffering of the patient 
Avas intense (in all of which cases he made no charge whatever), it must 
not be inferred that he fell into a narrow groove of exhausting agricultural 
labors. On the contrary, no one was more interested than he in the growth 
of the county and the development of its resources. Every progressive pro- 
ject received the benefit of his calm judgment and sagacious counsel. Dis- 
cerning the need of good educational facilities, he assisted in the building 
of the first schools in Kern county, and often served as a school trustee in 
order that he might promote such work. Religion also entered into his 
character and implanted in his soul its own lofty ideals. From early life a 
member of the Christian Church, he assisted in the building of a house 
of worship at Woody and generously supported all missionary movements 
of that congregation. Fraternally he was a Mason. When the first grand 
jury was convened at Havilah (then the county-seat) he was chosen its 
chairman and his impartial judgment aided the body in its deliberations. 
Fond of the best books, he was himself a scholar and a man of unusual 



402 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

mental attainments, an honor to the citizenship of Kern county, and in his 
death, which occurred September 2, 1910, he was deeply mourned. 

Where the city of Bakersfiield now stands Dr. Woody was married in 
1861, his bride being- Miss Louisa Bohna. who was born in Arkansas and 
died in Kern county in 1909. Her brother, Henry Bohna, is a resident of 
Woody, and her father. Christian Bohna, who died here, crossed the plains 
twice during early days, his first trip having been made shortly after the 
discovery of gold, at which time he followed the southern route and settled 
in Kern county. His second trip was made in 1858, when he brought his 
family in a prairie schooner drawn by oxen, a journey of six months. His 
daughter, Louisa, then thirteen years of age, was one of twelve children, 
and made her home with her father on Kern Island until her marriage. 
She was a woman of lovable disposition, kindly traits, and a strong character, 
always looking to the high moral u]:)lift of the community, and 
during all her life showed a true charitable and Christian spirit, ex- 
emplified in the fact that she reared two orphaned families besides 
her own, and during her whole life was a conscientious member of the 
Christian Church. Later Christian Bohna became a pioneer of Oregon, but 
after having made his home in that state from 1862 until 1870, he returned 
to Kern county to spend his last days. In the Woody family there are three 
daughters and two sons. The eldest daughter, Eugenie, married Alexander 
Carver and lives near Delano, Kern county. The other daughters, Nettie, 
Mrs. W. H. Howard, and Victoria, Mrs. Clark Green, reside at Dinuba, 
Tulare county. The two sons. Stonewall A. and Elmer, own the old Woody 
ranch of four thousand acres. To this they have added until they now have 
about sixty-five hundred acres and engage extensively in raising grain and 
stock, the younger brother residing at the old home ranch, while the older, 
a citizen of Bakersfield since 1907, erected and now occupies a modern resi- 
dence on the corner of E and Twenty-second streets. Born at the old 
homestead near Woody June 6, 1869, Stonewall A. Woody attended the 
country schools and in 1890 was graduated from Heald's Business College 
in San Francisco. Upon his return to the ranch he assisted his father in 
the cultivation of the land and the care of the stock. At the age of twenty- 
one he took up a homestead not far from the parental home and in due time 
proved up on the land, after which he bought adjacent property and railroad 
land. Until the death of his father he continued to raise grain and stock- 
in partnership with him and used the brand TD. 

When only twenty-one years of age Mr. Woixly became a member 
of the county central committee. Li^nder his father's supervision he had been 
trained in the Jacksonian Democratic policies and in early youth he was 
able to give a concise, clear and positive reason for his political views, while 
now he is regarded as one of the best-posted Democrats in the entire county. 
In recognition of his able services in behalf of the party, in 1906 the Demo- 
crats nominated him for county auditor and he was duly elected, taking the 
oath of office in January, 1907. During 1910 he was re-elected, to serve until 
January of 1915. As a county official he has proved prompt and painstak- 
ing, enterprising and efficient, and his popularity has not been limited to 
members of his own party, but extends to all those who appreciate con- 
scientious, honorable devotion to the business aflfairs of the county. In 
fraternal relations he holds membership with the Woodmen of the World 
and the Native Sons of the Golden West. During 1900 at San Jose he 
married Miss Odile Enderlin, a native of Idaho, and the daughter of Frank 
and Hannah (Gay) Enderlin, natives of France and Philadelphia, Pa., re- 
spectively. Her father served in the Civil war in an Eastern regiment, sub- 
sequently coming to California. Here he met and married Miss Gay, who 
had come to California by way of Panama. Her parents died in San Jose. 
Mrs. Woodv is a graduate of the Santa Rosa Normal School. Her excel- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 403 

lent education was utilized for some years as a teacher, and she proved well 
qualified for educational work. Since her marriage she has joined with 
Mr. Woody in social affairs and in the support of movements for the benefit 
of their home city and county, believing with him that this part of Cali- 
fornia is unrivalled in resources and alluring in possibilities. 

GEORGE B. EDWARDS.— Influential among oil men is George 
B. ]'"<l\var(ls, superintendent of and a heavy stockholder in the Midway 
Northern and the Maricopa Northern Oil Companies, whose properties lie 
on section 32, township 12. range 23. the former consisting of eighty acres 
lying due west of a tract of ecpial size operated by the Maricopa Northern. 
An investigation of the properties convinced Mr. Edwards of their value 
and with characteristic quickness of decision he purchased an interest in 
the concern, since which time he has devoted himself to the work of su])erin- 
tendent. The Midway Northern has three producing wells, one well drilling; 
the last well came in as a gusher June 27. 1913, and is now making over 
fifteen hundred barrels per day, 24.7 gravity oil. \\^ell No. 1 was 
brought in as a gusher with a record of fifteen thousand barrels per day, 
but naturally this high average could not be maintained, the production of 
the two wells being now in the neighborhood of fifty thousand barrels per 
month. 

Since coming to Kern county in 1909 Mr. Edwards has been associated 
with the Sunset field, and on the 15th of January, 1912, he became super- 
intendent for the two companies previously named. The company's resi- 
dence on the Midway Northern lease furnishes a comfortable home for 
himself and wife, the latter, whom he married at Los Angeles December 
8, 1912, having been Miss Rose Gonzales, member of a pioneer family of 
that city. He himself is of eastern birth and education and was born on 
Christmas day of 1865 in the city of Buffalo, N. Y., where his father, 
Alfred B. Edwards, at one time was a leading merchant. The family con- 
sisted of three children, George B., Mary L. and Dollie. The mother, who 
bore the maiden name of Jane Ann Falloon, was born in Ireland, but at 
an early age accompanied her parents to Canada and settled in Toronto, 
where she was reared and educated. Her death occurred in 1876. twenty 
years before the demise of her husband. 

The management of a mercantile business did not limit the business 
activities of Alfred B. Edwards, who as he found himself financially pros- 
pering began to be interested in the oil industry. However, his first experi- 
ences were far from profitable. Indeed, he was practically ruined by invest- 
ments in fields that proved worthless. Instead of becoming discouraged 
by the failure he gave himself to the acquisition of a practical knowledge 
of the industry and through this means he retrieved some of his losses. 
About 1869 he moved to Venango county. Pa., and became associated with 
the Shamburg oil fields, but later he was also interested in other fields, 
continuing in the east until his death. Meanwhile the family had experi- 
enced hardships subsequent to his financial failure and the only son, who 
otherwise would have been reared in luxurious ease, now found it necessary 
to earn his own livelihood. Self-reliance was thereby developed. His 
success in the first instance has been due to industry and determination. 
A\'^ith courage and sagacity he has invested the proceeds of his endeavor 
back into the same industry. Exceptional insight aided him in achieving 
success in the occupation. Long experience in the various oil fields of the 
United States has given him a thorough knowledge of the business in all 
of its departments. Meager educational advantages have not lessened his 
usefulness in the world. During early boyhood he secured work in the oil 
fields at Tidioute. Warren county. Pa., and later he was successively em- 
ployed in M'cKean, Venango. Butler. Clarion, Washington and Allegheny 



404 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

counties, that state, after which he worked in the oil fields of West Virginia, 
Ohio, Indiana, Oklahoma and Wyoming". 

A first trip to California, where he arrived in September of 1902, gave 
Mr. Edwards an opportunity to investigate the oil fields of the state. For 
a short time he engaged as a driller in the Los Angeles fields with the 
Union Consolidated Oil and Refining Ctjmpany of New York. Leaving 
California for Oklahoma, he became a pioneer driller at Cleveland and 
brought in seven excellent wells, the first one of which (the second well 
drilled in the Cleveland field) proved to be a gusher, and the seven wells 
had a record of thirty-five hundred barrels per day. From 1903 until 
1909 he remained in the oil fields of Oklahoma. He owns undeveloped oil 
lands in two difit'erent fields, viz. : at Newhall, Cal., and the Spring Valley 
field, Wyoming. Returning to California in 1909, he engaged as a driller 
with the Standard Oil Company at Newhall and thus enlarged his scope 
of information in regard to conditions for discovery and drilling of wells 
in the west. This broadened knowledge he utilized through an investment 
in the stock of the companies for which he now acts as superintendent and 
whose properties under his intelligent oversight have been put on a paying 
basis. While making his headquarters in Cleveland. Okla., he identified 
himself with the Knights of Pythias at that place. In politics he asserts 
that he is a Lincoln Republican and a Bryan Democrat, which today in a 
time of progressive politics, has a definite meaning and puts him in touch 
with the forward movement in our national history. He was elected mayor 
of the city of Cleveland, Okla., in April, 1909, defeating Dr. George W. 
Sutton, president of the First National Bank of that city. 

WILLIAM H. WEAVER. — Since coming to California in October of 
1907, Mr. Weaver has engaged in contracting and building in the Maricopa 
district, at first as a member of the firm of \\ eaver & Schultz and later alone. 
Scores of oil derricks have been built under his capable supervision. A num- 
ber of frame buildings have been erected by him, among them the residences 
of Dr. Page, Postmaster E. E. Brown, F. ]M. Train and Guy Ball, a block 
of four buildings since destroyed by fire, all the carpenter work on the 
Coons & Price large brick store building, besides the Gates City Pharmacy 
and many other public buildings. 

Born in the vicinity of Memphis, Tenn., William II. Weaver was an 
infant when his father returned to Pennsylvania with the family and he 
was less than four years of age when that parent died. The mother, w^ho 
bore the maiden name of Sarah Kaanan and was born in Tennessee, after- 
ward married again, becoming the mother of eight children by the second 
union. Of her first marriage there were three children, those besides 
William H. being Lizzie and George W., the latter following the oil business 
in Venango county. Pa. The daughter married C. D. Mattison, a pumper 
employed on 25-Hill in the Midway field, in Kern county. Beginning to 
support himself at a very early age, William H. Weaver was only fifteen 
when he was made superintendent for Manning Bros., oil drillers at Oil 
City. In that capacity he had charge of the production of sixty-three wells. 

(ioing to Pittsburg at the age of eighteen Mr. Weaver secured work 
as locomotive fireman with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company. 
For six years he continued as a fireman and meanwhile crossed the Alle- 
ganies almost daily. At first he made the run from Pittsburg to Cumber- 
land, Md., on the Pittsburg division and then he was transferred to the 
Cleveland division. In recognition of his fidelity and efficiency he was 
promoted to be a locomotive engineer and as such continued for three years, 
eventually leaving the railroad service in order to remove to the west. 
Immediately after his arrival in Kern county he engaged at the trade of 
rig-l>uilder, wliich he had learned during boyhood, and as a partner of 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 407 

William Schultz he also carried on general business in contracting and 
building. Their co-partnership, begun in 1908, continued for fourteen 
months, after which Mr. Weaver continued alone, and since then he has 
engaged in building frame structures of all kinds. As a carpenter he is 
reliable, skilled and popular and he is usually kept busy in the district 
lying near his own home. Politically he votes with the Democratic party 
and fraternally he is a member of the Eagles. While living in the east 
he was active in the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers. 
W'hen he came to California he brought with him his young wife, whom 
he had married in Lorain. Ohio, and who was Miss Reba Bills, daughter 
of L. D. Bills, of that city. Two children blessed their union, Kenneth 
and Gertrude. The latter died in 1911 at the age of eighteen months and 
in 1912 occurred the death of the wife and mother- 

JAMES CURRAN.— The identification of the Curran family with the 
United States began in the year 1842, when James Curran, Sr., accompanied 
by immediate family and other relatives, crossed the ocean to the new world. 
County Tyrone, in the north of Ireland, had been his home and the environ- 
ment familiar to his entire life that had been passed at Stewartstown in the 
vicinity of Lough Xeagh presented a striking contrast to the surroundings of 
his last days, passed in the then small but thriving village of Dixon, 111., where 
he opened and conducted stone quarries. The next generation was repre- 
sented by Daniel Curran, who was reared in Illinois and engaged in the 
building business and the manufacture of brick from an early age, holding 
a position as a foreman in New York City from 1856 until 1862. Returning 
from the east to Dixon, he took up brick-making in the place of his former 
residence and became known for the superior quality of his product as well 
as for the high character of his citizenship. For a long period of helpful 
service he was a member of the board of aldermen of Dixon and his death 
occurred in that city in 1902 when he had reached the age of sixty-three 
years. While living in New York in 1860 he had married Catherine Donahoe, 
who was born in county Tyrone, Ireland, and died at Dixon during January 
of 1873. The four sons and one daughter are still living, the eldest of these 
being James, who was born in New York City March 14, 1862, and is now 
engaged in the brick-manufacturing business at Bakersfield. Charles P.. of 
Pomona, Cal., is proprietor of a lumber yard. Frank holds a position with 
a lumber firm in Los Angeles and W. H. is assistant superintendent oi the 
coast division of the Southern Pacific railroad. 

W'hen nineteen years of age, having completed the studies of the Dixon 
schools, James Curran was eager to earn his own way in the world, but was 
so afflicted with asthma that he found it difficult to continue steadily at 
any work. A physician advised him to seek the inland regions of Cali- 
fornia. Crossing the continent in 1881, he soon proved to his own satis- 
faction that the coast region did not benefit him and after a sojourn of six 
months in San I'Vancisco and a later residence in Los Angeles he sought 
the inland sections advised by medical authorities. Meeting Mr. Brower 
and referred by him to Mr. Colton, he secured employment with the Kern 
Island Canal Company. The day that he crossed the Tehachapi range the 
asthma left him, to return no more. For three years he worked on the 
canal and during that time he was obliged to ride at least thirty miles every 
day. During 1886 he was elected justice of the peace. In the same vear 
he sent east for a machine to be used in the manufacture of brick. This 
arrived in 1887 and was the first machine of the kind in Southern California, 
all brick prior to that time having been made by hand. The sandstone 
brick which he began to make was the first of the kind on the Pacific coast. 
During 1903 the Bakersfield Sandstone Brick Companv was organized with 
the following officers: AY. S. Tevis. president; Charles J. Lindgren. vice- 



408 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

president; First National Bank, treasurer; and James Curran. manager, 
which position, together with that of a director, he has since filled with 
recognized ability. The company occupies twenty-six acres in East Bakers- 
field. The cla}^ here found is admirably adapted to the manufacture of the 
finest brick and the plant has a capacity of ten million brick per annum. 
The newly completed office building is a niodel of its kind. Avhile the ware- 
house, kilns and entire yards are also modern and adecpiate to every need 
of the l)usiness. The products of the plant wherever used have proved equal 
to the demand. Since the organization of the company in 1003 they have 
furnished the brick for every large building in Bakersfield. 

In addition to the management of this important undertaking, Mr. 
Curran has been interested in agricultural affairs and realty enterprises and 
with Mr. Lindgren built the Western and Kern hotels, besides which he 
has platted a subdivision to Bakersfield, has erected a substantial residence 
in the city, and has been interested in oil development in the county. During 
the early period of his residence in the west and after the incorporation of 
Kern, he was elected a member of its board of trustees and served as presi- 
dent of the same. Later he became a director of the Bakersfield Board of 
Trade and a member of the Merchants" Association of this place. Fra- 
ternally he holds membershi]) with the Knights of Pythias. Ever since at- 
taining his majority he has supported men and measures of the Republican 
party. On one occasion, in 1896, his party asked him to accept the nomina- 
tion for the state legislature and he consented to make the race, although 
the district usually gave so strong a Democratic majority that a campaign 
ofl^ered little hope of success. However, he came within one hundred and 
eighteen votes of being elected, which proved that he not only held his own 
party, but won many votes frc ni the other side. Infrequently he has acted 
as chairman of the county Republican central committee and at this writing 
he is still a member of that organization. During 1911 he accepted an ap- 
pointment from (lOvernor Johnson as a member of the board of trustees of 
the Fresno State Normal. 

The marriage of James Curran took place at Rosedale ranch in 1887 
and united him with Miss Mary G. Swain, by whom he is the father of eight 
children, namely : Mrs. Sibyl E. Chenoweth, of Bakersfield ; Charles S., \"al- 
entine. Arthur, Roland, Hugh, Rosalind and Robert. Mrs. C'urran was born 
at Loda, Iroquois county. 111., and is a sister of Arthur Swain, receiver of 
the United States land office at Visalia. Her parents, Thomas Howland 
and Sarah (Arthur) Swain, were born on Nantucket Island. The father 
descended from an honored' English family, identified with the Society of 
Friends, and represented among the very earliest settlers in the new world. 
.Succeeding generations bore an active part in the material upbuilding of 
New lingland. The first to seek a home in the Mississippi valley was 
Thomas Howland Swain, who became a pioneer of Irocpiois county. 111., and 
took up raw land near the village of Loda. Throughout the remainder ot 
his useful life he carried on general farming in that locality and from there 
in 1879 his widow removed to California, where she spent her last days with 
her children. 

AMOS E. WARREN.— The eldest of seven sons and two daughters, 
Amos E. Warren was born in Orange county. Ind.. September 16. 1883, and 
was reared in Kansas, the family having moved to that state in his early 
childhood. In education he was limited to a somewhat brief attendance 
in country schools. It was necessary for him to become self-supporting 
as soon as possible and hence he was deprived of all higher advantages. 
Upon leaving home in 1901 he went to Colorado and for a year worked in 
the oil fields near Florence, for seven months was employed as a tool 
dresser at Fort Collins and also engaged as a cowboy on a cattle ranch 
near (ireelev. After three vears in Colorado he came to California in 1904 




KJ) 'VyT^A.J^ ^ Oi.y}^^ULyCi J^^^T-A^^^n^ty-c 




HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 413 

and secured work as a pipeman in the Kern river fields. After perhaps five 
months with the Standard Oil Company he went over to the Imperial Oil 
Company, for whom he worked one year as a roustabout. Leaving this 
locality for the Santa Maria field in Santa Barbara county, he entered the 
employ of the Union Oil Company as a roustabout and tool dresser. Within 
one-half year, however, he was back in the Kern river fields and working 
as a tool dresser with the West Shore Company for several months. 

Under J. L. Bruce, then the foreman of the drilling department of the 
Associated Oil Company, in October of 1907 Mr. Warren secured a position 
as tool dresser. During the fall of 1908 he began as a driller with the same 
organization and continued in that capacity until February of 1911. At that 
date he became assistant to J. A. Jones, foreman of the San Joaquin division 
of the Associated Oil Company, and June 1. 1912, he was promoted to his 
present position, that of field foreman of the Green and Whittier division 
of the same company, a responsible post in which he is giving satisfac- 
tion. He has established his home in the oil fields and with his wife, 
formerly Miss Tina Orton of Bakersfield, and their onh^ child, Esther, 
has a comfortable cottage whose hospitality is always extended to other 
workers in these fields. 

THEODORE HENRY MINOR.— As president of the Paraftine Oil Com- 
pany, the Areata (Jil Company and the Mannel-Minor Petroleum Company, 
Mr. Minor's identification with the development of the oil industry in Kern 
county has continued throughout an important period of local history. Mr. 
Minor traces his lineage to remote English ancestry, but he belongs to a 
family that has been represented in America since the colonial period of 
national history. The early home of Revolutionary forebears was in Con- 
necticut, but later generations became established in New Jersey and Samuel 
Minor, a native of the latter Commonwealth, transplanted the family name 
to Pennsylvania, where he earned a livelihood through the tilling of the 
soil. Isaac, son of Samuel, was born near Uniontown, Fayette county,' Pa., 
and came to California via Panama during 1851. For a brief period he en- 
gaged in mining and by chance he was in Sacramento at the time of the 
great rtood. Going to Humboldt count}' immediately after the Trinity river 
mining excitement of 1852. lie there formed the acquaintance of Hannah 
Nixon, who was also born near Uniontown, Pa., and who became his wife 
and shared his responsibilities and anxieties through a long and happy wedded 
life. To her loyal companionship was due much of his later success. In 
sunlight and shadow she walked beside him. his adviser and helpmate, and 
not until her death in 1906 was their helpful co-operation broken. Of eastern 
birth and parentage, she was a daughter of Capt. Isaac Nixon, who was 
an early settler of Iowa from Fayette county. Pa., and started from Iowa, 
settling among the pioneer homesteaders of Humboldt county. 

Various interests, all of them important, filled the active years of Isaac 
Minor. At different times he was {proprietor of a mercantile store and a 
trans])(irtation business, farmer and stock-raiser, also a manufacturer of lum- 
ber and builder of four different mills in his home county. A\'hen advancing 
years and the accumulation of a competency rendered further labors unneces- 
sary and undesirable, he retired to private life and has since enjoyed the 
comforts provided by the incessant labor of younger days. Of his twelve 
children only six remain and the eldest of these. Theodore Henry, was l)orn 
at Areata, Humboldt county. Cal., August 31. 1856. Primarily educated in 
Areata schools, he later attended the California Military Academy at Oakland 
until his graduation in 1872. after which he assisted his father in tallying 
lumber. For a time he was bookkeeper in the sawmill, then assisted in the 
management of the mills and lumber business, .^.fter his father sold all of 
tlie lumber interests to the children in 1896. he organized the Elinor Mill S: 



414 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Lumber Company and continued the manufacture of lumber and shingles for 
shipment to San Francisco. A decade of prosperity followed his installation 
as president and manager of the company. Meanwhile he had acquired oil 
interests and during 1907 he sold his milling interests to a brother and sister, 
at the same time removing to Bakerstield in order to take charge of his 
oil holdings on the west side. 

As early as January 23, 1901, the Paraffine Oil Company had been in- 
corporated by A. W. Gilfillan, under whose supervision the first well on the 
Temblor lease, McKittrick, had been sunk, but the venture proved a failure. 
A contract was then obtained by Air. Gilfillan personally, to drill on the north- 
east quarter of section 25 on 25-Hill, it being agreed that if he struck oil he 
was to receive a deed to forty acres. This contract he turned over to the 
company, but they were discouraged and the funds for this work were fur- 
nished personally by Mr. Minor. As soon as a good well was struck the 
deed to forty acres was turned over to the Parafifine Oil Company, and since 
then the company has put down six wells on the forty acres and all are 
producers, thus giving financial success to the concern. It is said that this 
was the second oil company on 25-Hill to pay dividends. Since 1905 Mr. 
Minor has officiated as president and since 1908 he also has acted as manager. 

Taking a lease on property one mile south of their former location, 
Messrs. Minor and Gilfillan drilled and struck a small output of oil, after 
which they bought adjacent property. At the time there was no sale for 
oil. Later it brought thirty cents per barrel. During 1906 this lease was 
incorporated as the Areata Oil Company and since then Mr. Minor has served 
as president and manager of the organization, which now operates on the 
North McKittrick front. With F. E. Mannel as partner in 1912 he organized 
the Mannel-Minor Petroleum. Company and leased two hundred acres on 
the northwest Belridge front, seven miles from the Belridge wells and ten 
miles from the Lost Hills wells. The first oil was struck at a depth of four 
hundred feet, but they continued to drill to a depth of seven hundred feet. 
A second hole went to a depth of two thousand feet and gave them an 
exceptionally profitable well of twenty-five gravity oil. At this writing the 
first well is being deepened under the management of Mr. Mannel, who is 
vice-president, Mr. Minor being the president of the company. Besides 
air of these important oil interests he owns mining claims in Inyo county, 
Cal., is further interested in hydraulic mining on New river in Trinity county, 
this state, and has built a mill and concentrating plant at his tungsten mine 
near Tucson, .-Xriz. In addition he owns farm lands and real estate in Kern 
county. Ever since coming to Bakersfield he had maintained his olifice in 
the Hopkins building. At present he serves as treasurer and member of the 
executive committee of the Kern County Oil Protective Association, an asso- 
ciation formed to guard against the encroachment and percolating of water 
into the oil sand and securing legislation to that end. 

In politics Mr. Minor is a Republican, while fraternally he holds mem- 
bership with Eureka Lodge No. 652, B. P. O. E.. and was made a Mason in 
Excelsior Lodge No. 166, E. & A. M., at San Francisco. A\niile living at 
Areata he married Miss Emily Daniels, a native of that citv, the daughter 
of Hibbird S. and Ann CHawken) Daniels, who were natives respectively 
of New Hampshire and England. Mr. and Mrs. Daniels came from Illinois 
to California in 1853, makinsr the wav via Panama and locatin? in Uniontown, 
now the citv of Areata, Humboldt countv. where Mr. Daniels en2ra£red in 
farmipor. ITnon retirinsf from active life thev located in Los .^neeles -vvhere 
TVTrs. DanieU died, her husband passing awav in Fullerton. Airs. Emilv 
TDaniels) Alinor wa«5 a Sfraduate of Humboldt Ladies' Seminarv in Eureka 
and is a woman of rare taste and refinement. Two son? were born to ATr. and 








OA^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 417 

Mrs. Minor, namely : Henry Samuel, who is engaged in the manufacture of 
lumber; and Herbert Hibbard, who is interested with his father in the oil 
industry and mining claims. 

The family hold membership with the First Presbyterian Church of 
Bakersfield and Mr. Minor is giving most efficient service as chairman of 
its board of trustees, besides serving as a member of the board of elders. 
While he was chairman of the board the new Gothic structure was erected 
at the corner of H and Seventeenth streets, costing $25,000. It Tias a 
seating capacity of five hundred and is so arranged that the large Sunday 
school department may be separated into sixteen rooms for class purposes. 
The basement is fitted up as a social hall and equipped for a gymnasium. The 
plan had been the wish of Mr. Minor for years, and he and his co-workers 
feel amply repaid for their efforts. Mr. Minor was selected by the San Joaquin 
Presbytery one of six commissioners to the General Assembly of the Presby- 
terian Church of the United States of America held at Atlanta. Ga., May 15 
to 24, 1913. Accompanied by Mrs. Minor he attended and took part in the 
important proceedings of that assembly. 

ADAM WILLIAM GILFILLAN.— Of English birth and ancestry, A. 
\\'. Gillillan was born at Greenwich, England, during the year 1854, but 
was brought to the United States in early childhood and passed the years 
of youth at Troy. N. Y., where he attended the public schools. When 
seventeen years of age he began to work in the oil fields of the Brad-, 
ford district in Pennsylvania. He seemed to possess natural ability in the 
oil industry. AMth keen judgment and energetic resourcefulness he quickly 
grasped every detail of the business and while yet a young man came to 
be known as one of the shrewdest oil operators in his district. Upon leav- 
ing the oil fields of Pennsylvania for those of California he became identified 
with the Puente district and there put down the first well for Rowland & 
Lacy, the head of that firm having been Hon. William R. Rowland, ex- 
sheriff of Los Angeles county. When the work had been completed sue- 
cessfullv and promptly in the Puente district he went to the oil fields of 
Northern California and put down a well in Humboldt county, but that 
enterprise did not prove a success. A later connection with the mining in- 
dustry on the Mother Lode in Tuolumne, Calaveras and Mariposa counties 
also proved unsuccessful. In 1900 he came to Bakersfield and became one of 
the pioneers of the oil industry in Kern county and the first to operate in the 
Midway district. After he had taken contracts for drilling and had struck 
oil, he then promoted the Paraffine Oil Company, on section 25, Midway 
district, and of this he was acting as general manager and vice-president at 
the time of his sudden death June 9, 1907. 

The marriage of Mr. Gilfillan took place in San Jose, this state, and 
united him with Miss Mary Moore, who was born at Holton, Kan., and is 
a graduate of the normal department of the L^^niversity of Kansas at Lawrence. 
By ability and temperament Mrs. Gilfillan was well qualified to be a helpmate 
to her husband, whose ventures she promoted by her constant encourage- 
ment and whose hopes she fostered by her cheerful sympathy. In addi- 
tion, she is the possessor of business ability of an high order. When the 
sudden death of her husband threw his large interests into her care, she 
proved equal to the most trying emergency and since then has managed 
the estate with tact, energy and discretion. In inheriting his property, she 
became the largest stockholder in the Parafifine Oil Company, which ranks 
as one of the most successful oil concerns along the coast. Of this company 
she is vice-president and a member of the board of directors. From her 
husband she also inherited a one-half interest in the Areata Oil Company, 
but this has been sold to the Santa Fe Oil Company. In addition she was 
largely interested in the Lost Hills district, where she was a fortunate seller 
of oil land at $1,000 per acre. She has lately become interested in horti- 



418 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

culture and has purchased three hundred and twenty acres at Edison, which 
she will devote principally to the growing of citrus fruits. It has been dem- 
onstrated that the region is one of the most successful for the cultivation 
of oranges in California and she is planning to use her means and time to 
develop the horticultural resources of her adopted county, where she has 
met with such gratifying success. While giving her attention very closely 
to the management of the important interests bequeathed her by Mr. Gilhllan, 
she has kept in touch with political problems and always has maintained 
a sympathy with Democratic principles, as did also her husband ; besides 
these and other interests she has occupied an enviable social position in 
Bakersfield, has been identified with the ^Voman's Club in its civic pro- 
jects and public-spirited enterprises, and has manifested a deep devotion 
to the permanent progress of her home city. 

HAMILTON FARRIS.— The secretary of the board of health of 
Bakersfield, who also fills the position of health officer, has witnessed the 
development of Kern county through a considerable period of progress 
and with others originated the movement that resulted in the consolidation 
of Bakersfield and Kern, a decidedly forward step in local upbuilding. Al- 
though not a native Californian, nor indeed a native of the United States, 
he is most patriotic in impulses, loyal in sentiment and true to every measure 
making for the advancement of his adopted home. Of Canadian birth and 
parentage, he was born at Arcona, Ontario, February 19, 1869, and was 
the eldest among three children comprising the family of George and Sarah 
(Mellen) Farris. While yet a young woman the mother was taken by 
death from home and children and Hamilton was only thirteen when his 
father, a skilled blacksmith and man of honorable principles, passed away, 
leaving the children with little means. Friends, however, came to their 
aid. The eldest child was taken from school and apprenticed to the trade 
of a blacksmith at Arcona, where he continued for three years. Being then 
free to make his own plans for the future, he entered railroading and 
secured employment as checker in the freight office of the Grand Trunk 
Railroad. Later he became a brakeman with the same company. Four 
years were spent with the Grand Trunk Railroad, after which in 1889 he 
came to California and found work as a brakeman with the Southern 
Pacific, having for a time a run between Bakersfield and Lathrop in San 
Joaquin county. 

Securing a position as clerk in the old Central hotel in Kern in 1894, 
Mr. Farris left the road, but at the expiration of three and one-half years 
in the hotel he went to work in the Southern Pacific freight house as night 
foreman. At the expiration of one year he resumed work as a brakeman 
and continued in the same work until 1902, when he was elected marshal. 
On two separate occasions he was re-elected marshal. During 1907 he 
resigned that position to become deputy county clerk and continued as 
such until the spring of 1910, when he went to the Kern river oil field as a 
foreman for the Associated Oil Company. Resigning and returning to 
East Bakersfield in October of 1912, two months afterward he was 
appointed health officer and secretary of the board of health, since which 
time he has devoted his entire time and the closest attention to the careful 
discharge of every duty connected with the responsible place. In politics 
he always has su])ported I^emocratic principles. Fraternally he holds mem- 
bership with the Knights of Pythias. Mis marriage was solemnized in 
Chicago, 111., and united him with !^Iiss Matilda Parkinson, who was born 
in Ontario and died in East Bakersfield November 14, 1912, leaving three 
children, namely: Clifford, now employed by the Associated Oil Compan}^ 
in the Kern river field ; Floyd, an employe of the ^^'ells-Fargo Express 
Company in Bakersfield ; and Olga, who since the death of her mother has 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 419 

presided over the family home and ministered to the comfort and welfare 
of her father. 

W. R. LEAKE. — From his earliest memories Mr. Leake has been 
familiar with the oil industry in all of its phases. Nor have his experiences 
been limited to one field or to one state. On the other hand, he has been 
employed in fields in various parts of the country, notably in Pennsylvania, 
where his boyhood years were passed, and in California, where for more 
than a decade he has been associated with the development of the business. 
\\'ith the early history of. the industry in the Midway field he became con- 
nected through his arrival in September. 1909, at Taft, then known as 
]\Ioron. The A\'est Side Oil Company, a close corporation with five prin- 
cipal stockholders (all residing in Los Angeles), selected him to take 
charge of their lease of eight acres, situated on section 25, township 32, 
range 23, and for that purpose he came from Los Angeles to Kern county 
at the time mentioned, since which he has had charge of three producing 
wells that form the holdings of the small but prosperous corporation. 

Near Bath, Steuben county. N. Y., W. R. Leake was born February 
11, 1869. being the only son of William H. and Amanda (Beebe) Leake, 
natives of New York state. The two daughters in the family are India 
and Inez A., the former married to Charles Hanks, a prosperous oil operator 
of Ohio and Pennsylvania. During the Civil war William H. Leake served 
for four years and four months and received an honorable discharge at 
the close of the struggle, after which he became interested in the oil busi- 
ness. When his son, William R., was an infant the family removed to 
Pennsylvania and settled in Butler county, later going to the Bradford 
field in the same state. In fact, the father visited almost every eastern 
oil field at some period and he became a very successful producer, besides 
owning some wells in Ohio. Nor did his activities lessen with advancing 
years. At the time of his death, which occurred when he was seventy-four 
years of age, he was at Beaumont, Tex., as superintendent for the Higgins 
t)il Company at Spindletop. 

Educated in the grammar schools of Butler county. Pa., followed by a 
business course in the Tidioute high school in Warren county, that state. 
Mr. Leake became a regular worker in the Pennsylvania oil fields when 
he was eighteen years of age. His first work as a production man was 
with the Clinton Oil Company. For ten busy years he was an operator 
in the West Virginia fields and for two years he was associated with the 
development of the oil field near Boulder, Colo., whence in 1902 he came 
to California and sought the Coalinga field. After a long term of service as 
superintendent first with the K. C. Oil Company and then with the New 
Era Oil Company, he came down to Taft during September of 1909, since 
which time he has engaged as superintendent of the West Side Oil Company. 
A most capable assistant in his counsels and business enterprises is his 
wife, whom he married in Elk county. Pa., May 5. 1891, and who was 
Miss Martha M. Parker, daughter of W. H. Parker, a prominent oil operator 
in Pennsylvania. Thousands of acres of oil lands were held by the family. 
By the marriage of Mr. Parker to a Miss Hilliard, a native of Clarion 
county. Pa., there were seven children, namely: Alice, whose husband, 
Charles Brick, is superintendent of the National Gas Company at Youngs- 
town, Ohio; W. O., a contracting driller at Dewey, Okla. ; Martha M., 
Mrs. Leake; May, wife of Alfred Williams, of Youngstown, Ohio; Stella, 
who married F. B. Long, a driller now living at Waynesburg, Pa. ; 
Charles S., a plumber engaged in business in West Virginia; and John, who 
has charge of an oil company's lease at Junction City, Ohio. Mrs. May 
Williams was first married to J. M. Leyman, a successful oil man, who for 
twenty years engaged as superintendent of the Jennings Oil Company and 



420 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

who held the confidence of operators in that industry throughout the east. 
The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Leake, Irene Romain, is the wife of Wade 
S. Fitch, of Los Angeles, and the mother of a daughter, Frances Irene Fitch. 

CHARLES EUGENE DAY.— To the people among whom Mr. Day has 
lived since the year 1877, and who have learned to appreciate 
his splendid traits of character as a man and his tact as an official, there 
comes a feeling of pride in any recital of his achievements as a marksman, 
for in tournaments and contests in this part of the state he carried the record 
for years and made the best score ever achieved by crack shots. With one 
shell he has killed seventy quail and inside of seventy-nine days he shot 
eleven thousand. In one day with twenty-two shots he obtained four hun- 
dred and fortyrsix quail, following the next day with four hundred and 
fourteen, while on the third day he brought down three hundred and forty. 
His hunting expeditions have not been limited to Kern, Tulare, San Luis 
Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, but have extended as far south as the 
line of Mexico, and in the early days he made a specialty of shipping deer 
and quail to the San Francisco markets. 

If skill in marksmanship may be denominated a matter of heredity then 
it may be said of Mr. Day that he inherited his expertness as a shot from 
his father, who was one of the noted hunters of his day and locality. A 
member of an old family of New York and himself during early manhood 
a farmer in A\'yandot county, Ohio, the father, John Day, served in an 
Ohio regiment during the Civil war and became known among members 
of his company for his skill with a rifle. At the expiration of his term of 
service he received an honorable discharge, returned to his home in Ohio 
and at once made preparations to cross the plains to California. During 
the progress of the trip, which was made with wagons and ox-teams in 
1864, he supplied the camp with an abundance of game and many a bear, 
buffalo and antelope fell as a tribute to his unerring marksmanship. 

Some years prior to the removal of John Day to the west he had mar- 
ried Miss Harriet Bristol, a native of Wyandot county, Ohio, and a daughter 
of William Bristol, for years employed there as railroad and express agent. 
They became the parents of four children, the three daughters being Mrs. 
Delia Griffin, of Oakland; Mrs. Alice Simpson, who lives near Bakersfield, 
and Mrs. Clara Knight, of Rosedale. The only son, Charles E., was born 
in Ohio March 18. 1862, and was three years of age when he was brought 
by his mother to California via Panama, joining his father on a farm near 
Lakeville, Sonoma county. During 1868 the family removed to a large 
farm on Marsh creek near Brentwood, Contra Costa county, where the father 
undertook grain farming on a large scale. At first he met with unusual 
success, but two years of continuous drought caused him a loss of all the 
accumulations of years. Removing to Calistoga, Napa county, in 1874. he 
engaged in hunting in the mountains and shipped deer and bear to the San 
Francisco markets. During the fall of 1876. with the assistance of his ( nly 
son, he began to hunt quail for the citv markets, and on this expedition he 
traveled through Ventura and Los Angeles counties, then came up to Kern 
county, where he found surroundings so greatly to his liking that he located 
at Bakersfield April 25, 1877. Soon afterward he bought forty acres five 
miles south of town under the Kern Island canal and there he began to raise 
fruit and alfalfa, afterward enlarging the tract by the purchase of another 
forty. In addition to farming he still engaged in hunting for game in the 
hills. February 28, 1882, when about fifty years of age. the team which 
he was driving ran away, threw him into the canal and he was drowned. 
Some years later his widow was married to J. W. Fitzgerald and at this 
writing she lives in East Bakersfield. 

After the death of his father Charles E. Day took charge of the home 
farm in the interests of his mother and sisters and for twentv-one vears 




--^L^laM^ (^.^^^^^<^ X^P^' 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 423 

he operated one place. Besides engag-ing in farming and stock-raising he 
hunted deer and quail to ship to the San Francisco markets. From young 
manhood he has been a stanch Democrat. During 1894 his party nominated 
him for countv tax collector. Duly elected, he took the oath of offtce in 
January of 1895. In 1898, 1902, 1906 and 1910 he was re-elected, the last 
time without any opposition whatever. His present term will expire in 
January of 1915. While giving due attention to the responsibilities of the 
olftce he also continued farming until 1910, when he disposed of his interests 
in the county. The residence which he erected and occupies in East 
Bakersfield is presided over hospitably by ^Irs. Day, formerly Miss Susie 
Dragoo, who was born, reared and married at Martinez, Contra Costa county, 
being the daughter of a pioneer physician of that village. The only child 
of the union, Leona, is married to Palo Autrand and lives in East Bakersfield. 
The fraternal associations of Mr. Day are numerous and important and 
include membership in the Knights of Pythias, in which he has been a leading 
ofBcer, besides being with his wife connected with the kindred organization 
of Pythian Sisters. In addition he belongs to the Woodmen of the World, 
Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, Eagles, Independent Order of Fores- 
ters, Fraternal Brotherhood and Ancient Order of United Workmen. 

GORDON WALLACE WATSON.— The lineage of the Watson family 
in America is traced back to the Gordon clan, inseparably associated with 
the early history of the highlands and illustrious in many of the ancient 
wars of Scotland. In leaving his native city of Aberdeen to cast in his 
fortunes with the new world, Gordon Wallace, Sr., gave up associations 
endeared to him from earliest memories and from the family traditions 
concerning bygone centuries. Shortly after his marriage to Miss Annie 
W^hite in London, England, he had migrated with his young wife to Canada 
and later came to the States. For years he engaged in contracting and 
building at Jersey City, N. J., where both he and his wife passed their last 
years. The eldest of their five children, born at Jersey City, N. J., Decem- 
ber 8, 1868, was given the name of his father, thus carrying into another 
generation the old Scotch patronymics of ancestral associations. During 
infancy he was taken to Toronto, Canada, but at the age of six years accom- 
panied his parents in a permanent removal to Jersey City, where he attended 
the public schools and also learned the trade of carpenter. 

During a trip to Europe in 1901 Mr. Watson formed the acquaintance 
of Miss Janetta Haley in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, and they were mar- 
ried in March of the following year. Mrs. Watson was born in Yorkshire, 
being a daughter of Henry and Eliza Margaret (Eastwood) Haley, resi- 
dents of Bramley, Leeds, where Mr. Haley engaged in business as a woolen 
manufacturer. The Haley family traces its lineage to Celtic ancestry. As 
early as 1675 some of the name removed from Ireland to England, where 
later generations engaged in business pursuits and were among the first 
manufacturers of woolen goods at Leeds, beginning with the old hand 
looms and gradually growing into an extensive business with the largest 
and most modern machinery for the manufacture of woolen goods. The 
family accumulated great wealth and a high social position. 

The month after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Watson arrived in Jersey 
City and established a home at that place, where he engaged in carpentering. 
During 1905 they came to California for the first time and found the west 
attractive and alluring. Establishing a home in Bakersfield, Cal., in Novem- 
ber of 1907, Mr. Watson followed the trade of carpenter, also was identified 
with different branches of the building trades and assisted in the organiza- 
tion of the Building Trades Council, of which he served as business agent 
for two years. For some time he has been engaged in the building busi- 
ness in Bakersfield. where he has a reputation for reliability as a con- 



424 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

tractor, progressive spirit as a citizen and dispatch as a worker. Although 
an active worker for the benefit of the Democratic party, he has never 
sought yffice nor has he been wiUing- to accept political positions. In relig- 
ious faith he and his wife are Episcopalians. Devoted to the welfare of 
their adopted city, they have the utmost faith in its material growth and 
promising future. Since coming to this city they have purchased a number 
of residence lots and have erected and still own five bungalows of a modern 
and attractive ty])e of architecture. Their family consists of three children, 
Margaret Rutherford, Gt^rdon Bruce and Donald Keith. 

J. THOMAS JOHNSON, M. D.— Professional connection with the 
United States navy in the capacity of surgeon with the rank of lieutenant- 
commander gave Dr. Johnson a wide experience in the practice of materia 
medica and brought to him an important responsibility in the management 
of naval hospitals in the east. The selection oi his life work was happily 
made. Natural qualifications adapted him for skill in therapeutics. From 
the beginning of his practice he has exhibited skill in the diagnosis of 
disease and efficiency in the selection of remedial agencies. Since he came 
to Kern county and opened a hospital at Fellows, he has risen to a high 
rank professionally in this new town, the "gem of the foothills." Much of 
his early life was passed in Chicago, where he was born May 18, 1882. and 
where his father, Thomas Johnson, was a member of the livestock com- 
mission firm of Johnson & Wilson, at the Union Stock Yards. He spent 
considerable time in Iowa while a young man and when the Spanish- 
American war broke out he was living at Des Moines, from which city he 
enlisted in Company B, Fifty-second Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He went 
into camp at Chickamauga Park, Ga., and later was transferred to Com- 
pany D, Forty-ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. With this regiment he went 
to Cuba and remained until the close of hostilities. 

From early youth he had felt a drawing to the medical ])rofession and 
after he had received his honorable discharge from the army he determined 
to take up the study of pharmacy. He entered the Highland Park College 
of Pharmacy at Des Moines, Iowa, and graduated from there in June, 1901. 
After he had received actual experience in drug stores, at various places 
for a while, he opened up a drug store at Story City, Iowa, which he ran 
successfully and sold out to advantage in time to matriculate at the 
medical department of Drake University at Des Moines, Iowa, in the fall of 
1903, and thus carry out his cherished ])lans to become an M. D. He con- 
tinued two years at Drake University and finished up by taking the last 
two years of a four-year medical course at Jefl^erson Medical College, Phila- 
delphia, from which he graduated with the degree of M. D., class of 1907. 

To one of his ambitious and aspiring mind, the completion of a 
medical course did not signalize a cessation of study. On the other hand, 
he became very solicitous in enlarging his medical knowledge so that he 
might be better qualified to practice with success. For a time he served 
as an interne in the Philadelphia hospital and for two years he had the 
advantage of experience in Bellevue hospital in New York City. About 
1909 he was commissioned surgeon in the United States navy, and assigned 
to duty at the naval hospital in Philadelphia. Soon he was transferred to 
Washington, D. C, and during his leisure hours in that city he took a 
post-graduate course in a medical school. Next he had a brief experience 
in the New York City naval hospital and from there was transferred to 
the battleship Mississippi, after which he was assigned to recruiting duty 
in Chicago. From there he was ordered to San Francisco and there in 
May, 1911, resigned his commission. 

Immediately after he resigned as surgeon in the navy Dr. Johnson 
came to Fellows and opened an office for practice, also acquired the 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 427 

pharmacy estahlisliiiient known as The Fellows Drug Company's store. 
Since he arrived here in June, 1911, he has won the confidence of the 
people, who recognize in him a surgeon of unusual skill and an experienced 
l>hysician. While his ])ractice is general and includes the treatment of 
disease in every form, he has specialized in the treatment of diseases of 
the eye, ear, nose and throat, and surgery. The need of a local hospital 
led him to interest himself in that work shortly after he had located here 
and he organized a hospital association of eight hundred members, of which 
he is now the president. The concern was incorporated in January, 1912, 
and the hospital was opened on the 10th of February, affording to the people 
of the vicinity a modern institution equipped with every convenience for 
the care of the sick. Before coming to the west Dr. Johnson joined the 
Knights of Pythias at Des Moines, also Des Moines Lodge No. 98, B. P. 
O. E., and the blue lodge of Masons. He is a member of the Fellows 
Chamber of Commerce. 

JOHN TEMPLE TAYLOR.— When the colonial wars were calling for 
the stalwart young men (it the new world to assist in the defence of their 
adopted country among those who responded were several members of the 
Taylor and Temple families, representatives of the F. F. V's of Virginia and 
imbued with the patriotic loyalty characteristic of every generation back to 
the English progenitors. The outbreak of the Revolution found the men of 
that generation eager to respond to the call of the colonies for help and 
willing to sacrifice money, time, and, if need be, their lives to aid in securing 
independence for their country. In the later years of peace the family pros- 
pered and acquired large Virginian plantations. On one of these estates lived 
Richard and Elizabeth (Temple) Taylor, whose son, John R. Taylor, M. D., 
was born and reared at the old homestead in Hanover county and was given 
exceptional educational advantages that culminated in a course of study in 
that famous Philadelphia institution, the Jeft'erson Medical College. Upon 
receiving the degree of M. D. from that college he returned to Virginia and 
purposed to devote his entire life to professional labors, but more and more 
the management of his lands began to engross his attention and finally he 
retired from practice in order to give his time to landed interests in different 
parts of Virginia. For years prior to his demise he made his home at a 
picturesque old plantation, Fall Hill, situated near Fredericksburg, Va., over- 
looking the Rappahannock river. On that place (;ccurred the birth of his son. 
John Temple, February 16, 1845. There too were born the five other children 
comprising the family and there also the mother spent her last days, so that 
the endearing associations of both happy and sad memories clustered around 
the old homestead. Three of the children are still living. Of the five sons 
four bore arms for the Confederacy during the Civil war and one of these, 
Capt. Murray F. Taylor, a member of the staff of Gen. A. P. Hill, after the 
war came to California, secured employment in Kern county, rose to be 
superintendent of the Stockdale ranch and some years later returned to Vir- 
ginia, where he died. 

Attendance at the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington, \"a., was 
brought to an abrupt close in 1862, when John Temple Taylor abandoned 
the practice work and drills on the college campus for actual service in the 
field. At the time of his enlistment in Company B, Ninth Virginia Cavalry, 
he was a youth of seventeen years, courageous and enthusiastic, glad to 
enlist in the cause of the south where his life had been passed and where 
generations of his ancestors had lived and labored. The regiment to which 
he was assigned and in which he continued until the close of the war, 
served around Richmond and in other parts of Virginia, taking part in the 
battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, the Shenandoah valley, Petersburg, 
etc. In several battles he received saber wounds, at .\shland he was wounded 
bv a bullet in the right shoulder and at Five Forks his horse was shot from 



428 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

under him, l)ut he escaped by securins; and mounting- a riderless horse. Upon 
the close of the war he returned to the Fall Hill plantation, but in the fall 
of the same year (1865) he moved to the Hayes plantation in King George 
county, on the Rappahannock rixer, twelve miles l)elo\v Fredericksburg. 
This plantation he owned throughout life, although for years it was leased 
to other parties. 

Coming to California in 1873. ^Ir. Taylor joined a relative. Dr. George 
F". Thornton, the general superintendent for J. B. Haggin. This relative 
gave him employment as a foreman. One 3'ear later he was made super- 
intendent of the Bellevue ranch, which property he developed and put under 
cultivation. ( )n account of failing health in 1883 he went to Contra Costa 
county to recuperate and while there he engaged in farming. With strength 
renewed in 1887 he returned to Kern county and again became an employe 
of J. 1). Haggin. In 1891. when his brother. Capt. M. F. Taylor, returned 
to Virginia, he became superintendent (^f the Stockdale, Bellevue. Buena 
Msta and McClung ranches. Later he was tendered a similar position on 
the Canfield ranch. Upon the formation of the Kern County Land Com- 
pany he was retained as superintendent of all of these various ranches. 
At the same time he himself became a property owner and invested in 
valuable residential sections of Bakersfield and Los Angeles. Mr. Taylor's 
son, Wallace Temple, is a railroad and general contractor with headquarters in 
Los Angeles. Through all of his life John Temple Taylor w^as stanchly 
devoted to Democratic principles. Some years ago he was chosen a member 
of the county Democratic central committee and his service in that capacity, 
as in every other association of political or business life, reflected his own 
strength of character, energy of temperament and high ideals of citizenship. 
Bakersfield mourned the loss of one of her most dependable citizens when 
John Temple Taylor passed from earth August 23, 1913. His remains were 
buried in Bakersfield cemetery by the side of his brother, Capt. Murray 
F. Taylor. 

GEORGE MOLIDOR.— The rotary disc bit, which was invented 
through the combined efforts of T. F. Litaker and George Molidor in 1910 
and later covered by patents in this and foreign countries, is a device that 
will work quickly and successfully in all formations, thus rendering unnec- 
essary the changing of bits when another formation is struck. October 15, 
1912, the Rotary Disc Bit Company was incorporated, the two hundred 
shares being held by the gentlemen named, together with R. U. Harris 
and \V. J. Holland. Arrangements have been made whereby the Oil \\'ell 
Supply Company c:if Los Angeles will undertake the manufacture of the bit 
on a royalty basis and as this concern has about one hundred and fifteen 
branch stores in the various oil fields of the world, it would appear that 
the bit will soon become well-kncTwn among oil operators everywdiere. 

.Since the organization of the company its president, Mr. Molidor, has 
traveled as a salesman introducing the bit into different oil fields, and he 
finds that oil men are interested in the device by reason of its simplicity of 
construction and the fact that there are no delicate parts. The discs 
and pins are the only parts upon which there is any wear, and these can be 
replaced quickly and at small expense. The discs are made of manganese 
steel and are so constructed that they keep a cutting edge. As the discs 
revolve on their pins they have over sixty inches of cutting surface. 
Another advantage of the rotary disc bit is that it uses only one-third the 
amount of steam re(|uired for a fish tail. This means there is very little 
strain on the drill pipe and the danger of twisting the pipe is reduced to a 
minimum. In drilling with the bit it is necessary to feed slowdy or the 
pumps will be choked. On the La Belle lease on section 4. 32-23, near 
Fellows, at a depth of three hundred and thirty-seven feet, in ten hours 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 429 

and ten minutes oi actual drilling, a soft formation was struck and the dril- 
lers put in a fish tail, which ran through the formation, struck coarse gravel 
and lasted only thirty minutes. The disc bit was again used and made nine 
feet in boulders in one hour and thirty minutes. As the discs and pins 
were worn the disc bit was taken out and the fish tail put in, which made 
ten feet in fifty minutes and then had to be dressed. The formation con- 
sisted of sand and gravel, two hundred and seventy-four feet ; gypsum, 
thirty feet ; soft clay, twenty feet ; and boulders, twenty-two feet. 

The president of the company is of American birth and German par- 
entage and belongs to a family noted for rugged physique and sturdy con- 
stitution. His father, Henry G., a native of Hanover. Germany, crossed the 
ocean at the age of twenty-one and settled in Ohio, where he followed 
his trade of merchant tailor. After a few years he moved to Springfield, 
111., and followed the same trade. Later he went to Kansas and bought a 
farm southeast of Independence. While living in Ohio he was married at 
Radnor to Miss Katherine May, a native of the Buckeye state. Both he 
and his wife are deceased and their farm, which still remains intact as an 
estate, has become valuable oil land, since about 1904 oil having been 
pumped daily from three wells. The parental family consisted of five sons 
and three daughters. The second son. George, was twenty-one at the time 
of the removal to Kansas. After two years on the farm near Independence 
he went to the mountains and engaged in prospecting for gold. Four years 
were spent near Leadville. Upon his return to Kansas he engaged in 
ranching and also with two brothers and another gentleman engaged in 
operating a threshing machine. Meanwhile he had married Miss Mary 
Hayes, of Independence, who died on the farm near that town in 1909, 
leaving six children, namely : Gertrude, George A., Paul A., Nellie, Katherine 
and Genevieve. The elder son. George A., now in school, has devoted his 
vacations to the driving of a transfer wagon at Fellows and to employment 
in the Jones drug store, but is especially fond of mechanical work and 
intends to take up work with machinery upon leaving school. The second 
son, Paul A., is now employed in the Jones drug store. In 1911 Mr. Molidor 
married Miss Nellie Mills, who was born and reared in London, and of 
that union there is a daughter, Frances Irene, born in December, 1912. 

A most serious disaster befell Mr. Molidor with the burning of his 
buildings in Fellows on Christmas eve of 1911, when he and his family were 
left without means and with almost no clothing. Encouraged by his wife 
and children, he took up transfer work and anything that it was possible 
for him to do, but in the meantime he had been interested in the rotary 
disc bit and now devotes his entire attention to its sale. For five years 
he worked in oil fields and by actual experience he has become familiar 
with every phase of that industry except drilling. Inventive ability has 
been one of his characteristics from early life, ^^'hile living in Kansas he 
invented a combination can-opener, meat and vegetable chopper and ice 
shaver, and sold one-half interest in the invention for an amount that 
enabled him to put up a factory building at Independence in 1890. Other 
inventions are also to his credit and it is his chief ambition to erect a 
factory wherein several of his inventions may be manufactured. The ambi- 
tion may be unrealized for a few years, but there is every reason to believe 
that eventually his hope will be realized. From early years he and his 
wife have been identified with the Catholic Church, and while in Kansas 
he was an active worker in the Knights of Columbus at Independence. In 
that town he was likewise prominent among the Woodmen of the World. 

JOHN T. GREEN.— It was in Tulare, Cal., that J. T. Green was born 
March 12, 1884. He entered school when seven years old and when he 
was nine he was taken bv his parents to Lemoore on their removal to that 



430 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

town. There he was graduated from the grammar school and devoted a 
year to high school attendance, and in 1904 he was duly graduated, at 
the end of the prescribed course of study, from the San Francisco business 
college. That same year he came to Kern county and for four years there- 
after he was employed in the motive power department of the Southern 
Pacific railroad. In 1908 he came to Wasco to become manager of the 
Hayes & Murray general merchandise store, which he bought a year later 
and conducted until 1911, when he disposed of it in order to engage in the 
real estate business. He was appointed postmaster of Wasco May 27, 
1909, and has ably filled that office ever since. He established the first 
barber shop in Wasco, encouraged the opening of the first butcher shop 
there and was instrumental in the installation of the first newspaper plant 
in the town, that of the Wasco News. He is the commercial agent for 
the Universal as well as the Associated Oil Companies. Another of his 
activities is his energetic management of the Wasco Land Company. It will 
be seen that not only as a real estate man, but in numerous other ways he 
has done much for the upbuilding of Wasco. He owns four residences in 
the town, his home lot consisting of two and a half acres, as well as 
three business lots. In 1912 he erected a large brick building, 60x70 feet, 
occupied by two stores and the postofifice, which is located centrally on the 
main business street. Since 1909 Mr. Green has held a commission as notary 
public. 

On November 5, 1909, Mr. Green married Miss Pearl S. Lobb, who was 
born at Traver. Tulare county, Cal.. August 25. 1887, and they have one 
child. Gwen Adell Green. Fraternally he affiliates with Delano Lodge, 
F. & A. M.. with the Bakersfield Lodge, I. O. O. F.. and with the local 
organization of the Modern Woodmen of America, of which latter he was 
a charter member. 

EDWARD W. CRAGHILL.— Three generations of the Craghill family 
have been identified with the material development of California and the 
manager of the King Lumber Company at Fellows represents the third 
generation, being a grandson of Charles Craghill, the founder of the family 
on the shores of the Pacific. That gentleman, who was a native of London, 
England, but a citizen of the United States from early life, engaged in agri- 
cultural pursuits in Iowa prior to the Civil war. With characteristic loyalty 
to the country of his adoption he enlisted under the stars and stripes and 
rose to the rank of quartermaster in an Iowa regiment of infantry. Receiv- 
ing an honorable discharge at the close of the war, he returned to Iowa, but 
*in a short time disposed of his holdings in that state and came to California 
accompanied by his wife and children. Selecting a location near Santa Cruz, 
he turned his attention to the tilling of the soil. In the community he rose 
to a position of considerable local influence and the highest reputation for 
probity and intelligence. For twenty years he gave impartial service in 
the office of justice of the peace. His life was prolonged to old age and he 
passed away in 1911 after an intimate and interested identification with his 
section of the state. 

When the family came from Iowa to California Thomas E. Craghill, 
a native of the former commonwealth, was a small child, hence the greater 
part of his life has been passed in the west. During young manhood he 
engaged in teaming at Santa Cruz. For many years he raised stock and 
grain on a ranch near San Luis Obispo, but at this writing he operates a 
cattle ranch in Tulare county near the village of Corcoran. By marriage 
to Vianna McLaughlin, a native of Santa Cruz, he became connected with 
another prominent pioneer family of the western country. In a very early 
period of California colonization her father, Daniel McLaughlin, a native 
of Maine, crossed the plains with ox-teams and wagons and became a pioneer 



HISTORY' OI-' KRRN COUNTY 433 

of the vast undeveloped regions of the west. Somewhat later he married at 
Santa Cruz Miss Helen Rice, who had accompanied her parents across the 
plains and, like himself, claimed Maine as her native commonwealth. After 
their marriage they engaged in general farming, with a specialty of 
horticulture. 

The eldest of the seven children of Thomas E. and Vianna Craghill is 
Edward W. Craghill, born on the ranch in San Luis Obispo county March 
24, 1887, and educated in country schools near the old home. After leaving 
school he clerked in San Francisco for a short time, then went to Corcoran 
to assist his father in the cattle industry, but soon became an employe of 
the Cross Lumber Company. After two years with the concern, during a 
portion of which time he served as assistant manager, he came to Fellows 
in September of 1910 as an employe of the King Lumber Company. In a 
short time he was transferred to Wasco to act as manager for the company 
at that point, but in April. 1912, was sent back to Fellows, where he since 
has been manager of the yards. He is a member of the Chamber of Com- 
merce. 

ANDREW FRELIGH.— Coming to California in 1870 with the hope 
that the change of climate m^ight benefit his impaired health, Mr. Freligh ar- 
rived in Kern count}- during 1876 and settled during 1880 upon the ranch 
where he still lives and labors. The interim has been devoted to the stock 
business. Up to the year 1882 he specialized with sheep, but a number of 
heavy losses led him to dispose of his flocks and devote his attention to hogs, 
horses and cattle. At this writing he owns six hundred head of stock. His 
quiet, retiring disposition impels him to find his highest pleasure on his htmie 
ranch and in the care of his stock. 

Born on the bank of Seneca Lake, in Seneca county, N. Y., September 
12, 1850, Andrew^ Freligh received a public-school education and upon leav- 
ing school went via Michigan to Prairie City, Kans., where he found employ- 
ment on farms and remained for two years. Ill health caused him to come 
to the Pacific coast in 1870 and from San Francisco he moved to Alameda 
county, where he worked as an orchardist at Haywoods for tw^o years, con- 
centrating his attention upon the raising of deciduous fruits. Concluding 
then to engage in the sheep industry, he started in business at Jones' Ferry, 
Fresno county, at first having about three hundred head of sheep. In order 
to secure range for the flock he went into different parts of Fresno county 
and traveled through that district when there was not a single house on the 
present site of the flourishing city of Fresno. He saw the town started and 
attended the first Fourth of July celebration. With the intention of finding 
suitable range for his sheep he came into Kern county in 1876 and four years 
later he settled on his present ranch, where in partnership with an uncle, 
George Kinnie, he bought eight hundred acres, sixteen miles w^est of Bakers- 
field. The uncle deciding to leave in 1884 sold his interest in the land to Mr. 
Blodgett and since then Mr. Freligh has run the ranch, raising and selling 
horses, hogs and cattle, and making a specialty of raising draft horses of the 
Norman strain and Durham cattle. Six hundred acres of the ranch are under 
irrigation and in alfalfa. 

JOSEPH J. MARSHALL.— An early identification with American devel- 
opment along the Atlantic seaboard is attested by the Marshall family gen- 
ealogy, which also indicates patriotic loyalty to country and a courageous 
participation in many a fiercely contested battle. During the Civil w^ar 
George Marshall, a native of New York City, offered his services to the 
Union and was assigned to service in the One Hundred and Third New 
York Infantry, with which he went to the front and aided in the quelling of 
the /rebellion. During the early '70s he became an employe in the St. Louis 
postofiice and the efficiency of his services is shown by the fact that he has 
remained in the department from that time to the present, being now with 



434 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

two exceptions the oldest employe in that <:^reat office. He and his wife, 
formerly Mary M. Francis, who was born in Davenport, Iowa, have a family 
of eleven children. The second of these, Joseph J., was born in the city 
of St. Louis. April 4, 1875, and received an excellent education in the public 
schools and Christian Brothers College. Immediately after leaving college 
he became an apprentice to the trade of carpenter. Inheriting the military 
spirit of his ancestors, lie entered the army in 1895 and was assigned to 
Troop I, Second United States Cavalry, with which he served at Fort Logan 
for three years. Within fifteen minutes after his honorable discharge in 
April, 1898, he had re-enlisted in the same troop for service in the Spanish- 
American war. Under general orders he received an honorable discharge 
at Huntsville, Ala., in January, 1899, after which he returned to St. Louis 
and completed his trade. In that city occurred his marriage to Miss Louise 
Rathert. who was born, reared and educated there, and who shares with him 
the good-will of the people of their home town. 

An experience as carpenter in Mexico gave to Mr. Marshall some knowl- 
edge of conditions in that country, v.here he worked first at Mazatlan and 
later at Empalme in the state of Sonora. From 1907 until he came to Fel- 
lows in 1910 he spent much of the time in Mexico, as foreman of the construc- 
tion department for buildings erected by the Southern Pacific Railroad 
Company. XAHien he came to the oil fields he was well equipped for success- 
ful work in the building business. At Fellows he aided in the erection of 
some of the. first buildings and became a member of the firm of Ramage & 
Marshall, the first partnership of builders in the new settlement. The part- 
nership was later dissolved and in January, 1912, with L. H. Moon, he 
started the M. & M. Construction Com])an}, which has had the contracts 
for the improvements on twenty or more leases, has erected houses and 
improved business property, and has built the largest bunk-houses in the oil 
fields of the west side, including Maricopa, Taft, Fellows and ]\IcKittrick. 
Besides keeping busily employed at his trade, Mr. Marshall is interested 
in the Fellows Suititorium and is a worker for the Chamber of Commerce 
as well as other local organizations (if merit. The Republican jiartv has 
received his ballot in all general elections. 

M. A. DUNCAN. — The Duncan family comes of a long line of sturdy, 
law-abiding peo]:>le, who founded family pride upon unsullied lives and patri- 
otic service and who cherished an altruistic spirit in all the relations of life. 
The fine qualities of the race came to them from a long line of Scotch for- 
bears and when Willis Duncan, a native of Scotland, established the family 
name and fortunes in the new world there were transplanted in this country 
the sturdy honesty and irreproachable integrity characteristic of elder gener- 
ations. From W'illis the line is traced through his son, Gavin Bennett 
Duncan, to the next generation, represented by M. A., of Bakersfield, the 
latter being a grandson through his mother. Eliza, of Joel F'razier. long a 
resident of Kentucky, but a native of Ireland, being a member of a family 
that fled from Scotland to Ireland at the time of the religious persecutions. 
Ten children formed the family of Gavin liennett and Eliza (Frazier) Dun- 
can. One of these, the youngest and the last survivor. M. A., was born on 
the home farm in Adams county. 111.. August 24, 1850, there made himself 
useful in the care of the stock and the tilling of the soil as soon as large 
enough for such work. In that locality he met and married ]\Iiss Emma 
Lehman, likewise a native of Adams county. Four children were born of 
their union, namely: Alta Lelah, wife of Edward L. Hougham, manager of 
the store of M. A. Duncan & Co., in Bakersfield; Eugene B., also of Bakers- 
field ; Nellie Lenora, Mrs. .\rthur S. Crites ; and Anna Bertram, at home. 

Arri\-ing in Bakersfield December 21, 1899, Mr. Duncan immediately 
made ])reparations to embark in the grocery business. From the first he 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 437 

retained as manager his son-in-law, Kdvvard L. Hcjugham, formerly manager 
of a wholesale and retail grocery business at Manhattan, Kan. The estab- 
lishment has been conducted along lines of honor and integrity and success 
has been its portion. In point of years of active business as a grocer Mr. 
Duncan has been considered the pioneer in the city, his only predecessor in 
the place having been A. Weill, whose store is somewhat different by reason 
of being conducted upon the department plan. The establishment of M. A. 
Duncan & Co.. (of which, notwithstanding the "Company," Mr. Duncan is the 
sole owner), has given steady employment to five experienced salesmen, who 
under the efficient supervision of the manager fill every requirement of custom- 
ers with dispatch, care and keen attention to details. The central location 
at 1801 Chester avenue has been an aid in the building up of a permanent 
trade and securing a large patronage ; but even more important than the 
location has been the reputation for the observance of the pure food laws. 

After coming to California and settling in this city Mr. Duncan became 
a leading worker in Masonry and a prominent member of the Royal Arch 
Chapter. In addition he also identified himself with the Modern Woodmen 
of America. Having the efficient supervision of his son-in-law in the store, 
it became possible for him to relax from business tension and enjoy the 
social amenities of life. Early in his citizenship he won his way to the con- 
fidence of the people here and gained many friends. Like many other prom- 
inent and successful business men he found his automobile a source of 
recreation and pleasure, but he was unfortunate in an experience in driving 
a new car August 6, 1912. In crossing the track the automobile was struck 
by a Santa Ee engine and he was seriously wounded, the cranium fractured 
so that it was necessary to remove a large piece of the bone. He was taken 
to the hospital in a very serious condition and for a while lingered between 
life and death, but a strong constitution stood him well in hand and his 
recovery was good, and he is now back attending to business. 

THOMAS ALEXANDER METCALF.— The earHest records that can 
be traced concerning the Metcalf family indicate their identification with 
North Riding, Yorkshire, England, several centuries ago. Erom there some 
of the name crossed the Irish sea into Ireland and established the family in 
Inneskillen, from wdiich point William Metcalf immigrated to America during 
the C(donial era of our national history. Curtis, son of William, was born 
in Lancaster county. Pa., and devoted his entire life to agricultural pur- 
suits there. The next generation was represented by Thomas Metcalf, a 
native of Lancaster county and in very early youth a soldier of the Revolu- 
tion, enlisting from Pennsylvania. P\)r a long period after the close of that 
historic struggle he engaged in farming in his native county, but when ad- 
vanced in years he removed to Ohio and spent his last days in P)eImont 
county. Among his children was a son, William G., born near Westchester. 
Pa., and for years a farmer in Belmont county, Ohio, but later a i:)ioneer 
of Illinois, where he developed farm land in the vicinity of Mendon, 111. 
Alth(^ugh far beyond the limit of military service at the time of the Civil 
war he became an ardent supporter of the Linion and was accepted as a 
private in Company G. One Hundred and Eighteenth Illinois Infantry, whose 
hardships he endured with a fortitude not surpassed by those younger 
than he. While living in Ohiij he married Jane McMillan, a native of St. 
Clairsville, Pelmont county, and a daughter of .\lexander ^^cMillan. who 
during early years had crossed the ocean from his birthplace. Clasgow, Scot- 
land, and had settled in Ohio. Eor years he followed the occupation of a 
merchant tailor at St. Clairsville and there his death occurred. Both William 
Cr. :\Tetcalf and his wife spent their last days in Illinois. Of their ten children 
all but one attained maturitv and there now survive four sons and one daugh- 



438 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

ter. One of the sons, Isaac, was a soldier in Company K, One Hundred 
and Nineteenth Illinois Infantry, and now makes his home in Texas. 

The oldest member of the family circle, Thomas Alexander Aletcalf, 
was born at St. Clairsville, iielmont county, Ohio, May 25, 1844, and at the 
age of twelve years accompanied the family to Illinois, settling among the 
pioneers of Adams county, where he attended pubhc schools during the in- 
tervals of farm work. During 1863 he enlisted in Company B, Forty-fifth 
Illinois Infantry, and was mustered into the service at Springfield, 111. With 
his regiment he participated in numerous of the most important battles of 
the war, being at Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge and Kennesaw Mountain, 
taking part in the siege of Atlanta and the engagement at Jonesboro, accom- 
panying Sherman on the famous march to the sea, bearing a brave part in 
the siege of Charleston and the battle of Goldsboro, where he was wounded 
in the left leg. For a time he was a patient in a hospital at Louisville, Ky., 
and in June of 1865 he received an honorable discharge with his regiment. 
Returning to his Illinois home he took up school-teaching. After several 
years he entered the employ of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad as 
an agent on their line in Illinois and at Coatsburg, Adams county, he also 
served as judge of the police courts. Coming to California in 1883 and set- 
tling upon a ranch near Bakersfield. he became identified with the early 
upbuilding of this community. After a time he established his home on 
the corner of C and Dracena streets in the city itself and here engaged in 
contracting and building until the death of his brother-in-law. S. W. Wible. 
when he became administrator of the estate and since then has devoted his 
time to its afTairs, necessitating trips to Alaska each summer to look after 
the mining properties of the deceased. 

The marriage of Mr. Metcalf and Miss Elizabeth J. W ible took place in 
Mendon, 111., and was blessed with two cliildren, Simon Hubert and Modena 
May, the former an electrical engineer employed in Spokane, Wash., and 
the latter a teacher in the Bakersfield public schools. ]\Irs. Metcalf was born 
in Johnstown, Pa., and removed to Illinois with her father, Peter A\'il>le. 
who became a pioneer farmer of Adams county. Further reference to the 
family histor_y appears in the sketch of her brother, Simon W. AA^ible. pre- 
sented on another page. Mrs. ^^letcalf's demise occurred Februarv 20, 1912. 
The family hold membership with St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Bakers- 
field, in which Mr. Metcalf officiates as senior warden. \Miile living in Illinois 
he was made a Mason in Benjamin Lodge No. 227, A. F. & A. M., at Camp 
Point, Adams county. Upon the organization of Hurlburt Post No. 127. 
G. A. R.. in Bakersfield. he became a charter member oi the organization 
and afterward for several years he was honored with the office of commander 
of the post. It was largely through his efifort that the supervisors set aside 
a room in the new court house for the exclusive use of the Grand Armv of 
the Republic and its allied societies, and it has been furnished and fitted up 
by the Post. It is the concensus of opinion that it is today the most elaborate 
and beautiful Grand .\rniy Memorial Hall in California if not in the entire 
Union. This was all accomplished while he was commander and. being a 
builder, the arrangement was left to him. The altar is his own design and 
the only one of the kind. He has served several terms as an aide on the 
stafi" of difi^erent commanders of the department of California and Nevada. 
For the past two years he has been aide de camp on the stafl^ of the com- 
mander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic. 

EDWARD L. HOUGHAM.— The manager of the grocery establish- 
ment of AF. A. Duncan & Co., to whose able supervision the credit for much 
of its popularity ma}' be attributed, is Edward L. Hougham, a native of the 
state of Kansas, born at Atanhattan, November 30, 1874. As a bov he 





9^><^<><^-^ 




HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 441 

attended the public schools and later he attended the Kansas State Agri- 
cultural College in his home city, taking a full course of four years in the 
institution. It was not. however, his intention to enter the field of agri- 
cultural activities, for his tastes inclined him toward a commercial career. 
Upon leaving college he secured a position with the wholesale and retail 
grocery firm of W'hitney & Hougham at Manhattan and advanced from 
one post to another until eventually he became the manager of the large 
and important business. When he resigned his position in 1899 he came 
at once to California and settled at Eakersfield, where in December of the 
same year the grocery house of M. A. Duncan & Co. was established. 

Both comfort and culture are apparent in the attractive home of Mr. 
Hougham at No. 2129 Dracina street, Bakersfield. The presiding genius of 
this home is Mrs. Hougham, who prior to her marriage in Quincy, 111., was 
Alta Lelah Duncan, her father being M. A. Duncan, the pioneer grocer of 
Bakersfield. Of her marriage to Mr. Hougham there are four children, 
namely : Edward Bennett, Theodore Sylvester, Mary Eleanor and Martha. 

JAMES ARMSTEAD OGDEN.— Very early in the history of the Vir- 
ginian colony the Ogden family became established there. Not only were they 
among the oldest families of that state, but among the most prominent and 
popular as well, and fc r years after his return from the Revolutionary war 
one of the ancestors managed his plantation with a diligence that brought 
prosperity. Among the children of the Revolutionary soldier was a son, Henry, 
who lived upon a plantation in Bedford county and remained in the Old 
Dominion throughout all of his life. The next generation was represented by 
Champ Ogden, likewise a native of Bedford county near the thriving city of 
Lynchburg, but from early manhood until 1862 a planter in A^irginia. In 1862 
he removed to Pike county, \lo., wdiere he died Alarch 21, 1864, at the age 
of forty-one years. When he removed to Missouri he was accompanied by his 
wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Ogden, a Virginian ; born and reared in 
the Old Dominion, she survived her husband thirteen years, dying in 1877 at 
the Alissouri homestead. Of her seven children, James A. was the youngest 
and he alone, of the four now living, has established a home in California. 
Born near Bowling Green, Mo., March 4, 1864, he has no recollection what- 
ever of his father. After his mother's death at the age of thirteen years he was 
taken from Missouri to Virginia, where he became an inmate of the home of 
his aunt, Mrs. Harriet Matthews, in Rockbridge county, and under her careful 
oversight he was given a public school education at Lexington. \\'hen he had 
completed the studies of the town schools he settled in the countr}- and took up 
general farming. 

Coming from A'irginia to California in 1887 and settling first in Tulare 
county. ]Mr. Ogden entered upon farming activities. From the first he was a 
close student of the soil. No department of agriculture was beyond his inter- 
est. When he left Tulare county and came to Kern county in 1893 he already 
had gained a broad knowledge of farming in all of its diversified forms and 
was well qualified to fill acceptably his new position as foreman on the Button 
Willow ranch for Miller &: Lux. For eight years, beginning with 1893, he con- 
tinued in the same place. The ability manifested in every department of the 
work and the resourcefulness evident in every emergency won recognition for 
Air. Ogden, who in 1901 was appointed superintendent of the entire division 
of southern ranches, including Button Willow ranch in Kern county (where 
he makes his headquarters, his home, however, being on Chester avenue, 
Ijakersfield), Panama and Lake ranches in Kern county, Cuyama stock ranch 
in Santa Barbara county, Carissa rancho in San Luis Obispo county and the 
swamp range in Kings and Tulare counties. The three ranches first-named 
have splendid facilities for irrigation with a modern system of canals and reser- 
voirs. Altogether he superintends over six hundred thousand acres, the 



442 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

greater part of which is utilized as range for stock, although large tracts are 
devoted to the raising of grain and alfalfa. Shipments of produce and stock 
are made from Kern county to San l->ancisco. For some years the superintend- 
ent drove the teams and buggies from one ranch to another, but this proved too 
.slow and he now utilizes an automobile in his frequent trips into Kings. Tulare, 
San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. 

The marriage of Mr. Ogden occurred in Tulare, Cal., December 31, 1891, 
uniting him with ATiss Elmina Maples, who was born in San Benito county, 
Cal., daughter of Thompson W. and Elizabeth (Merritt) Maples, who were 
born in Liverpool, England, and Jefferson county, Ohio, respectively. Mr. 
Maples was of Scotch-Irish parents, and came to California via Panama in 
1851, when he was seventeen years of age. He followed farming during his 
active years, and now makes his home with Mrs. Ogden. Mrs. Maples came in 
a sailer around Cape Horn in 1861 and passed away in Berkeley, October 13. 
1909. _ Mrs. Ogden received a broad education in our western schools and is a 
woman of culture and a devoted member of the Congregational church. The 
only son in the family, Laurence Armstead Ogden, a graduate of the Bakers- 
field high school in 1910, is now attending Leland Stanford University, class 
1915. The only daughter. Miss Edith, is a member of the Kern county high 
school, class of 1914, in Bakersfield, where the family own and occupy a mod- 
ern residence. In fraternal relations Mr. Ogden holds membership with 
Bakersfield Lodge. No. 266, B. P. O. E. 

JAMES B. McFARLAND.— A native of Ohio, J. B. McFarland was born 
in VVoodsfield, Monroe county, December 26, 1861, and his parents were 
Andrew and Catherine (Harmon) McFarland, natives of that county, and 
farmers there. The father died in Wilsonville, Nebr., and the mother makes 
her home with her children, being now seventy-six years of age. Genealogical 
records show that Mr. McFarland is of Scotch and German descent. 

When he reached the proper age Mr. McFarland was sent to public school 
and later was a student at the normal school at Sardis, Ohio, until he was 
seventeen. He became a teacher and when eighteen was princi])al of the Mount 
Zion (Ohio) school. In 1880 he removed to Nebraska and continued to teach, 
also farming near Palmyra, and in 1882 he taught school west of Lincoln 
in Lancaster county. At the same time he engaged in farming in Lancaster 
county and in 1884 he raised the first herd of Hereford cattle in that state. 
In 1886 he removed to near Burlington, Colo., where he was in the cattle 
business and also taught scho(4 until 1893, at which time he was attracted to 
Oklahoma by the o]>ening of the Cherokee Strip, and participated in the 
townsite fights at Enid with the Chicago & Rock Island Company. This was 
one circumstance when the people won out against the railroad company. At 
Enid he prospered as a druggist until 1895, when he engaged in mining at 
Cripple Creek, Colo., where he delved for gt)ld and silver with varying suc- 
cess for four years. Then, locating at Colorado Springs, he devoted the en- 
suing four years to the lumber trade. In 1904 he came to California, settling 
at Anaheim. Orange county, where he engaged in horticulture and devoted 
himself chiefly to the growing of walnuts for the market. In 1907 he had 
become the owner of one hundred and sixty acres of unimproved land in 
Kern county, the present site of McFarland, associating himself with \V. F. 
Laird. In December of that year they laid out the town of McFarland and 
l)egan building. Laying out a subdivision they planned a town at the Plunt 
switch, twenty-six miles northwest of Bakersfield, which has now become a 
place of three hundred population and of considerable commercial importance. 

Mr. McFarland was the father not only of the town but of its schools 
as well and they boast of a splendid new grammar school. His own ranch 
has been improved. He put in the first pumping plant in the town site and 




J^^^^-^^^.-^*.^ 



HISTORY OF KERxM COUNTY 445 

demonstrated the success of raising alfalfa by that form of irrigation, raising 
from ten to twelve tons to the acre. He is interested in the dairy business 
located one mile southwest of town, where he has a herd of Holsteins and 
Jerseys. 

Extending his activities Mr. AlcFarland established a lumber mill in the 
Green Horn range in Kern county. With others he incorporated the Mc- 
I'^arland creamery, the plant of which, located at McFarland, makes twelve 
thousand pounds of butter per month. The butter produced at this estab- 
lishment took the first prize, a gold medal, at the California State Fair in 1911. 
The company also manufactures ice for local consumption. Mr. McFarland 
has sold more than a hundred thousand acres of land and is the owner at this 
time of one hundred acres, all under cultivation. A five-horse-power motor 
engine affords him sufficient water supply for the irrigation of his own place, 
and his dairy is also equipped with an electric pumping plant. He is also 
engaged in raising Percheron Norman horses. Since the organization of the 
First National Bank of McFarland he has been a member of the board of 
directors. 

In St. Clairsville, Ohio, in 1884, Mr. McFarland was married to Miss 
Martha L. Hart, also a native of Monroe county, Ohio, and they have seven 
children : Lenora. Mrs. A. E. Sherwood, of McFarland ; Ethel, Mrs. M. 
Schumacher, of Los Angeles; Bessie, wife of T. L. Runyon, residing near 
McKittrick; Gladys. Myron, Marie and Francis. After coming here the father 
became a member of the board of trustees of the Lone Tree school district 
and with his usual vigor and ambition worked faithfully until they succeeded 
in having a grammar school second to none in the county. In national politics 
Mr. McFarland espouses the principles of the Republican party. 

FRED WRIGHT.— The Wright family history shows that William 
Wright, a native of Ireland, came to America at an early age and during 
young manhood married Anna Rowley, who was born in Connecticut. For 
some time they lived on a farm in Minnesota, but the rigorous climate 
of that northern state proved unhealthful and they decided to seek a more 
southerly location. x\s early as 1878 thev became residents of Texas, where 
Mr. Wright for a time followed the stock industry and later gave consider- 
able attention to the contracting business. His death occurred in Texas 
and afterward the widow came to California to establish her home, since 
which time she has resided in Los Angeles. The family comprised four 
sons and one daughter, the eldest of the five having been Fred, who was 
born near Austin, Minn.. August 12, 1873. and was a child of five years when 
the family removed to Texas. The public schools of Tyler, that state, 
afforded him fair educational advantages. At sixteen years of age he began 
an apprenticeship to the trade of machinist in the shops of the St. Louis & 
Southwestern Railroad Company at Tyler. On the completion of his time 
he traveled as a journeyman and worked in many sections of the south. 
It was during this period that he married in Pine Bluff, Ark., Miss Lottie 
Woodland, a native of Charles City. Iowa, and daughter of Joseph and Mary 
(Wright) Woodland, the former a native of England, but a resident of the 
United States from a boy. Mr. Woodland served in the Civil war as mem- 
ber of an Iowa regiment, and he and his wife are now residing near Bismarck. 
North Dakota. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Wright. Francis, 
Robert, Mary, Anna. ^Margaret and Mildred. 

During 1908 Mr. and Mrs. Wright came to Bakersfield and he entered 
the Bakersfield Iron Works as a machinist. The quality of his work was 
so satisfactory that he was promoted to be foreman of the pump department. 
Later he held a similar position with Sprague Bros., resigning from the em- 
ploy of the last-named firm in order that he might establish a -partnership 
with Christian Nelson, and thev started the East Bakersfield Garage and 



446 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Machine Company and developed a splendid trade. Both being skilled 
mechanics and having a thorough knowledge of machinery gave them an 
important advantage and they met with success. However, in March, 1913, 
upon being tendered his old position as foreman of the pump department 
of the Bakersfield Iron ^^'orks. he was prevailed upon to accept it, and he 
is now actively engaged in looking after his manifold duties. With his fam- 
ily he resides at his comfortable home on the corner of Sixth and R streets 
in Bakersfield. 

CHARLES WILLIAM JACKSON.— Born at Fort Worth. Texas, March 
12, 1851. Charles \\". Jackson was a son of Thomas Jackson, who was 
a native of Tennessee and removed to Texas, where he married Cecelia De- 
Witt, who was born in New Hampshire. *He was a cattle man in northwest 
Texas, where both parents died. Their family consisted of five children of 
whom Charles William was the second. 

Reared on the frontier Air. Jackson was deprived of the advantage of an 
education in the free schools as there were none in that locality, and he 
lived part of the time a hundred and fifty miles from the nearest neighbor. 
Each full of moon the family went to Pa La Ponte and forted up. Orphaned 
at the age of ten he was early taught a knowledge of farming and cattle 
raising, as a mere lad being thoroughly fitted for the career that was before 
him, and he has always been more or less successful as a rancher and cattle- 
man in different parts- of the countr}-. For a time he was employed as stage 
driver in Guatemala, Central America, and drove the first six-horse stage from 
the city of Guatemala to San Jose de Guatemala, a distance of ninety miles, 
and his activities in other out-of-the-way places have been noteworthy. On 
his way to Guatemala he went by vessel to Livingston, then to Pt. Isab'elle, 
from which point they crossed the country on mule back, bringing a hundred 
and fifty head of mules to Guatemala. He remained there for three years, 
when he came to Kern county, Cal., in February, 1876, and entered tlie employ 
of Haggin & Carr, now the Kern County Land Company, as teamster on 
the Stockdale ranch under Captain Taylor. Later he became the vaquero 
on the ranch and then was made foreman of irrigation, then foreman of 
haying and harvesting at different times. In 1884 he was established as 
superintendent of the ranch on the north side of Kern river known as the 
Jackson ranch, and later was made superintendent of the Collins, Jackson 
and Poso ranches. Since 1886 he has made his residence on the Poso ranch. 
This property consists of about one hundred thousand acres. Seventeen 
thousand acres of it is in alfalfa; five hundred and sixty acres of it is in 
orchard, and fifteen thousand head of cattle are shipped from the ranch yearly. 

When Mr. Jackson came to this part of the state the country was new and 
sparsely settled. His connection with the Kern County Land Company has 
covered the entire period of its history. He assisted in the construction of the 
Calloway canal in 1877-78, and in 1879 began putting in an irrigation system. 
He has seen the country improve from a dry desert until it is one of the most 
fertile countries in the world. Fraternally he afffliates with the Knights of 
Pythias and in jiolitical princi])les is a supporter of the principles of the 
Democratic party. 

Mrs. Jackson, who was Mary Lillian Rogers, was a native of San Fran- 
cisco. She was graduated from the lierkeley schools. By a former marriage 
Mr. Jackson has two sons, (ieorge (i. and Claude B. 

JAMES HORACE ARP.— The first representative of the Arp family 
in America came from German}^ during the colonial era and settled in the 
south, where Frederick M. B. Arp, a native of Wilkes county, N. C, gave 
his services to the patriots during the war of the Revolution. Next in line 
of descent was Benjamin Arp, who. exhibiting the loyal spirit that had 
characterized his father, enlisted in the war of 1812. served with self-sacri- 




^ .^^t/^U.^^c^Ky 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 449 

ficing" patriotism and bore a gallant part under General Jackson in the mem- 
orable engagement at New Orleans. The war ended, he returned to North 
Carolina, but later crossed the Great Smoky range of mountains into Ten- 
nessee and engaged in planting in Monroe county near the eastern border 
of the state. The martial spirit characteristic of the grandfather and great- 
grandfather became an inheritance of the father, James Addison Arp, a 
native of Wilkes county, N. C, and a captain in the Federal army during 
the Civil war. He and his comrades had many narrow escapes while making 
their way through the mountains of Tennessee to join the Union army. 
After the close of the struggle he returned to farming- pursuits in North 
Carolina, where also he served as a justice of the peace and in addition 
carried on a tannery, sawmill and gristmill operated by water power. For 
many years he lived at Murphy, the county-seat of Cherokee county, in 
the southwestern corner of North Carolina, near the Georgia-Tennessee 
state lines and within the shadow of lofty mountain peaks. During young 
manhood he had married Miss Mary Grayson, who was born in Sweetwater, 
Monroe county, Tenn., and died in North Carolina. Her father, William 
Grayson, a native of Wilkes county, N. C, served under General Jackson 
at New Orleans in the war of 1812 and was so seriously wounded in battle 
that the amputation of a leg was necessary. After his honorable discharge 
he settled in the eastern part of Tennessee and acquired an extensive planta- 
tion near Sweetwater, where he remained until death. 

The family of James Addison Arp comprised nine children, all but one of 
whom survive, James Horace being next to the youngest and the only mem- 
ber of the family on the coast. Born at Murphy, Cherokee county, N. C, 
April 28, 1867, he had only limited educational advantages, and at an early 
age began to work in his father's sawmill. In addition he gained a thor- 
ough knowledge of carpentering" and also studied the lumber business. 
Going to Tahlequah, I. T., in 1890, he worked as a carpenter for Mr. Thomp- 
son, the representative of the Cherokee nation. The year 1891 found him 
in Bakersfield. For four years he had charge of a ranch south of town owned 
by General Shafter and Captain McKittrick, after which he spent six months 
lumbering at Fort Bragg, in the redwoods of Mendocino county. Upon 
returning to Bakersfield he was employed by H. F. Condict, then the agent 
for the Standard Oil Company. Later, when Mr. Arp held the same posi- 
tion himself, he built the first tank for the company at this point and later 
increased its capacity to thirty-five thousand barrels. At the time oil 
operations began he was engaged in buying and moving houses. About 
that time he was boycotted by the unions because he employed Mr. Haw- 
kins, a non-union man, with whom the union men refused to work. The 
boycott advertised him widely and proved the foundation of his later suc- 
cess. He had employed only four men, but in thirty days he jumped to 
forty-four workmen and within three months it was necessary for him to 
open a plumbing shop, paint shop, paper store, etc., in order to push forward 
his contracts with the promptness desired. Two years of growing success 
swiftly passed. Then Mr. Lindgren asked to buy one-half interest with 
him in the business, stating that he had a shop at Fresno, but not sufficient 
business. The two combined and organized the Quincy Plumbing Company. 

Shortly after the earthquake and fire in San Francisco Mr. Lindgren sold 
his interests at Bakersfield and moved to that city, where there was great 
demand for workers in his line. About the same time the union ceased to 
oppose Mr. Arp and he consented to give their members employment. His 
interests were large and contracts for every kind of structural work were 
consummated with accuracy and dispatch. Among- his contracts may be 
mentioned those for the Brodek building, the Mascot apartments with 
disappearing beds and other built-in furniture, the Harding building, St. 
Regis hotel, Alicia apartments (he owns the latter), and Beale avenue school 



450 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

in Kern, the Bakersfield Garage. Willis building and others equally substan- 
tial. Besides owning and erecting the James Arp building, a three-story 
brick structure 50x122 feet, at No. 1919 I street, he also built his own unique 
modern residence in Bakersfield. 

Besides his large contracting and building business, Mr. Arp utilizes the 
largest house-moving outfit in liakersfield. Perhaps his most imi)ortant con- 
tract in that line was for the removal of the Santa Fe freight depot a dis- 
tance of five hundred feet, a difficult feat which he accomplished without 
stopping for even a day the handling of freight or the sending of telegraphic 
messages. In addition to other important interests, he has been a large 
promoter of subdivisions. The southern addition to Bakersfield, comprising 
about twelve blocks, he laid out and sold in lots or improved with residences, 
some of which latter he still owns. The James Arp subdivision along the 
oil field road he also platted. Some years ago he bought the Sweetbrier 
ranch and at this writing he still owns forty acres of the tract, which con- 
tains a walnut grove, the only one in Kern county, and is adorned with a 
row of palms around the entire place. After buying the E. M, Roberts 
ranch of three hundred and thirty-five acres one and one-half miles from 
town, he subdivided a portion of the farm into tracts running from one to 
five acres and in this way he sold off about one hundred and seventeen 
acres at a handsome profit. The North Bakersfield subdivision of twenty 
acres was also laid out and platted under his ownership and control. 

The Bakersfield Board of Trade and Builders' Exchange number Air. 
Arp among their more forceful members. In politics he has supported the 
Republican party. Fraternally, besides being associated with the Modern 
Woodmen of America and the Woodmen of the W^orld, he has been a Mason 
since early life in North Carolina and is now connected with Bakersfield 
Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M. After coming to Bakersfield he was united in 
marriage with Miss Anna Tracy, who was born near Gait, this state, and 
in January of 1890 was graduated from the San Jose State Normal School, 
after which she taught in Bakersfield until her marriage. From early life 
she has been a devoted believer in the doctrines of the Congregational 
Church and has contributed to the missionary projects of the denomination. 
Of her marriage there are four children, Tracy Ferdinand, Eva Virginia, 
James Addison and Alice Martha. The family of which she is a member 
traces its lineage to old eastern stock. During the early half of the nine- 
teenth century her grandfather, Edward V. Tracy, removed from Connecticut 
to Wilkesbarre, Pa., but later went to Ohio and afterward became a pioneer 
of Chickasaw county, Iowa, finally coming west as far as Utah, where he 
died. Her parents, Edward Vernett and Mary (Dix) Tracy, were natives, 
respectively, of Pennsylvania and Chickasaw county, Iowa, and the latter 
died at Gait, Cal. The former, after crossing the plains during 1856, became 
identified with farming interests in San Joaquin county, where he made his 
home for years near Gait, Sacramento county. At the opening of the Civil 
war he offered his services to the Union and was assigned to a California 
regiment, of which he remained a member until the close of the war, when 
he returned to the San Joaquin valley to resume ranch activities. Eventually 
he removed to Kern county and here he since has made his home. 

FIRST NATIONAL BANK.— This institution has been most essen- 
tial to the best progress of the town of Taft, for die officials of the bank 
have devoted their time to conserving the interests of the oil operators and 
customers in lines of business connected therewith. When the bank was 
established, it was because a number of citizens of Taft realized the impera- 
tive need of such an institution. Results have proved the wisdom of the 
step which they took when they started to organize and incorporate a 
concern, with a capital stock of $25,000. 

The checking department by no means represents the limit of the use- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 453 

fulness of the First National l»ank of Taft. In addition information is fur- 
nished concerning- investments and business conditions; hanking advantages 
are t)ffered in the mail department, for those unable to visit the institution 
personally; self-identifying travelers' checks are furnished, available through- 
out the world, money is telegraphed and drafts issued to any given city in 
the whole world, so that the institution is metropolitan in its sphere of ser- 
vice, and by its outside affiliations brings to Taft the banking service of the 
country. The officers have devoted their entire attention to the study and 
practice of banking and they do not rest content with the providing of un- 
surpassed local facilities, but use their financial strength and moral in- 
tegrity to place their customers on a basis of thrift and orderly knowledge. 

By affiliation and co-operation with the First National Bank of Bakers- 
field, the Producers Savings Bank of Bakersfield and the First National 
Bank of Maricopa, the First National Bank of Taft has increased its own 
strength and enlarged its sphere of useful service. Clinton E. Worden has 
been the capable and successful president from the first. The vice-presidents 
are W. E. Benz and L. P. Guiberson and in the sketch of the latter will be 
found additional facts concerning this bank, of whose remarkable growth he 
is justly proud. The cashier is C. L. Shirk, and the assistant cashier, J. M. 
Williams. While the officials serve as directors, they are reinforced by other 
stockholders, namely: J. I. WWt, Cyrus Bell, E. D. Gillette, E. M. Brown 
and J. S. Henton. 

JONATHAN ELMER GRAY.— The president and general manager of 
the J. E. Gray Oil Company has the distinction of being the oldest living oil 
operator in the Kern river field, where aside from his company interests he 
is the owner individually of two hundred and fifty-five acres under lease 
south of the Kern river, including ninety-five acres of the original quarter 
section known as the Thomas A. Means land, the original site of oil dis- 
covery in this district and county. For the period since 1899 a record of his 
life would be in many respects a history of the oil industry and development 
in these fields, now well known throughout the whole world. While yet 
the number of the wells here could be counted on the fingers of one hand he 
explored the entire district and made a map marking the sections which in 
his judgment were oil producing. It is a singular fact and testifies highly 
to his experience and judgment that this map, made in 1899, is absolutely 
accurate at the present time, for in every spot indicated a well was drilled 
with excellent results. 

From his earliest recollections Mr. Gray has been familiar with the oil 
industry. His father, James Gray, a pioneer oil man of Venango county. Pa., 
was one of the first to embark in the oil business on Oil creek, that county. 
Later he became a prosperous contractor and finally retired from active 
cares to spend his last days in ease, dying in March of 1911 at the age of 
eighty-four years. About the time of his demise occurred that of his wife, 
March 8, 1911, at the age of seventy-six. They were the parents of nine 
children, namely: Mary, Margaret Catherine, Nancy Jane, John Wesley, 
Jonathan Elmer, Samuel A., Martha Ellen, Arra F. and Ramsey E., the 
last-named being now engaged as a driller for the Kern Trading and Oil 
Company at Coalinga, Cal. Three sons, j. W., S. A. and R. E., and a nephew, 
G. W. Gray, are connected with our subject in oil operations in the Kern 
river fields. Jonathan E. Gray was born near East Brady, Clarion county, 
Pa., June 4, 1862, and attended school for a few years in childhood, but as 
soon as old enough he began to assist his father in contract work. Often, 
after a day of hard work, he would spend the evenings far into the night 
over his books and would also practice writing from copy. In that way he 
laid the foundation of a common-school education. At the age of fifteen he 
began to work for wages and the following year he assisted in drilling 



454 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

wells at Duke Center, AIcKean county, Pa., later working in Warren 
county. \jy the .time he had reached the age of nineteen years he was 
recognized as a professional driller. During the Balltown excitement he 
went to Forest cciunty, Pa., and thence moved on to Butler county at the 
time of the Thorn creek excitement. Next he worked near Iron Bridge, 
Monroe county, Ohio, and thence proceeded to Sistersville and Nannington. 
W. \'a., later going to Indiana, where he drilled near Reservoir. His ser- 
vices as a driller were next called into requisition at Robinson, 111., and later 
he was employed in Kansas and Oklahoma. An idea of the extent of his op- 
eratic^ns may be gained from the fact that he drilled for water in New 
York City and Omaha and for oil, not only in the places before mentioned, 
but also in Wyoming, the Dakotas and Nevada. 

Arriving in Los Angeles June 17, 1897, ]\Ir. Gray began to drill for oil in 
the Los Angeles oil field and acquired some oil interests at Newhall, that 
county. For a short time he drilled at Coalinga and in the Parkfield district, 
Monterey county. When news reached him concerning the discovery of oil 
in the Kern river field he came at once to Bakersfield and formed the 
acquaintance of Judd F. Elwood, who held an oil lease with Thomas A. 
Means. W^ith Mr. Elwood he inspected the entire district and then began to 
drill on the central point lease on section 4, where, as soon as they had 
drilled into the oil sand, they were ofifered $43,000 for their interests. In 
order to secure money for future development w^ork they accepted the ofifer. 
At that time there were only three wells in the entire field and Mr. Gray 
mapped out the land, indicating the location of wells with a remarkable 
accuracy, as shown by the map, now in the possession of Mr. Elwood. 

Investing in such companies as he believed would prove profitable, by 
the end of a year Mr. Gray was worth $75,000 and subsequent invest- 
ment has increased his fortune. On the west side he drilled several wells 
by contract. For the J. E. Gray Oil Company he has drilled twenty-six 
wells and on his individual lease seventeen wells, the former ])roducing 
four thousand barrels per month and the latter one thousand bar- 
rels per month. By means of a lease he secured control of ninety- 
five acres of the Thomas A. Means quarter-section, the original place 
of oil discovery, and he also acquired the Thomas A. Joy lease of one hundred 
and twenty acres and forty acres in the South Kern lease. In October, 1912, 
he became interested in the American Union Oil and Refinery Company, a 
corporation capitalized at $25,000, which bids fair to become a very im- 
portant industry in Tulare, where the refinery is loca.ted. Mr. Gray is now 
a large stockholder, president and general manager of the company. The 
refinery went into operation May 1, 1913. The plant is equipped with the 
Trumbull system and has a capacity of one thousand barrels of crude oil 
every twenty-four hours. The products manufactured are gasoline, kerosene, 
cylinder oil, engine oil, distillate, fuel oil, road oil and asphaltum. In his 
judgment as to oil wells and the entire industry Mr. Gray has few superiors 
and he is often sought for advice by those whose experience has been of 
briefer duration or less successful than his own. With his time and attention 
given closely to the industry he has not had leisure for participation in so- 
cial or fraternal organizations, although he has identified himself with the 
Union League Club in San Francisco and when in that city usually avails 
himself of the advantages ofifered by the club. In politics he voted the 
Republican ticket for years, but his principles lead him to support reforms 
and he has allied himself with the progressive element of the old party 
organization. 

HARVEY A. VAN NORMAN.— Although a native of Victoria. Tex., 
born October 5, 1878, Mr. V^an Norman has lived in Southern California 
from his earliest recollections and his only lengthy period of absence from 





f^uxXJ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 457 

the state occurred during his service in the 'Philippines. The family of which 
he is a member has ever been loyal to country and brave in battle. During 
the Mexican war his grandfather, J. M. Van Norman, who was a native of 
Pennsylvania and a planter in Tennessee, enlisted in the service and went to 
the southwest to fight for his country. Travel showed him the greatness of 
the undeveloped prairies of Texas and on the expiration of his time he sold 
out his Tennessee property, removed to Texas, took up land and embarked 
in the cattle business, which industry likewise engaged the attentit^n of his 
son, J. M., Jr., a native of Tennessee and a soldier in a Texas cavalry regi- 
ment during the Civil war. The latter in 1881 brought his family to Cali- 
fornia and settled on a farm near Santa Ana, but now lives retired at San 
Gabriel. In Texas he married Martha M. Halsel, a native of that state and 
the daughter of a Scotchman, who had served in the Mexican war. 

The fifth in a family of nine children, Harvey A. Van Norman was 
three years of age when the family removed from Texas to California. When 
the Spanish-American war broke out he had completed a course in the Los 
Angeles high school. During May of 1898 he enlisted in the Third United 
States Artillery and was sent to the Philippines on the transport Ohio, which 
landed there in July of the same year. In a short time he rose to the rank 
of first duty sergeant. Besides the battle of Manila he participated in 
twenty-seven engagements with the insurgents. By a special order he was 
mustered out and honorably discharged in September, 1899, after which 
he returned to California. Since then he has been identified with engineering 
and electrical work. During 1901 he was made engineer in charge of the 
Pasadena plant of the Los xAngeles Railway Company. Transferred to the 
electrical construction department as assistant to electricians in 1903, he soon 
rose to be superintendent of the electrical department of the railroad. In 
1906 he became superintendent of construction for the Los Angeles Gas and 
Electric Company, but the following year he resigned the place in order to 
engage with the Los Angeles aqueduct as electrical constructor. Upon the 
completion of the hydro-electric stations in the Owens valley he was placed 
in charge of the construction of the Owens valley division of the aqueduct. 
On finishing that task, he was transferred to Mojave as division engineer in 
charge of construction work there. When the entire aqueduct had been 
completed he was placed in charge of the maintenance and operation of the 
entire aqueduct, and as such superintends the system whose magnitude and 
splendid engineering feats have attracted the admiration of the greatest 
engineers in the world. Mr. Van Norman married Miss Bessie C. Ross, a na- 
tive of Chicago, and they make their home in Los Angeles. For some years 
he has been prominently connected with the National Association of Station- 
arv Engineers. Fraternallv he was made a Mason in South Gate Lodge No. 
320. F.' &: A. M. 

CHARLES H. QUINCY.— The Quincy genealogy is traced to Revolu- 
tionary stock and back of that to the historic Mayflower. The family name 
is connected with the early records of various portions of New England, 
but' particularly with the western part of Maine near the New Hampshire 
line. Several bore an honored part in the Civil war and among them was 
one who served as captain of a company in a Maine regiment. A brother 
of the captain, likewise a Civil war hero, Nathaniel Haley by name, was 
born and reared in Cumberland county, ^Me., and there engaged in the 
manufacture of lumber and the tilling of the soil for many years, but event- 
ually removed to Massachusetts and there passed away March 22. 1911, 
at the age of eighty-three years. When the Civil war began he offered 
his services to the LTnion and was accepted as a private in a Maine regi- 
ment. Udou the expiration of his term of service he re-enlisted in another 
regiment from Maine and remained at the front until the end of the Rebel- 



458 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

iion. Aleanvvliile he had niarrietl Miss -Martha l-reeniaii, who was born 
in Maine and died there. The l-'reenian family traces its hneage to the 
earliest settlers of New England. 

The family of Nathaniel Hale}' Ouinc}- comprised four children and 
three of these are still living, one, Horace, being now superintendent of 
the Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company. The eldest of the family, 
Charles H. Ouincy, was born at Bridgton, Cumberland county. Ale., March 
27, 1855, 'and passed all of his early life in the western part of Maine in 
Cumberland and Oxford counties. Ambitious in temperament, he worked 
his way through the Bridgton high school and prepared for Bowdoin Col- 
lege. In (_)rder to secure the means necessary for a complete college course 
he taught school for about four years, but meanwhile other interests claimed 
his attention and he relinquished all hopes of further study. Instead, he 
earned a livelihood as head clerk in a mercantile establishment in Maine. 
After a time the confinement caused a failure in his health and hoping to be 
benefited by a change of climate he came to the west. 

Arriving in Los Angeles, January 29, 1888, Mr. Ouincy remained only 
a few days, coming to Bakersfield February 2. Flere he was employed 
with the Kern County Land Company as a carpenter for six months and 
then entered the employ of A. J. McLeod and for eighteen months worked 
at carpentering, while Mr. McLeod devoted his entire attention to the lum- 
ber business. At the expiration of that time he began to take contracts 
for residences and business houses, building among others the Tevis resi- 
dence and the Methodist Episcopal Church South and completing the old 
(). D. I^'ish building. As prospects were most encouraging from a business 
standpoint he was stricken with typhoid fever and it was more than a 
year before he was able to resume work. His next enter])rise was trading 
for a plumbing establishment. The business soon became large in that 
line in the oil fields. With restored health, he took up building operations 
again. Since then his career has been remarkably successful. During 1^05 
he sold his plumbing business and removed to Los Angeles, where he noAV 
resides at No. 822 \Vest Thirty-sixth Place. The corner of I and Twen- 
tieth streets, Bakersfield, where for years he had his plumbing business, 
he improved in 1911 with the Ouincy building, a substantial three-story 
brick structut^'e that is an ornament to the city and source of gratifying 
annual income to the owner. During 1909 he built the Fabian hotel on 
Humboldt street near Baker avenue. East Bakersfield, which he still owms, 
and in addition he owns the Hunter & Wilson building, also of brick, in 
East Bakersfield, as well as other valuable property both in Bakersfield and 
Los Angeles, where he continues the building and real estate business upon 
an extensive scale. Of late his attention has been given principally to the 
real estate business. ha\'ing offices in the Hollingsworth building, Los 
Angeles. 

I'Vatcrnallv Mr. Ouincy is a Mason, having been initiated in the order 
in Pythagorean Lodge No. 11, A. F. & A. M., at Fryeburg, Oxford county. 
Me. In ])o]itics he supports Democratic principles, ^^^^ile living in .Maine 
he married, at Fryeburg. Miss Myra E. Harnden, a native of Denmark, that 
state, and a descendant of an old New England family. Well educated in 
the schools of Maine, she is a woman of culture and refinement. In relig- 
ious connections she holds membership with the Congregational Church. 
There are two daughters and a son in the family, the eldest being ATildred, 
wife of Charles T. Metcalf. of Bakersfield. Ralph is a cornice maker in Los 
Angeles, and Ethel resides with her parents in that city. 

JOHN RIPLEY. — l'\imiliarity with frontier conditions from earliest recol- 
lections (lexeloped in Mr. Ripley self-reliance, patient endurance of hardships 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 459 

?ncl an ability to overcome obstacles by sheer force of character. The farm 
where he lived in boyhood was sitnated near Sun Prairie in the town of 
Bristol, Dane county, Wis., and was at no great distance from Madison, 
where now the art of landscape gardeners and the wealth of a community 
has transformed a frontier environment into a region of great beauty. The 
first member of the family to settle in Wisconsin was his father, William 
Henry Ripley, a native of New York state and for years a farmer of Dane 
county, but from 1868 until his death a resident of Yernon county. Mo. By 
his marriage to Alcena Davis, who died in 1849, he had four children and 
three of these are still living. One son, Horace, who served for three years 
in the Seventh Wisconsin Infantry during the Civil war, is now a resident 
of Yernon county. Mo. Another son, Lewis, who served in the Seventeenth 
Wisconsin Infantry, is now living at Mitchell, Iowa. The youngest of the 
sons, John, who was born at the old homestead near Sun Prairie. Wis.. 
May 22, 1847, and was only two years of age at the time of his mother's 
death, left school at the age of seventeen, in August, 1864, in order to enlist 
in the Union arm3^ Accepted as a private and assigned to Battery F, First 
Illinois Light Artillery, he served under General Thomas in the battle of 
Nashville. During November of 1864 he was transferred to Battery I, 
moimted. in the same Artillery as before, ^^'ith this regiment he continued 
until June, 1865, when he was honorably discharged at Eastport, Miss., re- 
turning thence to his school studies in Wisconsin for one term. He then 
went to work at farming in Wisconsin, spending his winters in the lumber 
woods and one winter (1866-67) trapping in JNIinnesota. In 1868 he located 
in Missouri, where he bought a tract of wild land in Yernon county, secured 
three yoke of oxen and with their aid broke the first furrows ever turned in 
that soil. For some years he engaged in raising corn and wheat on the Mis- 
souri farm. Seeking a new location in 1880. he left Yernon county. Mo., 
and went to (ilorieta. Santa Fe county, N. M., where he contracted to haul 
ties and j)iling for the Santa Fe Railroad. After eighteen months in that 
work he went to Silverton, Colo., where he engaged in freighting and haul- 
ing ore. The year 1883 formd him in South Dakota, where he bought a farm 
near Menno, Hutchinson county. The soil was well adapted to wheat and 
of this crop he made a specialty, but also raised fiax and corn. P^inally he 
sold the farm and came to California, settling at Caliente in 1891, and taking 
a contract to get out wood. It was his intention to complete the contract and 
then seek a different location, but at the expiration of four months he was 
induced to begin freighting. \A'ith a six-horse outfit he hauled to the mines 
in the Amelia. Piute, Havilah and Bodfish districts. Soon he purchased 
another outfit and used two eight-horse teams in freighting. Meanwhile he 
had started a livery stable, feed yard and corral. The need of such an enter- 
prise was such that he soon used four barns for his vehicles and liorses. In 
addition he built a blacksmith shop and gave steady work to four skilled 
blacksmiths. The great fire of June, 1909, which almost wholly destroyed 
the business portion of Caliente. wiped out his barns and shop and destroyed 
his wagons and outfits. For that reason he discontinued freighting and built 
the Ripley House, the largest hotel in Caliente, a building with a frontage of 
one hundred and eight feet and containing the postol^ce and public telephone 
station. This hotel he sold in January, 1913, since which he has been retired 
from business. 

Appointed postmaster at Caliente in 1898 and re-appointed every four 
years, Mr. Ripley discharged his duties faithfully and well through a long 
period of service. In January, 1913, he resigned the office and in June of the 
same year, upon the appointment of his successor, he relinquished the duties 
of the place. Through all of his life he has been a stanch Republican. For 
two terms he served as constable at Caliente. He was made a Mason in 



460 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Tehachapi Lodge No. 313, F. & A. M.. and is also connected with Hurlburt 
Post, G. A. R. While living in Vernon county, Mo., he married Miss Clara 
M. Albright, a native of New York state and a woman of gentle disposition, 
energetic temperament, large charity and kindly spirit. Cheerfully she aided 
Mr. Ripley in his enterprises. With unfailing optimism she encouraged him 
to surmount every obstacle and meet every discouragement. At her death 
in March, 1913. many testimonials were given concerning her womanly at- 
tributes and her devotion to family and friends. Surviving her are five chil- 
dren, namely : Mrs. Hattie Colton, of Bakersfield ; Ella, wife of Warren 
Rankin, of South Fork; Mrs. Alaude A. Walton, of Bakersfield; Edward, 
who is living in Oregon ; and Clayton, now engaged as cattle superintendent 
on a large ranch in the South Fork country. 

THOMAS A. BAKER. — Not alone through the interesting fact that he 
is the son of Col. Thomas Baker, founder of Bakersfield, but also by reason 
of his own intimate identification with public afi^airs and his own successful 
incumbency of important positions, Thomas Alverson Baker worthily has a 
permanent place in the list of progressive men of Kern county. At this 
writing he fills the ofifice of sheriflf, a post for which he is well qualified by 
reason of his fearless nature, inflexible determination to enforce law and 
order, and wide acquaintance with the country and its people. The office of 
sheriff has developed of recent years along with every other department of 
public work in the county. 

From Visalia, Tulare county, Cal., where he was born July 22, 1859, 
Thomas Alverson Baker came to the present site of Bakersfield in 1863 with 
other members of the family. Although so young at the time, he vividly 
recalls incidents connected with the journey and has ncit forgotten the ap- 
pearance of the now flourishing city as their wagon and teams were halted 
at the destination. His father being a believer in educational advantages 
sent him to the public schools and also to Washington College at Irvington, 
from which he was graduated in 1880 as valedictorian of the class. The 
salutatorian of the class, Maurice Powers, became a prominent attorney of 
Visalia and for years served as district attorney of Tulare county. 

Immediately after completing the college course Mr. Baker returned to 
Bakersfield, where he has since resided with the exception of a brief sojourn 
at Globe, Ariz., during the copper excitement at that place. Besides being 
employed as a clerk he served as assistant postmaster and had entire 
charge of the postoffice for one year. An experience as bookkeeper for the 
Kern River flouring mills qualified him for successful work as an account- 
ant. Prior to 1882 the offices of sheriff and tax collector had been combined, 
but they were then separated and a well-known citizen was elected tax col- 
lector at a salary of $1,000 per annum. The pay was far too small for the 
work involved and the gentleman elected refused to qualify. Thereupon the 
supervisors cast about for a man who would be willing to take the office at 
the small salary, furnish a bond of $100,000 and do the heavy work promptly 
and efficiently. Taxes were due. It was necessary to act with dispatch. An 
appeal was made to Mr. Baker, who acceded to their wishes and entered upon 
the duties of the office. At the expiration of two years he was regularly 
elected to the position. Next it was annexed to the county treasurer's office 
and he was elected to both positions, which necessitated the furnishing of 
bonds of $222,000. For three terms of two years he held the two offices, his 
work proving satisfactory to all concerned. Induced by his friends, he be- 
came a candidate for sheriff in 1894, but was defeated by forty-two votes. 
During 1896 he was elected the first city marshal of Bakersfield upon its 
incorporation. At the expiration of the term of two years he refused to be- 
come a candidate for re-election. From January of 1899 until January of 
1903 he served variously as deputy county assessor, deputy tax collector and 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 463 

dei)utv county aiulitcr, and in l<i02. when J. \\\ Kelly was elected sheriff, 
he chose .Mr. IJaker as under sheriff, a position that he filled with con- 
spicuous success for eight years, resigning only to enter upon the duties of 
sheriff'. In the fall of 1910 he was nominated for sheriff on the Democratic 
ticket. In the primary he won by seven votes and at the regular election 
he had a niajcrity of five hundred and eighty-three. During January of 1911 
he took the oath of office for a term of four years. 

From young manhood Mr. FJaker has been stanch in his allegiance to 
the Democratic party. His elections to various offices have come through 
the regular party channels and he also has been a leading member of the 
count V central committee, h'raternally he is connected with the Eagles, 
also ranks as past chancellor commander in the Knights of Pythias and as 
past exalted ruler of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, in which he 
IS a charter member. His marriage took plaCe in Florence. Ariz., and united 
him with Miss Ann Smith, who was born at Keyesville. Kern county, but 
grew to womanhood at Azusa, Los Angeles county. At one time her father. 
J. M. Smith, owned the old Keyesville mine. Of her marriage there are four 
sons and one daughter, namely: Thomas Tracy, a graduate of the Bakers- 
field high school and now employed as a bookkeeper; Francis H., who is 
serving in the United States navy, at present on the steamship Connecticut; 
Roy J., teacher of piano; Edwin A. and Ellen. 

LORRAINE PARR GUIBERSON.— The genealogy of the Guiberson 
family is traced back to Scotch and Norwegian blood, but indicates an identi- 
fication with the new world dating back to the pre-Revolutionarv period and 
shows a long line of ancestors prominent in the professions and in business 
circles. FoHowing the westward drift of migration, each successive genera- 
tion left further behind it the Atlantic seaboard and the limitations of the east. 
The first to seek the unknown possibilities of the Pacific coast regions was 
Samuel Allen Guiberson. a native of Ohio and in early life a farmer in Iowa. 
A love of adventure and a desire to see the west led him to join an expedition 
of emigrants in 1858. The most eventful occurrence of that long journey 
across the plains occurred during a brief halt at Fort Laramie, Wyo., where 
he was united in marriage with Miss Mary Ellen Greene, a lineal descendant 
of General Nathaniel Greene and of General Stark, of Revolutionary war 
fame. Arriving at their destination the young couple settled on a ranch in 
Napa county, but about 1868 moved from there to Ventura county and re- 
sumed agricultural pursuits in the new environment. Fairly well prospered 
by his long and sagacious activities as a farmer. Mr. Guiberson is now living 
retired in Ventura county and bears well the weight of his seventy-six useful 
years. His wife died in Ventura county at the age of about sixty-five. Eight 
children formed their familv, the eldest of these being Lorraine Parr, born 
in Napa county September 27, 1863. The second son. Hon. J. W. Guiberson, 
an extensive dairyman and rancher in Kings county, residing at Corcoran, 
is a member of the California state legislature of 1913. The third son, Na- 
thaniel Greene, prominent in the oil industry and a dealer in oil-well sup- 
plies, has 'traveled throughout the world and is now^ in South x\merica in 
the interests of his business. The fourth son, Samuel Allen, Jr.. now living 
retired in San Francisco, was for vears one of the best known oil operators 
in the Coalinga field. The fifth son. William Richard, a resident of Los An- 
geles, formerly engaged in the oil business, but more recently has devoted 
his attention to the invention and development of a smudge pot for raising, 
the temperature in orange groves. The three daughters of the family are 
as follows: Zuleika. wife of R. S. Hazeltine. manager of the British Con- 
solidated Oil Company, of Coalinga; Carrie Luellyn, who resides with her 
father at Fillmore, Ventura county; and Blanche, who married John B. Mc- 
Nabb, the president and a large stockholder of the Sespe Land and Water 
Compan3\ 



464 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

When five years of age L. P. Guiberson was taken to Ventura county by 
his parents, who sent him to the country schools there and trained him wisely 
for the practical alTairs of life. In order that his educational advantages might 
go beyond the curriculum of the home schools he was sent to the University 
of Southern California and while a student there he formed the acquaintance 
of Miss Frank M. Fry, likewise a student in that institution. The young 
couple were married in July, 1887, at Bakersfield, the home of her parents, 
the late John A. and Mattie J. Fry. In the early history of Kern county 
Mr. Fry had been a well-known figure. For several years he engaged with 
Messrs. Haggin and Carr as superintendent and he continued in the position 
when the interests of those gentlemen were merged into the Kern County 
Land Company. Mr. and Mrs. Guiberson are the parents of two daughters, 
Ramona and Ellen Bernice. The elder daughter, now a student in the Uni- 
versity of California at Berkeley, has had the advantage of a thorough musical 
training under Hugo Alansfeldt, the celebrated pianist of San I^>ancisc<). 

After two xears in the drug btisiness at Santa Paula and three years in 
business in the east, Mr. Guiberson returned to Santa Paula and engaged in 
ranching near that town. However, he soon sold the ranch in order to 
identify himself with the educational profession of Ventura county. For 
two years he engaged in teaching. While engaged as principal of the Bards- 
dale school in Ventura county the summer vacation of 1895 afiforded him 
two months of leisure. More as a matter of diversion and recreation than 
with any intention of changing his occupation, he took his wife and infant 
daughter up to the mountains in Ventura county and pitched his tent at a 
point overlooking the Old Tory oil field. Soon he became intensely interested 
in the matter of oil ])roduction and secured emjjloyment as roustabout for 
the Union Oil Company in the Old Tory oil field. Before the vacation of 
two months had ended he was engaged as tool-dresser on the L'nion property 
and was making more money than was possible in teaching. Thereupon 
he resolved to continue in the business at least one year. It is worthy of 
note that he has remained at the work up to the present time and has lost 
onl}- two days in all the years of his identification with the industry; further- 
more, in changing positions he has always gone from a good to a better one. 
P>y the end of his first year he was a driller. For four years he remained with 
the Union Oil Company and then resigned for the purpose of drilling a wild- 
cat well for Clark & Sherman of Los Angeles. The well was drilled on the 
Chaffee ranch adjoining the Troy, but no oil was found and the enterprise 
proved futile. Entering the employ of the Modelo Oil Company in the Peru 
field in Ventura county, he thus became identified with the oil interests of 
W. H. Crocker and associates of San Francisco. For three years he was 
engaged as a driller and for two years as superintendent, after which he 
became superintendent for the 28 Oil Company at Coalinga, also for three 
adjacent leases. 

Resigning after seven months with the 28 Oil Company, Mr. Guiberson 
became superintendent of the California Monarch and the California Diamond 
Oil Companies, in which responsible posts he continued for five years. Dur- 
ing 1910 he became superintendent for the Petroleum Properties Syndicate. 
Limited, whose successor, the British Consolidated, Limited, continued him 
in the same position of trust. These two concerns were controlled by boards 
of management, but when the latter company sold out to the Indian and 
Colonial Development Company, Limited, December 1, 1911, the ownership 
of the properties passed into the hands of another corporation organized under 
the laws of England, but by pcnver of attorney Mr. Guiberson was given 
control of all matters pertaining to the development of the lease. This is 
said to be the only instance in all California where a large corporation has 
given full power of attorney, as well as complete management, to one man. 
The fact bears evidence as to his judgment and ability. 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 467 

The Indian and Colonial Development Company. Limited, owns one 
hundred and twenty acres on section 22 and a similar acreage on section 
23, 32-23. The lease is completely equip])ed with electrical power for pump- 
ing-. Twenty-two wells have been completed and well No. 23 is now 
being drilled. The average depth of the wells is about one thousand feet. 
Eighteen wells are producers, turning out an oil of fourteen degrees gravity, 
and averaging a monthly production of thirty thousand barrels. The loca- 
tion of the company main residence was personally selected by Mr. Guiber- 
son and affords a most encJTanting view and an inspiring outlook. 

In social and public matters Mr. and Mrs. Guiberson are prominent and 
the latter has been a leading member of the Women's Improvement Club, 
which provided and now maintains the public library of Taft. In religion 
they are of the Methodist faith. Fraternally Mr. Guiberson is a Royal Arch 
Mason and in politics votes with the Democratic party. Since he came to 
his present location in March, 1910, he has witnessed the remarkable growth 
of Taft and has seen a city spring into existence as if by magic. In the 
work of upbuilding he has been a factor. The Petroleum Club numbers 
him among its charter members and organizers. Another enterprise that 
commanded his warmest support was the securing of a school building 
on section 26, township 32, range 23, now known as the Hill school of the 
Conley school district. With other progressive citizens, he bore a part in 
organizing the First National Bank of Taft in 1911 with a capital stock of 
$25,000. From the first he has been a director and in January, 1913, he 
was elected vice-president. The institution has been successful in a re- 
markable degree and already has deposits aggregating $500,000. Upon its 
organization the directors bought the building and fixtures of the Taft branch 
of the old Oil and Metals Bank of Los Angeles, but during 1912 a more suit- 
able structure was orovided by the erection of a substantial bank building 
on the corner of Fifth and Center streets. 

JUDSON H. JORDAN.— The vice-president of the Dakersfield Abstract 
Compan^• descends from an honored family of colonial X'irginia. whose 
splendid record in the professions and as cotton ])lanters has l)een excelled 
only by their military achievements in the early French and Indian strug- 
gles, the Revolution and the war of 1812, the Mexican war and that sanguinary 
contest of the '60s between the states. Genealogy fails to give the exact 
date of the emigration of the first American representative from England, 
but it is known to have been shortly after the first attem])t at colonization 
in \'irginia. Keen, forceful mentality has characterized every generation, 
as evidenced in the lives of John H. Jordan, a planter of the Old Dominion, 
and his son. Rev. John C. Jordan, an influential and ])rominent minister in 
the Baptist denomination and a graduate of the Philadelphia Theological 
University. Shortly after the young Baptist clergyman entered upon his 
ministerial career he married Aliss Lucy H. Tyler, an own consin of John 
Tyler, the tenth president of the I'nited States. In eastern puljnts he won 
distinction and accomplished much \nr the spiritual uplifting of humanity. 
An opportunity for enlarged ministerial usefulness led him to bring his family 
to California in 1884 and here he accepted the pastorate of the Fresno Bap- 
tist Church. During the five years of his ministry in that city he had charge 
of the erection of a substantial house of worshi]). A later pastorate at 
Bakersfield covered a similar ])eriod and also witnessed the erection of an 
edifice for the congregational worshij). l'])on leaving Bakersfield he was sent 
to Alaska to oversee the spiritual interests of the Baptists at Skagway. where 
he had charge of the construction of the hand.some. substantial edifice that 
now ranks among the finest buildings in the city. After several years in 
Alaska he returned to the United States and entered upon the pastorate of 
the Baptist Church at Dillon. ?ifont.. where he largely increased the mem- 



468 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

bership and placed the congregation upon a permanent basis of useful service 
in the cause of Christianity. A later pastorate at Fallbrook, San Diego 
county, Cal., resulted in the erection of a house of worship for the Baptists 
at that point. Since his resignation from that charge he has been retired 
from active ministerial labors. 

There were eight children in the family of the Baptist clergyman and all 
of these are still living. The third member of the family circle, Judson H., 
was born at Manchester, Chesterfield county, Va., May 9, 1876, and at the 
age of eight years accompanied his parents to California, where for five years 
he was a pupil in the public schools of Fresno. When only fifteen he studied 
law for a time, but he soon gave that up for a salaried position in an abstract 
office. Turning his attention to the oil business about 1900, he became iden- 
tified with an industry in wliich he has been interested continuously up to 
the present, sometimes with other men and at times alone. Individually he 
still owns valuable oil lands in difi^erent fields. Shortly after the opening of 
the Jewett & Blodget wells in the Sunset field he with others formed the 
Occidental Oil Company, of which he became vice-president. After two 
producing wells had been obtained by the company, they sold out to the 
Spreckels interests. Later he was a member of diflferent companies that 
developed oil and owned lands in the principal fields. 

With the co-operation of J. B. Batz and George Hay, Mr. Jordan organ- 
ized the Bakersfield Abstract Company in 1903 and since then has held 
the office of vice-president. With the same gentlemen he organized the 
Bakersfield Land and Development Company, dealers in argricultural and 
oil lands. Of this concern he is secretary, George Hay being president 
and J. B. Batz vice-president. They also incorporated the Kern County 
Realty Company, of which Mr. Jordan is the treasurer, the company owning 
valuable tracts of real estate in the county. In addition he holds office 
as secretary of the Blue Ja}^ Mining Company in Trinity county, this state, 
where the company operates the noted Blue Jay mine, celebrated on ac- 
count of the $42,800 nugget taken out of it during 1897. The company also 
operates the Morrison gulch mine, an hydraulic mine in the same section. 
The important interests connected with increasing Inisiness responsibili- 
ties necessitated the removal of Mr. Jordan from Bakersfield to San Fran- 
cisco during 1901 and the family still maintain a residence in that city, 
although for the past year or more he has made his headquarters again in 
Bakersfield. resuming tlie management of local interests. 

Prior to his removal from the city in 1901 Air. Jordan was a member 
of the Bakersfield Club, which he had assisted in organizing and whose early 
growth was largely due to the efiforts of such progressive leaders as himself 
and otiier young men of like enterprise and civic devotion. After he had 
established a residence in San Francisco he became a mem])er of the Olympic 
and Southern Clubs and also entered San Francisco Lodge No. 3. B. P. O. E., 
to all of which he still l>elongs. t'olitically. although not active in public 
afifairs and in no sense of the word a partisan, he has been stanch in his 
allegiance to the DeuKxratic party. His family consists of wife and two 
children. Daisy M. and John Stanley, the former having been Miss Daisy 
M. Batz, a native of Kernville, Kern county, and a daughter of J. B. 
Batz. one of the honored pioneers of the comity. 

GUSTAV POSCH. — Extended travels throughout the old country as 
well as in the United States have given to Mr. Posch a broad outlook upon 
life and have made of him an independent thinker, familiar with the prob- 
lems which the world is facing today and particularly solicitous concerning 
the material upbuilding of California, the chosen home of his adoption. In 
his identification with Bakersfield he has not been limited to the manage- 
ment of a tailoring business, but has associated himself with manv local 




^c^a^: 



^w^-^^.'^-x 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 471 

movements of note and in connection with Messrs. William H. Scribner 
and Paul Galtes built the Grand hotel, hence must be taken into considera- 
tion as one of the persons contributing to the material upbuilding of the 
city. During early life he was a resident of Neiderlausitz, Germany, where 
he was born January 21, 1867, and where he received a fair education in the 
German language. At the age of fourteen years he left school and entered 
upon an apprenticeship to the trade of a merchant tailor, which occupation 
he has since followed with deserved success. When only seventeen he had 
acquired a practical mastery of the trade and his skill was so marked that 
he had no difficulty in securing employment in any town. Being restless as 
a lad, eager to see the world and fond of travel, he had no difficulty in work- 
ing his way from one point to another until he had seen much of the old 
country. Traveling as a journeyman, at the end of two years he landed at 
Amsterdam and in that interesting city he spent eight busy and enjoyable 
months. Illness caused him to return to Germany when about nineteen 
years of age, but soon his socialistic ideas brought him into conflict with 
the national police and he went to Copenhagen, Denmark, to follow his 
trade. Shortly returning to Germany, he set sail from that country for the 
United States when he was twenty years of age. In the new world, as in 
the old, he encountered no difficulty in finding employment as a skilled 
tailor. For a time he worked in Bufifalo, N. Y., but later he went as far 
west as Toledo, Ohio, and next we find him working as a tailor in Leadville, 
Colo., whence he came to Bakersfield. 

For a considerable period Mr. Posch has occupied a portion of the 
Galtes block for his tailoring shop and here he has built up a large patron- 
age. Meanwhile he has exhibited his faith in the future of city and county 
by investing in property here, not only aiding in the building of the Grand 
hotel, but also having bought a particularly fine quarter section of land near 
Kern, which he still owns. Since he became a citizen of our country he has 
been a Republican. He is a member of the Germania Society and belongs to the 
Woodmen. Eagles, and Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. 

TIMOTHY P. SULLIVAN.— Near the city of Cork in Ireland, 
Timothy P. Sullivan was born June 29. 1845. The difficulties surrounding the 
school system of that day on the Emerald Isle prevented him from receiving 
an education in that land but he always has been quick to observe, fond of 
reading and alert in mental vision. In 1859 he arrived in Boston, Mass., 
his total capital limited to a six-pence, but he was able to obtain work 
on a farm without any delay. After a time he left the farm to learn the 
trade of butcher. At no time was he without employment and while his 
wages were very small they were sufficient for his modest needs. It was 
during this time he paid his tuition in night school in Bostoai, applying himself 
most diligently to acquire the education that had been denied him as a boy. 
Coming to California during 1872, he followed the butcher's trade for one 
year in San Francisco. Then he became a Southern Pacific employe at Elk 
Grove. Sacramento County, where soon he was made foreman of the section. 
Later he held a similar position at Banta and then at Bethany. San Joaquin 
County. For three years he was employed as foreman of switches in the 
Oakland yards and superintended the putting in of switches throughout that 
city. 

( )n being assigned to duty in Kern County Mr. Sullivan spent eight years 
of faithful service as foreman of the Sumner yards (now East Bakersfield), 
after which he w^as promoted to be roadmaster of the Colorado division between 
Mojave and Needles, with headquarters at Fenner. ^^'hen the road was 
sold to the Atchison. Topeka & Santa Fe he was made roadmaster of the 
Tulare division with headquarters at Sumner for seven years. At the 
expiration of that period he was chosen to work in the mountain division, 
where his long experience made his services especially" \alual)le to the 



472 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

company. Durini^- the peri^xl of his retention in that post lie made his head- 
cjuarters at Keene. Since his retirement from railroading- in 1904 he has 
lived retired at Tehachapi and on the incorporation of this city he was 
honored by being- elected to serve as a member of tlie first board of trustees. 
Here too he has been prominently connected with St. Malachy's Roman 
Catholic church. In earlier years he supported Republican principles, 
but more recently he has become independent with a leaning toward Demo- 
cratic doctrines. 

The first marriage of Air. Sullivan took place in Boston. Mass.. in October 
of 1871 and united him with Miss Ellen Healey. a native of county Cork. 
Ireland. Some years after her death he was married in Tehachapi to Miss 
Mary Hickey, who was born in county Claire. Ireland^ and came with 
her parents to the new world, settling first at Boston, Mass.. and then at 
McKeesport, Pa., but since 1891 a resident of California. May 15. V)l\, Mr. 
and Mrs. Sullivan started on a trip to the old country. Their jourtiey took 
them to all of the boyhood haunts of Mr. Sullivan, who thoroughly 
enjoyed visiting with such of the old friends as still remained in county Cork. 
Their travels took them to many interesting jx^ints in their native land, but 
they returned to California mc^re than ever pleased to remain ])ermanently in 
the great west. 

While making his home in Tulare, Mr. Sulli\an, having faith in the land 
and an optimistic view as to the future rise in \alues, bought six hundred 
and fifty-two and one-half acres for $2.50 an acre ab(iut 1890. and this propertv 
he sohfin 1912 for $80 an acre. 

UNION ICE COMPANY.— The Union Ice Company, whose head- 
quarters are in San Francisco, entered Bakersfield during 1902 and erected, 
the large building which has since been the center of a growing business. 
The present superintendent of the plant and local representative of the 
company, Hugo F. Allardt, whose identification with the business dates from 
1908, was born at Cleveland, Ohio, June 29, 1881, and during 1905 came to 
California, where he engaged as cashier with the Fresno Consumers' Ice Com- 
pany, remaining at Fresno until the larger opportunities offered in Bakers- 
field induced him to remove to this city. Here he has at No. 2109 Park 
way a comfortable and attractive residence, graciously presided over by Mrs. 
Allardt, who prior to their marriage was Miss Rosalie Hamilton, of Oak- 
land. 

The Union Ice Company and its kindred organization, the Bakersfield 
Ice Delivery, furnish employment to forty men during the busy season, so 
that the business is a valuable industrial asset to the community. The rapid 
growth of the concern necessitated the erection in 1911 of an additional build- 
ing, in which ice-making is also carried on, and during the summer months 
both of the large compressors are running at their full capacity. Besides 
supplying the city trade the company furnishes ice for Taft, Fellows, Mari- 
copa. McKittrick, Delano, Wasco and other outlying towns. In addition 
the Southern Pacific Railroad Company have a switch to the plant, whereby 
they are enabled to ice all of their refrigerator cars as desired. A part of 
the business is the manufacture of distilled water for drinking purposes. 

In a large building immediately west of the ice factory there are five large 
rooms devoted to the cold storage business, each of these rooms having a 
capacity of two car-loads. The Bakersfield Ice Delivery has one motor 
truck, thirteen regular route wagons and two distributing stations, one on 
Wall street between G and H in Bakersfield, and the other on the corner of 
Sumner and Tulare in East Bakersfield. Mr. Allardt has recently taken over 
the Oil Center ice delivery, the supply for which is taken from a twenty-ton 
store-house, and one truck auto and five wagons are used. The large ice 
plant, located at Thirty-third street and Chester avenue, is equipped with 
an outfit of modern refrigerating machinerv of two hundred and twentv-five 





ZTy^c^ 



HISTORY OF KKRX COUNTY 475 

tons daily capacity. Under the sag'acious and progressive management of 
Mr, Allardt the company has kept pace with the growth of the city, has 
extended its service as the need arose, has enlarged its plant to meet the 
increasing demand for its products and storage accommodations, and has 
proved fully worthy of the liberal patronage accorded by the people of the 
county. 

HORACE ROBERT FREEAR.— Those who l)y experiment, study and 
experience have proved the adaptability of alfalfa to the soil of Kern county 
are most enthusiastic believers in the possibilities of the product from the 
standpoint of profits. The labors of Mr. Freear in this department of agri- 
culture have not been less gratifying than those of other ranchers. By con- 
scientious care and indefatigable industry he has developed a valuable alfalfa 
ranch, from which, by cutting the hay five times a year, he is enabled to 
secure an average of six or eight tons per acre. It has been his invariable 
custom to cut and stack the alfalfa with the greatest care, later bale the hay 
and then sell in the best markets and to the greatest advantage. The ranch 
which he now owns and cultivates is a tract of one hundred and sixty acres 
under the Stine canal, situated nine miles southwest of Bakersfield and im- 
proved with suitable buildings, including a modern, substantial residence 
erected in 1910. The whole forms a place attractive to the eye, interesting 
to the stranger and profitable to the owner, whose energetic supervision ap- 
pears in even the smallest details connected with the ranch. 

From the age of seven years Mr. Freear has considered Kern county his 
home and he has lived here through all this time with the exception of three 
years spent in Mexico. A native of Nebraska, he was born near Lincoln, 
Lancaster county, June 25, 1869, and is a son of H. T. and Mary Freear, 
who also are represented in this work. Immediately after the family came 
from Nebraska to California he was sent to the Kern county public schools, 
where he took the regular course of study in the ensuing years. At the age 
of twenty he was graduated from the Stockton Business College and for 
six months afterward engaged as a bookkeeper in Bakersfield. Being accus- 
tomed to an outdoor life, he soon found sedentary employment too confining, 
therefore gave up his position and aided his father on a farm. With his broth- 
ers he next engaged in the cutting of wood in the Panama district. When 
finally three hundred and forty cords of wood had been cut he had earned an 
amount sufficient to justify an investment in land. 

Upon acquiring the title to twenty acres on section 29 in the Old River 
district, Mr. Freear put the land in vines, intending to specialize with grapes, 
but these he found unprofitable. Meanwhile, in order to earn a livelihood. 
he had gone to Chiapas, Mexico, as an employe of an uncle on a sugar plan- 
tation. A portion of the three years in Mexico was given to hunting for 
plumed birds along the west coast. On returning to California he ])urchased 
twenty acres adjacent to his first tract, so that he owmed forty acres in one 
body, all under cultivation to alfalfa. Upon selling the place to a brother he 
bought one hundred and sixty acres located nine miles southw^est of Bakers- 
field and on this ranch during 1910 he erected a modern residence that is con- 
sidered to be one of the finest country homes in the district. In addition to 
operating the home place, the larger part of which has an unusually fine stand 
of alfalfa, he and his brothers. Charles H. and Joseph, in 1912 leased five hun- 
dred acres from Miller & Lux. The large tract being under cultivation to 
Egyptian corn, their success was so gratifying that they leased about one 
thousand acres the following year and their efforts resulted in a bumper crop, 
demonstrating that the soil and climate make Kern county a leader in the pro- 
duction of Egyptian corn. While the care of so great an acreage necessitates 
constant labor and untiring energy, the returns have justified the procedure 
and at the same time have added further proof concerning the crop possibil- 
ities of the countv. 



476 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

The principles of the Republican party receive the support of Mr. Freear, 
whose intelligent advocacy of progressive measures marks him as one of the 
public-spirited men of his community. His marriage took place in the Old 
River district July 2, 1908, and united him with Aliss Bertha Weingartner, a 
native of the vicinity of Tully, Onondaga county, N. Y., and a daughter of 
Albert and Nancy (Barrett) Weingartner, also natives of New York state. 
When eight years of age Mrs. Freear came to California in company with 
other members of the Weingartner family. During girlhood she was a pupil 
in the public schools of Tehama and Glenn counties and since her marriage 
she has co-operated with her husband in an earnest adherence to principles 
of justice and progress, generously sustaining movements for the material, 
educational and social upbuilding of the district. 

JOHN M. JAMESON.— The history of the Jameson family in Cali- 
fornia dates back to the era of the discovery of gold, while in America 
the genealogy is traced to colonial Virginia, John M. Jameson, St., having 
been the founder of the name to the west of the Old Dominion and having 
lived for years among the frontier population of Missouri near the city of 
St. Louis. While yet a mere lad his son, William T., had served in the 
Mexican war and had gained an enlarged comprehension of the riches of 
our vast domain during the period of his service in the southwest. Soon 
after the expiration of his term in the army with his father he crossed the 
plains in 1848 with "prairie schooner" and oxen. The trip into California 
aroused in him a desire to locate permanently in the west, hence after a 
brief sojourn in Amador county he returned to Missouri v\3. Panama, in- 
terested others in an expedition, secured the necessary supplies, procured 
a mule-team and carriage for his mother and sisters, and taking every 
precaution against attacks from Indians, slowly made his way across the 
plains with a large following of emigrants. For a time after his arrival 
he engaged in mining, l:)ut later took up agriculture and during 1874 he 
became a resident of Kern county, where after a year at Glennville he 
settled in Bakersfield. The little village was unattractive in appearance 
and in prospects, but he discerned its possibilities and decided to remain. 
There being no house to rent, he secured an old blacksmith shop, repaired 
the building and made it tlie family home for several months until it was 
possible to erect a small ci:*ttage to shelter wife and cliildren. With fair 
success for years he engaged in teaming, carried on general farming, oper- 
ated a ranch on the Cottonwood road and owned a cattle ranch on Mount 
Breckenridge. During the '80s he served as county treasurer for two 
years. His death occurred at his homestead near Kern in February of 
1909 when he was eighty years of age. After coming to California he had 
married in Amador county Miss Annie Kendall, who was born near 
Portsmouth, Ohio, and died in 1888. Her father. R. A. Kendall, a native 
of Ohio, brought the family via Panama to Amador county, but later 
removed to Sutter county, where his last days were passed. 

The family of A\'illiam T. and Annie TKendain Jameson comprised ten 
children, of whom six are now living, four being sons. Of these E. R. 
resides in San Francisco, j. R.. in Graham, Tex., and F. H., in Glennville, 
Cal. John M., who is next to the eldest among the surviving sons, was 
born at Fairplay. Eldorado county, Cal., August 31, 1863, but has been a 
resident of Kern county since 1874. His education was secured in the 
public schools of Kern. After three years as clerk in a store at Kern and 
a similar period as superintendent of a ranch owned bv Sol Jewett he drifted 
into farming and stock-raising and acquired the title to a ranch on the 
Cottonwood road comprising three hundred and twenty acres. On that land 
his father li\ed. while lie gave his attention lo general contracting and 





o^^v\A^d^<n^ 







HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 479 

teaming for a long period. From 1890 until 1894 he served as deputy under 
County Assessor Lightner. For the first time m 1898 he was elected county 
assessor on the Democratic ticket and in January of the following year he 
assumed the duties of oflice. At the expiration of the term of tour years 
he was re-elected. After having served from 1898 to 19U0 he was again 
chosen his own successor and in 1910 he was re-elected without opposition, 
a fact that bears eloquent testimony as to the vame of his services and 
the appreciation in which they are held. To indicate the growth of Kern 
county, the hrst assessment of the county made under his official regime 
was about $15,000,000, and the last which includes the public service corpora- 
tions, aggregated over $73,000,000. Besides owning the residence on the 
corner of Twentieth and B streets, Bakersheld, he still retains farm lands 
and also owns oil interests. Upon the organization of the Security Bank 
of Bakersfield he became one of its principal stockholders and was chosen a 
director, in which capacity he has continued to the present. For one year 
he also officiated as a director of the board of trade. In 1913, associated 
with Messrs. Parker and O'Brien, Mr. Jameson purchased the Southern 
Hotel and incorporated the Southern Hotel Company. Since then the 
hotel has been remodelled and partially refurnished. 

The marriage of Mr. Jameson united him with Miss Charlotte E. 
Baker, by whom he has two sons, Myron and Kenneth. Mrs. Jameson, who 
claims Bakersfield as her native city, is a daughter of Col. Thomas Baker and 
possesses exceptional ability and a winning personality. The Woodmen of 
the World, Ancient Order of United Workmen and Eagles enjoy the benefit 
of his intelligent co-operation and in addition he is past exalted ruler of the 
Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. Years ago he was made a Mason 
in Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M., and later he was raised to the 
Royal Arch degree in Bakersfield Chapter. He was made a Sir Knight in 
Bakersfield Commandery, K. T., while more recently he became affiliated 
with Al Malaikah Temple, X. M. S.. of Los Angeles, and is a member also 
of the Bakersfield Club. 

HARRISON ROSS PEACOCK.— The Peacock genealogy is traced to 
a long line of English ancestry, but the family became established in New 
York state during the early period of American history and Joseph Peacock, 
who was born and reared near Rome, N. Y., was the first of the name to 
identify himself with the development of the Pacific coast. Coming by 
Panama to San Francisco in 1852, he engaged in placer mining near Yreka, 
Siskiyou county, w^here with alternate successes and reverses he continued 
to operate as a miner until 1864. In that year he went as far south as Solano 
county for the puri^ose of engaging in general farming and stock-raishig. 
Not understanding thoroughly the conditions appertaining to titles and claims, 
he settled on what proved to be a Spanish grant, so had to give up his claim. 
Next he entered a tract on Suisun creek in the same county When he 
removed in 1874 to what is now Kings county he profited by his previous 
experience and instead of taking a claim and fighting for it, like many 
of the early settlers, he bought land from the railroad. Later events proved 
the wisdom of his act. He was superintendent of the 76 Land and \\"ater 
Company's canal during its construction and for a period of seven years after 
its completion. For a long period he engaged in the improvement of his 
farm, but finally the infirmities of age obliged him to relinquish manual 
labor and he retired to Hanford, where he died in 1910 at the age of eighty 
years. From the time of casting his first ballot he was a supporter of 
Republican principles and he was one of the first twelve Republicans to 
vote in Siskiyou county. While preferring not to be a candidate for office, 
he consented on one occasion to run for supervisor and, although in a 



480 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Democratic district, he was defeated l)y only fort}-niiie votes. Some years 
after cominij to California he married Hannah Bonham, who was born in 
Illinois and lives now at Selma, Cal. Early in the '50s she crossed the plains 
with her father. Elisha Bonham. who broug^ht a herd of cattle through to 
Oregon and took up land in that state, but eventually came to California 
and continued the stock business in Solano county until his death. 

The parental family comprised five sons and five daughters. All are 
still living. Harrison Ross being the eldest of the number and a native of 
Solano county, this state, born in Green valley, near Vallejo, April 14, 1865. 
During 1874 he w^as taken by his parents to Kings county and settled on 
a ranch near Hanford, where he attended the public schools. At the age 
of twenty-( ne years he embarked in the livery business at Traver. Tulare 
county, and while thus engaged he took a commercial course in Fresno 
Business College, of which he is a graduate. In addition he served as deputy 
sherifif under Dan Overall, the first Republican sheriff of Tulare county. 
Meanwhile he had acquired unimproved land lying between Dinuba, Tulare 
countv. and Reedley. Fresno county, where he became interested in raising 
alfalfa. At Traver he opened and operated the first creamery in the vil- 
lage, also was interested in the first creamery at Hanford. Possessing a 
keen faculty for business of all kinds, he seemed particularly well adapted 
for the creamery industry. Seeing an excellent opening at Bakersfield. in 
1902 he embarked in the occupation at this point. His success has been 
so great that Peacock's creamery is favorably known throughout all this 
section of the state. There is an increasing demand for Peacock's butter and 
ice-cream, the latter mantifactured by the brine system operated by electric 
power. 

The management of the creamery does not represent the limit of Mr. 
Peacock's activities. His fine mental qualities enable him to superintend 
various interests easily and efTectively. At this writing he owns and man- 
ages the Peacock stock and alfalfa farm located nine miles south of Bak- 
ersfield, under the old Kern Island ditch. The ranch embraces two hun- 
dred and forty acres of fertile land that by the aid of irrigation produce 
excellent crops of alfalfa and grain. A specialty is made of the stock 
industry. The thoroughbred Poland-China hogs kept on the farm are as 
fine as may be seen anywhere in the county. There are also one hundred 
and thirty head of milch cows, some full-blood Jerseys and other grades 
of superior quality, the whole forming one of the largest dairies in Kern 
county and one of the most profitable as well. Besides owning this prop- 
erty Mr. Peacock has an interest in an alfalfa ranch of sixteen hundred 
and twenty acres on Kern Island, owned by the F^anama Land Company, 
of which he is a director. His interests in oil operations embrace the presi- 
dency of the Tejon Oil Company, a producing concern operating nine wells 
in the Kern river field and owning eighty acres of land. Besides his asso- 
ciation with the creamery, with oil interests and agricultural affairs, he has 
entered the realm of finances and since the organization of the Security 
Trust ("ompany, of which he was one of the promoters, he has acted as 
first vice-president and a director. 

The marriage of Mr. Peacock was solemnized in Lake county, Cal.. 
and united him with Miss Harriet M. Wayne, a native of Illinois, a lady 
of education and culture, and a sincere member of the Congregational Church. 
By this union there are three children, Wayne, Ross and Geraldine. While 
engaging in business at Traver Mr. Peacock was made a Mason and now 
holds membership with Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M. ; Bakersfield 
Chapter No. 75, R. A. M. ; Bakersfield Commandery No. 39, K. T. ; and Al 
Malaikah Temple, N. M. S., of Los Angeles. The Woodmen of the 
World and the Bakersfield Clul) also number him amongf their members. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 481 

W hile lie has liniileil his attention and investments in the main to his home 
county, he has not been neglectful of excellent opportunities elsewhere, has 
invested in lands in the Imperial valley and also has kept in touch with the 
upbuilding- of all sections of the west. Here he has been associated with the 
Alerchants' Association and at one time served as president of the Board 
of Trade, in which capacity he was able to promote many movements 
tor the local u])building. In national politics he is a Republican. 

CHARLES H. SMITH. — The discouragements and obstacles incident 
to existence in a new. unde\eloped country fell to the lot of the Smith family 
when they became pioneers of California, but the father, John Foster Smith, 
:! Kentuckian by birth, was a man of such resolute purpose and such indom- 
itable will that he never faltered when repeated adversities wiped out his all. 
Early in life he had removed to Texas and there had served in Indian 
fights as a member of the celebrated Texas Rangers, where his courage was 
put to many a severe test. Nor were the trials of pioneer farming less 
depressing than those of the army. Both in Texas and in California he lived 
a life of great privation and continued self-sacrifice. While living in Texas he 
married Amanda Stark, a native of Kentucky, where likewise occurred the 
birth of her father. Robert E. Stark. After having sojourned for a time in 
Missouri and Arkansas, during 1853 Mr. Stark brought his family across 
the plains to California and took up a claim at Fort Tejon. where he engaged 
in ranching and raising stock. 

During the summer of 1859 the Smith family, which then consisted of 
father, mother and two children, left Texas via the southern stage route for 
California, where they arrived on New Year's day of 1860 at Tejon canyon. 
With a brother-in-law, Jesse Stark, as a partner Mr. Smith began to raise 
stock, his specialty at first being cattle and sheep. For a time he was pros- 
pered, but in 1877 he lost the savings of years of difficult labor and self- 
sacrifice. Later he retrieved himself to some extent and farmed on a large 
tract near Bakersfield. Later he took up land in Bear valley. After he had 
once again achieved a fair degree of success and had invested everything 
in a large drove of hogs he lost heavily through an epidemic of cholera that 
wiped out his entire drove. While operating his ranch in Bear Valley, about 
1894, he was accidentally killed by the fall from a horse. His wife passed 
away in 1900. Their children were as follows : Mrs. Mary Shackelford, now 
a resident of Bakersfield: Susie, who died in Kern county; Louisa, Mrs. 
Haupt, of Tehachapi ; Elma, who is married to Bruce Tungate and is living 
near Bakersfield : Laura, Mrs. L. F. Brit, of Bakersfield ; Mrs. Ella Cun- 
ningham, who died at Tehachapi: Charles H.. deputy sheriff of Kern county: 
and Oliver, now in the Palos ^^erdes Valley. 

When the family were developing a ranch at the head of Fort Tejon 
canyon Charles H. Smith was born at the ranch-house March 20. 1870. At 
the age of ten years he accompanied the family to Tehachapi, where he at- 
tended the grammar school. Later he began to work as a rancher and 
farmer. For seme years he was employed as manager of the Rock Springs 
Land & Cattle Company. Later he engaged in the stock business for himself. 
In September of 1909 he was appointed deputy sheriff under J. W. Kelh^ and 
at once he established his residence at Bakersfield, where he still remains, 
although he had erected and still owns a residence at Tehachapi. When 
Thomas .A. Baker became sherifif he was continued as deputy and is filling 
the position with energy and intelligence, displaying the same fearlessness 
that characterized his father years ago in fighting with the Texas rangers 
against the savages. 

While living in Tehachapi Mr. Smith married Miss Mary Addie Haigh, 
who was born in Tuolumne countv. this state, and died at Bakersfield July 



482 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

28, 1910, leaving- three children, Alvin, Laura and Enimett. Airs. Smith 
was a daughter of George Haigh, a pioneer who came to the west 
during the period of mining activity and himself had some thrilling 
experiences in the mines, hut not finding there the wealth he had hoped to 
acquire he settled down to a quiet existence as a rancher. At an earl\^ day 
he settled at Tehachapi and here he still makes his home. In politics Air. 
Smith votes with the Democratic party. Fraternally, besides being con- 
nected with the Modern Woodmen of America, he was made a Mason in 
Tehachapi Lodge No. 313, F. & A. M.. and later also identified himself 
with 1>hachapi Cha])ter No. 218, O. E. S. 

DAVE CRICHTON. — The mining interests of California are of such 
importance that they have been written of pretty generally whenever the ad- 
vantages of the state have fallen under consideration. Many a large fortune 
and numerous snug little competencies have been dug out of the soil of Kern 
and some of her sister counties. A leading mining operator of Kern countv 
is Dave Crichton of Mojave, who is also interested in the liquor business and 
is the owner of considerable real estate. 

It was in Ontario, Canada, that Mr. Crichton was born December 20, 
1861. There he lived until in 1870, attending school and learning useful 
work. He was fifteen when he laid down his educational books and was in 
his sixteenth year when he was taken by his parents to St. Johns, Mich. 
There he lived until 1888, working for his father, later farming on his own 
account. He then went, in 1889, to Butte, Mont., where he engaged in 
mining. In 1891 he went into the business of running diamond drills. It was 
Mr. Crichton who utilized the diamond drill in the operation of the Hope 
mine at Phillipsburg, ALnit., in 1893. He came to Kern county in 1894 and 
located at Mojave where he was employed by the old Atlantic & Pacific, 
now the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company. In 1901 he asso- 
ciated himself with William Concannon in the liquor trade, in which they 
have achieved success. He is engaged in mining in Inyo county and is the 
owner of and has built up many houses in Mojave. From 1897 until 1902 
with George Roper he operated the Bobtail mine in Soledad Hill, Kern county, 
when it was $old to Los Angeles people. 

February 24, 1902, Mr. Crichton married Miss Eva Underbill, who was 
born at Phoenix, Ariz., in 1878. As a citizen he is helpful and popular and 
in all his relations with his fellowmen he has shown himself upright, pro- 
gressive and public-spirited. 

JAMES EDWARD DICKINSON.— Born in Newman, Douglas county, 
111., August 6, 1874, James Edward Dickinson, of Bakersfield, came to Kern 
county January 18, 1891, at which time his parents settled here. His father, 
Samuel Dickinson, a native of Indiana, served as sergeant of ^n Indiana regi- 
ment in the Civil war. On coming- to Kern county he located on eighty acres 
of land on what is now the oil field road, and there for a time engaged in 
melon raising. Subsequentl}^ he sold ofif a portion of the land and on this 
has since been built up the town of Waits The father met an untimely death 
in 1911, when he was killed by a Southern Pacifi.c train at the Chester avenue 
crossing. He was seventy-eight years of age. His widow, who was in maid- 
enhood Martha J. Danely, survives him, making her home with her son 
James E. The parental family included five children of whom three are liv- 
ing, James E. being the eldest. 

After completing his education James E. Dickinson continued farming 
and raising melons until his enlistment for service in the Spanish-American 
war in 1898 in Company G, Sixth California Volunteer Infantry. His service 
extended until the close of the war, when he was mustered out in .San Fran- 
cisco. .After his return home he was employed for two years with the Kern 



f 






HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 485 

County Land Company, following- this hv eight years as foreman of carpenter 
work for the Petroleum Development Oil Company, after which he went into 
business for himself as a general contractor and builder, operating in Rakers- 
field and vicinity. Although much of his skill has been employed in building 
cottages and apartment houses, he has also done much work in the oil fields 
in the construction of rigs and buildings. Associated with him in business 
is M. A. Dulgar. a man of large practical experience as a builder. 

May 26, 1905, Mr. Dickinson married Miss Mabel Clara Poole, who was 
])orn in Nebraska, September 9, 1886, and they have three children, Erwin, 
l.aura and Robert. Fraternally Mr. Dickinson affiliates with P>akersfield 
Lod"-e Nb. 224, F. & A. M., and with a local division of the Woodmen of the 
World. He is also a meml)er General Shaftcr Camp, Spanish-American War 
Veterans. 

ELMER HENRY WOODY.— The genealogical records indicate an 
early identification of the Woody family with colonial Virginia. Several 
successive generations lived and labored there, the majority of them being 
planters by occupation. In the family of one of these planters, whose spe- 
cialty was the raising of tobacco, there was a son, Sparrell Walter, born at 
the old homestead near Rockymount, Franklin county, Va., March 10, 1826, 
and reared amid the cultured surroundings characteristic of his day and 
locality. The best of educational advantages were made accessible to him in 
youth. After he had acquired a fair classical education he took up the pro- 
fession of medicine and from 1845 to 1848 studied the science under the 
friendly preceptorship of Dr. W. E. Dillard, of his home county. Later he 
attended lectures in St. Louis and received the degree of M. D. from the 
medical department of the University of Missouri. Scarcely had he begun 
the practice of his profession in Missouri when news came concerning the 
discovery of gold in California. With all the eagerness of youth and with 
the love of adventure characteristic of him, he made immediate plans for 
removal to the west. During the summer of 1849 he crossed the plains with 
an expedition of Argonauts and joined the great throng of men endeavoring 
to find a fortune in the mines. For three years he remained in Placer county, 
but his earnest and long-continued efiforts brought him little of the gold 
of which he had dreamed. Finally it seemed desirable to seek other lines 
of enterprise, and accordingly he engaged in the hotel and livery business, 
which brought him fair financial returns. However, an eagerness to see 
more of the world led him to give up the business and go to the Sandwich 
Islands in 1858. Securing employment in the government custom house at 
Honolulu, he remained for some months, but in 1859 returned to San Fran- 
cisco, content to settle in that city for the time being. Later, after a brief 
sojourn in Visalia, Tulare county, he came to the present site of the city of 
Bakersfield in the fall of 1860, and made an earnest endeavor to engage in 
farming, but the disastrous floods of 1861 and 1862 entailed a complete 
loss and forced him to seek a new location. In this way it happened that 
he settled in 1862 in the district that now bears his name. 

The marriage of Dr. Woody took place in Kern county May 20, 1861, and 
imited him with Miss Sarah L. Bohna, who was born at Warsaw, Benton 
county. Mo., June 13, 1845, but had been brought to California by her 
father. Christian Bohna, during the era of mining- excitement. Her death 
occurred ]\Iarch 3, 1909, in the district where for so many years she had been 
a beloved resident, and here, too, her husband passed away September 2, 
1910. Their memorv is revered not only by their children, but also by the 
warm personal friends, wdio will never cease to bear in mind their many 
virtues and by future generations who will learn w^ith interest of their asso- 
ciation with the pioneer history of the county. 

Elmer H. Woody, son of Dr. S. W. and Sarah Woody, was born at 
Woody. Kern county, July 10, 1880, and received a public-school education, 



486 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

supplemented by attendance at ^^ oodbury's Business College in Los Angeles, 
from which he was graduated in the spring of 1900. After his return home 
from the college he began to improve and develop a quarter-section adjoin- 
ing his father's estate and for five years he remained on the new tract, 
meanwhile devoting his attention to farming. Until the death of his father 
he carried on a partnership with him in the livestock industry and since 
the death of his parents and the division of the estate he and his brother 
own in partnership about six thousand acres of land devoted to the cattle 
business, the Short-horn Durham breed predominating. The ranch lies on 
the west side, at the foot of Blue mountain and at the head of Rag gulch. 
It is well watered by numerous springs and is thickly studded with native 
oak, such as water and white oak. 

On August 27, 1911, Air. Woody was united in marriage at Bakersfield 
with Miss Frances J. Weringer, a young lady of education and refinement, 
the daughter of Joseph and Lucy Weringer. After her graduation from 
the Western Normal school at Stockton she was engaged in teaching until 
her marriage. One child has blessed their marriage, Ward Sparrell. In 
politics Mr. Woody has always given his support to Democratic doctrines. 

SERAPHIM POURROY.— The Pourroy family had generations of repre- 
sentatives among the farmers in Hautes Alpes, France, where Joseph 
Pourroy passed his life as a stock-raiser at the old homestead near the 
Pondus I'ose river, lioth he and his wife, who bore the maiden name of 
Enielie Richau, remained on the home farm until death gave them rest 
from their labors. Of their five children four are yet living, the youngest 
of the family being Seraphim, born at the old homestead September 21, 
1876, and reared to a knowledge of agricultural duties under wise parental 
training. His brother, Theophile. came from F>ance to California in 1881 
and settled in Kern count}', whither he also came in 1884 with the hope of 
securing advantages impossible in his native land. The voyage was made 
via steamer from Havre to New York City. Thence he traveled across the 
country to Sumner (now East Bakersfield). For three years he herded 
sheep for his brother, of whom he then bought a small flock with which 
to make his start in the business. On the range in this part of the country 
he pastured his flock of seven hundred head. At first he was greatly 
prospered and after he had formed a partnershi]:) with his brother they 
owned five thousand head in their combined flocks. Just as their affairs 
seemed to be established upon a firm basis the panic of 1893-95 developed 
and prices dropped to such a point that both brothers were bankrupted. 

Forced to begin again as a wage-earner. Seraphim Pourroy became a 
sheep-herder on the ranges of the San Joaquin valley. At the expiration of 
six years of the most arduous and untiring efifort he was in a position to 
buy another flock of sheep and he took this stej), undismayed by the results 
of his former venture. Forming a partnership with M. Plantier. he assumed 
the management of the flock and for four years made his headquarters on 
the O'Neil place. This time he was prospered in his undertakings and 
when the partnership was dissolved he was in a position to invest in land. 
Since 1906 he has owned and operated forty acres seven miles south of 
Bakersfield between Union avenue and Kern Island road. At the time of 
purchase the land was unimproved. It was no small task to make all the 
needed improvements, but with characteristic energy he has kept at the 
work until now he has a comfortable house, a substantial barn, irrigation 
facilities from the Kern Island canal and the land leveled, sowed to alfalfa 
and productive of profitable crops of hay. Mr. Pourroy is proud of his 
farm, but he is even more proud of his family, which comprises his wife 
and three children, Gertrude. Seraphim and Emma. Miss Fanny Geraud 
was l)orn in TTantes Aloes. France, in 1875. and is a daughter of Jean and 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 489 

Rosalie (Bertrand) Geraud, tlic former a farmer by occupation. During 
1900 Miss Geraud came from France to California and settled in Bakersfield, 
where March 12, 1904, she and Mr. Pourroy were united in a marriage that 
has proved of mutual happiness and helpfulness. 

ALBERT S. GOODE.— In 1853 James M. Goode, a Kentuckian by 
birth and ancestry, crossed the plains with his parents in a "prairie schooner" 
drawn by oxen. The record of his subsequent hardships and privations does 
not differ materially from the history of other pioneers of sterling worth 
and unwearied energy. In the land of the golden west he met and married 
Susan FI. McPhetridge, who in 1856 had crossed the plains from her native 
Missouri with her parents. The young couple settled in Santa Barbara 
county, took up land, developed a ranch, made a specialty of stock-raising 
and eventually attained a degree of success more than merited by the pains- 
taking industry of years. When the acquisition of a competency and the 
oncoming of old age rendered further labor on the ranch undesirable they 
came to Bakersfield and have since lived in retirement in this city. 

The family of James M. Goode comprised eight children, all but one of 
whom are still living. The fifth in order of birth, Albert S.. was born at 
the old homestead near Santa Maria, Santa Barbara county, this state, Jan- 
uary 26, 1879, and received his education in local schools. After he had 
entered the high school of Santa Maria the family removed to Bakersfield 
and here he completed his studies in the excellent high school of the city. 
Two years after he came to Kern county he started out to earn his own 
way in the world. Since that year (1901) he has engaged in the dairy 
business. His rise in the industry has been rapid in an exceptional degree. 
Beginning with one cow, he delivered milk to private customers in Bakers- 
field. The business was well received. Others desired to be added to his 
list of customers. That rendered necessary the buying of other cows. By 
the end of five years he owned seventy-five cows. During 1906 he contracted 
to supply milk and cream to all the eating houses on the Atchison, Topeka & 
Santa Fe Railroad in the states of California, Arizona and New Mexico. 
In addition he supplies milk and cream to all the Pullman dining cars on the 
same railroad as far east as Chicago. 

The Goode dairy, located on six hundred and forty acres four and one- 
half miles south of Bakersfield, has become well and favorably known through- 
out the county, where it is by far the largest plant of its kind. The proprietor 
of the dairy maintains every modern convenience and desirable equipment for 
the management of the business. Since leasing the Kerr and Asoinwall 
ranches in 1910 he has kept his herds here and has built three large silos for 
ensilage, also has provided other improvements necessary to a modern and 
sanitary dairy. A cold-storage plant gives evidence concerning his adoption 
of modern ideas. Intensified farming has been adopted, thus rendering pos- 
sible a large yield of alfalfa and grain. It is a source of pride to him that he 
owns the finest herd of dairy stock in the west. Every head has been selected 
under his personal oversight. Altogether he owns three hundred head of 
cattle and of these about two hundred are full blooded milch cows of the 
celebrated St. Lambert strain of Jerseys and combine finest quality and best 
breeding. 

One of the most important of Mr. Goode's business enterprises was 
the laying out of forty acres known as the Goode tract, the same forming the 
first large subdivision district in Bakersfield. Since the tract was subdivided in 
1910 it has been sold in lots, bringing a fair return to the original owner. At 
the present writing Mr. Goode owns an alfalfa ranch of one hundred and 
twenty acres on Kern Island, where he is extensively engaged in the stock 
business. With H. R. Peacock and others he organized the Ve-seven Cattle 
Company, engaged in breeding and raising cattle, feeding, buying and selling 



490 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

stock, and shipping the same to the markets of the north and south. Since the 
organization of the company he has served as its secretary. So closely have 
his interests tied him to business matters that he has had no leisure for par- 
ticipation in public affairs, but he has formed a number of fraternal associa- 
tions and is very popular among the Woodmen of the World, Elks Lodge 
No. 266 and the Elks Club in Bakersfield. Although identifying himself to 
some degree with social functions he leaves such activities largely to his wife, 
formerly Aliss Cornelia K. Hansen, who was born, reared and married in 
San Jose and who is a woman of culture, a leading member of the Woman's 
Club of Bakersfield and a participant in many important movements for the 
educational and social upbuilding of the city. 

WILLIAM MENZEL. — It is characteristic of the native sons of Cali- 
fornia that they evince the utmost interest and put forth generous efforts 
toward the welfare of their commonwealth, and this, coupled with the 
natural enthusiasm and sturdy powers of energy and effort of his Teutonic 
ancestors, has accomplished much to make William Menzel the prominent 
citizen he is to-day. He is the son of one of the earliest miners of Kern 
county, his father, William Menzel, being a native of Hamburg, Germany. 
When a lad of fourteen he ran away from home to seek the gold fields of 
California, reports of which had reached him in his far-away home. Working 
his way across the Atlantic and on to California he arrived in San Francisco 
in 1849 when the mining excitement was at its greatest, and he immediately 
began mining. In 1851 he drifted into the Kern river placers soon after the 
first discoveries and followed mining around Keyesville and Kernville and 
also on the Piute mountains. He identified himself conspicuously with Kern- 
ville by starting the first butcher shop there, at the same time raising stock. 
Afterward he sold this business to become head amalgamater at the Big Blue 
Mill, but in 1884 removed to Havilah to become proprietor of the Golden 
Gate hotel which he conducted until his demise in 1896. A short time after 
his arrival in California he made a trip back to his old home where he re- 
newed his acquaintance with a young lady who later, in 1871, came to Cali- 
fornia and married him in Visalia. Her maiden name was Johanna Goden- 
rath. and she survives him, residing in Long Beach, Cal. 

Of the four children born to his parents William Menzel was the eldest 
and to him was given the best educational advantages afforded by the local 
schools of Kernville and Havilah. When seventeen he began to do for him- 
self, having charge of the stage stables at Havilah for Judge Sumner, who 
had the Caliente-Kernville mail contract. Thirteen months later he bought 
a team and wagon and some cattle and sheep and embarked in the stock busi- 
ness. Establishing ,the brand he had purchased (two quarter circles, joined 
points downward), he continued the stock business, and he is today still 
using that brand. His cattle range for a time was on the Breckenridge moun- 
tains with headquarters on the old A\'elch ranch adjoining Havilah on the 
north. In October, 1908, he purchased sixty acres about seven miles south of 
Bakersfield on the Kern Island Road, and removing to this place, he has 
since made it his headquarters. The ranch is under the Kern Island canal and 
is devoted to grain and alfalfa. His sheep are ranged on the plains and in 
the Kern National Forest. 

Mr. Menzel was married in Hanford, Cal., to Mrs. Ella (Walsh) Kincaid, 
who was born in Walkers Basin, Kern county, the daughter of Martin and 
Bridget (Welch) Walsh. Her parents were early settlers of Kern county, 
the father following the vocation of miner in the early days. Then he engaged 
in cattle raising and owned a farm known as the Walsh ranch, just north of 
Havilah, continuing there until his death. The mother is making her home 
with her daughter, Mrs. Menzel. One child was born to Mr. and Mrs. Menzel. 
Gladvs. Bv her former marriag-e to Mr. Kincaid Mrs. Menzel was the mother 





iO-tyCAyCOO 




HISTORY OF KKRX COUNTY 493 

of four children, Martin, deceased, Joseph. William and Myrtle Kincaid,. Mr 
Menzel is a stanch Republican in political sentiment. 

THOMAS MILTON YOUNG.— The identification of the Young family 
with the J'acific mast country dates back to the era of ,c:old disctjvery and 
indicates an h()n(.rable association with the entire period cjf agricultural 
de\'elopment as well as with other occupations scarcely less important 
than that of agriculture. The first to seek the unknown opportunities of 
the west. Thomas J. Young, a native of Massachusetts, made the long- 
journey from the old Wry state by w-ay of Panama and for a time after his 
arrival tried his luck in the mines. Later he turned his attention to the bote' 
and livery business at Sutter creek. Meanwhile he had married Elizabeth 
Hinkson, who was l)()rn in Missouri and during the '50s crossed the plains 
with her parents, the family settling in Amador county. Five children were 
born of the union and the third of these, T. M., is a native of Dry town, 
Amador county, this state, born December 19, 1868. During 1869 the 
family removed from Amador to Stanislaus county, where the father took 
up land in the vicinity of Modesto. From a small beginning he enlarged 
his holdings until he had accumulated five thousand acres. In the midst of 
his great holdings, about three and one-half miles from Modesto, he made 
his home for years in a comfortable ranch-house, but about 1900 he retired 
to Stockton, where he has since, lived in the enjoyment of a competency 
and leisure amply merited by past years of toil. Always a stanch Repub 
lican, he twice was nominated for sheriff of Stanislaus county, but the party 
being greatly in the minority in that county, he suffered defeat at both 
elections. He is a citizen of great worth and the highest standing. The 
changes of sixty years he has witnessed in the commonwealth of his adoption 
and his name is entitled to lasting remembrance in the annals of pioneer 
history. 

For some years in early life T. M. Young engaged in the dairy business 
and during that period he paid his way through the San Joaquin Valley 
College at Woodbridge, remaining a student until the close of the junior 
year. At Woodbridge, January 23, 1895, he married Miss Odessa Riley, 
a native of Indiana and a graduate of the San Joaquin Valley College. Of 
the union there is one son. Hobart Nading Young. Upon selling the dairy 
business Mr. Young entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Company, 
which soon afterward sent him into Kern. During June of 1893 he was made 
a clerk and operator in the freight department at Bakersfield, from which 
he was promoted to be cashier and assistant agent, and later he held positions 
in the passenger department and the superintendent's ofifice. February 16, 
1907 he resigned to accept a place as chief clerk with the Atchison, Topeka 
& Santa Fe Railroad at Stcickton, but that im])ortant place he was forced 
to resign owing to ill health, his resignation taking effect on the 30th of 
May. Returning to P>akersfield he embarked in the oil industry and assisted 
in organizing the Emerald Oil Company, of which he became secretary and 
manager. Besides being interested in this company in the Kern river field 
he had other holdings of stock. W^ith the organization of the Topaz Oil 
Company in the Sunset field in June, 1908, he became secretary and 
manager. 

The water supplv on the west side was inadequate, of poor (|uality an:l 
very expensive. I""or the purpose of securing better quality and larger quan- 
tit}' Mr. "S'oung helped to organize the Kern Midway Water Company, of 
which he was chosen secretary and manager and which shipped water in 
cars by rail to the Midway field for domestic as well as boiler and general 
development use. During March of 1909 he assisted in organizing the 
T. W. Company in the Midway field, oi which he was chosen secretary and 
jnanager. A])ril of the same year found him actively promoting the organiza- 



494 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

ti(;n of the W. T. & ]\1. Company operating in the Midway and of this he 
also became secretary and manager. During June of the same year he 
organized the Carbo-Petroleum Company, operating in the Midway, and 
in this he was made manager and secretary. In February of 1910 he became 
secretary and manager of Los Pozos Oil Company in the Midway field. 
May of the same year witnessed the organization by him of the 23 Water 
Company, of which he was chosen secretary and manager, and which 
engaged in distributing water for operating purposes in the Midway field. 
Another Midway concern, the S. F. Midway Oil Cornpany, was organized 
by his efiForts in August, 1910, and he became secretary and manager. 
January 1, 1911, he was chosen secretary and manager of the Railroad 
Water Company Association, another distributor of water in the Midway 
field. A later enterprise was the organization, in June of 1911, of the 
M. G. & P. Company, operating in the North Midway, with himself as 
secretary and manager. In all of the before-mentioned organizations, except- 
ing the Railroad Water Company Association, he officiated as a director. 
In October, 1913, with associates, he organized the Midway-Simi Oil Com- 
pany developing an oil property of two hundred and fifty acres in the Simi 
valley, Ventura county, of which company he is secretary, treasurer and 
manager. In November, 1913, with associates, he went to Oklahoma and 
Texas, leasing nine thousand acres in Jefiferson county, Okla., and twelve 
thousand acres in southeastern Texas, and the development of these proper- 
ties has been begun. Aside from these companies he is interested in and a 
stockholder in various other oil companies. Upon the incorporation of the 
AVestern Water Company he became a director and assistant secretary and 
since then he has been connected actively with this concern, which furnishes 
water to the Midway and Sunset fields. Since the organization of the 
Consumers Water Company he has been secretary and a director and has 
had charge of the company's business of delivering water for domestic use 
to the town of Taft. The Kern County Oil Protective Association was 
formed for the purpose of controlling and preventing the percolation of 
water into the oil sand and to encourage the proper drilling of wells. From 
the first he was deeply interested in the movement. In order that he might 
promote its helpful influence he consented to serve as secretary and vice- 
president. At this writing he is a director in the Independent Oil Producers' 
Agency. Resides being connected with the Merchants' Exchange Club of 
San Francisco, he holds membership with the Bakersfield Club, the Bakers- 
field Lodge No. 266, P>. P. O. E., and the Independent Order of Foresters. 
The interests of Bakersfield, where he has made his home for more than two 
decades receive his co-operation and encouraging assistance, and with genu- 
ine public spirit he has stood ready to promote any measure for the perma- 
nent benefit of city, county or commonwealth. 

CYRILLE ANDRE. — The example of wise and frugal parents on a 
small, well-cultivated farm in France gave to the early years of Mr. Andre 
the advantages of a training that proved of inestimable value to later days 
of hardship, toil and hope delayed. More extended mention of the family ai)- 
pears in the biographical sketch of Andre Andre. Suffice it here to state that 
their father, Ambroise, spent ten years in California, but in 1885 
closed out his sheep interests in this state and returned to France to spend 
his declining days in the midst of associations endeared to him by every 
tie of affection and intimacy. Cyrille himself left the old homestead near 
Gap, Hautes Alpes. where he was born in June. 1862. and sought the 
opportunities of America at the age of less than nineteen years, since which 
time he has considered California his home. 

Arriving in this state during the spring of 1881 Cyrille Andre learned 
the sheep business as conducted in the west and his period of employment 




(-ATPrd^^Z^^i-^yn, 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 497 

uudei" his father and older bruther proved ol great assistance to him in his 
ettorts to acquire a thorough familiarity with the country, the language and 
the people. As early as 1«82 he herded the liocks of his brother in Kern 
county. About I880 he invested his savings in a hock of his own, and 
these sheep he ranged in Kern county. Selling out his holdings in stock he 
returned to Los Angeles in 1890, but in a short time he again was the 
possessor of a little flock which he ranged in the vicinity of Cucamonga. 
in a search for more satisfactory range he brought his sheep over the 
Tehachapi mountains into Kern county during 1895 and here he ranged them 
on the plains and in the mountains until 1903, when he disposed of the 
llock in order to give his attention exclusively to farming. Having made a 
close study of land in the San Joaquin valley he decided that the vicinity 
of Bakerstield afforded excellent advantages to farmers. Accordingly he 
bought sixty acres six miles south of Bakersfield between Union avenue and 
the Kern Island road, where an abundance of water from the Kern Island 
canal gives exceptional advantages for the successful raising of alfalfa and 
corn. In the midst of a very busy life he has found time twice to revisit 
the old scenes in France. During 1902 he spent about six months at the 
old home place and in 1010 he again crossed the ocean to France, where 
in November of the same year he married Miss Alarie Barthalmy, a native 
of Hautes Alpes. XA'ith Mrs. Andre and their little daughter. Marie, he 
has a happy and comfortable home on the ranch near Bakersfield and is 
surrounded by evidences of his thrift., foresight and enterprise. Truly 
American in his type of feeling and loyalty, he supports the Republican 
party and its candidates. He is a member ri the Catholic Church. 

NIELS PETER PETERSEN.— In Lesso channel between the Cattegat 
and Skager Rack lies the small island of Leso. a portion of the kingdom 
of Denmark, where Xiels Peter Petersen was born October 10, 1841, the 
son of a government oflficial who also owned an ocean vessel and engaged 
in the coasting trade and fishing business. On the ship owned by his 
father he became familiar with the life of a sailor. At the age of four- 
teen he shipned from Copenhagen as a cook on a schoolier bound for 
England. In the spring of the following year he shipi)ed from Olberg 
as an ordinary seaman on a vessel bound for London. His next voyage 
took him to the Mediterranean on a Danish vessel and later he shipped 
from Hamburg on an old Danish frigate, the Ada, that had been con- 
demned and discarded from the navy, then converted to the merchant 
marine service. On this vessel he rounded the Cape of Good Hope to Bombay. 
On the return voyage the ship sprung a leak. By manning the pumps and 
working with desperate haste, the crew managed to bring the disabled ship 
into the harbor of Marisus, w'here the old craft was condemned. 

In order to reach liis original destination the young sailor shipped 
on an English vessel to Bristol. His next voyage, made as an able seaman 
(in an iron barque, began at Swansea, Wales, took him around Cape Horn, 
thence up the Pacific to Callao, Peru, from which point return was made 
to Swansea. The last long voyage associated with his life on the high 
seas began at Hamburg and took him in a brig around Cape Horn and 
up the Pacific to the harbor of the Golden Gate, where anchor was cast 
iji March, 1862. Liking the appearance of the country, he deserted his 
ship at San Francisco and went inland to Sacramento, where he found em- 
ployment on a Sacramento river scow for three months. Next as able 
seaman on a barque, he engaged in the coasting trade as far south as San 
Diego. Returning to San Francisco, he enlisted in the United States navy 
April 14, 1863. for a term of one year, which was spent on the Shoobrick, 
stationed at Black Point, just inside of the G(~)lden Gate, as coxsw^ain of 



498 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

the first cutter, or the boat of the Heutenant. Upon tlie expiration of his 
time he was honorably discharged from the service. 

Ever since first landing at San Francisco there had been in the mind 
of Mr. Petersen a desire to engage in mining, and this was gratified through 
the friendship of his first lieutenant, who was a stockholder in the Big 
Blue mine at Whiskey Flat, Tulare ciunly (nnw Kern\-ille, Kern county). 
Upon the recommendation of the lieutenant he was induced to come to this 
part of the country in May, 1864, after which he found employment at the 
Big Blue mine for a year. During 1865 he prospected at Havilah for two 
months and then spent two years as engineer in a cjuartz mill. Upon re- 
turning to Kernville he spent another two years in a quartz mill at that 
point. During 1873 he bought property and built the Kernville hotel, of 
which he continued as proprietor for ten years, (joing to Shasta in 1884, 
he leased a mine in French Gulch and operated it for eight months, then 
sold out his interests and in 1885 returned to Kernville. 

About this time Mr. Petersen purchased one hundred and sixty acres 
forming the nucleus of his present large ranch in the South Fork valley. 
By subsequent purchase he has become the owner of twelve hundred acres, 
besides having two ranches on the Greenhorn mountains where he ranges 
his stock in the summer months. The home property has been improved 
with several sets of buildings and with ditches bringing water from the 
river for the irrigation of the alfalfa. Grain is raised in large quantities. 
A specialty is made of raising cattle, hogs and horses. The ranch lies 
midway between Isabella and Onyx, lietween which points Mr. Petersen 
runs a stage line, besides a line between Kernville and Caliente. As early 
as July, 1890, he began to run a stage, using four four-horse teams. Upon 
the advent of the automobile he bought three cars and he now uses motors 
not only for the carrying of mail and passengers, but also for the operation 
of the express line. Besides his immense land holdings he owns residence 
and business property in Kernville. Havilah and Caliente. 

The marriage of Mr. Petersen took place in Kern\ille in 187() and 
united him with Mrs. Lizzie Annie (Davis) Swet, who was born in Boston. 
Mass., and accompanied her parents to California in early life, settling 
at Visalia, where she was educated in the j)ublic schools. r-')y her first 
marriage she had two sons, John Swet, of Bakersfield, and William Swet, 
now living at Madera. Of her union with Mr. Petersen there are three 
children, namely: Howard, a farmer on the South Fork; Mrs. Addie Fugitt, 
also of the South Fork valley; and W' alter, who has charge of the cattle 
interests of his father, b^raternally Mr. Petersen is connected with Bakers- 
field Lodge No. 266, V,. P. ( ). K., and the Ancient Order of I'nited W'orkmen. 
Vor years he has served as a trustee of the South Fork school and his interest 
in its welfare has been constant. To fill a vacancv in the office of super- 
visor, formerly held b}- j. W'. Kelley, he was appointed in 1*)02 by Governor 
Gage to represent district No. 1 on the county board. At the regular elec- 
tion in PX)4 he was elected by a good majority on the Republican ticket 
in a l^emocratic district, serving continuouslv imtil January. 1909. During 
the period of his ser\ice the hall of records and high school were erected. 
I'rom the beginning of his residence in the state he has been deeply inter- 
ested in its development. When Kern countv was set apart from Tulare, 
he was one of the organizers of the new county and his interest in its 
progress has been unceasing. 

JOSEPH PERCY FREEAR.— A s(.n of the late Henry T. Freear and a 
grandsc n of Rev. Henry T. Freear, a rector in the Church of England, Joseph 
P. Freear was born in Bakersfield. .\pril 18. 1881. and has since lived in Kern 
county. After lie had completed the studies of the local schools he was 
sent to Stockton lUisiness Colles:e. from which he was graduated 




^^1^£k^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 501 

in 1903, and immediately afterward became bookkeeper for the 
Union Oil Comi)any at the refinery in the Kern ri\er field, where he con- 
tinued perhaps three years. Meanwhile he had been interested in ranch 
activities and with his brothers had owned a farm of one hundred and 
sixty acres, but finally he sold his interest to the brothers and then began 
to devote his attention to alfalfa-raising on a tract on Union avenue, where 
he remained for two years. Although since 1908 he has made his home in 
r^akersfield he still retains agricultural interests and during 1912 with his 
brothers he put in and raised five hundred acres of corn at Buena Vista 
lake. 

De\'oted to the best interests of Bakersfield, many measures for civic 
advancement have received the enthusiastic support of Mr. Freear and 
he has aided local projects to the extent of his ability. In politics he votes 
with the Republican party. His marriage was solemnized December 9, 1906, 
at Red BlufT, this state, and united him with Miss Zola Clayman. a native of 
that city, a woman of excellent education, an active worker with the Order 
of Women of Woodcraft and a devoted mother to her two children. Lorin 
Donald and Vivian. The father of Mrs. Freear is John H. Clayman, a 
pioneer of 1859 in California and since 1910 a resident of Bakersfield. where 
with one exception all cif his five children now make their homes. 

J. J. DEUEL, JR. — As treasurer and manager of the E. A. Hardison Per- 
forator Company of Bakersfield. J. J. Deuel, Jr., has evinced a high type of 
the capable, foresighted and clear-minded business man. While interested in 
many fields he devotes his chief attention to the perforating compaiiy 
of which he is the principal owner and manager, and his extensive business 
extends to all the California oil fields, as well as those in Texas and old 
Mexico, and even to such remote points as Trinidad, A\'est Indies. Australia. 
Austria. China and Burmah, India. The automatic machine which this 
company employs is one of the most important innovations in the oil pro- 
ducing business today. Under absolute control of the operator perforations 
of any size or shape may be made in casing of any weight or dimensions. 
The device is the result of the ingenuity of Edwin A. Hardison of Los 
.\ngeles and is now owned and improved by Mr. Deuel, who has his oil- 
well supply store at No. 2111 Chester avenue, Bakersfield, under his personal 
direction. He is also sales manager of the Axelson Machine Company. 

J. T. Deuel, Jr., was born July 31. 1879. at Wellsville, Columbiana countv, 
Ohio, son of Joseph Jasper and Flora V. (Eaton) Deuel, natives respec- 
tively of Ohio and West Virginia. The father was employed for many years 
as foreman for the C. & P. R. R., on the Panhandle and later for the L, & N. 
R. R. at Pensacola. Fla., where the son grew to manhood. In 1904 the 
family joined the latter in Bakersfield, and father and son became asso- 
ciated in business, outside of which they have acquired valuable pro;)erty 
and real estate. Joseph J. Deuel and wife were the parents of two s(ins 
and one daughter, of whom J. J. Jr., was the first born. In Pensacola. Fla., 
he was educated in the common schools and also in the academy there, and 
before he finished his education was well advanced in a practical knowledge 
of the machinist's trade which he completed in due time. In April, 1898, 
he x'olunteered in the United States navy for the Spanish-.\merican war, 
enlisting at the navy yard at Pensacola, Fla., and serving a year on the 
!^an Francisco and Armeria as a machinist, in the Cuban blockade. .Soon 
after his honorable discharge from the United States service he went to 
work at his trade and was S(j employed at Galveston at the time of the hi.s- 
loric flood which destroyed much of that city, and he spent several months 
running a hoisting engine in the water-front clearing up the debris. Tn 
December, 1900. he located at Bakersfield. Cal.. where for four years he 
was agent for the Standard Oil Company, building up a local business three 



502 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

times the size it was when he took it in hand. Tlie subsequent two years 
he was a special officer, operating on the San Joaquin division, in the employ 
of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. Resigning- that position to take 
charge of the Bakersfield interests of the Axelson Machine Company, of 
Los Angeles, who were manufacturers of oil pumps and dealers in oil well 
supplies, with the Axelson pump and the Parker pump as specialties, he 
materially advanced the interests of the concern, and later was advanced to 
sales manager of the entire output and various stores. His perforator is 
the most successful in use today and is employed by the largest companies 
who aim to obtain the best results. In 1909 Mr. Deuel became the owner 
of the Plardison Perforator l)y purchasing it from the inventor, E. A. Hardi- 
son, and since that time he has patented an improvement on the machine. 
His operations have extended over a wide area and he employs five experi- 
enced men to operate the perforator. 

Mr. Deuel and his interesting family occupy a high place among the 
citizens of Bakersfield. His marriage occurred here June 1. 1902, uniting 
him, with Miss Mary E. Thurlow, a native of New York state, and they have 
six children, viz. : Edwin J., James W., George A., Ruth, Harry A. and Jack- 
son Bryan. Mr. Deuel is a member of the Kern County Merchants' Asso- 
ciation, and politically believes in the principles of the Democratic party. 
He is a communicant of the Christian church and affiliates with the VVood- 
men of the World. On Chester avenue, near Twentieth, he occupies a store 
and office quarters. He owns two hundred and forty acres of land four 
miles southeast of Bakersfield, which is de\-oted to farming and horticul- 
ture and on which he has installed two pumping plants. 

ROBERT NEILL. — The first twenty years in the useful and interesting 
life of Robert Neill were passed near the bleak shores of the Atlantic, where 
the family, Scotch by birth and ancestry, but Canadian by adoption, had 
established a home near Kensington, Prince Edward Island. The stern and 
rigorous climate to which he was inured from earliest recollections developed 
not only a sturdy physique, but also a forceful mentality and a self-reliant 
spirit, qualifying him to successfully cope with the hardships of the work- 
a-day world. His parents, James and Marion (McCauU) Neill, were natives 
of Scotland, who seeking a home in the new world had settled in Canada, 
identifying themselves with farming interests on Prince Edward Island, 
where, in the midst of an environment given over to the fishing business 
and the coasting trade, they tilled the soil and raised such crops as the all 
too brief summers permitted. 

The eldest of eight children, Robert Neill was born on the farm in 
Prince Edward Island February 18, 1852, and grew to manhood at the 
old homestead, where he worked during the vacation months in the period 
of his school life. Leaving school at the age of fifteen, he devoted his time 
entirely to farm work as an assistant to his father. Upon starting out for 
himself in 1872 he went first to Massachusetts and s])ent the summer months 
on a farm near Middleboro. During the winter of 1872-73 he was sent by 
Swift 8z Co. from New Bedford, Mass., to Florida, where he engaged as a 
broad axeman in getting out live oak timber for the government navy yards. 
During the summer he went from Florida to Bath, Me., to do similar work 
in the private yard. 

P^'rom boyhood it had been the desire of Mr. Neill to see the land of 
the Golden West and during 1875, giving up his work in the east, he crossed 
the continent to California. It was his original intention to remain here 
only long enough to accumulate a 'little money and then return to his olci 
home, but he was so favorably impressed by the state that he decided to 
remain, a decision he has no cause to regret. During the first three months 
he was employed on a farm at Baden Station owned by Miller & Lux, and 
from that place in August of the same vear he came to Kernville. From that 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 505 

time to the present he has been identified with Kern county, of which he is 
ni)t (inly one of the old settlers, but also one of the most honored citizens and 
progressive farmers. However, his connection with agriculture does not 
go back to his settlement in the county. First as a carman and later as a 
fireman, he spent four years with the Sumner Mining Company. Next he was 
an employe in the store of Andrew Brown at Kernville, where he re- 
mained for ten years, first as a clerk and then as bookkeeper and ofifice-man. 
Meanwhile he saved his earnings with frugal care, for he had determined to 
engage in farming. Resigning his position in the store in 1889, he purchased 
two hundred arid eighty acres and took up gerteral ranch pursuits. 

By subsequent purchase the ranch of Mr. Neill has been enlarged to 
eight hundred and forty acres, all in one body, situated about two and one- 
half miles west of Weldon. Several hundred acres are in alfalfa, irrigation 
for which is provided by the South Fork. The balance of the valley land 
is devoted to the raising of grain. Realizing the importance of the stock 
industry, the owner has made a specialty of the same from the very beginning 
of his farming operations. The brand of R. N. (with letters separate) is to 
be seen on his large herd of shorthorn Durham cattle. 

Throughout this portion of the county "Bob" Neill is known as a 
man of honor and integrity. His name is a synonym for all that is worthy 
in citizenship and progressive in agriculture. When a postmaster was to 
be chosen at Weldon during the year 1888 he was selected as one satisfac- 
tory to all concerned and his service was efficient to an unusual degree. 
At this writing he is a school trustee in the Weldon district and he has acted 
in a similar capacity for many years. Since coming to this county he was 
made a Mason in Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M. As a boy in the 
old Canadian home he was trained to a belief in Presbyterian doctrines. 
There being no church of that denomination near his ranch he, with his sister, 
Miss Millie A. Neill, who is a member of his household, attend the Methodist 
Episcopal Church at Weldon. By nature religious, his life expresses less 
the religion of creeds than that of a cheerful, hopeful and helpful existence, 
devoted to the uplifting t f humanitv and the welfare of the race. Careful 
study of the principles upon which our government is founded led him to 
espouse the i^latform of the Republican partv when he became a citizen of 
our country in 1884. Of his services to his adopted country it may be said 
that they have been admirable, whether viewed from the point of agriculture 
or business or private life. 

THOMAS HENRY McGOVERN.— Change and development have 
marked the history of Kern county since Mr. McGovern became a resident 
of Annette during the year 1881. The small hamlet near which he took up 
land stands in the northwestern corner of the county and being remote 
from the railroad has acquired no significance as a market town. The near- 
est market was San Luis Obispo, a distance of fifty-five miles toward the 
coast, and thither the farmers were accustomed to drive for the purpose of 
buying provisions, clothing and lumber. Immediately after his arrival in 
the state Mr. McGovern took up a homestead, a pre-emption and a timber- 
culture, amounting to four hundred and eighty acres altogether, the tract 
being adapted chiefly to the raising of grain. With one exception he was 
the first settler in that part of the county. Privations were many, the task 
of caring for the crops of oats, wheat and barley without sufificient help was 
discouraging, and the long drives to market took up much valuable time, 
but ultimately he saw the fruit of his labor and became financially inde- 
pendent. His only son. John A., took up a claim of three hundred and 
twentv acres, so that the two owmed and cultivated eight hundred acres, 
and this has been increased by subsequent purchase to seventeen hundred 
acres, the whole forming a stock ranch of great value, now managed by the 
son. the father having retired to a life of ease and merited rest. 



506 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

County Cavan in the north of Ireland is the native home of Thomas 
Henry McGovern and September 11, 1835, the date of his birth. On the 
eighth anniversary of his birth the family landed in New Orleans from the 
vessel that had brought them from Ireland to America. A voyage up the 
Mississippi took them to Illinois and after a brief sojourn at Galena they 
moved to Wisconsin, where the father took up land near Platteville, Grant 
county. As a boy Thomas H. attended school at Ellenboro, and aided in 
the development of the home farm. After he ceased to attend school he 
gave his attention wholly to farming until 1857, when he left Wisconsin for 
Missouri. Holding the position of driller, he remained for four years in the 
Iron mountain mines. At the opening of the war he decided to return to 
Wisconsin and went to St. Louis with that object in view, but found that 
no trains were leaving the city. Meanwhile John H. McHenry, general 
foreman of the mine in which he had worked, became colonel in the Fif- 
teenth Mississippi Regiment, C. S. A. At Cape Girardeau Mr. McGovern 
volunteered for ser\'ice in that regiment, which was later consolidated with 
and became the Seventeenth Mississippi Regiment. For four years and 
seven months he remained in the Confederate army. During that time he 
endured all the hardships of war and fought in many bloody battles. One 
of the hardest fought engagements in which he participated was that of 
Cold Harbor. At the siege of Vicksburg he served as an army scout. 
During a portion of his service he was under General Pemberton, and in 
addition he served under Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston. After the battle of 
Fredericksburg, Va., he was released from service and allowed to return to 
Wisconsin, where he joined his parents, then living at Platteville, Grant 
county. For several years he worked in lead ore mines during the winters 
and farmed in the summer months, but later he carried on a general mer- 
cantile store at Trempealeau, Wis., and also served as a justice of the peace, 
remaining there until the time of his removal to California. In Kern county 
he was twice elected justice of the peace, but did not qualify. He also filled 
the office of roadmaster for a number of years, and for sixteen years acted 
as clerk of the Annette school district. 

From early life Mr. McGovern has been a member of the Roman Catho- 
lic Church. Since attaining his majority he has given stanch support to 
the Democratic party. January 8, 1866, he married in Platteville, Wis., 
Miss Josephine Roselip, who was born in Grant county, Wis., July 8, 1841. 
By their union there is an only child, John A., who resides with his parents 
and superintends the large landed interests of the family. Removing to 
Wasco from the ranch in 1905, Mr. McGovern has since been retired from 
active agricultural cares and enjoys the comforts possible after long years 
of labor. \Mien he came to this small town it had only one general store, 
but there were also two saloons. Shortly after settling here he built the 
Wascd Hotel and tliis he now leases. 

CHARLES F. BENNETT.— As county supervisor of the first district 
of Kern county and a successful business man as well, Charles F. Bennett has 
identified himself closely with the industrial work of this county, becoming 
well and favorably known for the impartial execution of his official duties, 
his painstaking efforts to meet the approbation of his constituents and his 
never-failing good-will toward all. He was born May 8, 1862, in Washoe 
City, Nev., the son of Rev. Jesse Lee Bennett, a well-known minister, who 
was born in West Virginia and made his way to ^lissouri to fill the respon- 
sible office of minister in the Methodist Fi:)iscopal church. Later he crossed 
the plains to California in 1849, followed mining for a time and was pastor 
of the Methodist Episcopal church at \\ ashoe City, Nev. He returned east 
after a time and was married, but the call of the west again brought him to 
Washoe City, this trip being made via I'anama. L'])cin arrival he resumed 
the duties of minister and imtil 1873 he and his estimable wife, who before 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 507 

her marriage was Elizabeth de Jersey, made their home in Nevada. In the 
latter year he came with his family to Kernville, this county, where he was 
the local pastor until his death, in April. 188(S. [•'rom Kernville he went to 
different parts of the county to minister, his trips often being made on foot, 
and extending from Tehachapi and Bakersfield and places on the south fork 
to Linn's valley and Darwin. His wife, who was a native of the Isle of 
Guernsey, England, and was of French parentage, passed away in Bakers- 
field. Of their six children, four are living: Charles F. ; Annie, of Bakers- 
field; Edith, Mrs. Charles C. Taylor; and Nellie, of Bakersfield. 

Charles F. Bennett was but eleven years of age when his parents 
brought him to Kern county and until he was thirteen he attended the public 
school of his vicinity. His first work was on neighboring ranches ; after- 
ward mining took his attention, and he learned the details of that industry, 
becoming foreman of Warrington mine at Havilah, and after a time foreman 
of the Lady Bell mine, at Kernville, and he also prospected and mined in 
Piute. Subsequently for some years he was engaged in running a hotel bus 
in Kernville, and it was in 1888 that he entered into public life by being 
elected on the Democratic ticket as supervisor of the first district, his term 
of service covering the period from January, 1889, to January, 1893. In 
1903 ]\Ir. Bennett started a livery business in Caliente, which also embraced 
a hay and grain business, a blacksmith shop and a wagon and carriage fac- 
tory. The business was a splendid success from the start and he built it up 
to a most profitable condition. In 1910 he built the store in which he is 
now engaged in general merchandising, his capable wife lending her assist- 
ance in order to relieve Mr. Bennett of the many arduous tasks incident to 
the business. 

On February 16, 1892, Mr. Bennett was married in Bakersfield to Miss 
Lulie Jones, a native of Mariposa county, Cal., and daughter of D. E. and 
Caroline (Wyatt) Jones, born in Ohio and Virginia, respectively. Her 
father was a miner, but has passed away, the mother making her home with 
her daughter. Three children were born to Mr. and Airs. Bennett, Jesse L., 
who is a member of the San Luis Obispo high school class of 1914; Loring 
F. and Alice Caroline. Mr. Bennett was for several years a member of the 
board of school trustees in Caliente, serving as clerk for seven years. In 
1912 he was an independent candidate for county supervisor and received 
the election, taking the oath of office in January, 1913, for a term of four 
years. His former experience as well as his inherent ability in this direc- 
tion, ably qualifies him for the office and his fellow-citizens have the utmost 
confidence in his efficiency. He is a stanch Democrat in politics and in fra- 
ternal connection is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. 

JOHN ROBERT JESSUP.— Allegiance to the Society of Friends char- 
acterized the Jessup family both in their English home and in the colonial 
environment of North Carolina, and their dominant traits were such as 
marked the Quakers in every part of the world. L^niformly industrious, 
thrifty and peace-loving, they aided in the early development and upbuilding 
of the south and particularly wielded a large influence in North Carolina, 
from which state in the first half of the nineteenth century Caleb Jessup 
removed to Indiana. At the time of the migration his son, Frank, was a 
mere lad and from that time until his death he continued to make Indiana 
his home, engaging both in general farming and carpentering until his 
death in 1853 at middle age. During young manhood he had married 
Elizabeth Sanders, who was born in North Carolina, of Quaker parentage, 
and whose death in 1851 left him a widower for the last two years of his 
life. Their family comprised eight children and the fifth of these, John 
Robert, whose birth occurred on the home farm near AA'^orthington, Greene 
county, Ind., April 4, 1846, was only seven years of age at the time the 
death of his father left him an or])han. An uncle. James Jessu]). took him 



508 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

into his home, but at the expiration of four years he was given into the 
care of his eldest sister, the wife of Fayette A. Dickinson. Until he was 
twenty-eight the Dickinson farm continued to be his home with the excep- 
tion of four years in the army during the Civil war. 

With the very tirst call for volunteers in the Union service the heart 
of the youth of fifteen years became fired with patriotic fervor and he 
determined to go to the front in defense of his country. During November, 
1861, he was assigned to Company E, I'^ifty-ninth Indiana Infantry, and 
was mustered into service at Gosport, Owen county, Ind.> whence he was 
dispatched to the south in February of the following year. From that 
time until the close of the great struggle he fought in many decisive battles, 
endured the hardships of forced marches and underwent privations in camp 
and on field. In the most strenuous exertion and the greatest danger to 
life and limb, no one heard a word of discouragement from this lad; on 
the other hand, he was always willing, courageous and helpful, and proved 
his patriotism on many a fiercely-contested field. Among his leading 
engagements were the following: New Madrid, Mo.; siege of Corinth; battle 
of Corinth, October 3-4, 1862; F'orty Hills, Raymond and Jackson, Miss., 
in the last-named of which his regiment placed the first flag on the state- 
house at Jackson ; Champion Hill ; the siege of Vicksburg lasting forty-seven 
days, where his regiment sustained a heavy loss ; Chattanooga ; Missionary 
Ridge ; the Atlanta campaign of 1864, including the battles of Resaca, Dallas, 
Buzzard's Roost, Snake Creek Gap, Kenesaw mountain, Atlanta and Jones- 
boro; Sherman's march to the sea with the siege of Savannah and the battle 
of Bentonville; and last, participation in the grand review at Washington, 
followed by honorable discharge at Louisville, Ky., in August, 1865. At 
the expiration of the war he returned to the home of his sister in Indiana 
and resumed his studies, ending with a commercial course in Terre Haute. 

The marriage of John Robert Jessup was solemnized at Paris, 111., in 
December, 1874, and united him with Miss Annie Marie Welch, a native 
of Vigo county, Ind. The young couple began housekeeping on a farm 
near Hume, Edgar county, 111., and later settled near Decatur, Macon county, 
in the same state, eventually going from the farm into the city of Decatur 
for the purpose of operating a dairy. Four children were born of their 
marriage, namely : Maude ]\larie, Mrs. B. S. Hageman, of Rosedale, Kern 
county; John Clyde, who died at the age of seven years; Elizabeth Catherine, 
wife of Frank Gary, of San Francisco; and Harry Warren, of Portland, 
Ore. The family came to California in 1891, arriving at Bakersfield in 
December of that year. The first venture of Mr. Jessup proved unsuc- 
cessful, for the farm which he bought in the Rosedale district eight miles 
west of Bakersfield cnuld not be made remunerative owing to the lack of 
water in the Calloway canal. At the expiration of nine years of strenuous 
exertion he abandoned farming and gave his attention to the teaming busi- 
ness in Bakersfield, later having a fruit wagon in the Kern river oil field. 
During January, 1909, he bought out the grocery business of C. C. Minter 
& Bro., on Chester avenue, and has continued the enterprise wMth the satis- 
faction of a growing trade and increased patronage on the part of a most 
desirable class of customers. In politics he always has supported Repub- 
lican candidates and principles. While still living in Indiana he was made 
a Mason in Worthington Lodge and later identified himself with Macon 
Lodge No. 8, F. & A. M., at Decatur, 111., where his name is still enrolled 
as a member. With his wife he belongs to the Eastern Star Chapter at 
Bakersfield and in addition Mrs. Jessup is a leading worker (and now 
president) of the Hurlburt Women's Relief Corps, while he has been inti- 
mately associated with the activities of Hurlburt Post No. 124, G. A. R., 
also at Bakersfield. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 509 

HENRY R. SCHAFFNIT.— The chief of the Bakersfield fire depart- 
ment, whose wide reputation for successful work in this important specialty 
led to his selection for his present responsible post, belongs to a German- 
American family and is a son of Leonard and Emma (Miller) Schafifnit, 
natives of Germany and descendants of lung lines of Teutonic ancestry. An 
uncle, Henry Schaffnit, an immigrant to America in early life, served gal- 
lantly as a lieutenant in the Union army during the Civil war. Leonard 
Schafifnit was by trade a cabinet-maker and trained to an unusual degree of 
skill in the occupation, besides being an expert mechanic, and it was not 
difficult for him to secure steady employment after he came to the United 
States and he worked for some years for day wages. When the west was 
still undeveloped and he was yet a young man, he crossed the plains to 
California in 1854 with a party of emigrants traveling with wagons and 
ox-teams, but a short tour of inspection ended his residence in California at 
that period. After his marriage he lived in St. Louis, Mo., where his 
eldest child, Henry R.. was born June 27, 1874. Shortly after the birth of 
that son he took the family to Colorado and settled at Central City, where 
he built and for twenty-five years conducted the Washington house. His 
wife died in Denver in 1902 and more recently he has established a home in 
Los Angeles, his present place of residence. 

Out of seven children comprising the parental family all but two are 
still living and the eldest of these, Henry R., received a public-school educa- 
tion at Central City, Colo., from which place he went to Denver at the age 
of fifteen years. Ever since then he has been self-supporting. As early as 
1894 he became connected with the Denver fire department, where an experi- 
ence of six years proved most helpful to him in later labors along the same 
line. In company with George Hale he attended the exhibitions at Kansas 
City and Omaha and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis, where 
as captain of the life line and pompier work during the fair he led off the 
best crew in the United States, comprising a fine body of men personally 
selected by an inspection of the entire country. At the close of the exposi 
tion he returned to Denver, Colo., as captain of engine No. 2 under Chief 
Owens. Resigning from that position in 1905 he became chief of the new 
fire department at Goldfield, Nev., selected by the Board of LTnderwriters. 
The occasion of his employment had been the need of perfected fire system. 
The task proved one of great responsibility and many difficulties, but he 
triumphed over every obstacle, surmounted every difificulty and succeeded 
in securing for the town a splendid system with headquarters in a new fire 
house costing $20,000 and containing every equipment for the fighting of 
fire. January 2, 1911, he was transferred by the Board of Underwriters from 
Goldfield in order to enter upon similar duties at Bakersfield, where he has 
since labored with tireless energy and sagacious judgment. 

The Bakersfield fire department at the present writing has three hose 
wagons, fcur engines, one chemical engine, one hook and ladder truck and 
an auto truck, also two large gas pumps and six electrical pumps, the 
water for which is supplied from an excellent irrigation system with ten- 
inch mains and six eight-inch laterals. At all times there is a pressure of 
thirty-five pounds in the plugs. The signal telephone fire alarm system 
contains forty-one boxes at the present writing, these being distributed with 
such care that no point is far distant from fire alarm call. Fifteen paid 
men are in the employ of the department, besides sixteen call men. Under 
the present chief improvements are being made constantly and efifectively. 
Four thousand feet of hose have been provided, and two new fire houses 
are being built. In the course of a few months six automobiles, combination 
hose, engine and chemical will be installed, the expenditure for all these new 
facilities amountins: in all to $75,000. and in a short time Bakersfield will 



510 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

have a fire department brought to the rank of first place on the coast, this 
g^ratifying condition resulting from the wise use of the tax-payers' money 
on the part of the chief in charge. Through membership in the Association 
of Fire Chiefs of the Pacific Coast and the International Association of Steam 
Engineers, Mr. SchalTnit keeps in touch with every development in his 
special work and is therefore thoroughly modern and up-to-date in his ideas. 
VVhile living in Goldfield he was connected with Montezuma Lodge No. 30. 
I'. & A. M., and since coming to Rakersfield he has joined the Benevolent 
Protective Order of Elks No. 266. His marriage took place in Denver and 
united him with Miss Hattie Schultz, who was born and educated in that 
city and by wlioiu he has two sons, Robert and Peter. The family hold 
membership in the Bakersfield Presbyterian Church. 

ROLAND G. HILL. — The task of converting the Greenfield ranch into 
an alfalfa and stock farm recently has been assumed by Mr. Hill, who is 
thoroughly prepared for his large responsibilities by reason of previous suc- 
cessful experience along the same line of enterprise. The property lies twelve 
miles south of Bakersfield and includes two thousand three hundred and sixty 
acres of land. To guests the chief attraction of the ranch is the comfortable 
and attractive modern residence, presided over graciously by Mrs. Hill, for- 
merly Miss Edith Baker. 

A lifelong resident of Kern county. Mr. Hill was born in Cummings 
\alley and with his sisters. Ruby and Emma, and a brother, Russell (now 
foreman of the Hill ranch in the Cummings valley) belongs to a family long 
known and highly honored in this locality. His father, the late Ross Hill, 
came to Kern county as early as 1882 and embarked in the cattle business, 
starting a stock ranch on a very modest scale, but working his way forward 
by sure degrees to a position among the prosperous ranchers of the valley. 
Since his death, which occurred on the ranch about 1902, his widow (formerly 
Lottie Gridley) has removed to Los Angeles and there established a home. 
When sixteen years of age Roland G. Hill left school to take up ranching. 
The next year his father died and that threw into his care the home ranch of 
two thousand acres. Assuming the heavy responsibilities with an energetic 
will, he gave to the work close and undivided attention. A specialty was made 
of raising horses, cattle and hogs. So well did he succeed that the Hill ranch 
increased in area from two thousand acres to fourteen thousand acres, the 
latter being its size in 1912 when it went into the hands of the Tehachapi 
Cattle Company. The latter organization was founded by R. G. Hill and 
Messrs. P. G., A. H. and C. W. Gates, three brothers residing in Pasadena 
and owning vast interests in diiTerent places, including large lumber interests 
in Arkansas. Tn the present possession of the company are the following 
holdings: the (ireenfield ranch of two thousand three hundred and sixty acres; 
deeded land in Cummings valley aggregating fourteen thousand acres; and 
leased land in the same valley comprising about five thousand acres, making 
a total of twenty-one thousand three hundred and sixty acres. The cattle in- 
dustry has been a specialty with Mr. Hill for some years in the past and in 
developing the Greenfield ranch it is with the intention of continuing in the 
same business. While some of the cattle are raised on the range, many are 
ship])ed in from Arizona and kept on the home ranch for fattening. 

W. W. STEPHENSON.— A citizen of worth and integrity," W. W. Ste- 
phenson, or "Big Bill" Stephenson (as he is known among his confreres), 
enjoys to an unusual degree the confidence of all who have known him during 
his residence in Kern county. To no man is greater credit due for the 
development of the oil industry in this district. He and a brother, R. M., now 
an oil operator near Tampico, Mexico, were the only children of W. P. Ste- 
phenson, who in an early day removed from Iowa to Oregon, sojourned for 
'<> brief period in Salem, thence removed to Portland, that state, and became 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 513 

chief engineer for the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, returning 
to Iowa during the latter part of 1882 and re-establishing himself on the farm 
in Palo Alto county which had been his home prior to the removal to the 
west. It was during the residence of the family in Salem, Ore., that William 
\V. Stephenson was born in that city June 20, 1875, but his earliest recollec- 
tions are associated with the city of Portland and there he was a pupil in the 
primary grades of the public school. At the age of seven years he accom- 
panied his parents to Iowa and from that time until seventeen he lived on 
the old homestead of the family. 

Returning to the west when seventeen years of age Mr. Stephenson 
established himself in Santa Barbara county, Cal., and became interested 
in the business which he has since followed. The fields at Summerland 
and Santa Paula gave to him his initial experience in the oil industry. Soon 
he began to take contracts for drilling. Much of his work was in the 
interests of the Southern Pacific Railroad Com])any. For three years he 
continued in contract drilling. Much of the work was in the ocean. Drilling 
was done by means of wharves built out into the water for a distance of one 
thousand feet from shore. Experiences in the employ of others whetted 
his ambition to undertake the business for himself. In the summer of 1899 
iie purchased two drilling outfits and brought them to the Kern river fields. 
The venture proved a success and justified the purchase of four additional 
outfits in the fall of the same year, so that by 1900 he had six drilling outfits 
in operation. 

Upon becoming a stockholder in the Alma, Wolverine and Black Jack 
Oil Companies, Mr. Stephenson deemed it advisable to dispose of a number 
of his drilling rigs. Although the Black Jack and Wolverine have since been 
sold, he still retains a block of stock in each, while he continues as superin- 
tendent of the Alma Oil Company, which has recently taken over the 
Alma, Jr., so that the two are practically under one management. The 
officers of the company are as follows: president, W. H. Mason, Battle 
Creek, Mich. ; vice-president, J. E. Beard, of Napa, Cal. ; secretary, M. A. 
Thomas of San Francisco; treasurer, the Canadian Bank of Commerce in 
San Francisco. The following gentlemen comprise the board of directors: 
W. H. ^lason and C. E. Thomas, of Battle Creek, Mich.; J. E. Beard, of 
Napa, this state ; A. Kaines of San Francisco ; and W. W. Stephenson of 
Bakersfield. Beginning operations in September of 1900, the company now 
holds one hundred and twenty acres of land, employs eleven men, and has 
twenty-four producing wells in the Alma and Alma. Jr., with an average 
net output of twelve thousand barrels per month. 

The oil interests owned by Mr. Stephenson, including his stock in 
various oil companies throughout the California fields, by no means repre- 
sent the limit of his mental activities and commercial relations. As president 
of the Pacific Motor and Engineering Company, he maintains an intimate 
association with the development of a business for the buying, selling and 
renting of motors and for the monthly inspection of motors. In addition 
the company engages in the manufacture of machinery for the use of bakers 
and confectioners, also makes a specialty of other machine and repair work, 
and of the wiring and installing of motors. The headquarters of the con- 
cern are at No. 527 Mission street, San Francisco. Besides being the prin- 
cipal owner of this large business. Mr. Stephenson is president and leading 
stockholder in the Butterworth-Stephenson Company of Portland. Ore., 
and the Hamilton Cloak and Suit Company, the Midway Equipment Com- 
pany and the Central Purchasing Company, all of Bakersfield. 

'The California Well Drilling Company of Taft, the B. S. & B. Company 
of Los Angeles and the Western Trust Company of Portland, Ore., have 
the benefit of the services of Mr. Stephenson as a director and principal 



514 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

stuckhulder. As a stockhulder lie is turther interested in the First National 
Bank of Bakersfield, the California Life Insurance Company of San Fran- 
cisco, the Inter- Urban Realty Company of Portland, Ore., the Willamette 
Realty Company of Portland, Ore., the Hydraulic Mining Company of 
Oroville, Cal., and a number of mining concerns at Randsburg, this state. A 
stanch believer in life insurance, for years he has carried heavy policies 
as a i)(.issible protection for his family and large business interests. In land 
and real estate his holdings are important and include a beautiful home on 
Perkins street in Oakland, Cal., an attractive residence in the Irvington 
district of Portland, Ore., property in Bakersfield and valuable holdings at 
Wildwood. Del Alonte and other points. 

In December of 1910 Air. Stephenson lost his wife, Mrs. Edna (Nance) 
Stephenson, by her death in young w^omanhood. A daughter survives, Zada, 
now a student in the high school at Berkeley, this state. From a business 
standpoint Air. Stephenson ranks among the most capable men in the oil 
fields. Taking the past as a criterion and remembering that he is yet a 
young man, it is safe to state that a brilliant future awaits him. For much 
that he has accomplished he gives credit to the inheritance of large mechan- 
ical and engineering ability from his father, who, as has been stated, served 
for years as chief engineer for the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company 
at Portland. Personally Air. Stephenson is a man who thinks for Iiimself 
and conducts his researches independently. Consideration for others is 
a leading characteristic. While he possesses a worthy ambition to make 
and enjoy his share of the world's wealth, he has never trespassed upon 
the domain of others in the acquisition of his possessions. A practical 
demonstration of the Golden Rule has been made in his interesting career. 

OTTO R. KAMPRATH.— The assistant cashier of the Security Trust 
Company of Bakersfield is a member of an old eastern family descended from 
Teutonic ancestors. The genealogy shows that Ferdinand Kamprath in an 
early day drove overland from New York to Alichigan, accompanied by his 
family, and took up a tract of raw- land from the government, later devoting 
his time to the tilling of the soil in that then frontier region. Among his 
children was a son, Henry F., a native of Buffalo, N. Y., but from childhood a 
resident of Michigan, where for man}^ years he has engaged in the manu- 
facture of furniture at Monroe, Monroe county. During young manhood he 
married Aliss Christine Enselberger, who was born and reared in the vicinity 
of Monroe, being a daughter of Leonard Enselberger, a pioneer farmer of 
honored name. Not only are the parents still living, but their three children 
also survive, the eldest of these being Otto R.. who was born at Alonroe, 
Mich., November 21, 1875, and in 1891 was graduated from the high school 
of his native city. Immediately afterward he secured employment as a 
messenger in the First National Bank of Monroe and later was promoted to 
be a bookkeeper in the institution. 

A desire to remove to California caused Air. Kamprath to resign his 
position with the Alichigan bank and thereupon he came to Bakersfield, where 
he secured a place as bookkeeper in the Bank of Bakersfield. A few years 
later he was promoted to be teller. When by consolidation the Security 
Trust Comjiany was organized October 7, 1910, with a capital stock of 
S300,000 fully paid in, he was chosen assistant cashier of the new institution. 
Since its ince])tion the bank has been noted for the conservative spirit of its 
officers and directors. The men at its head are among the leading financiers 
of the city. Their judgment is recognized as excellent, their ability as above 
the ordinary and their energy as boundless. Much credit also is due to the 
assistant cashier, who fills his position with accuracy, dispatch and mental 
alertness, thereby winning for himself a recognized ])lace in local financial 
circles. After coming west he was married at Los Angeles to Aliss Dorothea 







#^c ^^r.^-- ^'^^zyty^^a 




/ 




HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 517 

Heinicke, who was born at Pleasant Ridge, 111., and by whom he has three 
children, Gerald, Willard and Marie. The family residence, erected by Mr. 
Kamprath, stands at No. 2212 Truxtun avenue and both in exterior appear- 
ance and interior finishings indicates the cultured tastes of the family. 

As one of the founders of St. John's Lutheran Church, as the chairman 
of its building- committee, a member of the board of trustees and the present 
treasurer of the congregation, Mr. Kamprath has been closely identified with 
the upbuilding of the church and in its annals his name will hold a place all 
its own. He keeps posted concerning current events and national ])roblems 
and supports the Republican party in general elections. The board of trade 
has had the benefit of his intelligent services as a member of its executive 
committee. 

WILLIAM TRACY.— It is the proud claim of William Tracy that he 
is a native son of California. In San Joaquin county, but near Gait, Sacra- 
mento county, he was born August 8, 1866, being a son of the late Edgar 
Vernet and Mary (Dix) Tracy, natives, respectively, of Pennsylvania and 
Ohio. The mother died in San' Joaquin county in 1877 and the father passed 
away May 2, 1913, when advanced in years. Reared and educated in Pennsyl- 
vania and Ohio, and married in the Buckeye state in 1852, he had brought 
his young wife across the plains in the summer of 1852, making the long 
journey with ox-teams and wagons. At the opening of the Civil war he re- 
turned east, enlisted in his old home regiment of Ohio infantry, went to the 
front and served until the close of the rebellion, when he received an honor- 
able discharge and returned to California. For many years and indeed 
until he retired from business cares he engaged as a liveryman and owned 
a stable at Acampo. In his family there were nine children, as follows : 
Alice, Mrs. J. W. Johnston, of Sacramento; Theodore, of Bakersfield ; Emma, 
who married Ellis Kilgore and died in Sacramento ; Mrs. Ida Marsh, a resi- 
dent of Massillon, Ohio; Mrs. Mary Barber, of Amador county; Mrs. Sarah 
Van A^alkenburg, of Lodi ; William, whose name introduces this article; 
Anna, wife of James Arp, of Bakersfield ; and Mrs. Nellie Jarvis, who is 
living in Amador county. 

The death of his mother when he was ten years of age brought to 
William Tracy a breaking up of tender home ties and a loss almost irreparable. 
During the next six years he was given a home by a farmer. After leaving 
here he lived with his sister, Mrs. Kilgore, of Sacramento, where he finished 
the grammar school. Mr. Kilgore is of the well-known firm of Kilgore & 
Tracy, of Sacramento. The happy days spent in Mr. Kilgore's home and 
about his place of business are among the happiest recollections of Mr. 
Tracy's childhood days. While yet in his teens he purchased an outfit and 
engaged in teaming on the large ranches in Colusa county, meanwhile saving 
his earnings with frugal forethought for the future. Since coming to Bakers- 
field in January of 1891 he has been actively associated with the farm and 
stock interests of Kern county. Here he took up a homestead and joined 
his brother, Theodore, who had secured a claim on the Goose lake channel 
of Kern river, on the range of Canfield & Tracy, whose herds of cattle the 
two brothers superintended. In due time William Tracy acquired the 
Canfield & Tracy holdings and later bought out the interests of his brother, 
who removed to Bakersfield. By such additions to his original homestead he 
acquired a ranch of three thousand and eighty acres, lying five miles north- 
east of Buttonwillow, or twenty-five miles west of Bakersfield as the crow 
flies. Much of the ranch is in pasture, on which may be seen cattle bearing 
the well-known brand of 91 and horses with the T brand that in the neighbor- 
hood has come to stand for qualitv and breeding. One section of the ranch 
has been put under irrigation and is devoted to alfalfa and grain, the balance 
being used for range. A special feature of the ranch is the breeding of draft 
horses, which find a read^- sale in western markets and always command a 



518 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

high price. At the head of the drove of over two hundred horses are two 
Belgian stallions, viz. : Predominant, weight fifteen hundred pounds, and 
Silver Tip, two thousand pounds, both fine specimens of their popular breed. 

A rancher whose devotion to agriculture has been so constant and whose 
interest in county development has continued through so many years must 
necessarily have identified himself with other enterprises besides those ot 
ranching, and we find that Mr. Tracy has exhibited a steadfast devotion to 
every movement of permanent value to the county. Particularly has he 
been interested in the cause of education. For many years he served as a 
trustee of the Wildwood school and the district had the advantage of his 
painstaking devotion to its educational system and his ardent determination 
to promote the upbuilding of a first-class country school. Although by no 
means a partisan, he is a pronounced Republican and stanch in his allegiance 
to party principles. In his marriage to Miss Fannie C. Rowlee, a native 
daughter of San Joaquin county, he won a wife possessing in eminent meas- 
ure housewifely skill, artistic talents and deep devotion to country life, and 
they are earnestly promoting by their united, harmonious efforts the mental 
development and physical training of their children, Cecil Foster, William 
Darrel. Frances Fay and Charles Wellington. 

MRS. WILLIAM TRACY.— Versatility of mental equipment forms a 
notable attribute of Mrs. Tracy, to whom belongs the distinction of being 
a native daughter of the state, whose entire life has been passed within the 
boundaries of the commonwealth, whose education reflects the training 
offered by its schools and whose refinement of taste indicates a cultured 
environment from earliest years. A resident of Kern county from child- 
hood, but a native of San Joaquin county, she is a daughter of that sterling 
and honored pioneer couple, Charles W. and Martha (Martin) Rowlee, men- 
tion of whom is made at length elsewhere in this volume. At a very earh'- 
age she gave evidence of unusual ability and desire for knowledge. Not 
.satisfied with the opportunities offered by the common schools, she prepared 
for normal work and then entered the Chico State Normal, where she spent 
two years in study, pedagogy being her specialty. Next she availed herself 
of the advantages offered by the San Diego State Normal and after she had 
graduated frcm that institution in 1902 she took up educational work in 
Kern county with the intention of specializing as a teacher, but her mar- 
riage to I\lr. Tracy, April 3, 1904, changed her plans and terminated a brief 
but highly successful career as an instructor. There was, however, no 
relinquishment of her interest in schools and schooling, for she has con- 
tinued up to the present time a capable and enthusiastic promoter of all 
educational advancement, a firm believer in the value of the public schools 
and an exponent of modern methods adopted in the most progressive insti- 
tutions of learning. 

For her four children, Cecil Foster, William Darrel. Frances Fay and 
Charles Wellington, Mrs. Tracy cherishes worthy ambitions. That they 
may receive the best of training and educational advantages is a source of 
constant solicitude on her part. That their ideals may be of the highest 
Christian type, not bound by narrow creed or selfish egotism, is her hope 
for their future. While striving to promote their physical welfare and 
mental growth, she finds the leisure to devote herself to art and her own 
paintings adorn the walls of the ranch home as well as the family residence 
in the city at No. 1919 Orange street. Fond of outdoor life and a lover 
of the country, she finds great pleasure in developing the natural resources 
of .their environment. To watch things grow and thrive brings her hap- 
piness, and whether it is a plant or tree or whether some pet bird or 
animal, the growth of each interests her intensely. For this reason she 
surrounds herself with pets. The pea-fowls on the ranch, the fancy poultry 
and the thoroughbred sheep are objects of deep interest to her. Together 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 521 

with Air. Tracy she is es])ecially interested in watching tlie development 
of "Phoenix" and "Tempe." a pair of masrnificent ostriches now eight vears 
of age, and brought from Arizona in 1907 when only eighteen months old. 
They were the first birds of the kind in the entire county and Mrs. Tracy 
has made a special study < f their needs, growth, the incubation, hatching, 
etc.. with a view, not only to understanding them, but also to making them 
a source of revenue. The season of 1013 resulted in an ostrich hatch that 
is destined to play an important part in the commercial future of the valley, 
wdien their birds brought forth a troop of eight chicks which were suc- 
cessfully raised. These were the first ostrich chicks hatched in the county 
and thus opened a new industry in the San Joaquin valley. This led to 
the purchase of a troop of fifty-two birds from \V. F. Robison. manager of 
the Southern California ostrich farm at Idora Park, Oakland. The birds 
were successfully transported by rail to Buttonwillow and from there they 
were hauled in wagons five miles to the Tracy ranch, this being accom- 
plished without injury to any of the birds. The ease with which they are 
cared for is shown when it is known that they are turned into an alfalfa 
field surrounded by the usual four-foot woven wire stock fence. When the 
birds select their mates they are placed in individual pens for nesting. 
Among these birds there are representatives from three different sections 
of Africa, i.e.. the South African (the most common breed in the country"), 
the West Coast and Nubia. The Nubian is the finest ostrich known, having 
skin of a blush-])ink color and being a larger bird and producing a longer and 
finer feather than any other breed. 

The feather industry has grown to such proportions and the demand 
has become so large that Mrs. Tracy has found it necessary to remove to 
Bakersfield her factory for cleaning, dyeing, repairing and the manufacture 
of feathers into plumes and ostrich fancies. Her sister. Miss Hazel Rowlee. 
has charge of the factory, while Airs. Tracy devotes her attention to the 
management and superintendence of the ostrich farm. She is recognized 
among the ostrich farmers as an authority on the nesting, hatching and 
rearing of the birds. The present successful status of the industry gives 
great promise for the future and not only the family, but the entire com- 
munitv finds much of interest in the new undertaking as a novel industry 
with unique possibilities. 

CHARLES H. FAIRCHILD.— The records of Pennsylvania show that 
when William Penn brought over his original colony of emigrants he 
had among the number a member of the English family of Fairchild, a young 
man of bold snirit and fearless valor, w^ell qualified to assist in pioneer tasks, 
and it is said that he became one of the first settlers in the city of Philadel- 
phia. Later generations remained in the Keystone state and Ephraim 
Fairchild was born in Bradford county. With the love of the frontier that 
had been manifested in the original immigrant, he came to California when 
this great commonwealth was an unknown region without attractions ex- 
cept for goldseekers, its rich soil undeveloped and its sunny climate unap- 
preciated. While developing an important business in Sacramento and 
acquiring large tracts of land in the adjacent valley, his Avife, Sarah Kelton 
(Ford) Fairchild, also was becoming well known in the west, where she 
contributed liberally to the press of that day and was recognized as a gifted 
and popular writer. 

The schools of his native citv of Sacramento alTorded to Charles H. 
Fairchild fair educational advantages, of which he availed himself to the 
utmost. A sturdy, wideawake and ambitious boy, he developed into a suc- 
cessful man who was never content to do less than his best. From the time 
that he entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company he 
rose rapidly to positions of trust. Gradually he was given additional respon- 



522 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

sibilities. Any doubts that might have been entertained as to his ability 
were soon changed to satisfaction and therefore he was trusted in a degree 
not always given to the young. The interests of the company were promoted 
by his able service as assistant superintendent at Mojave. In recognition of 
his ability and sound business judgment he was promoted to be freight 
and passenger agent at Bakersfield, which influential position he held for 
many years, meanwhile establishing in this city a home made beautiful by 
the artistic tastes of his wife (nee Margaret H. Fay) and made happy by 
the ])resence of their four children. He was an influential member of the 
Episcopal Church, and kind and charitable to those in need. 

The discovery of oil in Kern county and the instantaneous development 
of a new industry here did not fail to rouse the enthusiastic interest of Mr. 
Fairchild. As was natural to a man of his breadth of thought, he at once 
entered heartilv into the new work. Grasping the business with a celerity 
seldom surpassed, he became very successful as a dealer in oil lands and 
acquired expertness as a judge of values and possibilities. Eventually his 
interests as an oil operator became so important that he resigned from his 
position with the Southern Pacific Railroad and devoted himself exclusively 
to oil development thereafter, with the exception that for one year he also 
engaged as proprietor of the Hughes hotel in Fresno. His most important 
and profitable connection in the oil fields was as vice-president and a large 
stockholder in the Calloma Oil Company operating in the Kern river field, 
the other partners in the organization having been H. A. Jastro and the St. 
Clair estate. Another successful lease which he promoted with Clarence 
Berry as partner was the Ethel D., in the west side field. His death occurred 
May 14, 1910, from hemorrhage of the brain, and brought an unexpected and 
sudden termination to his far-reaching activities, entailing upon Bakersfield 
a heavy loss to its citizenship, depriving the Bakersfield Club of one of its 
honored charter members and removing from the oil industry of Kern county 
one of its keenest operators. He was a strong partisan in politics, possessing 
stanch convictions, and was at one time chairman of the Republican County 
Central Committee. Fraternally he was a n.iember of the Elks, a Mas^n of the 
Knight Templar degree, and a Shriner. 

MARGARET H. FAIRCHILD.— The career .)f Mrs. Fairchild is a most 
interesting as well as an active one. Born in San Francisco, Cal., she was 
the daughter of Stephen J. and Catherine (Kelley) Fay. both pioneers of 
California, having come hither from Boston, Mass., and arriving in San 
Francisco in 18h2. Here Mr. Fav became an extensive general con- 
tractor, hut when at the height of his career his untimely death occurred in 
1869. Her mother also being taken from her when she was very young. 
Mrs. l^'airchild was reared in the family of Daniel .Sullivan, a wealthy man 
of San Francisco, and here she received a thorough education. Having abil- 
it}' and the spirit to ac(|uire a firm foundation in her studies, she rose rajiidly 
and was graduated from the ])ublic school with a splendid record. Xews- 
paper work early attracted her, and after acquiring a knowledge of the busi- 
ness in all its branches, on February 14, 1901, she came to Bakersfield, 
where her services were given first to the Bakersfield Democrat which was 
edited by E. .A. Pueschel, then the leading paper of the county. Later she 
was engaged on the Kern Standard, owned by W. D. Young. Her suc- 
cess in this work was phenomenal and subsequently she purchased a half 
interest with Mr. \'onng, still later buying out his interest in the Standard 
and conducting it as sole owner and proprietor for two years. She then 
sold the plant to Messrs. C( nklin & Maude. 

It was at this time that Mrs. I'^airchild became the wife of Charles H. 
l-'airchild, the ceremony taking place in San Francisco. She is a well-to-do, 
])rosperous and thorough lousiness woman, whose ideas of business lead her 
to transact all her affairs on a strictlv honorable basis. Of the highest 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 525 

princil)les. she is conscientiDUs and trustworthy, and her inlluence for gocxl 
is felt throughuut her entire community. 

Mrs. Fairchild has a very comfortable residence at the corner of Pine 
and Twentieth streets, Bakersfield, where she with her gifted and talented 
children live an ideal home life. Her refining influence has accomplished much 
to bring them to their present exquisite state, for their well-mannered, cul- 
tured ways are proof of the best of breeding and training. She is the mother 
of four children, Ruth, Dorothy C, Gerald Charles and Virginia Fay, and 
they have brought much comfort and cheer to their deserving mother. 

R. B. REES, M.D. — \\'hatever of success has come to Dr. Rees is the 
result of his own efforts and constant study. It was not possible for his 
parents, John W. and Rachel (John) Rees, to give him any educational 
advantages, for after they crossed the ocean from their native Wales they 
had to labor incessantly to secure the necessities of existence. The father, 
who was a contracting painter in his younger years, now makes his home 
in Columbus, Ohio, where the mother died in 1910 at the age of seventy- 
five years. Their son, R. li., was born in Newark, Ohio, and in boyhood 
attended school at Columbus, that state, whence he went east to Boston in 
order to earn a liveliliood in a humble position. During leisure hours he 
studied in the Boston evening high school, where he pursued a special sci- 
entific course until his graduation. Meanwhile all of his studies had been 
directed with the ultimate aim of professional work, an ambititju of which 
he never lost sight through all the financial hardships of youth. During 

1897 and 1898 he attended the University of Vermont and in the fall of 

1898 he matriculated in the University of Maryland at Baltimore, from wdiich 
he was graduated in 1900. The degree of M.D. was conferred upon him 
when he graduated from the medical college of Harvard University at Cam- 
bridge, Mass., in 1901, after which he practiced his profession for three years 
in Boston, later serving for tw^o years as resident surgeon in Carney hospital. 
South Boston. It was there that his splendid talent for surgery first at- 
tracted attention. In critical operations he proved unusually successful and 
his time was almost wdiolly given to surgical duties. Since leaving the east 
he has retained an honorary membership in the Massachusetts State Medical 
Association. 

Having successfully passed an examination before the state medical 
board of California in December of 1906, during March of 1907 Dr. Rees 
selected Bakersfield as the center of future professional work and estab- 
lished an r f^ce in this city. Here too he has his home, which is presided 
over graciously by Mrs. Rees, formerly Miss Edna Clark Wetterman, and 
is brightened by the presence of an only child, John Wetterman. In Bak- 
ersfield, as in the east. Dr. Rees makes a specialty of surgery and practices 
at Mercy hospital, in addition to having built up a large private practice. 
From two to four o'clock he has oflfice hours in his suite above the Hughes 
drug store, while during the balance of his time he gives his attention to 
home and hospital professional duties. Devotion to his specialty is indi- 
cated bv membership in the Surgical Club of Rochester. Minn. In addition 
he is identified with the Kern County and California State ^Medical .Asso- 
ciations, the San Toaquin A'allev Medical Society and the American Med- 
ical Association, and through these organizations as well as through the 
reading of current medical literature he keens in touch wqth modern devel- 
opments in the science of therapeutics. Such has been his devotion to 
the practice of medicine and surgery that he has had no leisure for partici- 
pation in political aflfairs or civic enternrises. nor has he been active in any 
fraternities aside from the Elks and the AA^oodmen of the World. 



526 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

J. R. NEFF. — The president of the Neft colonies, who has become 
closely connected with the material upbuilding of Kern county through the 
promoting of irrigation colonies in the \\'eed Patch, began to be interested 
in this region during the year 1907 and, after having carefully studied the 
soil, climate and possible profitable cultivation of the land in intensive 
farming through irrigation, purchased property and undertook the devel- 
opment of the plans he had projected. With a record of successful identifica- 
tion with the banking business he was qualified by executive ability and 
thorough knowledge of financial problems to manage and develop large 
landed interests and those associated with his projects in Kern county have 
found him to be not only enterprising and progressive, but also far-sighted 
in discrimination, honorable in action and sagacious in judgment. The 
original colony which he established in Kern county, known as the Foothill 
Citrus Farms Colony, is located on section 26, township 31, range 29, and 
was incorporated during 1907 with a capital stock of $24,000, which is the 
value of the pumping plant and irrigation system. Upon the first election 
of officers Mr. Nefif was chosen president and he has filled the position up 
to the present time, H. A. Moyers of San Bernardino being secretary, while 
the California State Bank of San Bernardino acts as treasurer. The large 
tract of land incorporated by the company is held privately by about twenty 
colonists, who own shares in the water company. The two wells, which 
are each twelve-inch bores, are two hundred and fifty feet and three hundred 
and three feet respectively, and produce sufficient water for the irrigation 
of the land as well as for domestic jnirposes. as needed by the twenty colon- 
ists now on the tract. During 1912 the company put in electrical motors and 
centrifugal pumps and since then has used electricity, buying the power from 
the San Joaquin Light & Po^^ er Company. The products of the land include 
alfalfa, Egyptian corn, all the fruits known to Southern California ; nut trees, 
such as English and French walnuts and black walnuts; all kinds of berries, 
Logan berries doing especially well ; and vegetables of every kind. 

The Bear Mountain Orange Compan}', of which Mr. Neff is also presi- 
dent, is located on section 24. township 31. range 29. Kern county, and was 
organized in 1908. with a capita! stuck of $12,800. on the same plan as the 
older company. In addition he manages the Orange Belt Farms Company, 
capitalized at $9,600. and owning the southeast quarter of section 23. town- 
ship 31, range 29. All of the colonists, numbering now about seventy-five 
persons, are interested with Mr. Nef¥ in his enterprise. Under his capable 
leadership, wise judgment and untiring energy, the prospects for future 
development and growing success are most attractive, and there is every 
reason to believe that the coh nies will prove most profitable acquisitions to 
the landed wealth of the county. Many of the persons buying in these tracts 
have come from Southern California, quite a few being from Santa Ana. and 
they were influenced to select property here from the fact that the soil and 
climate ranked with their own section, the water facilities are adequate, and 
the price of the land was low enough to meet their approval. Nor have they 
had reason to regret their decision in coming to Kern county. On the 
other hand, their prospects for the future are the brightest. 

Mr. NefF was born in Baylor county. Tex.. April 29. 1876. and grew to 
manhood in that commonwealth, where for some years he held a position 
as cashier of the Citv National Bank of Childress, also from 1900 to 1904 he 
served as clerk of the district and count v court of Cottle county. At Austin, 
that state, he was united in marriage with Miss Bessie Hutchinson, a resi- 
dent of tliat cit}-. There are two children in the family. Lawrence and 
Pattie. During the latter part of 1904 Mr. Neff removed to California and 
settled in .'^an Bernardino countv. but afterward removed to Pomona. Los 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY ■ 529 

Angeles county, and now makes that city his home, superintending through 
frequent personal trips the valuable interests which he has acquired in 
Kern county and in which he has invested heavily with a firm faith in their 
steady advancement in production and vahiation. 

JOHN ENAS. — At St. George, Azores Islands, Portugal, John Enas was 
born April 29, 1852, the son of John Enas, a farmer and builder in that country. 
His wife, Marianna J. Bettencurt in maidenhood, died in 1911. John Enas, Jr., 
attended school until fourteen years old. In 1866 he came alone to the 
United States to earn his own way unaided. Settling first in Stanis- 
laus county, Cal., he worked part of the time as sheep-shearer, and part as 
helper on a threshing machine, being employed after this for a few years 
at difterent points in the state, working for wages. In 1873 he came to 
Kern county and settled in Delano, where he became occupied in sheep rais- 
ing for himself, and he soon became thoroughly familiar with all the details 
of that enterprise. He remained in Delano until 1881, when he bought what 
is now his home place, consisting of four hundred and eighty acres of land, 
located fifteen miles west of Bakersfield on the old Headquarters road. Of 
this one hundred acres were then planted in alfalfa, and the remainder was 
unimproved. 

Mr. Enas has since that time been extensively engaged in stockraising, 
handling horses, mules, sheep and cattle. He has added to his original tract 
until it now covers an area of over nine thousand acres ; three hundred acres 
are under cultivation and the remainder devoted to pasture land. He has 
spent most of his time on his ranch, and it can be said of him that he is one 
of the most extensive stockraisers in the county. He also owns a section 
of land in the Kern River oil field, of which one hundred and sixty acres is 
proven oil land. On this land are twenty wells, of which fourteen are pro- 
ducing at the present time. In 1906 he accepted the office of vice-presi- 
dent and director of the Portuguese-American Bank of San Francisco, and 
he was also a director in the Bank of Bakersfield until it was dissolved. He 
is now a director of the Security Trust Company in Bakersfield. He is a 
man highly successful, but he has worked hard to gain the position he now 
holds, and has justly earned his present prosperity. An expert in stock- 
raising, his stock is considered the best, and his business enjoys the most 
flattering recognition. He is a member of the U. P. E. C. and the I. D. E. S. 
societies, while politically is an Independent Republican. 

CHARLES SCHIEFFERLE.— An expert knowledge of machinery 
enables Mr. Schiefferle to creditably fill his responsible position as chief 
engineer of the \'alley Ice Company's plant in Bakersfield, where although 
holding the place for a comparatively brief period he has proved himself 
to be thor( uglily competent for the difficult task entrusted to him. in con- 
nection with the operation of the large plant. Having helped to install the 
machinerv, he is thoroughly familiar with everv detail. The day after 
he arrived in Bakersfield, during March of 1911, he entered the employ of 
the companv and began to assist in the erection of machinery. Upon the 
completi( n of the plant he was retained as an assistant and it was not 
long before his worth and ability were recognized by the management, who 
in May of 1912 appointed him to be night engineer. On the 1st of July, 
of the same year, he was promoted to his present place as chief engineer 
and since then has been in charge of the plant, capacity one hundred and 
twenty tons. The compan}- makes a specialty of the manufacture of ice 
for the icing of cars and also for the refrigeration of their large cold-storage 
plant at this point. 

Descended from (lerman ancestors. Charles Schiefiferle was born at 
Northeast, Erie county. Pa., April 25. 1876, and is a son of Jacob and 
Catherine f^Teehl) Schiefiferle. natives respectively of Germany and Cat- 



530 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

taraugus county, N. Y., the latter now a resident of Northeast, Pa. The 
father crossed the ocean in young manhood and settled in Pennsylvania, 
from which state he went to New York and enlisted in the Sixty-fifth New- 
York Infantry. In company with the regiment he proceeded to the front 
and bore his share in the hardships of camp and the dangers of the battle- 
field. During an engagement, while in the act of aiming to fire, he was 
shot through the right wrist and also through the left hand in such a 
planner that the fingers were cut otT. On account of the disability resulting 
from gunshot wounds he was honorably discharged. After he had recov- 
ered sufficiently to resume work he turned his attention to farming and 
settled on a place near Northeast, Pa., where in February of 1906 his death 
occurred. 

The family of Jacob Schiefferle comprised nine children, all but one of 
whom still survive. Charles, who was seventh in order of birth, passed 
the years of boyhood on the home farm and in the neighboring schools. 
At the age of seventeen he was aprenticed to the trade of machinist in 
the Novelty machine shop at Northeast and there he continued until he had 
completed his time, meanwhile gaining an expert knowledge of every depart- 
ment of the trade. During 1898 he began to take contracts to drill gas 
wells in Erie county and for a considerable period he remained in that 
business, meanwhile completing an average of about twenty wells each 
year. Desiring to change his location in January of 1910 he sold out with 
the intention of removing to the west. A brief sojourn at Cripple Creek, 
Colo., where he operated a lease, was followed by his removal to California 
and his permanent settlement at Bakersfield. The progress of this city 
is of interest to him and he maintains the deepest faith in the future devel- 
opment and great prosperity of the place. In politics, although not a 
partisan, he has stanch convictions in favor of Republican principles, while 
fraternally he holds membership with the Knights and Ladies of Security. 

GEORGE W. PARISH.— The business of George W. Parish has taken 
him to many parts of the globe and he has been fortunate in gaining the wide 
experience and knowledge which alone is acquired by travel. He is the son 
of George Parish, who served in the Confederate army in the Civil war from 
1861 to 1865, and was twice wounded, carrying two bullets to his grave. 
He was born in Nashville, Tenn., and came to California in 1869, in 1873 
taking up a homestead of (.ne hundred and sixty acres in Kern county. 
where he followed general farming and stockraising, as he had done in the 
east. He built the old Wilson and Parish ditch before the Kern County Fand 
Company had control, the water that supplied the ditch being taken from the 
Kern river. This ditch was four miles long, and attracted considerable atten- 
tion on account of its completeness. George Parish passed away in 1892. 

George W. Parish was born August 15, 1869. in Anaheim, Orange 
county, Cal., where his parents first settled upon coming west. Fie attended 
school in the old Canfield district, Kern county, also in the Fairview district, 
and for a time attended in Inyo countw mitil he reached the age of fifteen. 
In 1872 he was brought by his j^arents to Kern county, settlement being 
made en what is now the P)ailey ranch, and the next year the homestead was 
taken up, as above stated. The family moved to Independence, Inyo county, 
in 1886, and there the father's death occurred. In 18% Mr. Parish returned 
to Kern county, where he rented the Kiefer ranch and engaged in general 
farming for six years, in 1900 buying twenty acres of his present property, 
later adding eighty acres, until he now has one hundred acres at Panama, ten 
miles southwest of Pakersfield devoted to raising alfalfa hay. In addition to 
his ranch interests he has also taken an active part in the development of the 
oil fields in the vicinity, being a stockholder in the IS Oil Cc^m])any in Taft. 
and was one of the locators of the land. He is also interested in the l\ali- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 533 

foniia Midway Oil Company, the I'.lackinore Oil Company and the Wyoming 
Shamrock Oil Comi)any in W'yoniini;", l^eino- a director in the last-mentitjned 
company. 

In truth Mr. Pari.sh may be called a pioneer of Taft, for he built the 
first business structure and the first residence in town and also started the 
first store. He also organized the school district and served as the clerk of 
the first board of trustees, and while filling that office supervised the building 
of the first school house. In the Panama district he has also served as school 
trustee. The first store in Taft, referred to above, was established by Mr. 
Parish in 1S08 with a stock of general merchandise, which was destroyed 
by fire in 1910. In addition to the property mentioned he also owns other 
property in Taft splendidly located, as well as property in the town of Rich- 
mond. 

For about four years Mr. Parish was engaged in hunting birds of 
plumage and alligators for their hides. This took him into the different 
states of South America, Central America and Mexico. He has sold feathers 
as high as $42 an ounce in New York and London, to which cities he made 
business trips. 

At Winside, Wayne county, Nebr., Mr. Parish was married to Miss Min- 
nie Olmstead, a native of Tekamah, Burt county, that state, the daughter of 
A. E. and Nancy H. (Conklin) Olmstead. natives of New York and Illinois 
respectively. The Olmsteads came from Nebraska to California in 1895, 
and in Kern the death of Mr. Olmstead occurred, while Mrs. Olmstead makes 
her home with her daughter, Mrs. Parish. Mr. and Mrs. Parish have four 
children. Earl, Donald, Elsie and Jack. 

A. Y. MEUDELL. — The superintendent of machinery for the San 
Joaquin Light and Power Corporation possesses qualifications that adapt 
him admirably for his responsible post and that have enabled him to fill 
with marked eflficienc)' other positions of equal importance. Upon the 
installation of the machinery and electrical appliances of the great corpora- 
tion at Bakersfield his services were retained as superintendent -of machin- 
ery, his selection for the responsible task being induced through his wide 
reputation as an expert in the line of his specialty. When it is considered 
that the company operates the street car system in Bakersfield and has laid 
double tracks to East Bakersfield, besides having built more than one hun- 
dred and twenty-five miles of feeder lines in Kern county (the principal line 
being from Weed Patch to a point fifteen miles south of Edison) ; when 
it is further appreciated that hydro-electric power is furnished for illuminat- 
ing cities, propelling factory plants and raising water for irrigating purposes. 

Through his father, (Jeorge ]\Ieudell, who came to America from Edin- 
burgh, Mr. Meudell is descended from Scotch ancestors, while his mother, 
Mary (Yeoman) Meudell, was a member of an old New York family identi- 
fied with the -colonial history of our country. Although he is a native of 
Chicago. 111., born in 1872. from the age of three years he was reared in 
Belleville. Ontario, and at a very early age he learned the trade of machinist. 
Coming to California in 1893 he engaged in ranching at Gardena for two 
years, after which he worked as a machinist and boiler-setter for J. B. 
Meyer & Ccj.. of Los Angeles. During 1900 he entered the employ of the 
Los Angeles Railway Company as engineer and machinist at the power 
house and thus was identified with the inauguration of the Huntington 
electric system in that city. After six years in one position he was promoted 
to be chief engineer in charge of the Central avenue power plant, but soon 
resigned on account of ill health. 

W^hile engaged with Charles C. Moore- erecting engineer. Mr. Meudell 
assisted in the construction of the Redondo electric plant and remained to 
take charge of the first test, which covered a period of eight months. During 



534 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

1908 he entered the employ of the Pacific Light & Power Company in Los 
Angeles and was sent to the Redlands plant as engineer, but after a few 
months he resigned to take charge of the power plants of the Monterey Gas 
and Electric Light Company at Monterey and Salinas. Returning from 
Monterey to Los Angeles he engaged for a brief period as erecting engineer 
with the Pacific Light and Power Company, leaving that important place 
in order to accept his present position in Bakersfield v\?hen the corporation 
installed its plant in this city. Mr. Meudell is very optimistic over the great 
possibilities of the stiil production in Kern county and owns two small 
farms in the county. One, of twenty acres, at Lerdo, is given to the raising 
of hemp, while the other, of ten acres, on the Rosedale road, is devoted 
to alfalfa. While making his headquarters in Los Angeles he married in 
that city Miss Bessie Hannam, who was born in Witby, Ontario, and by 
whom he has two daughters. Mary and Myrtle. In fraternal relations he 
holds membership with South Gate Lodge No. 320, F. & A. M., in which 
he was made a Mason. His life has been an existence of busy activities and 
it has not been possible for him, in any city of his residence, to participate 
prominently in civic upbuilding or political afifairs, yet he has kept posted 
on national problems and in sentiment is a stanch upholder of Republican 
ririnciples. 

PETER CHARE.— The childhood recollections of Mr. O'Hare clus- 
tered around the little village of Banbridge, Ireland, where his father, Michael 
O'Hare, was engaged in business and where he passed the carefree days of 
early life. The family belonged to one of the oldest and most honored in 
the north of Ireland and he claimed county Down as his native place, his 
birth having occurred there December 7, 1843. After a course at college and 
while still a young man he came to the United States. After a comparatively 
brief sojourn in Massachusetts he proceeded west to California and set- 
tled in Mariposa county, where he found employment in the mines. While 
employed at Visalia in 1869 he accidentally saw a map of Kern Island 
and being interested froiu the first, determined to come here. 

The original purchase made by Mr. O'Hare comprised two hundred 
and fifty acres of unimproved land. This he brought under cultivation and 
greatly enhanced in value through systematic irrigation. Later he acquired 
the title to a second farm and this also he put under irrigation, making other 
improvements of permanent value to the property. Both farms were in his 
possession at the time of his death, August 26, 1894, and since then they 
have been rented by his widow, the tenants devoting them to general farm- 
ing and dairying. In addition to these two properties he was interested in the 
Buena \^ista canal, of which he had been an original promoter and builder. 
From the beginning of his citizenship in the United States he voted with 
the Democratic party, but he was not a partisan in spirit and the only office 
that he ever consented to fill, which was county supervisor, he won by a 
nomination without his solicitation. After he had been a member of the 
board from 1882 to 1886 and had given his influence to all movements for 
the permanent growth of the county, he refused to continue in the office, 
preferring to devote liis entire time to nrivate business and agricultural 
enterprises. 

The marriage of Peter O'Hare and Miss Marv F. Clancv was solemn- 
ized in San Francisco in June of 1891. Airs. O'Hare was born in county 
Leitrim. Ireland, and during girlhood came to the Ignited States, ioining a 
brother. T. J. Clancy, who was a merchant of San Francisco. Of her mar- 
riage two sons w'ere born. lames AT. and Peter C. The former, a graduate 
of the Bakersfield hisrh school in 1912. is n w attending; Santa Clara T^ni- 
versitv. and the latter is a member of the Kern countv hi?h school class 




6fe.(p; 




/:2>i^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 537 

of 1914. Since the death of her husband, which occurred in San Francisco, 
Mrs. G'Hare has made her home in Bakersfield. 

JOHN S. OSWALD.— Although his earhest memories are associated 
with the United States and practically all of his life has been passed in this 
country, Mr. Oswald is of German nativity and was born at Rodersheim, 
Rheinpfalz, December 19, 1866, being a son of Vollmanus and Eva Barbara 
(Goger) Oswald, likewise natives of that part of Germany. During 1867 
the father, who was a carpenter by trade, brought his family to America 
and settled in Pennsylvania, where he found employment in the building busi- 
ness at Allentown. For less than ten years he remained a resident of the 
east. The development of the central west was attracting resolute farmers 
to that section of the country and he formed one of the number who under- 
took to earn a livelihood from the soil of Minnesota. During 1876 he took 
his family to McLeod county and secured land near Glencoe, where he 
engaged in general farming fur eleven years. Lack of satisfactory returns 
from his farm led him to seek other locations and finally he decided upon 
Oregon, his son, John S., having preceded him to the Pacific coast where 
he himself established a home near Eugene, in 1887. A study of soil condi- 
tions proved gratifying to him and he invested in unimproved farm property, 
which at the time was selling at low figures. He still lives on his ranch, 
but of recent years has largely retired from the strenuous activities of 
younger days. Born in 1837 and his wife six years later, both are still 
rugged and robust and maintain an intelligent interest in the progress of 
the world. Adjacent to their ranch lies one hundred and sixty acres owned 
by their son, John S.. who bought the tract for $1200 and since has had the 
satisfaction of witnessing such a rapid advance in valuations that farms 
further from Eugene than his own have sold for $400 per acre. 

The eldest of seven children, John S. Oswald was brought to the United 
States in infancy and as soon as old enough to attend school was a pupil 
in the primary grade at Allentown, Pa. During 1876 he accompanied his 
parents to Glencoe, Minn., where he attended a private academy. L'pon leav- 
ing school he learned the trade of carpenter under his father in McLeod 
county. At the age of about twenty he left home to make his own way in 
the world. The great northwest was the objective point. For a time he 
engaged in' carpentering at Spokane, Wash., and later he had employment 
at South Bend, that state, whence in 1887 he went to Oregon and there 
joined his parents at Eugene, settling upon a farm in the vicinity. In the 
spring of 1888 he came to Bakersfield and entered the empJoy of F. W. 
Hickox as a carpenter. For three years he continued in the same position. 
Since then he has been associated with the hardware department of the 
A. Weill establishment. At first as a clerk he proved the value of his 
services and justified his promotion to the head of the department at the 
expiration of three years. 

The marriage of John S. Oswald was solemnized in Bakersfield October 
6, 1897, and united him with Miss Maude Hathway, who was born in 
Owensboro, Daviess county, Ky., and was fourth in order of birth among six 
children. Her parents, Howard and Phoebe CKinchloe) Hathway, have re- 
sided in Bakersfield for many years. Of her marriage to Mr. Oswald there 
is a son, Raymond John Oswald. Ever since making a study of political 
questions Mr. Oswald has favored the Republican party. Since coming to 
Bakersfield he has identified himself with Aerie No. 96. of the Eagles, and 
Bakersfield Lodge No. 266 of the Elks, also the Ancient Order of I'^nited 
Workmen and the Knights of Pythias. 

EZRA NEWTON BLACKER.— As the owner of considerable real 
estate in Bakersfield. whose material upbuilding he has witnessed with civic 



bob HiSTOKY Ui' KERi\ COUATY 

pride, E. JSewtoii iiiacker lias an intimate identitication with local attairs. 
1 wenty years or more liave passed since tirst he laiiaed in JJakersheld and 
began to work lor the Kern Lounty J^and Lompany on Toso ranch as a 
fence-rider. In this long period he lias witnebsed the developnient oi farms, 
the growth ol towns and the transiormation of the entire county into an 
aspect of material prosperity. In removing to this state he came direct from 
his native commonwealth of Indiana, where he was born in Clinton county 
l^'ebruary ^0, 1868, and where he passed the years of boyhood upon a farm 
operated by his father, J. A", lilacker. Uf six children iorming the lamily of 
his father s hrst marriage he was the eldest, the youngest being Robert E., 
superinlendeiit of the stable department of tne ivern Lounty Land Company 
at Bakersheld. 

liy trade a carpenter, skilled with tools and an expert in various forms 
of cabinet work, E. Newton Ulacker followed the occupation for some 
years in Jiakersheld after he had resigned his position on the ranch. Upon 
the starting of Famosa he went to the new town, bought business property, 
erected a large store building and engaged in mercantile pursuits, also con- 
ducted an hotel, but his venture had a disastrous termination through the 
abandoning of the village. Thereupon he returned to Eakersfield in 1900 
and purchased a lot on the corner of I and Twenty-third streets. To this 
lot he moved his building from Famosa and remodeled it into an apartment 
house of sixteen rooms, which he now manages. In addition he has built 
eight residences in the same block and the adjoining block on I street. All 
of the houses were planned and built by himself and represent his own 
skilled knowledge of his trade. 

The marriage of Mr. Blacker took place at Crawfordsville, Ind., Sep- 
tember 2, 1891, and united him with Miss Ida Cave, who was born and 
reared near that city. The young couple came to California in 1892 and 
settled in Kern county, where occurred the birth of their two sons, Haven 
and Carroll. Mrs. Blacker was the youngest among eight children com- 
prising the family of James E. and Carlotte (Kious) Cave, natives respec- 
tively of Ohio and Indiana. The mother was a daughter of Martin Kious, 
an Indiana farmer, .and two of her brothers were soldiers in the Civil w^ar, 
one meeting his death while fighting for the preservation of the Union. 
James E. Cave, who engaged in farming pursuits until his death in 1910, 
was a member of Company M, Eleventh Indiana Cavalry, at the time of the 
Civil war. in which two of his brothers also participated, as well as their 
father. Rev. .^fred N. Cave, the latter a commissioned officer and an influ- 
ential man in his regiment. The skill of the L^nion officer was not confined 
to military tactics, for as a pioneer minister of the Methodist Episcopal 
denomination he proved himself to be an able speaker, logical thinker and 
profound exponent of the Scriptures. Although a native of Ohio, the greater 
part of his life was passed in Montgomery county. Ind.. and he was known 
and honored by the Methodists throughout all that section of the country. 
Throughout all of their mature years Mr. and ]\lrs. Blacker have l^een earnest 
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In gifts to the church .they 
have been generous, while they also have assisted educational and philan- 
thropic enterprises to the extent of their ability. In national princitiles Mr. 
Blacker favors the Republican party, while fraternally he holds membership 
with the ^^''nodmen of the A\'orld. 

SAMUEL GRAHAM SMARTT.— A native of McMinnville. Warren 
county, Tenn., Mr. Smartt was born October 21, 1862, the son of Samuel d. 
and Martha (Graham) Smartt, both of whom passed away in Tennessee. The 
father followed agriculture as a life pursuit, and during the Civil war served 
in the Confederate armv for a long period, after which he returned to Ten- 




C^-^^^-^fyc/l^ (^xJi^^ 




HISTORY Ui^" KERN COUNTY 541 

nessee and remained for ihe rest of his life. Nnie children were born to 
him and his wife Martha, of whom five are now living, and Samuel G. is the 
only one of the family to reside in the state of California. 

Urought up in his native town, Samuel G. Smartt, Jr., received the 
s-chooling afforded by the local public schools and then learned the carpenter 
trade which he continued to follow until the year 1887. At this time he 
decided to come west and his first location was at Fresno where he was 
employed at raisin-packing for a year. The building business then attracted 
him and he became engaged in that line of work, in October, 1889, coming 
to Bakersfield to aid in the building up of that place after the big fire. 
There was sore need for these workers at that time, as the fire had caused 
the destruction of many buildings and left the city in a bad state. This 
has been the field of operation for Mr. Smartt ever since, with the exception 
of a period between 1906 and 1910 when he spent his time in San Francisco, 
building among other houses the ^Madison school and the St. Luke's church, 
which are fine examples of his capable, energetic powers. In 1910, however, 
he returned to Bakersfield, where he has built many residence and business 
houses, and, in fact, many of the schoolhouses throughout Kern county have 
been built under his direction and contract. The Smartt apartments, situ- 
ated at No. 1715 Eighteenth street, Bakersfield, and owned by Mr. and Mrs. 
Smartt, were built by him. In Fresno Mr. Smartt married Mrs. Lulu Lisk, 
a native of Texas. 

PETER GILLI. — The excellent opportunities afforded by Kern county 
to young men of energy of temperament and force of character, find illustra- 
tion in the successful activities of Peter Gilli, a prosperous farmer and the 
owner of one hundred and seventy acres of highly improved land on the 
Kern Island road. Less than a quarter of a century has elapsed since he 
came from Switzerland to America and identified himself with the growing 
interests of California, where since he has Uxed and labored in Kern county. 
During the early years of his residence here he worked for wages and sent 
back to Switzerland a large portion of his earnings, in order to assist his 
father in paying off an indel^tedness on the home farm. However, as early 
as 1894, four years after landing in the west, he proved his faith in this 
locality by investing in land, the original purchase comprising sixty acres. 
It was no slight task to assume a debt almost burdening in amount and 
for several years he was scarcely able to meet his payments, but his faith 
never wavered nor did his courage falter. After selling the place he pur- 
chased a tract from R. E. Houghton which was then known as the Lincoln 
farm. Although at the time of buying he could raise only one-fourth of the 
cash, he finally succeeded in paying for it. In addition he put about $5,000 
worth of improvements on the place, including the elegant residence erected 
in 1910 and containing all modern conveniences, not the least of these being 
the installation of electric lights and of an adequate water service. Dairying 
has been one of his specialties and at this writing he has twelve fine milch 
cows on the farm, besides which he engages in raising mules and hogs as well 
as in the cultivation of the ground in such crops as are best adapted to the 
soil and climate. 

Although the only member of the family now living in California Mr. 
Gilli was not the first of the name who crossed the ocean from the far-distant 
-Mpine home. W' hen a young man his father, John Gilli, was attracted to the 
Pacific coast by reason of tlie discovery of gold and prospected in all the 
region lying between Bakersfield and San Francisco, but meeting with no 
special luck in the mines and feeling deeply the isolation from kindred he 
returned after a time to his native land, where he settled on a farm. About 
1905 he lost his wife, Rosa (Grischott) Gilli, since which time he has made 
liis liome with liis voungest daughter. For years he lived a life of self- 



342 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

sacrificin>^- labor and tuilecl early and late to sni)|)ort his family from the 
products raised on his farm. In the earning- of a livelihood he was greatlv 
aided by an appointment as a Swiss njad master and when he recently 
retired from that position, after years of faithful service, he was given a sub- 
stantial pension by the o()vernment. All of his seven children excepting the 
fourth, Peter, continue to live in Switzerland. They are named as follows: 
Eva, Mrs. Florian Cojori ; Rosa, Mrs. Alexander Joos ; Maria, the widow of 
Albert Ritzzi ; Christine, Mrs. Peter Grischott ; John, who is employed as a 
custom house official by the Swiss government ; and Elizabeth, who married 
John Tobler and lives on a farm in her native canton. 

Descended from an old Swiss family that also boasted of a pedigree going 
back to ancient Roman blood, Peter Gilli was born in Graubunden, Grisons, 
Switzerland, Noveml)er 24, 1867, and during boyhood gained a comprehensive 
knowledge of both the German and old Italian tongues. The schools of the 
home neighborhood were excellent and after he had completed the grammar 
course he spent two years in a high school, but did not graduate on account 
of the necessity of earning his livelihood. Early in life he embraced the doc- 
trines of the German Lutheran Church and since then he has been faithful in 
devotion to that denomination. After having worked for one year in a store 
at Zurich, Switzerland, and two years in Hotel Enderlin at Pontresina in the 
picturesque Alpine region, he came to California, arriving at Bakersfield April 
9, 1890. For five years he worked steadily in the employ of Welling Canfield, 
a pioneer dairyman of Kern county. From 1895 to 1897 he worked for Chris 
Mattly, a prominent dairyman of this county, who had come from the same 
village as himself. Later he rented one hundred and sixty acres lying near 
Lakeside and belonging to Mrs. R. Chubb. On that place he prospered as a 
dairyman and general farmer and finally he accumulated an amount suf- 
ficient to justify the improvement of the raw land which he had purchased 
during 1894. Since then he has given his attention to his own land, which 
forms one of the valuable farms of the vicinity. In politics he is a Repub- 
lican and belongs to the Woodmen of the World. 

The first trip across the ocean was made by Mr. Gilli during 1890, when 
on the 20th of March he boarded a trans-Atlantic steamer at Havre, France, 
and journeyed over the usual ocean route to New York. The next trip was made 
in 1900, during which year he left California for New York and from there 
sailed for Europe. En route to Switzerland he visited the World's Fair at 
Paris and found both pleasure and instruction in that great international ex- 
;)Osition. After a happy renewal of friendships with the people of his native 
canton he came back to work in California and eagerly took up the battle nec- 
essary to the securing of financial independence. Again in 1908 he returned 
to his old home in the Alps. In the meantime his mother had passed away, 
but there yet remained his father, then about seventy-three years of age. 

Mr. Gilli was married at Bakersfield July 2, 1913, to Miss Avis Haworth, 
daughter of C. N. and Mary A. (Mattley) Haworth, of El Reno, Okla. She was 
born in Iowa, and went to Oklahoma with her parents when she was- four 
years old. 

WILLIAM BRADLEY PECK.— In his native city of Detroit, Mich., 
where he was born May 23, 1840, he became familiar with the environment 
of the frontier and tales of the dangers of the west did not daunt his resolu- 
tion to come hither. At the age of nineteen he crossed the plains with a 
large expedition of emigrants. The journey, although not without its 
dangers, came to an uneventful end and the men dispersed to the various 
mines, Mr. Peck seeking the placer mines of Hangtown. The camp with 
its throngs of gold-seekers from every part of the world presented a weird 
spectacle to a stranger, but he soon became familiar with the work of the 
mines and the customs of the miners. The life, although one of hardship 




(^^^ 




^u^ 



HISTORY OF KKRX COUNTY 545 

and deprivation, was not without its zest of adventure and thrilling exploits, 
but in time he wearied of the unsatisfactory returns and the lack of 
permanency, so he turned his attention to the buying of horses and the 
running of a dairy near Placerville, Eldorado county. 

Like many of the original pioneers Mr. Peck has followed various occu- 
pations, having been at different times a miner, dairyman, rancher and 
liveryman, and while none of these callings brought him a fortune he has 
become the possessor of a well-earned competency. During 1864 at San 
Jose he married ]\Iiss Hattie Stiner and his second marriage, which occurred 
in Reedley, united him with Mrs. Amanda (Weeks) Hurney, born in i-'ond du 
Lac, Wis. Of his first marriage there are two daughters, namely: Euphemia, 
wife of Joseph Stephens, a farmer at Turlock ; and Lillian, wife of Alfred 
(liles, who is employed in a dairy business at Fresno. Of Mrs. Peck's first 
marriage there were three children, Elgin of Bakersfield ; May, Mrs. Carter, 
of Bakersfield ; and Frank, of New Westminster, B. C. For some time Mr. 
Peck has made his home on a ranch of twenty acres two and one-half miles 
south of Bakersfield. This property, which he purchased in 1910, has been 
improved under his careful oversight. 

CHARLES NEWTON JOHNSTON.— The Johnston family long has 
been identified with New England, where C. *N. and his father, John 
Eldride, were born at Bristol, Me. He was the eighth generation and lineal 
descendant of Governor Bradford of Massachusetts, the originator of Thanks- 
giving day. The life of the father was all too brief, but was marked by 
patriotism and courage. When yet a mere lad he had gone to sea and by 
slow degrees he rose to be first mate of a vessel. When the Civil war began 
he offered his ser\ices as a member (if a Maine regiment of infantry, but 
soon after he had been accepted he was transferred to the United States 
navy as an ofBcer on the transport, Potomac, from which he rose to the 
rank of captain. Upon the expiration of his time of service he received an 
honorable discharge from the navy, whereupon he resumed his former posi- 
tion as first mate on an ocean steamer. U'hile yet a young man he passed 
from earth, leaving an only son, Charles Newton, whose birth had occurred 
November 14, 1865. The widow, who bore the maiden name of Elizabeth 
Francis and was a native of Maine, was married again some time after losing 
her first husband. Her second union was with Joseph Spinney, of Maine, 
a man of ability and worth, who after bringing the family to California in 
1877 settled at Fresno. In that city he engaged in the manufacture of brick 
and also in the building business as a contractor. Some of the first permanent 
buildings in Fresno were erected under his personal oversight. Rising to 
prominence in the city of his adoption he was honored with election to the 
mayoralty and filled the office for two terms. For some years he owned 
the I. O. O. l*". building in Fresno, which he had erected during the period 
of his activities as a contractor. After his death, which occurred at Fresno, 
his widow removed to Point Richmond. Contra Costa county, and con- 
tinues to live there at the present time. 

^^'hen about twelve years of age Charles Newton Johnston accompanied 
his mother and stepfather in their removal from Maine to California, where 
he completed his education in the Fresno schools. During 1879 he left 
school to take up l)lacksmithing as an apprentice to J. W. \\'illiams, whose 
shop occupied the present site of the Grand Central hotel in I^>esno. Until 
the completion of his time he continued in the same shop, but upon starting 
out for himself in 1882 he came to Bakersfield. where he began to work in 
a sho]) on the corner of L and Nineteenth streets. For a time he was em- 
ployed by J. E. Smith and later he was under H. H. Fish, being with the 
two men about twenty years altogether. Buying the shop in 1907, he con- 
ducted the business there, which was the oldest of the kind in the citv. It 



546 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

was in March, 1913, that he moved int(j his new building. The site covers 
an area of 132 x 115 feet on Eighteenth and O streets and the building, which 
is two stories, is 70 x 90 feet. This has been fully equipped with the most 
modern and complete machinery for general blacksmithing ; woodwork, forg- 
ings and repairing for automobiles is an important feature, and the heaviest 
kind of work is handled in the shops. The largest automobile stage in the 
valley was built here and is used for service on the Oil Center stage line. 
In the conduct of his business Mr. Johnston is ablv assisted by his wife, 
who lias charge of liis ofifice. 

The comfortable home which Mr. Johnston built at the corner of C and 
Twent}-second streets is presided over with dignity and grace by his capable 
wife, who l)ore the maiden name of Emma Blanche Redstone, and who is a 
native of Dutch Mat, Placer county, this state. During the era of mining 
activity her father. Col. A. E. Redstone, with Judge Rhoades and others, 
crossed the plains in the ■50s with ox-teams from Indianapolis to California, 
and engaged in mining. Having no luck as a seeker of gold, he turned his 
attention to journalistic affairs and became prominent in newspaper work. 
For a time he also w^as employed in the secret service. At tliis writing he 
and his wife make their home at A\'oody, Cal. His wife, who was before 
her marriage Mary Josephine Koontz, was a native of Indianapolis, daughter 
of George Koontz. She was a niece of Re^". Abraham Koontz, the founder of 
the first Methodist Episcopal Churcli in Indianapolis. George Koontz was 
an extensive farmer and left to his daughter the farm tliat is now the 
City Park of Indianapolis. Colonel Redstone returned to Indianapolis and 
served as Colonel of an Indiana regiment in the Civil war. He was a prom- 
inent attorney, and was very talented. In California he published many 
works bearing on the labor problem as well as other philanthropic reforms. 
When a young lady Mrs. Johnston, then ^liss Emma Blanche Redstone, was 
graduated from the Oakland high school, after which she was married to 
F. R. Kalloch, who died leaving her with two children, namely: Rita, now 
the wife of Herman S. Dumble, of Bakersfield ; and F. R. Kalloch, contractor 
and builder of the same city. In ISakersfield ^larch 17. 1902. she became the 
wife of Mr. Johnston. 

Upon the organization of the first volunteer fire dejiartment in Bakers- 
field many years ago. Mr. Johnston became a member and at different times 
he served as foreman of the Eureka Engine Company, also for one term 
he served as chief of the fire department. Before the incorporation of 
the city he was chosen a fire commissioner and served as such for two terms, 
being honored with the chairmanship of the board for one term. Recogniz- 
ing the imperative need of fire protection, he cheerfully gave his services as 
long as funds were lacking for the payment of a regular corps of workers. 
From the time of attaining his majority he has voted the Republican ticket 
at all national elections, but he is independent in local affairs. After coming 
to Bakersfield he was made a Mason in 1 bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M., 
and was raised to the Royal Arch degree in Kern Valley Chapter No. 75, 
R. A. M. Later he joined the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias, and 
with his wife is a member of Sunset Temple No. 16, Pythian Sisters. Mr. 
Johnston is an influential local worker in the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, and is a member of the encampment. 

THADDEUS M. McNAMARA, M.D.— The McNamara family is of 
Anglo-Saxon origin and was founded in America by William 'M. McNamara. 
lor years a farmer in Illinois. The next generation was represented by 
T. M.. born on the home farm near Elgin, 111., liut from young manhood a 
resident of California. The eldest of his three children. Thaddeus M.. was 
born at Yisalia. Cal.. August 1, 1880, received his early education at St. 
Ignatius College in San Francisco and then matriculated in St. ]Marv's 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 549 

College in Kansas, from which institution he received the degree of A. B. 
upon his graduation in 1901. On returning to California he entered the 
Cooper Medical College in San Francisco, where he took the regular course 
of lectures, graduating in 1905 with the degree of M. D. and with an 
excellent record for scholarship. Indeed, it was largely due to his capability 
in clinical work that he received an appointment as interne in the city and 
county hospital, where he remained for sixteen months. Valuable experience 
also was gained through a service of eight months as resident physician in 
ihe emergency and general hospital at Los Angeles. Important professional 
knowledge was further acquired while acting as interne in the Lane hos- 
pital of San Francisco. After he had filled that position for ten months 
he was promoted to be resident physician in the same institution, where 
he continued during the following year and then resigned in 1909 in order 
to engage in practice in Bakersfield. In this city for a time he had the 
advantage of an ass( ciation with Dr. A. F. Schafer, but since the latter has 
concentrated his attention upon an important professional specialty, Dr. 
McNamara has succeeded to their private practice. Besides the private 
practice and hospital activities he has been prominent in the work of the 
Kern County Medical Society, and is now filling the office of vice-president : 
he is also a member of the State Medical Society and American JMedical 
Association. Since coming to Bakersfield he has associated himself with 
the Knights of Columbus and the Fraternal Brotherhood. \\'hile making 
his home in San Francisco he met and married Miss Lillian Price, who was 
born in Stockton and is a graduate of the Lane hospital training school for 
nurses. Two sons bless their union, Thaddeus M. and Joseph, the elder 
representing the third generation to bear the same name. 

JOHN HENRY McMILLEN.— Not alone as a son of that honored pio- 
neer, Joel McMillen, but because of his own worthy achievements is John 
Henry McMillen, of Wasco, entitled to prominence in this work. Joel Mc- 
Millen, a native of Cape Elizabeth, Me., born February 22, 1833, was educated 
in public schools near his boyhood home and early acquired a practical knowl- 
edge of the ship-joiners' trade. In 1849, w'hen he was sixteen years old, he 
came to California with the Simpson brothers, around Cape Horn on a sailer 
to San Francisco, Simpson brothers becoming successful lumber manufac- 
turers and dealers in that city. Mr. McMillen was for some years employed 
at teaming, but eventually engaged in contract work. From San Francisco 
he moved to Nevada, where he employed himself profitably in teaming and 
hauling, chiefly in the mining districts. He followed the mining booms here 
and there in Nevada until 1879. when he came to Kern county and bought a 
section of land near Poso ranch and engaged in general farming and stock- 
raising on a large scale. He died December 3, 1896, on his homestead and his 
wife passed awa}^ October 5, 1902. He married Henrietta Matlock, a native 
of New York City, who accompanied her parents across the plains to Cali- 
fornia when she was six 3-ears old, settling at Placerville. 

It was in Lodi, Sacramento count}', Cal., that John Henry McMillen 
was born August 11, 1877. His parents brought him to Kern county in 1879. 
when he was abrut two years old, and he remained at home until after the 
death of his mother in 1902. He attended school until he was sixteen years 
old, then took a commercial course in Heald's Business College. San Fran- 
cisco, from which he was graduated in 1897. Then returning to Kern county, 
he associated himself w'ith his mother on the old farm, carrying on general 
farming and stock-raising on a large scale. Mr. McMillen also engaged in 
breeding and handling for the market horses, mules, cattle and hoijs, con- 
tinuing this until 1900. when he took up contracting, teaming and haulin.g. 
together with general grading, the construction of roads and the laying of 



550 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

pipe lines, operating- extensively in different parts of the state. For six 
months he was engaged in teaming and hauling at Coalinga and for three 
years in the building of levees in the Tulare Lake district and he was busy 
for a time in the construction of roads at AlcKittrick. In 1910 he took up his 
residence at Wasco, since which time he has continued in the general con- 
tracting business and has done the hauling for all the pipe lines constructed 
out of Lost Hills. He began contracting in a small way and his business has 
steadily increased until he owns two hundred and fifty mules, which are kept 
busy the year round in his contract work in different parts of the state. Mr. 
MciVIillen has lately sold his farming as well as his cattle interests, to devote 
all of his time to his business of general contracting. His corrals and head- 
quarters are at Wasco, where he has two large warehouses for the storage 
of hay and grain for his stock. 

Mr. McMillen was married in El Monte, Los Angeles county, July 15. 
1911, to Miss Mabel James Lambert, who was born in Illinois and came to 
California with her parents when she was a child. She was educated in the 
public schools of Pasadena and graduated at the Los Angeles State Normal 
School, after which she was engaged in educational work for ten years. 

REV. LOUIS KUEFFNER.— St. John's German Lutheran Church of 
Bakersfield, under the efffcient ministrations of Rev. Louis Kueffner as 
pastor, is now making the most gratifying progress in its brief but meritorious 
history and in its spiritual helpfulness is evincing the source and secret of 
its numerical growth. In the early part of the twentieth century a few 
people of that faith decided to promote the establishment of a congregation. 
The beginning was as a grain of mustard seed, insignificant and unpromising. 
The few faithful members held occasional services in the old Justice of the 
Peace hall on I street, opposite from the old court house. It was impossible 
to support a regular pastor and dependence was placed upon the helpfulness 
of visiting brethren. Rev. Mr. Norden, who established and first ministered 
to the congregation, was followed by Elders Baur and Denninger. Later 
the congregation enjoyed the occasional ministrations of Rev. Mr. Grunow, 
of Visalia. and still later Rev. Mr. Berner, of Terra Bella. ])reached for them 
twice a month. During the spring of 1911 the congregation completed their 
house of worship and an adjoining parsonage, on the corner of Twentieth and 
C streets, and September 17, 1911, Rev. Louis Kueffner became their first 
resident pastor. 

From his earliest recollections Rev. Louis Kueffner had been familiar with 
the doctrines of the German Lutheran denomination, for he was instructed 
wisely and thoroughly by his devoted father, an ordained minister of the 
church. With such an environment in boyhood and with such talents as he 
possessed, it was natural that he should follow in the footsteps of his father 
and consecrate his all to the service of the Lord. Born in Fairbank, Iowa, 
August 22, 1886. he was reared in Illinois and still has hosts of warm friends 
in that state. His father. Rev. Christian Kueffner, a native of Joliet. 111., 
received exceptional advantages in preparation for a ministerial career. After 
he had graduated from Concordia College in Fort Wayne, Ind., he took the 
complete course of study in Concordia College at Springfield, 111., and was 
graduated with honors, following which he was ordained to the ministry of 
the German Lutheran denomination. With the exception of three years in 
Iowa his entire period of ministerial service was confined to Illinois and he 
died at Plainfield, that state, while his widow, who bore the maiden name of 
Anna Wilding and who was born in Illinois, is now a resident of Aurora, 
same state. Seven children formed their family and all but two are still 
living. The eldest. Louis, was educated primarily in parochial schools. At 
the age of fifteen years he matriculated in Concordia College at Milwaukee, 
Wis., where he completed the study of the classics. Next he attended Con- 



lllSTom' ()!• Kl^kX COUNTY 551 

C(jr(lia Theological Seminary in Si. Louis, Mo., and. after his graduation in 
June of 1911 he was ordained to the ministry, since which time he has been 
resident pastor at Bakersfield and supply jiastor of Zion Church at Terra 
Bella. Returning to St. Louis. Mo., in 1912. he there married Miss Clara 
Binger. who was ))r)rn, reared and educated in that city and who assists him 
most graciously and effectively in his ministerial work. Throughout his 
denomination he has become well known, with the promise of growing influ- 
ence with ri[)ening years and added exi)erience. As a member of the Califor- 
nia district of the Missouri synod and also of the Northern California con- 
ference, he has been identified with organizations for the u])building of his 
denomination and has added the weight of his labors and influence to the 
de\'elopment of denominational work. 

WILLIAM G. WHITE.— The sturdy Scotch-Irish element, which has 
been so important a factor in the permanent upbuilding of American civiliza- 
tion, appeared in the ancestry of William G. White of Bakersfield, whose 
paternal forbears established themselves in Pennsylvania during the colonial 
period. Both his father. Thomas, and grandfather, James White, were natives 
of Mercer county. Pa., and engaged in general farming in that part of the 
state. The former married Mary Miller, whose ancestors, forced to f^ee from 
Scotland on account of religious persecution, found a harbor of refuge in 
Ireland and thence crossed the ocean to the new world. The most illustrious 
member of the family was Hugh Miller, the Scottish geologist and writer of 
the nineteenth century. 

One of eight children comprising the parental family, William G. White 
was born in Mercer county, Pa., June 7, 1876, and passed the years of boyhood 
on a farm eighty miles from Pittsburg. In addition to attendance at public 
schools he was sent to the Grove City College. Although reared to a knowl- 
edge of farming and from the age of fifteen until seventeen practically in 
charge of a farm, with the supervision of stock and field work, he had no 
inherent fondness for agriculture and at seventeen he left home to serve an 
apprenticeship to the trade of bricklayer in Pittsburg. For three years he 
remained with a Mr. Donovan, an ex )ert in the trade. On the completion of 
his trade he began to work as a journeyman. From taking small jobs and 
doing day work he soon rose to contract work and made a specialty of fur- 
naces and boilers. Meanwhile he had married in his native county Miss 
Harriet Fisher, who was born and reared in that county and was a member 
of one of its old families. They are the parents of four children, Gladys 
Emmalynn. Milan Tadema. Mary Gould and Helen Rowena. 

The ill health of his wife and the desirability of seeking a change of 
climate in her interests led Mr. White to remove to the west in 1902. during 
which year after having traveled over the coast he settled in San Francisco 
and took up contracting and building. About that time he had charge of the 
building of the First National Bank of San Jose. Meanwhile his own health 
had become impaired and he was obliged to remove from San Francisco. 
Starting with his family for Arizona in 1910, he chanced to stop at Bakersfield, 
and believing that the climate would agree with him he decided to engage in 
business here. Since that time he has enjoyed fair health and has been ener- 
getically engaged in the filling <if contracts. While he is regarded as especially 
successful in brick and cobble-stone work, he has not limited his attention to 
these specialties, but does building of all kinds. Among his contracts were 
those for the Brown building in Kern, the Gardner building, the brick work in 
Mercy Hospital and Scofield building in Bakersfield, and four brick buildings 
in Wasco, also the Brix apartments in Fresno. He has taken a complete 
course in architecture and drafting under Miller & Campbell and is able to 
design a private or public building as well as erect the same. One of his 
cliief ambitions has been to secure ordinances for the safety of builders and 
workmen; ancUher ambition has been to improve the standard of the finishing 



552 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

of buildings. With keen alertness he watches every advance made in his 
chosen occuj^ation and is himself foremost in promoting the welfare of the 
building business. Upon the organization of the Builders' Exchange (in 
which work he assisted) he was placed upon the directorate of the same and 
also acts as a member of the arbitration board. He is identified with the 
Woodmen of the World and interested in the Presbyterian Church, of which 
his wife is a member. 

SAMUEL A. WILLIAMS.— The Williams family to which belongs 
Samuel A. W^illiams is an old established and well-known New England one, 
the American ancestor coming from England at an early day, and it is highly 
represented in California in the personages of Samuel A. Williams and his 
sons William A. and Elmer E. Williams, the well-known proprietors of the 
Greenfield grocery, with headquarters about eight miles south of Bakersfield. 

A selfmade man in the true sense of the word, Mr. Williams has the 
satisfaction of knowing that every cent he has in the world represents so much 
honest toil and practical good judgment. His birth occurred December 15, 
1854, in Ross county. Ohio, son of Jonathan B. and Philanda D. (Freeman) 
Williams, the former a native of New Hampshire, while the mother was born 
near Moores Junction in northern New York. The parents were married at 
Orwell. Vt., just across from old Fort Ticonderoga, and moved to Detroit, 
Mich., a short time later. From there they subsequently made their way to 
southern Ohio, where Jonathan \\'illiams conducted a hotel at Palestine, about 
twenty miles south of Columbus, and his death occurred during the war, 
when Samuel A. was but eight years of age. He was one of five children 
born to his parents, the others being : Eugene, who died at the age of nine 
years ; Afiie Eliza, who died when eighteen months old ; Lucy Jane, who 
became the wife of the late Jacob Niederauer, of Bakersfield, and died in 
Bakersfield; and Ellsworth, who now makes his home in Bakersfield. 

Soon after the death of the father. Mrs. W illiams and her three children 
returned to Vermont, where Samuel A. was reared to manhood, assuming the 
responsibility of caring for his mother and the two younger children at an 
early age. At an early age he worked for George Hibbard, in Orwell, Vt., 
where he made his home, the agreement being that he should work for him 
for a year, and then if mutually agreeable he should remain until he reached 
his majority. But after two years Mr. Williams decided to give up that work 
and until he was sixteen worked at vari»nis places in the vicinity for $6 a 
month and his board. He then went to Connecticut, where he worked on a 
farm for two years, the following two years being employed in a saw mill, 
and it was at this time, in 1875. that he married. Miss Margaret O'Brien, of 
Canterbury, Conn., becoming his bride. While working at the saw mill he 
was injured and his illness was of so long duration that his means became 
sorely depleted, so that when he recovered his strength he and his excellent 
wife took employment on a Connecticut farm in order to somewhat replenish 
their loss. In the fall of 1876 they moved back to Vermont, and he there 
worked at general work for a number of years. In the fall of 1883 they came 
to California, bringing with them their three children, and located at Bakers- 
field. Mr. AVilliams started his life here under most discouraging circum- 
stances, as he arrived here on crutches, having sustained injuries in a railroad 
accident on the New York Central road near Syracuse, N. Y., on his way 
west, and was in a hospital at Cleveland. Ohio, for six weeks. He procured 
employment with Haggin. Carr & Co.. taking charge of work on their canals 
and water ditches, and such satisfaction did he give his employers that he 
was retained at that position for eight years and seven months, and only 
relinquished his connection with them to start out for himself. He then en- 
gaged in farming in Panama, but in 1900 traded his farm there for his present 
sixty-acre ranch at Greenfield. 

Mr. and Mrs. Williams became the parents of five children. May married 




^^^^^'^7^' jMll^^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 555 

Frank Parish of Panama and is now deceased (she left no children) ; William 
A. and Elmer are proprietors of the Greenfield grocery, and are mentioned 
more fully elsewhere in this volume; Frederick S. married Mrs. Alice Aiorrison, 
and was killed when twenty-five years of age in a railroad accident at Fresno, 
on the Southern Pacific railroad, on which he was a fireman ; and Ray is at 
home. Mr. Williams is a member of the Woodmen of the World and the 
Moose. 

CARLE TURNER McKINNIE.— Thomas W. .McKinnie was born in 
Uhio, as was also his wife, Alice (Turner) AlcKinnie. Thomas W. was 
among those loyal patriots who gave their services to aid in the country's 
cause in the Civil war. From a private in Company H, One Hundred and 
Twenty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry he rose to be colonel of his regiment. 
He saw active service for a long period, and his record on the field of battle 
was a most honorable one. His death occurred at St. Louis, Mo., in 1909, 
and there, too, his wife passed away in 1895. 

Carle Turner AlcKinnie was born in Cadiz, Ohio, August 9, 1869, and 
when a year old was brought by his parents to Fort Scott, Kans., where for 
six years they made their home, thence removing to St. Joe, Mo. At the latter 
place he was sent to school and grew to manhood, at which period he went to 
St. Louis, Mo., and there was employed by the Simmons Hardware Co., as 
buyer for three years, after which he accepted a position with the Stanley 
Works of New Britain, Conn., and New York City. After twelve years with 
this company he and his brother, Burt P. McKinnie, bought a ranch near 
Loup City, Nebr., whither Carle T. removed and engaged in farming and 
stock raising for five years. During this time he was interested with land 
development in the Grand valley district in Colorado, his ex]:)erience there 
leading him and his associates to take up the same line of work on a broader 
vcale in Tehachapi, Kern county. He made his way hither in 1910 and located 
in Tehachapi. where with his associates he bought sixteen hundred acres 
of land adjoining the town, organizing the Tehachapi Fruit & Land Company, 
Incorporated, of which Mr. McKinnie is now the president and manager, 
and under his direction the company have placed their holdings under irriga- 
tion by means of pumping plants and have sold one thousand acres, five hun- 
dred of which have been set to Bartlett pears and winter varieties of apples. 
As fast as possible the remainder is being planted not only to pears and apples, 
but also to currants, sour cherries and crab-apples, for which the soil and 
climate of the Tehachapi country is especially adapted. 

In 1909 Mr. McKinnie was married to Miss ^^^inifred Lois Leach, a 
native of Oakdale. Neb., and they have one child, Thomas Carle. Fraternally 
he is a member of Webster Groves Lodge No. 84, F. Sc A. M., of St. Louis. 
and he is also a member of Colorado Commandery, Military Order of the Loyal 
Legion. Politically he is a Republican. 

ALBERT W. MARION. — In generations past the southern representa- 
tives of the Marion familv displaved the hospitalitv, chivalrv and courtesy 
characteristic of their section of the country. Later identification with the 
north grave to them the energv and nroeressive spirit typical of the people 
of that region. The founder of the family north of Mason's and Dixon's line 
was Moses Marion, a native of North Carolina and a soldier in the war of 
1812. Some years after his marriaee and after the birth of his son, lohn. 
he took the familv to Indiana and settled near Lafavette. Tinpecanoe county, 
in the vicinity of the historic battle ground embodied in the famous presi- 
dential slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler too." so familiar to the frontiersmen 
during- the campaign of William Henrv Harrison. In the state of Indiana were 
passed the last davs of Moses Marion and his son lohn. also there occurred 
the death of the latter's wife, Margaret rFisher) Marion, a native of Penn- 



556 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

sylvania, descended from (Jernian ancestry, and from childhood a resident 
of Indiana, her parents havini^ been early settlers of that state. In her fam- 
ily there were two sons, one of whom, Francis, is a resident of Missouri. The 
other, Albert W., has made California his home since 1876. Born near 
Lafayette, Ind.. January 7, 1858. he passed the years of childhood at the old 
home farm and in the neii^hboring schools. Upon the completion of the 
common branches of study he entered Asbury I'niversity at Greencastle. Ind.. 
and took the regular course, graduating in the s])ring of 1876. Immediately 
afterward he came to California and settled first in Tulare county, but after 
clerking there for a short time he came to Bakersfield in the autumn t)f 1876 
and ever since has been identified with the interests of Kern county. 

After six months of employment in the Long Tom mine, Mr. Alarion be- 
came a brakeman on the Southern Pacific Railroad between Sumner (later 
known as Kern) and Tulare, also from Tulare to Lathrop. Three years later 
he was promoted to be conductor on the same line and continued as such 
until 1888. when he resigned to engage in the hotel business in Kern, becom- 
ing manager of the old Central house on the present site of the Metropole. As 
manager he proved obliging, efficient and popular. During the fall of 1894 
on the Republican ticket he was elected justice of the peace of the third town- 
ship of Kern county and in January, 1895. he took the oath of office and 
assumed the duties of the position. Since then he has been successively re- 
elected in 1898, 1902, 1906 and 1910, the last time having no opposition what- 
ever, a fact that bears testimony as to the tactful, wise and impartial nature 
of his decisions. Throughout the entire period of his service he has main- 
tained his office in East Bakersfield and when this community relinquished 
its former name of Kern and became a part of IJakersfield he maintained a 
deep interest in the plan. In his official capacity he has proved himself 
capable of discharging the complicated duties as a justice. While he 
never studied for the law he has picked up a varied and important assortment 
of legal knowledge and, had he entered the profession, easily would have 
risen to prominence. It can be stated of him without contradiction that rarely 
if ever have his decisions been reversed in the higher courts. After coming 
to California he married in Stockton Mrs. Augusta (Garner) Welsh, who was 
born in Illinois, but at the age of three weeks was taken by her parents from 
the old home, the family then starting upon the journey across the continent 
to the western coast. Fraternall}- ]\Ir. Marion holds membership with the 
Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. Active in Odd Fellows" work, he served 
for several terms as noble grand of Bakersfield Lodge No. 202 and also has 
been honored with office in the Bakersfield Encampment. 

WILLIAM A. WILLIAMS. — It is not alone the cities that attract men of 
enterprise and business ingenuity, but in addition the country itself is not 
lacking in opportunities commercial as well as agricultural, and a realization 
of this truth has led the firm of Williams Bros, into mercantile enterprises 
in a region somewhat remote from the main civic centers of the San Joaquin 
valley. After having given careful consideration to the subject the brothers. 
William A. and Elmer E.. o])ened the Greenfield grocery on the 1st of July. 
1909, selecting as their headcpiarters a rural building on Union avenue about 
eight miles south of Bakersfield. The structure of 20x38 was erected in 19C9, 
since which time it has been well filled with a stock representing an invest- 
ment of about $2,000 and including both groceries and general merchandise. 
Besides the four horses which the ])roprietors find necessary to the manage- 
ment of their growing business, they use an auto truck and make four trips 
to Bakersfield each week in the interests of their increasing trade. 

The senior member of the firm. William A. Williams, was born at Orwell. 
Vt., December P). 1879. while the younger brother is a native son of this state 
and was born at Hakersfield September 1. 18(S8. tlieir father. Samuel A. 




(]M. rc£^. £. 




liiSTOkV OF KERX COUNTY 559 

Williams, ha\ini^ been a i)itiiiccr i.l the San joacjuin \allcy. P^lsewhere in 
this volume ai)pears mention of that early settler and honored citizen. 
Both sons were educated in Kern county and re])resent the enterprise, thrift 
and prop:ressive spirit typical of the west. 15oth have given their allegiance to 
the Democratic party and uniformly support measures for the benefit of 
their cc.unty. Fraternally William .A., is one of the leading local members of 
the Woodmen of the World. During December of 1904 he was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Mary Tonini, a native of San Luis Obispo, Cal., and a 
daughter of W. and Eliza Tonini. Their union has been blessed with two 
daughters. Margaret and TTazel. 

BENJAMIN CLAIBOURN VAUGHN.— The fact that his fathc". David 
Vaughn, a Kentuckian by birth, was wounded while serving in the Thirty- 
third Indiana Volunteer fnfantr\- during the Civil war and later died in Libby 
prison, obliged ISenjamin C. Vaughn to aid in the cultivation of the home 
farm at an early age. Hence his education was meager and his opportunities 
limited. In his native county of Shelb}'. Ind.. where he was born in 1860, he 
remained until thirty-one years of age, meanwhile gaining a thorough knowl- 
edge of general farming as conducted in that locality. In youth his services 
were of great value to his mother, who was a native of Ohio and had borne 
the maiden name of Lucy A. Peake. After he married he left 
the home farm and rented' a tract in the same county, where for about fifteen 
ensuing years he endured the adversities and enjoyed the successes that char- 
acterize the life of a grain farmer. From there he removed to California in 
1891 and two years later settled near Bakersfield, Kern county, where at first 
he bought only twenty acres in the Weed Patch and used the first water out 
of the Eastside canal after it was built. On this land he began raising alfalfa, 
and later traded the land for eighty acres at Jeweta. In addition to raising 
alfalfa he also followed general contracting, leveling land and building canals 
and reservoirs for about ten years. In 1906 he purchased his present place of 
four hundred and eighty acres, which was then raw land. In the meantime he 
has sunk wells and installed pumpmg plants which furnish six hundred and 
fifty miner's inches of water. He now has four hundred acres in alfalfa, yield- 
ing five crops a year, which is baled and shipped to the Los Angeles market. 
Mr. Vaughn was a pioneer in the installation of large pumping plants for 
irrigation, and for the first five years used electric power (ultimately using 
eighty-four horse power), but when increased rates made this prohibitive he 
installed two gas engines of forty-five and sixty horse power respectively. 
This arrangement gives him a pumping plant on each half of the ranch. The 
ranch is located five miles west of Bakersfield, while the shipping station is 
at Jastro, half a mile away. While a specialty is made of alfalfa, sufficient 
stock is also raised for the needs of the farm. 

Very early in life Mr. V^aughn established domestic ties. His marriage 
in Indiana October 26, 187-9, united him with Miss Martha N'iola Nelson, a 
native of the Hoosier state and a daughter of Leander E. and Ann (Allen) 
Nelson, natives of Indiana, the former deceased, and the latter still living in 
that state. To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Vaughn seven children were born, 
as follows: Hattie, w^ho married Charles Ballinger and is living in East 
Bakersfield ; Earlene, ]\Irs. John H. Morgan, of Pasadena, who died in August, 
1912; Ida and Ira, twins; Rachel, the wife of Oscar McKinney, of Covina, who 
is aiding in the management of the farm ; Mary, also on the home farm; and 
Cecil, the youngest of the family and a prize-winner in the seventh-grade 
examinations. The greatest happiness of their lives Mr. and Mrs. Vaughn 
have found in their children and it has been a matter of grave concern to so 
educate and train them that they may be qualified for the duties of life. The 
family are identified with the Christian Church at Bakersfield and for years 
have been generous contributors to the upbuilding of that congregation. 



560 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Aside from the nianageinent of his farm and the enjoyment of his home, Mr. 
Vaughn has found leisure to aid in movements for the permanent prosperity 
of the county and has been an interested participant in public-spirited pro- 
jects. At this writing he serves as game commissioner, an ofifice that he has 
filled for some years in the past. Politically he has voted with the Republican 
party ever since he cast his first ballot upon attaining his majority. Fraternal 
relations with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, entered into many 
years ago, have been continued up to the present time. Meanwhile twice he 
has been chosen master of the local lodge, besides which he now belongs to 
the grand lodge of the state. 

WALTER J. BURKE.— On a farm in the foothills of the Greenhorn 
mountain, where his parents, Daniel and Mary (Vickers) Burke, were improv- 
ing a claim and pre-empting a homestead, W. J. Burke was born, Alarch 7. 
1865. His father, Daniel, was born in county Alayo in 1826 and passed his 
youth upon an Irish farm. With the hope of benefiting his con- 
dition by coming to the new world, in 1849 he crossed the ocean and 
settled in Shefifield, Mass., where he learned the trade of brickmaker. Dur- 
ing 1853 he came to California via the Nicaragua route and at once went 
to the mines of Sierra county. With the exception of eighteen months in the 
mines of British Columbia, he spent his remaining years in California. On 
his return from the northern mines he took up land in Tulare county near 
Woodville and began to raise stock. 

Immediately after his arrival in Kern county in 18'>4 Daniel Burke took 
up land on Greenhorn mountain, where he ac([uired three hundred and twenty 
acres and engaged in raising grain, vegetables and st( ck, selling all the 
products of the farm at the neighboring mines. By degrees he became fairly 
prosperous and at his death, which occurred August 8, 1900, he was counted 
among the- large land-owners of his locality. In June of 1862 he had married 
ATiss Mary Vickers, who was born in Adams county. 111., and in 1860 crossed 
the plains with her parents in a wagon drawn by oxen, the family settling in 
Tulare county. Her death occurred in Kern county December 20, 1903. Six 
children had been born of her marriage, the eldest l^eing Mrs. Margaret Fritz, 
of Ripon, San Joaquin county. The second, Walter J., forms the subject of 
this review. The others are as follows: Daniel, a farmer living near Bakers- 
field; Mrs. Celia Wilkerson. of Bakersfield ; William, who is practicing law 
in Portland, Ore. ; and X'incent, a resident of San Jose. 

In order that he might enjoy educational advantages not possible in the 
vicinity of the mountain farm, Walter J. Burke was sent to Los Angeles and 
for two years was a student in St. \'incent's College, then located on Sixth 
and Hill streets. Upon his return to the farm he l)egan to take a verv active 
]^art in its supervision, besides pre-empting one hundred and sixtv acres near 
the old homestead and later buying adjacent property from time to time as 
his means permitted. Meanwhile he had married at Porterville, February 15, 
1892, Miss Sarah Gill, a native of countv Mayo, Ireland, and a capable assist- 
ant in his enterprises. Mrs. Burke came to New York City in 1880 with a 
sister, Mrs. Conway, and in 1890 came with her to C"alifornia. Her father. 
James (lill, a farmer in Mayo, died there. Her mother, Xora X'arlev, is still 
living on the old farm at an advanced age. I'Lventually Walter Burke held the 
title to one thousand acres on Greenhorn and this was utilized for stock 
range ( r grain-raising. For years he made a specialty of raising cattle and 
horses and in this line of work his judgment was so keen that he prospered 
to an unusual degree. During 1908 he l)uilt a residence at .\'o. 402 .\ street, 
Bakersfield, and in B-IO he sold out the stock, disjxised of some of the range 
and closed out his farming interests, although he still owns three hundred 
and twenty acres at the old place. In addition he i^wns one hundred acres 
eight miles south of I'akersfield under the Kern Island canal and this he 





/ 




HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 563 

leases to a tenant, the land beinj;- under cultivation to alfalfa and grain. In- 
cluded in his city holdings are a frontage of one hundred and fifty feet on 
Nineteenth and A streets, improved with three cottages, and a frontage of 
equal size on Chester avenue and Twenty-third street, occupied by three 
business houses. Property at Princeton, San Mateo county, also is held bv 
him. and his interests are further enlarged through his position as president 
of the Apartment House Building Company in Los Angeles, of which he is 
a large stoclcholder. He also built and owns the Panama apartment building 
on Second and Flower streets in that city. All of his seven children are at 
home, namely: Mary. Nora. Teresa. James, Catherine. Alargaret and Walter. 
The family arc leading members ( f St. Francis' Catholic Church and he has 
been prominently identified with the Knights of Columbus. In national elec- 
tions he supports the Democratic partv. 

JOSEPH LLEWELYN EVANS.— A narrative of the life of Mr. Evans 
takes us in its early records across the ocean to the rugged lands of Wales, 
where his ancestors had lived and labored for uncounted generations and 
where the family held a position of great influence in their community. For 
years his father. Benjamin Evans, engaged in mercantile undertakings and 
general farming in the shire of Carmarthen, and here the son Joseph L. was 
born January 4, 1865. He began to attend the public schools at an early age 
and afterward studied in Emlyn Academy, from which institution he was 
graduated in 1883 with a high standing in all of his studies. Immediately 
after leaving the academy he began to study civil engineering with Davies & 
Davies. a prominent engineering firm with headquarters at Aberystwyth, 
Cardigan, Wales, and for several years had charge of their branch ofifice at 
Lampeter, a flourishing town situated on the border line of Cardigan and 
Carmarthen. 

Meanwhile having read much concerning America and believing that it 
would be possible for him to secure greater success as a civil engineer in the 
new" world than in the old, Mr. Evans resigned his position in Wales and 
during 1888 crosseri the ocean to the United States. During the following 
nine years he made Racine, Wis., his headquarters. His first employment was 
with the government as civil engineering inspector of improvements on Lake 
Michigan. During 1890-91 he took a postgraduate course in the University 
of Wisconsin at Madison and upon his return to Racine entered upon the 
duties of city engineer, which office he held by appointment or election for 
six years. During 1897 he came to California upon a leave of absence and, 
traveling through the state, he became so greatly impressed Avith the possi- 
bilities of the west that he sent back his resignation as city engineer of Racine. 

The discovery of gold in Alaska caused Mr. Evans to make a tour of that 
country. During the earh^ part of 1898 he went to Kotzebue Sound, north 
of the Arctic Circle in the Arctic Ocean, having sailed through Bering Straits, 
this point being so remote that few explorers penetrated beyond it. Two 
Avinters were spent in the north prospecting and exploring the country. Upon 
his return to California in 1900 Mr. Evans came to Bakersfield and secured a 
Dosition in the office of the city engineer and county surveyor. Four months 
later he was appointed city engineer. Avhich ofifice he filled by successive 
apnointment from 1900 to 1906. He ])repared plans for a sewer system which 
were accepted by the board of trustees, and bonds were A'Oted for the purpose, 
but afterwards for some reason many changes were made in the original plans 
by another surveyor at the instigation of the board. Manfully Mr. Evans 
opposed these changes, claiming that they AA^ere not practical as far as eflficiency 
and permanency were concerned, and so positive was he of his position in the 
matter that he considered it expedient for him to resign from the office when 
his advice was not considered. The necessity for the late scAver contract of 
1913 has demonstrated that his opinion was correct. Since his retirement 
from office he has engaged in the private practice of surveying and civil engi- 



564 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

neering, being- located in the Maud l)uilding on Chester avenue. Not only in 
Kern county but in other counties of the state he has at different times been 
retained as expert engineer in the courts. He laid out the town of Lost 
Hills. Pentland and Lerdo, laid out and superintended the construction of the 
new race track upon which the world's automobile record was broken, besides 
doing other work of a most responsible nature connected with the line of his 
special endeavors. In l-'ebruary, 1913. he was appointed a member of the 
Kern County Highway Commission to prepare plans and estimates for the 
improvement of a system of highways for Kern county. Upon their recom- 
mendation the tax payers cf Kern county voted $2,500,000 in bonds for the 
purpose. 

'iliroughout the period of his citizenship in the United States the Repub- 
lican party lias had the allegiance of Air. Evans and the Congregational Church 
has received his stanch support in religious movements. Fraternally he is 
identified with Bakersfield Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E. and is also a very 
prominent Mason. Indeed any mention of his fraternal and social activities 
would be incomplete w'ithout considerable reference to his association with 
Masonry. While in Wisconsin he was made a Mason in Racine Lodge No. 18. 
F. & A. M., to which he belongs at the present time. Upon locating in Bakers- 
field he transferred his membership from Racine Chapter, R. A. M., to Kern 
Valley Chapter, R. A. M., also from Racine Commandery No. 7, K. T.. to 
Bakersfield Commandery No. 39, K. T., of which he is a charter member and 
in which he has held every ofifice. Chosen in 1908 as eminent commander, 
he was again elected to that office in 1912 and is the present incumbent, 
besides being actively associated with Al Malaikah Temple. A. A. O. N. M. S. 
in Los Angeles. 

ROBERT M. HOLTBY.— The movement of migration to Canada was 
largely promoted by a sturdy class of Englishmen who aided in its agri- 
cultural development by their own patient perseverance and untiring labors. 
It was in this manner that the Holtby family came to be associated with 
Canadian farm advancement. .Several generations of the name assisted in the 
upbuilding of their own community. Upon a large farm near Manchester. 
Canada, Robert M. Holtby was born Alarch 7, 1847. and in the same locality he 
received a common-school education, also acquired a thorough knowledge of 
farming and stock-raising. From his earliest recollections he had heard much 
concerning the western states. The discovery of gold in California was still a 
popular theme of conversation during his boyhood. It was said too that this 
state oft'ered greater inducements to farmers than to miners and thus he 
early determined to seek the Pacific coast. At the age of nineteen years he 
sailed from New York around the Horn to Oregon, where he engaged in 
teaching school for six months. On August 26. 1867. he left Oregon for 
California, where afterward he made his home until death. With money given 
him by his father he invested in sheep and started a ranch on the White 
river in I'ulare countw In time he enlarged his range and increased his 
flock. His operations became ver\- large in extent and represented an im- 
mense outlay of money. While in large degree he prospered, he met with 
many reverses, for the sheep industry always has been characterized by 
many "ups and downs." During one severe winter he lost six thousand head 
in the deep snow. 

The nianagemeiii (if mi 1,-irge a l)usiness necessitated the em])loyment of 
man}- men and in liis denlings with these employes Mr. Iloltb}- always dis- 
played the dee;)est consideration and iiiost kindly forbearance, as far as pos- 
sible overi(X)king their mistakes, but also showing an a])preciation of any 
special work which they did in his behalf. With ranges widely scattered 
and flocks in different ])arts of the state, he left their management to trusted 
employes, but maintained a close perscjnal supervision of all. Por se\'erai 
vears he made his home on a ranch on Poso creek twelve miles from Bakers- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 565 

field. I''roin 1886 until his removal to Bakersfielcl he lived on the Troy ranch, 
one of the most highly cultivated farms in the entire county. This he sold 
in 1891 and during the same year removed to Bakersfield, where he erected 
a large, comfortable residence. It was his intenticm to plant shade trees and 
improve the property, but ere his dreams had been realized he was called from 
earth, March 7, 1892, on the day that he was forty-five years of age. The era 
of struggle had been passed, the days of hardship and toil were to be replaced 
by a life of greater ease, he was about to enter upon a realization of the 
fruits of his privation, sacrifices and strenuous labor, when death cut short all 
hopes of an earthly future. Of Christian principles and manly virtues, he 
belonged to the type of citizenship of inestimable value to any community and 
his passing called forth many testimonials of regard from friends of long 
standing. After he became a citizen of the United States he adopted Repub- 
lican principles, but never mingled actively in politics and at no time allowed 
the use of his name as a candidate for office. 

The marriage of Mr. Holtby was solemnized in San Francisco May 6, 
1880, and united him with Miss Celia W oodman, who was born at Paw Paw, 
Mich., and belongs to an old family of New England that became established 
on the Atlantic coast as early as 1635. The original home of the family was in 
England. It was the privilege of Mrs. Holtby as a young girl to receive ex- 
cellent educational advantages and she is a woman of the highest refinement. 
Religion has mingled with the other elements that give gentleness and beauty 
to her character. An attendant upon the services of the Episcopal Church and 
a contributor to its maintenance, she has found happiness in her religious faith 
and usefulness in its charitable functions. Her only child, Mrs. Roberta Mor- 
gan, resides in Bakersfield. Since the death of her husband she has continued 
to occupy the home which he built for her. 

OSCAR GLANVILLE, Ph.C— The eldest of four children, Oscar Glan- 
ville was born at Dover, Kan., June 18, 1885, being a son of William J. and 
Mary (Sage) Glanville, natives respectively of Missouri and New York. The 
mother died in Kansas and the father, who still makes his home at Bond, that 
state, has for years engaged extensively in business as a merchant and miller. 
After having completed the studies of the Dover public schools Oscar Glan- 
ville was sent to the Topeka high school and there finished the prescribed 
curriculum. Next' he matriculated in the Kansas State University at Law- 
rence, wdiere he remained until he received the degree of Ph. C, upon grad- 
uating in 1904. Immediately after finishing his studies he secured employment 
in the pharmacy of a Topeka druggist and later was engaged similarly at 
Parsons. During May of 1905 he went to Arizona and found work in a 
pharmacy at Prescott. Coming to California in January of 1906, he first 
engaged as a pharmacist at Riverside, but during July of the same year he 
removed to San Diego. Tweve months later he became a pharmacist with the 
Owl Drug Company at Los Angeles and after six months went to San Fran- 
cisco in the interests of the same concern. After two years with that organ- 
ization in San Francisco he engaged to go to Honolulu for Benson, Smith & 
Co.. and spent six months on the famous islands in the ocean, with his 
headquarters in the capital city, where he was both salesman and pharmacist. 
Upon returning to California he spent four months with William England of 
Marysville and then was an employe for seven months with the Neve Drug 
Company of Sacramento, after which he spent a year as a pharmacist with a 
large drug firm in Los Angeles. From that city he came to Mojave in 
February of 1912 and purchased the Peterson drug store, which since he has 
conducted under the title of O. Glanville. In addition to the usual stock of 
drugs, sundries, proprietary medicines and Rexall remedies, he carries a line 
of Eastman kodaks, also acts as agent for the Columbia and Edison phono- 
graphs and keeps in stock samples of the various styles and sizes, together 



566 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

with records for each. L'pon the organization of the Knights of the Desert he 
became one of the charter members. In politics he is a Democrat. 

REV. FATHER JOHN P. HOLDEN.— The f^rst pastor of St. Francis 
Catholic Church in Bakersfield was Rev. Father P. Carasco, who was followed 
by Father P. Bannon, whose pastorate extended to June, 1894. Father Jo- 
seph O'Reilly ministered to the congregation until 1897, when the work 
was taken up by Father P. Lennon, whose earthly labors came to an end 
December 11. 1904. At his death he left a bequest of about $2,000 toward 
the erection of St. Francis Church. Father Lennon bought the lot at K and 
Eighteenth streets and built the first house of worship about twenty years 
ago. He afterward bought the site of the present church at I street and 
Truxton avenue. During his pastorate he had charge also of missions at 
Delano and Wasco, now separate churches, and of the congregation gath- 
ered at Kern, now East Bakersfield. He ministered also to the Indian mis- 
sion at Fort Tejon, and services are still conducted there. For a few weeks 
after his death Father Quinlan had charge of the pastorate, he being fol- 
lowed by Father Frund, who was appointed pastor, and he it was who 
built the brick church and bought the St. Francis rectory. The Sisters of 
Mercy secured the St. Clair property near the Santa Fe depot for hospital 
purposes in 1910 and in 1911 abandoned it for the present site on Truxton 
avenue, to which they removed the .St. Clair house, which was enlarged and 
remodeled. However, even this was inadequate, and in 1913 they erected 
an entirely new building facing Truxton avenue. This is a reinforced con- 
crete and brick building, 108x48, three stories with basement. The present 
capacity is thirty-six rooms for patients, in addition to wards and two oper- 
ating rooms. Modern heating and cooling systems with other up-to-date 
features make this one of the best equipped hospitals in the country. 

During Father Frund's time he had several well remembered assistant 
priests — Father Lawrence Donleavy (now deceased), Father John Kelly, 
Father Schiaparelli and Father Leo Von Garsse. The assistants of Father 
Holden have been : Father Joseph Daumas, now of Fresno, then Father 
De Munick, now ( f Los Angeles, Father Marton, now of Oxnard, and the 
present assistant. Father Morris. 

Rev. Father John P. Holden is the present pastor of St. Francis Catholic 
Church, having been appointed to the charge in Noveml>er, 1910. He was 
born at Belleville, Ontario, Canada, May 31, 1865, a son of David Holden, 
manager of a lumber manufacturing firm, who lived his active years at 
Belleville, and passed away there, as did also his wife. Her maiden name 
was Mary Byrne, and she became the mother of six children. Father Holden 
being the third in order of birth. The latter was educated at a parochial 
school at Belleville and at St. Jerome's college, Berlin, Ontario, where he 
made a specialty of classics and theology and where he was graduated in 
1895. He was ordained to the priesthood at Hamilton by Bishop Dowling, 
October 20, 1895, and became secretary to the Bishop and afterwards chan- 
cellor of the Hamilton diocese and superintendent of Catholic schools under 
Bishop Dowling. Later he was for five years pastor of St. Joseph's Church 
at Hamilton ; but, because of throat difficulties, he resigned to come to Cali- 
fornia, and in 1910 came to Los Angeles. Before coming to Bakersfield he 
was acting rector of St. John's church in Fresno, during the temporary 
absence of Monsignor McCarthy in Europe. The parochial school of St. 
Francis's church was established in 1910 and now employs four teachers. 
Among the organizations of the church are the St. Francis Congregation 
Altar Society, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Ladies' Aid Society and 
the League of the Sacred Heart, the Sodality of the Children of Mary, the 
Young Ladies' Sodality, the Sanctuary Boys' Society, the St. Cecelia Choir 
and the Society of the Knights of Columbus, which is included in the 
Bakersfield branch of that order. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 569 

St. Francis church is a large structure of Gothic architecture, with 
Gothic spires, cathedral glass windows and beautifully decorated. During 
1913 three new altars of Gothic type were installed, the center one being 
of marble. Plans are now under way to build a new rectory on the church 
grounds, when the present rectory will be remodeled and used for a sisters' 
convent and academy ; and a new parochial school will be built adjoining. 

WILLIAM HUNTER LAIRD, M. D.— One of the early settlers of the 
San joacjuin \alley, who through many years of identification with the pro- 
fessional life of this community served faithfully and well, winning the con- 
fidence of all who knew him, was Dr. William Hunter Laird. Born in 
Browns county, Ohio, in 1816. he was there carefully reared and thoroughly 
educated. He entered upon the study of medicine and as a graduate phy- 
sician came to California in 1859 and practiced for a time at Monterey and 
vicinity. In 1861 he came to Visalia, where he practiced medicine, riding 
horseback with his saddle-bags. Subsequently he was located at San Ber- 
nardino for a time, but later went to Bakersfield where he practiced medicine 
and became the owner of one hundred and sixty acres of land, which after- 
wards proved to be in the Kern river oil fields. Along with his many expe- 
riences in the early settlement of this part of the country he experienced the 
trials of war in the Mexican war, seeing active service. Dr. Laird passed 
away in August, 1909. aged ninety-three years, and his death marked the 
end of a substantial and exemplary career, in which he had met every obstruc- 
tion bravely and had ministered to the sick in body and mind alike, proving 
a friend in need and a sociable, congenial and trustworthy fellow citizen. 

Dr. Laird was married in Bakersfield to Mrs. Margaret (Cox) Pierce, 
who was born in Georgia and came to Kern coimty in the early days to join 
her brother, J. K. Cox, a farmer near Bakersfield. where she married. Of this 
union there were two children, Margaret and William, both residents of East 
Bakersfield living with their mother, who sold her ranch in the oil fields and is 
living retired. Mrs. Laird is a member of the Christian Church and she and 
her children are well known and highly respected throughout the community. 

W. J. HOLLAND. — The secretary and treasurer of the Rotary Disc 
Bit Company, Incorporated, was born at Wigan, England, August 12, 1859, 
and upon the completion of a common-school education he served an appren- 
ticeship with a firm of mechanical engineers in his native town. At the ex- 
piration of a term of five years he severed his connection with J. S. A\ alker 
& Bro., in 1881, and immediately shipped for the United States, settling in 
San Antonio, Tex., where he engaged in the tea and cofifee business and 
built up considerable patronage both in wholesale and retail lines. Holland's 
tea store is now an institution of the southern city and is being conducted 
efficiently by his father, but after six years in the work he left San Antonio 
for Missouri and at Sweet Springs, that state, married Miss Eleanor Haw- 
kins, daughter of a well-known physician of San Antonio. One year was 
spent in Missouri and one winter in New Mexico, after which he removed to 
Alabama, settled at Birmingham and remained in that city for eleven years, 
meanwhile engaging with the Hawkins Lumber Company as manager. 

Coming to California in 1899 Mr. Holland settled at Fair Oaks, where 
he still owns a ranch. In order that his three children, Walter H., Eleanor 
and Ruth, might have educational advantages, he removed to Berkeley and 
they completed the high-school course in that city, since which time they 
-have been students in the University. During April of 1910, Mr. Holland 
came down to Fellows to take charge of the townsite work as an employe 
of Jamieson, Wrampelmeier and Strassburger, and in that capacity he helped 
to plat and lease the lots. Since then he has remained in the town, where he 
represents the Connecticut Fire Insurance Company of Hartford, and is also 
acting as an official in the Rotary Disc Bit Company. In July of 1911 he was 
appointed justice of the peace at Fellows, and has since held that office in 



570 FIISTORV OF KERN COUNTY 

the seventeenth township of Kern county. Tn relig-ious belief he has been a 
Presbyterian and his family are active in that church. 

SAMUEL CALVIN LONG, M.D.— The call for volunteers in the 
I'nion army durino- the Civil war received a quick response from Hu,s:h 
f.ont^". a native of Mercer county, Pa., who went to the front with a regiment 
from his commonwealth and c^ave faithful ser\ice until the expiration of his 
term of enlistment. With tiie close of the war he exchanged the uniform of 
a soldier for the homelv garb of a tiller of th.e soil and thenceforward for some 
years gave his attention to the management of his farm in Mercer county, 
where he also operated a coal mine on his land. Accompanied by wife and 
children in 1879 he removed from Pennsylvania to Iowa and settled in the 
southwestern part of the state. After ten years in Ringgold county he crossed 
the line into Taylor county and bought land near Lenox, where he engaged 
in agricultural ])ursuits until his death in 189L His wife, who survived him 
for some years and died in Iowa during December of 1899, bore the maiden 
name of Florin da Campbell and was born in .Mercer county, Pa., of Scotch- 
Irish lineage ; her mother lived to be ninety-six years of age. The family 
of Hugh and Florinda Long comprised ten children, namely: Alonzo, who 
died in infancy : James Campbell, of Lompoc ; Mark, a farmer near Hanford, 
Cal.; Dr. George L., a physician in Fresno; R. .\., wdio died in Fresno; Anna, 
residing near the old home at Lenox. Iowa; ?\Irs. Margaret Wvant. of Clear- 
field, Iowa; Wilbert AI.. of Clearfield. Iowa: Mrs. Susie Gordon, of Lenox, 
that state; and Samuel Calvin, the youngest of the family circle and the only 
one to settle in Kern county. Horn near Pardoe, ^Mercer county. Pa.. August 
16. 1871, he grew to manhood upon an Iowa farm and received his education 
princi])ally in country schools. He can scarcely recall when he first deter- 
mined upon a professional career. At first his studies were directed toward 
the occupation of pharmacist and during July of 1897 he was graduated with 
the degree of Ph.G. from the dei)artment of pharmacy. Highland Park Col- 
lege, at Des Moines. 

Almost coincident with his arrival in California in August, a month after 
his graduation, the young pharmacist secured a position in a hospital at 
Fresno, and for two years had the most valuable experience as interne and 
pharmacist. During this time he determined to continue his studies with a 
view to becoming a physician. For some \ears he was a student in the 
Hahnemann Medical College of the Pacific, at San Francisco, from which he 
was graduated May 13, 1901. Returning to Fresno, he entered the office of 
his brother, Dr. George L. Long, but in a short time he determined to seek 
a new location. October 5. 1901. lu' arri\'e(l in liakersfield, a stranger in a 
strange city. For some years past he has maintained his office in 
a suite of rooms in the Woodmen of the World building. As a member of 
the American Institute of Homeopathy and the California Homeo])athic 
Medical Institute, he has maintained an intimate identification with organiza- 
tions for the u])building of his chosen branch of therai)eutics, and is m.edical 
examiner for several old line insurance com])anies. His fraternal relations 
have been and still are very important and it ha'^ been a source of pride to 
him that he has been chosen medical examiner by the various orders with 
which he has local association, including the ^Voodmen of the World. Fra- 
ternal P>rotherho( (1. Knights and Ladies of Security, Degree of Honor. 
Women of Woodcraft, American Yecnnen, American Nobles and Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows. He was made a Mason in Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, 
F. & A. M., is a member of Los Angeles Consistory No. 3, Scottish Rite, and 
Al Malaikah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., Los Angeles. 

The home of Dr. Long at No. 1715 Seventeenth street is presided over 
hospitably by his wife, who is a woman of culture and was educated in .Simp- 
son College at Indianola, Iowa. Their marriage was solemnized in Lenox, 
Iowa, in October of 1902. Mrs. Long having been Miss Nona E. Adams, a 




J^^^^-^^^^-^^-^'-^^Xo.J^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY S7i 

native of Belle I'lain, Marshall couiitx, II!., and a daughter of Thomas and 
Mary (Barton) Adams, the former born in Pittsburg, Pa., and the latter in 
Cincinnati, Ohio, of English lineage, .\fter he had removed from Pennsyl- 
vania to Illinois Mr. Adams served as a private in the One Hundred and 
Seventh Illinois Infantry during the Civil war. Later he continued to culti- 
vate farm land in Illinois until 1882, when he removed to Iowa and settled 
upon a farm. His last days were spent in Lenox and there he passed away 
in 1908. A man of local prominence and civic pride he served for one term 
as supervisor and gave his support to movements for the material upbuilding 
of his county. His widow now makes her home with Dr. and Mrs. Long at 
Bakersfield. She had four other children: \V. B., who is a farmer at 
Dixon, 111.; E. M. and N. D., both of Des Moines; and Chester, now living 
in Kansas City. Airs. Long was next to the eldest in the family and was the 
only one to settle in California. Prior to her marriage she taught several 
terms of school. Mr. and Mrs. Long are members of the Congregational 
church, to the work of which both have been generous contributors. They 
are the parents of two children, Mary Oneita and Hugh Thomas. In politics 
die Doctor is stanchly Republican. 

W. P. MONROE. — The Monroe family has the distinction of belonging 
lo the fine old pioneer element of California. In every instance its members 
have' exhibited the utmost loyalty toward the great west and wherever known 
their name is a synonym for patriotic devotion and progressive spirit. The 
founder of the famil}- on the coast was Wesley Monroe, a native of Illinois 
and a member of that great throng of immigrants whom the discovery of gold 
brought tn the then unknown country beside the sunset sea. As early as 18.50 
he settled in what is now Tulare county. Later he lived in Sonoma county 
and follow^ed the occupation of ranching, his large herds being permitted to 
range over miles of uninhabited territory in every direction from his ranch- 
house. He married Elizabeth Condry, who was born in Tennessee and died in 
1906 in Tulare county. Their family numbered seven children, one of whom, 
J. D., is a wealthy stock-raiser in Tulare county. Another member of the 
family, VV. P., was born in Sonoma county, this state, March 26, 1864, and 
during boyhood aided in the care of the stock in Tulare and Kings counties. 
From Tulare he came to Kern county in 1899 and in 1901 began to work for 
the Petroleum Development Company, being promoted to the position of 
manager in 1906 after five years of energetic efiforts in less responsible 
capacities. He has charge of the wells of the Petroleum Development Com- 
pany located on section 2, township 29, range 28. 

While promoting the interests of the company Mr. Monroe has acquired 
lands of his own and is now the owner of eighty acres of land, situated on 
section 34, township 28, range 28. A part of the tract has been placed under 
irrigation and the balance is available foi* similar work, the proximity of the 
Kern river proving of the greatest importance to water development. With 
the completion of irrigating facilities, oranges could be raised on the land, 
while any kind of garden truck would do well on such soil. The marriage of 
Mr. Monroe took place in Kings county and united him with Miss Susie 
Becker, who was born and reared there, and by whom he is the father of three 
children, Harry, Ruby and Evelyn. The fact that he did not enjoy good 
educational advantages has made Mr. Monroe solicitous that his own children 
and the children of other people in the community should receive every 
modern school privilege, hence he urged the organization of a school district 
and when such organization was efiiected in 1910 in the Petroleum school 
district he was chosen a member of the school board. In this capacity he has 
labored earnestly to secure good teachers and to surround the children with 
every advantage that will go toward the making of substantial citizens for 
■future years. The board of directors of the Petroleum school district, con- 



574 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

sisting of Jl. J. Heatli, C liarlcs X. Xcwijcrry and W. P. Monri.e have under 
construction a new $10,000 school house, which will l)c com])leted for the 
September 1913 term and will be the finest schotjl house in the Kern River 
field. While living in Tuhire county he became a member of the Independent 
Order of Odd h'ellows al Tulare and maintained a warm interest in lodge 
enterprises. In addition td his eight}' acres of good land he has acquired 
citv propertv at Richmond on the coast. 

FRANK S. MATTSON. — From the age of thirteen years up to the 
present time, when as an experienced and skilled oil operator of fifty years 
he holds a position of res])onsibility in the Midway field, Mr. Mattscjn has 
known no business save that of oil production. Familiar with its every de- 
partment and experienced with the work in many of the most important 
fields of the entire country, he has had a long and honorable career in his 
chosen occupation and now, even more interested in the w^ork than when a 
young man and even more skilled in its details, he is giving acceptable service 
as superintendent of the Safe Oil Company and the B. H. C. Oil Company. 
The leases of these small but productive concerns stand on the celebrated 
25 Hill, occupying a portion of section 25, township 32, range 23, overlooking 
Taft and the Midway field, and here he is always to be found, overseeing 
every phase of production and aiming by intelligent oversight to secure the 
largest possible returns for the stockholders of the companies. 

Born in Venango county. Pa., April 14, 1863, Frank S. Mattsoh is the 
son of Tobias Mattson, a pioneer in the oil industry in Pennsylvania, where 
he first became familiar with the business. Practically every position from 
roustabout to superintendent he has filled in dififerent parts of the country. 
Following in the wake of oil strikes, he worked in the fields of Pennsylvania, 
New York, Ohio and Indiana, prior to coming to California during 1900. A 
list of the fields in which he has worked would include many of the best 
known in the east. After coming to the Pacific coast he made his head- 
quarters in Fos Angeles fo" a time and then went to Carpenteria, from which 
place he came to Kern county and the Midway field. In his various re- 
movals from one field to another he has been accompanied by his wife whom 
he married in Ohio and w'ho bore the maiden name of Anna E. Behrens. 

C. H. SELLERS. — I'he Cnion Oil Company, operating on section 8, 
township 29. range 28, was incorporated under the laws of the state of Cali- 
fornia by a number of stockholders, principally residents of Los Angeles, 
where also reside its officers, namely: president, Lyman Stewart; vice-presi- 
dent, W. L. Stewart: secretary, Giles Kellogg: and treasurer, E. \A\ Alston. 
The superintendent ( f their refinery, which is said to be not only the first 
but also ihe largest in the Kern river fields, has been connected with the plant 
throughout the greater part of its operative history, for the factory was com- 
pletecl in July of 1902, and he took charge on the L^th of Sei^tember of the 
same year. Since then the capacity of the plant has been doubled and employ- 
ment is furnished to thirty-fiA^e men. A total capital of $200,000 has !)een 
invested in the refinery and the returns secured under the efficient manage- 
ment of the superintendent have justified the expenditure of this sum. 

Very early in the develo;)ment of the Mississippi valley the Sellers famil\- 
removed from the east to Iowa, where for years George Sellers followed the 
trade of a car])enter and where he married Rachel \\^ells, now deceased, (^i 
recent vears. since his retirement from active work as a carpenter, he has 
made his home in San Jose, Cal. In his family there were five sons and three 
daughters, one of the sons being C. H.. whose birth occurred in Clinton 
countv, Iowa, March 24. 1876, and whose somewhat limited education was 
secured in Iowa schools. As a l>oy he helped his father and learned much 
concerning the trade of cari:)enter, but when fifteen he started out to make 
his own way in the world, coming to California, where he learned to be a 
practical Initter-maker in a creamery at San Jose. His introduction to the oil' 




(7~~- 



CctVAU-C-}^ Cct,-r-yrr-z.cJ^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 577 

business took place when he became interested in a refinery operated by 
S. W. Palmer, of Oakland. Having no practical knowledge of the industry 
he began as an unskilled laborer and as a roustabout, but gradually he worked 
his way up to a more profitable position. During 1902 the company showed 
their confidence in him by sending him to the Kern river fields as their sui)er- 
intendent and since the fall of that year he has had charge of the refinery, 
its progress and development being largely due to his energy and intelligent 
oversight. A specialty is made of the production of asphaltum for street 
paving and roofing purposes and in the latter specialty the company has been a 
pioneer. Through the pipe lines of the Producers' Transportation Company 
connection is made with the lines of various oil companies. About five thou- 
sand barrels of crude oil are used daily and the monthh' production of asphalt 
reaches two thousand tons. 

\\'ith his wife, whom he married at Martinez, Cal., -and who was Miss 
Ella Kindig of Chicago, and with their two children, Spencer and Inez, Mr. 
Sellers has established a comfortable home on the company holdings and 
there his leisure hours are happily spent. He aided in the organization of the 
Standard school district and acted as trustee. 

THOMAS ARTHUR CANNELL.— On the Isle of Man. Thomas A. Can- 
nell was born June 9, 1854, the son of Robert and Catherine (Kelley) Cannell. 
There they spent their entire lives, the former conducting business as a hatter 
in Douglas. There were eight children in the family and two of these, John J. 
and Thomas Arthur, became residents of California, the former now having a 
home at Bishop, Inyo county. For several years the two brothers in Cali- 
fornia engaged in the sheep industry and had large flocks upon the ranges of 
Tulare. Kern and Inyo counties. The venture proved profitable, but a desire 
to avoid the migratory experiences of a sheepman led the younger brother to 
take up land, buy cattle and enrbark in farming and stock-raising in Kern 
county. 

During a visit at his old home across the seas Mr. Cannell married. 
October 19. 1891. Miss Margaret Ann Joughin, daughter of John and Margaret 
(Kaighin) Joughin, lifelong residents of the Isle of Man and owners of 
Ballacrebbin. one of the most productive farms of that little countrv. M^rs. 
Cannell was born in the parish of Jurby on that island and grew to 
womanhood in the parish of Andrea.s near the town of Ramsey, where 
she remained until her marriage and where one of her brothers, the present 
owner of !>allacrebbin farm, still makes his home. Her other l^rother, 
William D. Joughin. came to California and now operates the Cannell ranch 
near Isabella. Kern county, on the' south fork of the Kern river. 

Immediately after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Cannell came across the 
ocean to California and settled in Kern county, where by their united efforts 
and constant industry they became increasingly prosperous. The brand of 
the triangle inverted, which Mr. Cannell used, was to be found on man}'- 
( f the ranges in this part of the state, for his holdings in stock w^ere exceed- 
ingly large. One of his ranches comprised several sections of land at (jranite 
Station, Kern county, while his home ranch was the tract of eight hundred 
acres near Isabella, a well-improved estate developed from the primeval con- 
dition of nature through his own painstaking industry and wise supervision. 
Selling his stock .in 1906 and renting the land, he built a residence at No. 445 
South Cnion avenue, Los Angeles, where his widow still makes her home. 
After c(jniing t(^ the citv he did not retire from business activities, but became 
an organizer and ])rom()ter of the y\partment House Building Company, of 
which he acted as secretary, treasurer and a director until his death, and 
which in 1911 erected a splendid modern apartment building on Second and 
Mower streets and it should be added that it proved to be such a success that 
in 1913 the company built an annex of large dimensions. \\'hile on a visit 



578 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

to his ranch at Isabella Mr. Cannell died. October 17, 1912, and his sudden 
demise brought a personal grief ti) a large host of friends throughout his 
community. All through his life in California he had been a loyal citizen, 
with progressive views as to local development and upbuilding. Although not 
a member of any religious movement he attended church and contributed to 
such work and his wife for years has been a generous member of the First 
Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles. 

ALBERT LEROY HARRINGTON.— Connected with the Southern 
Pacific Railroad Company as night yard-master at Bakersfield, Mr. Harring- 
ton is regarded by the officials under whom he works as a most conscientious 
and careful man, devoted to the business and alive to the responsibilities of 
his position. From an early age he has been connected with some form of 
railroad work. Indeed he was only sixteen when he left high school to enter 
upon railroading, and ever since, with scarcely a vacation, he has continued 
with different companies in different capacities. In addition one of his 
brothers and his father also have been identified with railroad work for many 
years and are now in the employ of the Western Pacific, with headquarters 
at Stockton, the brother, Arthur, having risen to be a conductor with that 
road. Two other brothers, Arnold and Lorin L., are employed by the Pacific 
States Telephone and Telegraph Company at Stockton, the former holding 
the important position of outside manager. The youngest brother of the 
five, William, is still with the parents in the Stockton home. 

The parents of Albert LeRoy Harrington are Lorin and Nettie E. 
(Hargis) Harrington, natives respectively of Illinois and Iowa. Their eldest 
son among the five who form the family is Albert LeRoy, whose birth oc- 
curred at Fontanelle, Adair county, Iowa, November 2, 1882, and whose 
earliest days were passed upon the home farm there. During 1883 the 
family became pioneers of Nebraska, where the father took up land in Fill- 
more county. Results were not favorable and learning of land in Lincoln 
county available for homesteading he removed there in 1886 and settled near 
the Platte river. Very soon, however, he went a little further west to Keith 
county in the same state, where he made a determined effort to develop his 
homestead into a productive farm. Climatic conditions were such that his 
unceasing exertions brought little but failure, and finally in 1896 he sought 
employment on the railroad. For three years he was employed on the mam- 
tenance of way in Nebraska by the L^nion Pacific Railroad and in 1899 he took 
his family to Wyoming, where he worked for the same company. In 1901 
he worked on the Union Pacific in Utah and during 1903 he went to Nevada 
for the Central Pacific. Coming to California in 1904 and settling at Stock- 
ton, he since has been in the employ of the Western Pacific road. 

As early as 1898 Albert LeRoy Harrington worked on the maintenance 
of way for the Union Pacific in Nebraska and in 1899 he secured similar work 
in Wyoming. During 1901 he entered the train service of the Union Pacific 
road as a brakeman with headquarters at Rawlins. Resigning two years 
later he came to California and entered the employ of the Southern Pacific 
Railroad Company as a brakeman out from Los Angeles. Soon he was trans- 
ferred to the yards as a switchman. In June of 1904 he was sent to Oakland 
as a foreman on the maintenance of way. From there in July of 1905 he 
came to Bakersfield as a switchman in the Southern Pacific yards. Appre- 
ciation of his fidelity and intelligence appeared in his promotion to be assist- 
ant yard-master in 1908. and two years later he was promoted again, this 
time to the responsible post of night yardmaster. Meanwhile in 1908 he had 
married at Santa Ana Miss Mabelle Buell, who was born in Kansas and 
reared in California, and who is a graduate nurse from the Sisters' hospital 
in Los Angeles. They own a comfortable home at No. 607 Quincy street, 
East Bakersfield. which he erected some years ago and' in which they dis- 
pense a broad and kindly hospitality. Both are well known in the local 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 581 

organization of P^^tliian Sisters, and in addition Mr. Harrington is connected 
with the Knights of Pythias, the Eagles and the Brotherhood of Railway 
Trainmen. Politically he votes with the Democratic party. 

JUDGE GEORGE FLOURNOY.— The Fhurnoy genealogy is traced 
hack to the middle ages in France, where representatives of the name bore 
a part in the activities of the Huguenots. Religic-ns persecutions led to the 
massacre of many of that faith and to the exile of others from their native 
country. They became transplanted upon American soil shortly after the 
first attempts at colonization had been made near the .shores of the Atlantic. 
The first home of the immigrants was in \^irginia and later some of the family 
settled in Georgia. Col. George Flournoy. son of Marcus A. Flournoy. was 
born and reared upon a plantation in Georgia and received excellent advan- 
tages in the state university at Athens, from which institution in 1854 he was 
graduated with a high standing. Fie was well qualified for the practice of 
law and went to Texas to open an office at Austin. Soon he rose to such 
prominence in the profession that in 1860 he was elected attorney-general of 
the state. At the opening of the Civil war he resigned from office in order 
to serve the Confederate cause as colonel of the Sixteenth Texas Infantry 
and that regiment he commanded until the close of the war. Meanwhile he 
was often wounded in battle and several times the wounds were serious. l)ut 
in the midst of physical sufiferings and untold deprivations he continued to 
lead his men until finally they crossed the Red river, the last Confederate 
regiment to retreat from the victorious Federal troops. 

The south having been financially ruined by the war. Colonel Flournoy 
found no professional opening and accordingly crossed into Mexico, where 
as captain of the guards of the palace he served in the French army under 
Marshal Besaine. Upon the downfall of Maximilian he retired with the 
French army. Returning to Texas, he engaged in practice at Galveston and 
became wideh' known as an attorney of remarkable ability and professional 
knowledge. During 1879 he came to California and opened a law office in 
San Francisco, remaining there until his death, September 20, 1889, at the 
age of fifty-seven years. While his life was not long as men count years, it 
was eventful, useful and crowned by the friendship of a large circle of asso- 
ciates, both professional and social. His wife, who bore the maiden name of 
Virginia Holman, was born in Tennessee and died in Oakland, Cal. Her 
father. James Holman. a Kentuckian by birth, became a resident of Ten- 
nessee as early as 1804 and upon attaining man's estate became interested in 
the occupation of a planter. During 1852 he took the family to Texas and 
settled upon a farm near Austin, where in 1867 his long and busy existence 
came to an end. Three children comprised the family of Colonel and Mrs. 
Flournoy. Eugenia, the wife of Paul Corti, died in Bakersfield January 27. 
1912. Marguerite, the wife of Thomas F. Garrity, died in Oakland in 1905. 
leaving two daughters. Eugenia and Virginia, both making their home with 
Judge Flournoy. The next to the youngest child, and his father's namesake, 
is Judge Flournoy. of Bakersfield. who was born in Austin. Tex., April 20. 
1863. and received a classical education in the Jesuit College in the District 
of Columbia and in the University of Georgia at Athens. After his gradu- 
ation in 1879 from the latter institution he came to California and began to 
study law with his father in San Francisco, later for two years enjoying the 
advantages of study in Hastings Law School. 

Having been admitted to the bar of California in 1884 at the age of 
twenty-one years George Flournoy came to Bakersfield, but soon returned 
to San Francisco, where in 1886 he was elected city and county attorney on 
the Democratic ticket. So satisfactorv was his service in the very difficult 
position that in 1888 he was re-elected, serving until 1890. .\fter his release 
from official duties he devoted considerable time to travel. During March 
of 1892 he came to Bakersfield and opened a law office. Soon he won recogni- 
tion through his wide knowledge of jurisprudence. For eight years he served 



582 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

as cit_\- attorney o\ I'>akersfiel(l and f^r anotlier three terms lie served as 
deputy district attorne}' of Kern c(junt\'. In both of these positions he dis- 
played a broad understanding of the law. especially as pertaining to the 
statutes of California. March 6, 1911. the board of supervisors appointed 
him justice of the peace to fill a vacancy caused l)y the death of Judge J. C. 
Black, a position he has since filled. Throughout all of his active life he has sup- 
ported Democratic principles and has given to that party locally the benefit 
of his sagacious mind, unvarying tact and comprehensive grasp of political 
■ problems. During the period of his residence in San Francisco he was united 
in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Huie, a native of Sonoma county, this state, 
by which union there was one child. Huie. who died in Los Angeles Novem- 
ber 6, 1912. leaving a wife and a daughter. Roberta, four years oi age. 

R. W. BESS. — Diversified ex]:)eriences in many of the well-known oil 
fields in the United States have enabled Mr. Bess to appreciate the advantage 
ofl^ered by the industry in California and particularly by that portion of the 
^tate embraced within the Kern county fields. Through a recent contract he 
became superintendent and manager of the United Crude Oil Company at 
Maricopa and since he took possession in March of 1913, under an eight-year 
lease on a fifty per cent basis, he has raised the production from practically 
nothing to three thousand barrels per month, doing this by dint of his own 
persistence, energy and capability, aided by the three efficient workmen whom 
he employs. Thoroughly and critically competent, he is well qualified to de- 
velop the lease into a gratifying and growing success. From the time he 
began in the oil business at the age of fourteen ui) to the present era of 
managerial connection with a lease, he has been interested in no occupation 
aside from the oil industry nor has he cared to enter other lines of enter- 
prise. 

The lifelong interest in the industry maintained by Mr. Bess results from 
early environment. When only one year old he was taken by his parents 
from New York state to Bradford, Pa., in the midst of oil fields of considerable 
importance, and there he passed the years of youth. Born May 19, 1882, at 
Bolivar, .-Mlegheny county, N. Y., across the state line from the Bradford 
fields in Pennsylvania, he was the eldest of six children, whose father, \V. W. 
Bess, for yeais engaged with the Roberts Torpedo Company and held other 
positions in the P>radford fields, but is now an employe of the United Crude 
Oil Compan\' at Maricopa. The wife and mother, who bore the maiden name 
of ICsther Aldumas McClellan, is an own niece of General McClellan, of 
Civil war fame. 

When the family removed from Bradford they lived successively in other 
oil regions oi Pennsylvania, Ohio, West V*irginia and Indiana, and the son 
accompanied them in these various moves, eventually coming to California in 
1896 and securing employment in the Fullerton oil fields. His first work 
there was in the capacity of pumper for the old Santa Fe. After one year at 
Fullerton he proceeded to Coalinga during the period of its first boom. For 
two years he engaged with a company in that district. At the opening of the 
Kern river field he came to this county and secured a position as tool-dresser, 
continuing in the field for two years. From this pt int he returned to Fullerton 
to work, later went back to Coalinga, and finally left the state in order to 
study conditions of the oil industry in Colorado. The fields near Boulder, 
Golden, Greeley and other places became familiar to him through actual 
experiences as a driller. i'>om Colorado he went into Kansas and engaged in 
drilling in the oil fields at Independence and Chanute, thence coming back to 
California, where for four years he engaged in drilling in the Simset, Midway 
and Santa Maria fields. Early in 1913 he assumed the duties of his present 
position. During May of 190^1 he was united in marriage with Miss Rose La 
Vern Freear, daughter of Henry T. Freear, an. old settler of Kern county, a 



HISTORY OF KRK\' COUNTY 583 

C"i\il war \eteran and a man widely known and unixersally honored. Mrs. 
I'less i.s also connected with the McC'utchen family, one of the most prominent 
in Kern county. Three children blessed her marriage to Mr. IJess, j-jnt a heavy 
hereaxement came in the death of two. Leona being- the sole survivor. 

DELBERT A. SHIVELY.— The history of the Shively family in America 
dates back to a very early period in the colonization of Pennsylvania and one 
oi the name, who removed from the Keystone state to Illinois during the first 
years of the nineteenth century, opened and conducted the first tailor shop ever 
started in Chicago, later relinquishing business in order to develop property 
at Freeport, 111., and still later removing- to Iowa to pass his declinin*^ days. 
The next generation was represented by Samuel A. Shively. who was born 
near Freeport, 111., and removed with his father to Chickasaw county, Iowa, 
when all that section of country was an undeveloped wilderness and prairie. 
vScarcely had he arrived at man's estate when a call came for volunteers in 
the Union service and he volunteered in the Thirty-second Iowa Infantry, 
going- with his regiment to the front and fighting in its battles until the 
expiration of his term of service. The war ended, he engaged in farming 
near Lawler, Chickasaw county, Iowa, and on his farm there his oldest child, 
Delbert A., was born June 26, 1866. The family contained two younger 
children, whose mother, Cornelia (Tisdale) Shively, now deceased, was a 
member of a very old family of New England. 

Taking the family to Minnesota about 1872, Samuel A. Shively home- 
steaded one hundred and sixty acres in Rock county and devoted ten years 
to the improvement of the tract. Upon disposing of the property he returned 
to Iowa and settled in Lyon county, but later removed to Missouri and estab- 
lished a home at Springfield. Thence he went to Chicago and took up. the 
study of medicine. After having graduated with the degree of M.D., he 
engaged in practice in Chicago until the time of his death. His eldest son 
was six when the family went to Minnesota and thirteen when they became 
residents of Lyon county, Iowa. After he had completed the studies of the 
common schools he learned the trade of barber in Rock Rapids, Lyon county, 
and there engaged in the business for himself. The summer of 1895 was 
spent in Pasadena, Cal., and the visit gave him a favorable impression concern- 
ing the west. Selling his business at Rock Rapids in 1901 he came to P)akers- 
field and ])urchased the Southern hotel barber shcp, which since he has con- 
ducted with efficiency, securing a large trade by reason of recognized skill in 
the trade. Meanwhile he has become interested in alfalfa ranching in the 
Rio Bravo country, where he has installed a pumping plant for irrigation of 
the one huiulred and ten acre tract. He has erected two bungalows, one of 
w^hich he sold, and the other (at Xo. 2021 Cedar street) he now occupies. 
Fraternally he holds membership with the Knights of Pythias. 

The marriage of Mr. Shively took place at Rock Rapids, Iowa, August 
2S<. 1887. and united him with Miss Fannie Geisef, who was born at Xormal, 
McLean county. 111. Their only child. Vera, is the wife of R. C. Hackett of 
Rakersfield. A graduate of the Rock Rapids high school, she was a teacher 
prior to her marriage. She was the }oungest among the three children form- 
ing the family of Frederick and Fannie (Eicher) Geiser, the former a native 
of Canton Bern, Switzerland, and the latter of France. Shortly after his 
arrival in the new world ^Ir. Geiser enlisted in an Ohio regiment and served 
in the Union army throughout the Civil war. After the death of his wife, 
which occurred in Xormal, 111., he removed to Iowa and embarked in business, 
and later he resided at Colby, Kans., where occurred his death. April 14. 1899. 
at the age of sixtv-eight years. 

J. ROBINSON.— The Revenue Oil Company (J. Robinson, superintend- 
ent) was incorporated March 17. 1900. with a capital stock of $200,000. and 
now has its head office at Xos. 404-406 Chamber of Commerce building. 
Pasadena, Cal.. its president, R. H. Pinney. and secretary, A. K. Xash, both 



584 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

being citizens of that place. The board of directors consists of the two officials 
named, in addition to C. B. Scoville, Isaac Bailey and J. C. Dalton. Five 
men working under the direction of the superintendent care for the company 
holdings of forty acres on section 4, township 29, range 28, where since the 
first work was started seventeen wells have been put down, six of these, 
however, now out of commission, although by re-drilling the present super- 
intendent has been able to secure twelve producing wells, six of which are 
operated by a power jack. The net yield is six thousand barrels per month, 
an amount largely in excess of former returns and therefore gratifying to those 
financially interested in the concern. 

All through his life Mr. Robinson has been identified with the oil industry. 
Born in Fayette county. Pa.. April 21, 1867, he was fifteen years of age when 
he began to w^ork in the Bradford field in Ohio and for twelve years he was 
employed there by the Hazehvood Oil Company. Studying the industrv with 
assiduous attention, he became familiar with every department and is now 
able to manage any responsibility, important or trivial. From the Bradford, 
field he went to the Clinton Rock fields near Toledo, Lima and Findley, and 
acquired the sole ownership of eight wells, besides a one-fourth interest in 
twenty-four others. When eventually he disposed of all these interests it 
gave him financial independence. l)ut the spell of the oil fields w^as upon him 
and after "wild-catting" in Ohio and finding twelve dry holes, there was little 
left of his former fortune. Later he prospected in West Virginia, drilled 
wells in Guernsey county, Ohio, and Barboursville. Cabell county, W. Va., 
and then took charge of a property owned by J. W. Stone in Wood county, 
Ohio, whence he changed his headquarters to Illinois, working first at Rob- 
inson, Crawford county, and then spending one summer at Casey. Clark 
county. Next he investigated conditions in Oklahoma and from there went to 
Utah to meet Colonel Dunn with a view to drilling for him, but the two 
failed to complete their negotiations. 

Upon coming west to California and landing in the \Miittier field near 
Los Angeles. Mr. Robinson engaged with the Central Oil Company and later 
with the Murphy Oil Company as production man. After perhaps three years 
iin that field he came to the Kern river oil fields in 1910 and since has been 
iretained as superintendent with the well-known concern whose interests he 
guards with extreme care. His sons, J( :hn and James, bright youths of nine- 
teen and sixteen, are a source of pride to him and he is sparing no pains to 
prepare them for whatever responsibilities the future may hold for them. 
With his wife, formerly Miss Alice Elthringham of Ohio, he has estab- 
lished a comfortable home on the company's holdings and such limited leisure 
as his very responsible position permits is spent in the society of his family 
and friends, there being no inclination on his part to participate in politics or 
identify himself with fraternal organizations. 

E. H. WHITAKER.— The supply house of Fairbanks, Morse & Co... at 
Shale, over which Mr. Whitaker has been manager since its establishment, 
is one of the recent additions to the important list of business houses in Kern 
county having for their object the filling of the needs of the oil operators in 
this section of the country. Since the opening of the house there has been 
kept in stock a full complement of oil well supplies of the guaranteed quality 
for which the name of the firm stands sponsor. Throughout the oil fields near 
Shale the manager of the house has an established reputation for energy, 
reliability and sagacious judgment, and he is not only capable but also popular. 

A native of this state. Mr. \\hitaker was born in the city of Los Angeles 
September 24. 1877. and at the age of thirteen first came to the Kern river 
oil fields, since which time he has been more or less closely identified with 
the business now engaging his attention. For a time he was employed in 
the shipping department of Fairbanks. Morse & Co., in Los Angeles, but in 




^hua>. aSA 



"^LCULJUCL 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 589 

July of 1909 the company transferred him to Bakersfield and during the fol- 
lowing UK nth sent him from that city to Taft, eventually transferring him 
in August, 1911, to his present post at Shale, where he was the first and has 
been the only manager of the supply house. The erection of the store build- 
ing was carried forward under his personal supervision, the stocking of the 
room with such equipment as must be carried by such a house also was given 
over to his charge and the success of the business may be attributed wholly 
to his oversight. With his wife, whom he married in Bakersfield and who 
was formerly Miss Josephine Dempsey, he makes his home at Shale. Fra- 
ternally he is connected with the blue lodge of Masons at Bakersfield and 
the Improved Order of Red Men at Taft. 

AUGUST PIERRE EYRAUD.— As far back as the genealogical records 
of the p]_\raud family can be traced they were residents of that portion of 
l<>ance embraced within the limits of Hautes-Alpes lying in the shadow of 
the snow-capped Alps and a short distance to the east of the vine-clad 
valley of the Rhone. In the midst of this fertile section lies the thriving 
city of Gap. where Joseph Eyraud was born in 1803 and where, after 
years ( f active identification with mercantile affairs, he died in 1884, having 
long sur\i\ed his wife, \^ictoria (Sauva) Eyraud, who passed away in 185.3. 
While the family name is still represented in Hautes-Alpes the immediate 
members of this famil}- circle no longer have identification with the region, 
for the sole survivor and the youngest of the four children, August Pierre, 
who was born there Ma}^ 15, 1852, has made his home in the United States 
since 1872. h'or a short time after his arrival in San Francisco he was 
empkyed as clerk in a hotel and later he worked in a tannery on twenty- 
sixth and Mission streets, after which, in 1877. he opened the Hotel des Alps 
on Pacific street. San Francisco. Since 1880 he has made his home in Bakers- 
field and while during this period he has endured vicissitudes and faced 
business reverses resulting from fires, by persisting in a course of straight- 
forward dealing with all he has gained a gratifying degree of financial 
prosperity. 

Shortl}' after his arrival in Bakersfield Mr. Eyraud became the pro- 
])rietor of the Alps hotel on the northwest cc.rner of Nineteenth and M 
.streets, where also he conducted a hotel and liquor bi!isiness. During 1885 
he took the agenc}^ for \\ ieland's brewery and was able to reduce the cost 
of bottled beer from $16 to $9 per barrel by having the work done at this 
])cint. A disastrous fire in 1889 entailed upon him a heavy loss. Prior to the 
lire he had bought unimproved real estate on the southeast corner of Nine- 
teenth and M streets and at once he began to erect the building which he 
called the French hotel. Upon the completion of the structure he hung at 
its front the flag of his adopted country. For a number of years he made his 
headquarters at that place, but during the autumn of 1900 he again met 
with a heav\- 1( ss through the total destruction of the building by fire. 
Upon rebuilding he changed the name to the Commercial hotel. This he 
leased to others, while on the corner he established a wholesale liquor busi- 
ness. During 1909 he erected on adjacent property a three-story building 
known as the St. Regis hotel. This gives him a frontage of one hundred 
and thirty-two feet and a depth of ninety feet, with six store rooms facing 
on Nineteenth street. In March, 1912, he retired from the wholesale busi- 
ness to de\ote his time to looking after his city property and his ranches. 
Besides his other holdings he owns oil lands in the McKittrick field and 
is also the owner of a fine cattle ranch of nine hundred and sixty acres lying 
in the Greenhorn mciuntains fifty mile^s northeast of Bakersfield. On the 
ranch, which is superintended by his brother-in-law, Jules Caillaud, he has 
a large herd of cattle bearing the brand BO. He also owns two alfalfa 
ranches under the Kern Island canal, which he is improving and superin- 



590 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

teiidini;-. In 1911 he l)uilt a beautiful modern residence on the corner of 
X and Truxtun avenue, where the famil}- make their home. On the organi- 
zation of the National Hank of Bakerstield he became an original stock- 
hclder and he is also a member of the board of directors. Politically he has 
supported the Democratic i^arty ever since he attained his majority. Fra- 
ternally he holds membershi]) with the Eagles and the Knights of F'ythias. 
His marriage was solemnized in I'.akersfield h'ebruary 4, 1884, and united 
him with Miss Rosalie Caillaud. who was born in Paris, l'>ance. but was 
])rought to this country at an early age by her father, Charles Caillaud, 
who settled in Kern county in 1869 and engaged in stock-raising on his 
ranch which was afterward known as tiie French ranch. He passed away in 
1878, and his widow, Frances (Guillion) Caillaud, reared their family of five 
children and spent her last days in the home of her daughter, Mrs. .August 
P. Eyraud, in IJakersfield, where her death occurred in 1911, at the age of 
seventy-nine. The original settler of the Caillaud family was Eugene, a 
brother of Charles, who came nn a sailer around Cape Horn in 1849 and 
arrived in San Francisco that year. Fie engaged in mining and drifted into 
Kern county in the early days; as early as 1839 he located in the Green- 
horn mountains, where he was a storekeeper and miner, engaging in placer 
mining on Bear Trap creek, where he was accidental!}- killed by the caving 
of the gravel bank in 1886. 

The only son of Mr. and Mrs. Eyraud was August, a promising youth, 
who died at the age of sixteen years. The only rlaughter, Mrs. .-Mice Ingram, 
is a resident of San I'Vancisco. 

WILLIAM PARKS RUSSELL.— Success has marked the experiences 
of Mr. Russell as a driller. To him belongs the credit of having drilled all 
the wells on the Acme and all but two on the Sacramento, which two proper- 
ties laid the foundation to the present prosperity and influence of their 
superintendent, W. W . Colm, one of the leading men in the Kern river field. 
Purchasing a block of the promotion stock of the Alberta Oil Company on 
section 15, 31-22, in the North Midway field, where work was begun in May 
of 1911, Mr. Russell has since drilled all but two of the wells on the lease of 
forty acres. Under his able supervision the five wells are now producing 
an average of five thousand barrels per month and there is every reason to 
hope for an increased output as the work of development progresses. The 
president of the company is W. W. Colm of the Kern river field, while Harry 
Thomas of Bakersfield acts as secretary, and the Security Trust Company 
oflficiates as treasurer. Capitalized by Kern county men, who repose the 
utmost confidence in the sui)erintendent, the latter has been able to work 
unhampered by limitations, and therefore may reasonably hope to reach the 
success in this proposition that rewarded his efiforts in the Acme, the Sacra- 
mento and all the other properties with which he has been connected. 

In the vicinity of the great oil fields of Clarion county. Pa., on a farm 
owned by his parents, John A. and Hannah (Tippry) Russell, William P. 
Russell was born May 10, 1864. His father died at the old homestead and the 
mother, now eighty years of age, is still living on that place. There are six 
children in the family, namely: Josephine, wife of Ambrose Spencer, who 
is connected with the iron business at Scranton, Pa. ; Marcus E., an Alaskan 
gold miner now making his headquarters at Juneau ; Lizzie, Mrs. John Parkin, 
of Parkers Landing. Pa. ; William P., of California; A. Barton, a farmer living 
near Foxburg, Clarion county, Pa. ; and Orrin M., a contract driller working 
in West Virginia. At the age of eighteen years William P. Russell became a 
roustabout in the Clarion fields. Going from Pennsylvania to West Vir- 
ginia, he spent fifteen years in the. oil fields of that state and meanwhile 
ac(iuired a thorough practical knowledge of drilling. In Ohio he engaged in 
drilling at St. Mary's. 

An experience of six years in mining in New Mexico w^as sufficient to 



HISTORY OF KERN COUxVTY 591 

prove to Mr. Russell that he was far less interested in mining" than in the oil 
industry, hence he eventually returned to the West Virginia oil fields and 
worked at Cairo, Ritchie county. Upon cominf^ to California in 1900 he 
struck the Kern river field in the height of its fame. At first he worked for 
the Chicag'o Crude, now a property of the Associated. Later he drilled all 
the wells on the Acme and all but two on the Sacramento, also drilled on the 
Sterling and Sovereign leases in the Kern river field, from which he came to 
the North Midway to take up development work with the Alberta. In 1909 
he married Miss Elizabeth' Dunkle, of Parkers Landing, Armstrong county, 
Pa., a woman of culture and education, and an earnest member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 

A. A. SLOAN. — In Crawford county. Pa., A. A. Sloan was born .April 
24, 1858, the only other child, Alice, dying about 1897. The father. Erastus 
Sloan, died in 1862, and was long survived by the mother, Rosanna 
(McGuire) Sloan, whose death occurred November 9, 1911, at the age of 
eighty-three years. Having completed the studies of the common schools, 
A. A. Sloan had some experience as a drug clerk at Little Cooley, Crawford 
county, and at the age of eighteen started west to see the country. The hard- 
ships of life on the plains of Kansas, Colorado and the Indian Territory did 
not ap]:)eal to him and he went back to Pennsylvania, there to gain his first 
knowledge of the oil industry while working at Sawyer City, McKean county. 
As a roustabout with the Hazelwood Oil Company he experienced the diffi- 
culties incident to the beginning of work in the great industry. Step by step 
he rose to be a driller. Successively in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and 
California he followed the occupation of drilling, and while in Indiana he 
engaged in contract drilling as a partner of Joseph Wilson under the firm 
name of Sloan and Wilson. 

For two and one-half years after his first removal to California in 1887 
Mr. Sloan engaged as a driller for the Pacific Coast Oil Company at Newhall. 
On returning to eastern oil fields he continued as a driller for seven years, 
when again he was induced to come to California. On this second sojourn 
in California he drilled for the Santa Fe Company at Fullerton. x\t the ex- 
piration of ten months he went back to Pennsylvania. January of 1900 found 
him again in the Fullerton field. During June of the same year he came to 
Kern county to drill at the old Sunset, having purchased an interest in the 
Navajo Oil Company. Going to Lompoc in 1901, he worked for the Union 
Oil Company. On returning to Kern county he engaged with the Bear Creek 
Oil Company and later was with the Fox C^il Companv. but in the meantime 
he had spent one year on his ranch at Altadena. His connection with the 
Engineers Oil Company began July 3, 1913, and already has proved helpful 
to the interests of the concern on section 14, where he makes his headquar- 
ters. Fraternallv he became connected with Esperanza Lodge No. 339, F. & 
A. M., at Fullerton. P)y his marriage to Miss Hattie Bailey, of Jamestown. 
N. Y., he has an only daughter. Miss Marie Sloan, who has developed marked 
vocal talent and is now studying voice culture under competent instructors. 
it being the desire of her parents to prepare her for a successful career in the 
art. For some years Mrs. Sloan has been a prominent worker in the 
Woman's Christian Temperance Union and in religion she is an earnest 
adherent to the doctrines of the Congregational Church. 

JOHN COLE RAMSEY.— On a farm one hundred miles below Pitts- 
burg, near Morgantovvn. W. \*a., John Cole Ramsey was born June 11. 1875, 
the son of Josephus A. and Annie E. ('\\^aters) Ramsey. The father, wlm 
owned a quarter section of fine farming land in West Virginia, was killed in a 
runaway accident when he was sixty-seven years of age. The mother, who 
still lives at ^lorgantown, has charge of the husband's estate, besides owning 
thirty-seven acres adjacent, the whole forming a valuable tract. Of her 
twelve children seven are now living, namely: John Cole, the eldest of the 



592 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

family ; D. V... who has drilled on the Globe division of the General Petro- 
leum and in other places ; Lillie, Mrs. Charles W. Morris, of Cassville, W. 
Va. ; Mrs. Maude Pride, also of Cassville; Pearl, Grace and Blanche, who 
reside on the old homestead in the east. 

At the aije of nineteen years John C. Ramsey found employment in the 
oil fields at Cassville. \\' . Va., where he worked for two years in the pipe line 
department of the Standard Oil Compan3^ Next he entered the producinj^ 
department of the Standard at Mannin.s^ton, continuinc: there and at Bristol, 
Pa., and Weston, W. Va. In each of these places he had chars^e of Standard 
property. Comin^: as far west as Oklahoma in 1904. he worked at Bartles- 
ville and Tulsa, mainly as a driller. The year 1906 found him in Coalin^^a, 
w^here he be.Sian to drill in the employ of the California Limited. From 
Coalin,s:a he went to Sherman and eng^aged with the American Oilfields Com- 
pany, Limited. Later periods of work kept him in the emplo}^ successively 
of the Alma, Alma, Jr., and the Blackjack in the Kern river field, after which 
he came to the North Midway in the interests of Barlow & Hill. One year 
was spent at Taft. from which place he went to the 25 Hill for T. M. Young. 
Two years were devoted to various departments of the work on the lease, and 
he then came to his present position in 1911, since which he has made all 
the improvements on the property and has converted it into a remunerative 
proposition. Politically he votes with the Democratic party, and fraternally 
he is connected with the Moose at Taft and the Elks at Bakersfield. While 
still living- in the east he married at Oakland, Md., Miss Grace Chesney, a 
native of Morgantown, W. Va., and they are now making their home on 
section 14, 31-22, lease of the Midway Gas and Petroleum Company. 

REV. JOSEPH WANNER.— Of the many Roman Catholic priests labor- 
ing in California few have charge of a larger territory than that which has 
been assigned to Father Wanner for his spiritual oversight and none has in 
larger degree than he the qualities necessary for the successful discharge of 
great responsibilities. The fact that he is able to speak five languages, Ger- 
man, French, Spanish, English and Italian, indicates his classical education 
and fine powers of mind and also makes him somewhat of a cosmopolitan in 
his outlook upon the world. 

Father Wanner was born at Belford. Haute Saone, France, October 12, 
1865, and is a son of the late Casimer and Marie (Grelle) \^'^anner, the latter a 
farmer's daughter, and the former a son of Fortune Wanner, an educator and 
owner of a farm in Haute Saone. The family was of high standing in the 
community where so many generations had lived and labored. It was pos- 
sible, therefore, to give the ambitious youth excellent educational advantages 
and he was sent to the La Chapelle College in France, where he completed the 
study of the classics. Later he studied philosophy in the St. Sulpician Sem- 
inary at Vesoul, Haute Saone. On the completion of the course in that insti- 
tution he went to Switzerland and studied theology at Luzerne near the 
shores of the beautiful lake of that name. The historic university in which 
he was a student had been the alma mater of many men of influence in former 
generations of religious progress. 

Upon coming to the new world the young priest devoted two years to 
theological study under the Benedictine Fathers in St. Vincent's Seminary at 
Pittsburgh, Pa. Ordained to the holy priesthood by Archbishop Feehan of 
Chicago in 1891, he was assigned to the Chicago diocese as an assistant. Later 
he was appointed rector of the Holy Ghost Church in Chicago and during his 
pastorate he established the Sisters of St. Agnes convent and academy 
in his parish. The demands of the work upon his time and strength were 
gteat. After a time his health began to sufifer under the strain and it 
became necessary for him to resign his charge in order to benefit by a 
change of climate. In this way he was led to come to California during 
1903. For three years he served as chaplain at the old mission in San 




<^^^.^e^2j • Cy/^ ^.^^^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 595 

Diego and then for a similar period he was rector at Cayucos, San Luis 
Obispo county, where he built the new church and the parsonage. At 
the same time he conducted the missions St. Cambria and St. Simeon. 
During 1906 he was assigned to Tehachapi as rector of St. Malachy's 
Roman Catholic Church, which had been started in 1884 by Father Bannon. 
In 1910 he built the St. Mary of the Desert church at Mojave. During 
the construction of the aqueduct he had charge of all the Roman Catholic 
missions up to Cinco. In addition he has rebuilt the edifice used by the 
Sacred Heart congregation at Lancaster, Los Angeles county, and has 
visited regularly the missions at Amelia and Paris. His most distant mis- 
sions are at Tejon ranch and the Indian mission near Weldon, on the south 
fork of the Kern river, eighty-five miles from his home, the entire extent 
of his territory covering one hundred and thirty miles. It is necessary 
for him to ride horseback over the mountains, for much of the route takes 
him over roads impracticable for conveyances. To one of his consecrated 
spirit and tireless energy the hardships of the trips to mission points count 
for naught in his zealous efforts to advance the kingdom of Christ in the 
world. While he has traveled extensively in Europe, has visited x\frica 
and many islands of the Pacific, no country is so dear to him as California 
and no spot in the commonwealth more interesting to him than his present 
parish with its widely scattered parishioners, its constant difficulties and 
its calls upon his sympathies, patience, tact and leadership. 

JOHN JOHNSON. — Although having recently established a residence 
in East Bakersfield, Mr. Johnson still makes his headquarters at Weldon on 
the South Fork of the Kern river, where he was born May 10, 1867, and 
where now he has stock interests. Much of his life, however, has been passed 
in other places, for the interests of the stock industry, to which his father 
devoted the greater part of his active life and in which he has been con- 
stantly interested, have obliged him to seek different locations and as a boy 
he spent much of his time in the Sierra country of Kern and Inyo counties. 
Later on he had a disastrous experience in San Bernardino county in the 
vicinity of Daggett, where a severe and protracted drought caused him losses 
so heavy that he was forced to begin anew. The spread of the Texas fever 
among his herds completed the catastrophe that left him without either stock 
or capital. However, since returning to Kern county he has been more 
fortunate. The losses have been retrieved and he now ranks among the 
prosperous stockmen of his district. 

Through helping in the care of the stock owned l)y his father, John 
Johnson, Sr., who was a pioneer of California and a rancher in Kern, Inyo 
and San Bernardino counties, and eventually a merchant at Daggett, where 
he died, John Johnson, Jr., learned the stock industry in all of its details. 
For thirteen years he was employed on the stock ranch of W. W. Landers 
on the South Fork and his proficiency led to his promotion to the responsi- 
bilities of foremanship, in which position he continued until he embarked 
in the stock business for himself. After he had maintained headquarters in 
the Kelsey valley for some time and had made a most gratifving start in 
the industry, he unfortunately took his cattle to Daggett in 1908 and there 
the herd was practically wiped out through the Texas fever and the drought. 
What was left he sold in 1909 and returned to Kern county, bought a small 
bunch of cattle and started on the South Fork, where since he has maintained 
headquarters at Weldon and has ranged his stock on the Manache meadows. 
The brand of 22 which he uses is common in the district, this proving the 
size of his herd and the extent to which he has made up for former losses. 

Buying a residence at No. 916 Eureka street. East Bakersfield. in 1912, 
Mr. Johnson moved his family to their new home and since then a part of 
his time has been spent in the city. He is interested in the development of 
East Bakersfield, maintains considerable pride in its growing prosperity and 



596 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

supports all measures for the local upbuilding. Politically he votes with the 
Republican party. His marriage was solemnized near Weldon, Kern county, 
and united him with Miss Victoria Seybert, a native of San Bernardino 
county, but a resident of Kern county since childhood. They are the parents 
of two daughters and one son, namely: Mrs. Viola Polkinghorn. who lives 
at Weldon and has one child, Dorothy; Inice and James. The father of Mrs. 
Johnson is Robert Seybert, who at the age of eighty-two years, still survives, 
rugged and heartv. and still makes his home at his ranch on the South I'ork. 
where he is an honored pioneer and prominent rancher. In an early day he 
came across the plains from IMissouri and settled in California, whose devel- 
opment he has witnessed during the long period of his identification there- 
with. 

CALVIN B. ALEXANDER.— The results of industry and perseverance 
find a fitting illustration in the successful activities of this well-known farmer 
of Kern county, who orjihaned by the death of his father when he was only 
twelve vears of age took up the battle of self-support immediately afterward 
and from that time onward made his own way in the world. . Not only 
did he accomplish the strenuous task of self-support when other boys were 
in school or enjoying the recreations of youth, but in addition he turned over 
all of his wages to his mother until he was twenty and thus assisted in the 
general maintenance of the family, including at the time six children, of 
whom he was next to the eldest. 

Upon first settling in America it is known that the .Alexander family, 
established their home in Maine, whence later generations drifted as far 
west as Ohio. There Isaac Alexander met and married Mary Harshberger. 
who was born in Ohio of German ancestry and who is still living, physically 
robust for one of eighty-six years. During the period of their residence 
in Miami countv, Ohio, the second child in the family, Calvin B., was born 
on New Year's day of 1853. When only two years of age he was taken 
by his parents to Miami county. Ind., but seven years later the family 
returned to their old Ohio home, where the father died about the year 1865. 
The next year the son was put to work at $8 per month and from that 
time be worked without intermission for rest or schooling. At the age of 
twentv he moved to Warren county, Ind.. where he secured Avork as a 
farm hand. Later he took up farming for himself, working land for him- 
self in the summer and then hiring out to others in the winter. For twenty 
years he continued in Indiana. 

Coming to this state in 1893 and purchasing his first acreage in 1898. 
Mr. Alexander since has devoted himself industriously to the care of land 
and of stock. Besides being a large grower of alfalfa hay, he is successful 
with other crops. In addition he makes a specialty of stock, is considered 
an excellent judge of horse-flesh and has on his place two very fine Percheron 
stallions, one of which is his private property, while the other is owned by 
a company. The home place comprises eighty acres located on section 7. 
townshi]:) 31. range 29, and under his supervision the tract has been im- 
proved and greatly enhanced in value. In addition he owns an improved 
eighty on section 12, township 31. range 28, now operated and occupied by 
his older son, John C. a ])rogressive young farmer of Kern county, At 
this writing he also has one hundred and sixty acres under contract. 

During 1877 Mr. Alexander was united in marriage with Miss Mary .A. 
.Anderson, of Warren county, Ind., by whom he has four children, namely: 
John C.. who married Miss Estella McDonald, of Kern cfiunty : Nora A., 
whose husband, William Patterson, formerly a druggist, is now engaged in 
farming at Lathrop near Stockton. San Joaquin county; C^hrisline I., the 
wife of Archie T. Rudrum, a farmer near Stockton; and Arthur Arlington, 
now in liakersfield. 11ie family has a high social standing in their com- 
munity and all of its members receive the genuine respect which is their 









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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 599 

tluc. In all (.)f his efforts Mr. Alexander has enjoyed the hearty and wise 
co-operation of his wife, who is a woman of education and culture and 
possesses the i>'entleness of disposition together with intelligence of mind» 
that gives her a first place not only in the home, but also in the neighbor- 
hood. At no time an office holder, Mr. Alexander has always espoused Re- 
publican ])rinciples. 

MARION J. SCOTT. — From early life dependent upon his own efforts 
for a livelihood. Mr. Scott has met every hardship with a cheerful optimism 
and has risen to a position of considerable importance in the oil industry, 
being now in charge of the Brookshire Oil Company's holdings in the North 
Midway field. A native of the commonwealth where all of his life has been 
passed, he is a typical Californian in energy, progressive spirit and patriotic 
loyalty. The first three years of his life were passed in Modoc county, 
where he was born November 22, 1885, but in 1888 he was taken by his par- 
ents to Santa Barbara and with that portion of the state his early memories 
are most closely associated. When only fourteen he was orphaned by the 
death of his parents. He was the youngest of nine children, the most of 
whom had reached mature 3^ears at the time and were in a position to earn 
their own livelihoods. With characteristic energy and courage he discon- 
tinued his studies and took up the task of self-support. From that time to 
the present he has owed his progress to his unaided exertions. At the age 
of nineteen years he found employment in the Santa Maria field and ever 
since that time he has been identified with the oil industry, with the excep- 
tion of one year devoted to other work. 

A long identification with the Santa Maria field was broken by removal 
to the Coalinga district, where Mr. Scott engaged with the Claremont Oil 
Company during 1908-09. During 1910 he came to Kern county and found 
employment with the Brookshire Oil Company, which corporation has since 
had the benefit of his arduous services and competent assistance. When 
A. P. Kennedy, superintendent of the Brookshire, died July 22, 1913, Mr. 
Scott was placed in charge of the lease, receiving his appointment as superin- 
tendent of the Brookshire August 10, 1913, since which time he has devoted 
himself with conscientious intelligence and excellent results to the many 
details connected with such tasks. The lease comprises one hundred and 
sixty acres located in the North Midway field, where three excellent wells 
give an average monthly production of thirty-six hundred barrels. He has 
little leisure for outside affairs. The discharge of his duties on the lease keep 
him closely confined to the property. While living at Coalinga he became a 
member of the Order of Eagles, but since coming to this county he has not 
identified himself with any organization of that nature. His marriage took 
place at Santa Barbara in 1906 and united him with Miss Lottie Foster, of 
Santa Maria, and they are the parents of two children, ^Marion J.. Jr.. and 
Mary E., aged respectively four and two years. The family reside on the 
Brookshire lease in the North Midway field. 

CHARLES G. WHITTIER.— Allied with an honored pioneer family of 
New England and a distant relative of the famous poet. John Greenleaf 
\A'hittier. it has been the ambition of Charles G. WHiittier to add prestige to 
the name and such has been the result achieved in the midst of the strenuous 
activities of the oil field and in a region remote from the scenes of youth. 
As a boy he was familiar with the remote and isolated county of Aroostook 
in the northern part of Maine, where he was born at Caribou, August 4, 1871. 
and where he was reared in the midst of an agricultural environment and a 
wilderness that was bleak and stern and unfruitful. Self-reliance was de- 
veloped by force of circumstances. Ease and comfort was not possible to the 
family in their northern home. The most diligent effort was necessary to 
secure a livelihood from the sterile soil. Strength of body and fortitude of 
soul were the heritage of those reared in and inured to stern climatic condi- 



600 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

tions, and the mother, who bore the maiden name of Ruth Keach, is still hale 
and hearty at the age of seventy-one. The father, Charles Greenleaf Whit- 
tier, Sr., died at the old Maine homestead in 1912, when seventy-one years of 
age. The eldest of their seven children is ]\Iilo W., who remains at the old 
homestead. The second son, Mericos H. Whittier, a millionaire oil operator 
residing in Los Angeles, was a member of the firm of Green & Whittier, 
developers of what is now the Green and Whittier division of the Associated 
Oil Company in the Kern river field. The third son. Colon F., is also an oil 
operator and a resident of Los Angeles. The fourth son, Charles G., who 
has lived in California since 1903, is one of the leading oil superintendents in 
the North Midway field. There are three daughters in the family, namely: 
()li\'e. wife of Lester Fair, a merchant in Maine; \'iora, wife of Henry Snusa, 
of Maine ; and Florence, Mrs. Henry Vinol, who makes her home at Caribou. 

Upon coming to the North Midway field immediately after his arrival in 
the west Mr. Whittier joined his brother, M. H., in drilling a discovery well 
on section 20, 31-22. This was practically the first development work at- 
tempted in the district. Although oil was struck, the well was closed down 
and the lease abandoned, after which he went to Coalinga, January 4, 1905. 
For eighteen months he worked on a lease in which his brother held an in- 
terest. Going from there to the Los Angeles field he entered the employ oi 
the Salt Lake Oil Company and for five years continued on their lease, mean- 
time purchasing a substantial residence in Los Angeles and forming many 
warm and permanent friendships with well-known operators of that city. 
For the period of his residence there he held membership with the Indepen- 
dent Order of Odd Fellows in Hollywood. During February of 1911 he re- 
turned to the North Midway field, where now he engages as superintendent 
of the Hondo Oil Company, operating on section 15, 31-22. The name of the 
company is taken from a Spanish word meaning "a deep hole." Wells on the 
lease average one thousand feet in depth and two hundred and fifty barrels 
per day in production. Forty-two and one-half acres are leased by the two 
brothers, M. H. and C. G., who are partners in the Hondo Oil Company. 

The marriage of Mr. Whittier took place at Portsmouth, N. H., and 
united him with Miss Mary Coughlan, who was born in County Cork, Ire- 
land, and at the age of seventeen came to the United States, settling first in 
Boston. From childhood she has been an earnest member of the Roman 
Catholic Church. While still retaining their Los Angeles residence, they are 
now making their home on the lease. 

MRS. AMANDA RUBY.— The real estate business, which has made 
such strides in development in this part of the country in the last decade. 
has ])ruved a most attractive field of labor for the progressive business 
woman, who recently has come to the fore and procured such good 
returns that her fellow workers are kept busy looking after their interests 
and keeping in close touch with her. Airs. Amanda Ruby is a fine example 
of the self-made woman, whose untiring efifort along this line has made 
her a most prosperous woman. She is the granddaughter of Frederick Wise, 
who was born in Pennsylvania, and who was one of the pioneer farmers of 
Illinois. Frederick and Rebecca Wise were the parents of Jacob Mason 
Wise, born in Sj)ringfield, Sangamon county. 111., who became the father 
of Mrs. Ruby. 

Jacob Mason Wise, was a blacksmith in Sangamon county. 111., 
for a while and later went to Riverton and then to Mount Auburn, Chris- 
tian county, same state, but he soon returned to Sangamon county and 
settled in Niantic. Illiopolis was his next place of residence and later he 
returned to Mt. vVuburn. He followed his trade for some. years, then was a 
hardware merchant while at Mount Auburn, but finally returned to black- 
smithing, which he followed the remainder of his life. His wife, who before 
her marriage was Nancy J. Millstead, was born in Wheeling, W. Va., and 




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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 603 

her death occurred in Alt. Auburn. III. Mr. Wise passed away in Mt. Au- 
burn in August, 1891, aged sixty four years. He was a Mason, and was a 
popular man in those circles which knew him. Three of the children born to 
Mr. and J\lrs. A\'ise are now living, viz.: Amanda, Mrs. Ruby; Alvin A., a 
resident of San Jose. Cal. ; and George O., of Springfield, 111. Mr. Wise 
served in both the Mexican and the Civil wars. 

Reared in Illinois, Amanda Wise attended the public schools of the 
various localities where her parents were settled, and there grew to woman- 
hood. She married in Springfield, Horace S. Ruby, who was born in Macon 
county, 111., and reared on a farm there. At the outbreak of the Civil war 
he enlisted in Company I, 7th Regiment, Illinois Cavalry, and was honorably 
discharged at the end of the great conflict. His death occurred in Bement, 
111., in May, 1884. 

After the death of her husband Mrs. Ruby continued to reside in 
Illinois until 1891, when she came to Mojave, Cal., where she purchased a 
hotel and rooming house. This place was burned out twice, but undaunted 
she rebuilt again and remained there for a number of years, in 1907 locating 
in East Bakersfield, where she has since resided, looking after her interests. 

RICHARD T. WILHITE. — That type of manhood which, in spite of 
vicissitudes and losses, in the face of disappointment, will nevertheless keep 
steadily at work, with untiring efifort, is represented in the life of Richard T. 
Wilhite, who was born near Marshall, Saline county. Mo., September 7, 
1851. His father, William Wilhite, a native of Tennessee, became a farmer 
in Saline county, Mo., where he married Martha Woolard, a native of South 
Carolina. The father was accidentally killed by a runaway horse, and the 
mother died at the age of sixty years. Of their seven children Richard is 
the oldest. He received his educational training in the schools of his native 
place and graduated from the Marshall high school in 1870. 

Mr. Wilhite worked at farming for a short time, but in 1879 deciding to 
come west he set out for California. He first located at Modesto, Stanis- 
laus county, and there obtained employment in the grocery of L. Strauss & 
Co. at Turlock, remaining there five years. In 1886 he came to Kern 
county, and for several years worked for Haggin & Carr, later known as 
the Kern County Land Company. During this time he took up a home- 
stead claim of a hundred and sixty acres and proved up on it in five years, 
but he suffered losses and reverses and became in debt to the amount of 
$1000. Not losing courage, but rather with renewed effort, in 1890 he rented 
one hundred and sixty acres of land which was under cultivation, and later 
bought the eighty acres comprising his home ranch, upon which he is en- 
gaged extensively in general farming, making a specialty of raising alfalfa 
and grain. In connection with this he has for ten years also carried on a 
dairy business. Recently Mr. Wilhite disposed of nineteen acres of his 
place to a Mr. Attwood. 

On May 24, 1885, Mr. Wilhite was united in marriage with Mattie J. 
Allen, born in Sawmill Flat, Tuolumne count}^, Cal., on November 24, 1864, 
the daughter of James M. and Eliza (Bradford) Allen, natives of Missouri 
and Tennessee, respectively, who came to California in the early days. Mr. 
Allen died in Bakersfield and his widow now resides in Modesto. Mr. and 
Mrs. Wilhite have three children, Rodney, of Taft ; Shirley, Mrs. Watson, 
of Maricopa ; and Veda, at home. By a former marriage to Josephine Bene- 
dict, who died in Missouri, Mr. Wilhite had one child, Minnie, Mrs. E. K. 
Blood, of Bakersfield. 

ALEXANDER H. CROMWELL, D. V. S.— Romance threw its w^arm 
glow of adventure, travel and thrilling experiences over the boyhood years 
of Dr. Cromwell, whose present quiet but efficient discharge of the duties 
of veterinary surgeon at Taft has for its background a career full of excite- 
ment and more or less danger. The trend of an entire existence was for 



604 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

him decided by the fact that in boyhood he lived on the largest cattle ranch 
in the United States and learned to ride horses almost as soon as he 
learned to talk. He was born at Anaqua, Victoria county, Tex., September 
5, 1878, and was the eldest son of Col. Frank Hawkins Cromwell, a man of 
varied abilities, particularly skilled in the care of stock. Attracting the 
attention of Dull Bros., of Pittsburg, Pa., in 1881 he was engaged by them 
to manage their famous ranch in Texas. Under his able supervision the 
vast property was enlarged until finally the firm owned one hundred square 
miles, all under fence, comprising the largest stock ranch in the entire 
country. 

In such an environment Dr. Cromwell passed his earliest years and 
developed fearlessness and self-reliance to an unusual degree. Three times 
he followed the trail up to the Yellowstone park. The first of these trips 
occurred when he was only twelve years of age. Leaving the Texas ranch 
during the latter part of February he made the long trip as a horse herder 
and reached the Yellowstone the following Christmas. Without accident 
or loss he brought out three herds of cattle numbering about twenty-five 
hundred head each, besides one hundred head of saddle horses. Scarcely had 
he reached the age of thirteen when he joined the celebrated Buffalo Bill 
show in 1891. Unusual skill in trick riding enabled him to secure a place 
in this show, which contained in its ring some of the finest riders in the 
world. During the \\'orld's Fair in 1893 he was with the show near the 
exposition grounds and did fancy riding which won for him continued 
applause from the vast throngs crowding the great tent. Besides showing 
with Buffalo Bill in the principal cities of the United States he accom- 
panied the circus to other countries and one of the first places visited was 
Mexico City, where there was an exhibition September 16, 1891. Nor did 
his travels end with his resignation from the circus work. In addition he 
has taken work and draft horses in great numbers to foreign countries, 
doing that work in the interests of large English and American oil com- 
panies, and for some time he was employed by S. Pierson & Son, of London. 

A desire to acquire a knowledge of veterinary surgery and dentistry 
caused Mr. Cromwell to matriculate in the Veterinary Dental College at 
Detroit, Mich., during 1900. Two years later he became a student in the 
Veterinary Science Association's College at Ontario, Canada, from which he 
was graduated in March, 1903, in the veterinary surgical course, and in the 
same year he received his diploma in veterinary dentistry from the Detroit 
institution. Returning to Texas in the same year, he engaged in the oil 
fields at Beaumont and continued in dififerent oil fields of Texas for a 
number of years. As an employe of S. Pierson & Son, of London, in 1906 
he went to the isthmus of Tehuantepec, state of Vera Cruz, Mexico, where 
he engaged as transportation manager in the oil fields. When the position 
had become remunerative and the work had developed to large propor- 
tions, he almost lost his life in an attack of yellow fever during the latter 
part of 1908. Forced to abandon all work, he boarded a steamer that sailed 
around the Horn to New Orleans. The long ocean voyage gave him a 
little strength, but he was still emaciated and weak when he was advised to 
seek the oil fields of Coalinga in California. The change brought him 
benefit at once and he is now robust, rugged and fitted to discharge 
efficiently every business duty. With Dr. W. A. Seabury he built the 
Coalinga veterinary hospital in 1909, but this building was destroyed by 
fire in 1911, and since 1910 he has devoted his time to veterinary surgery 
in Taft, where Dr. Seabury has likewise been his partner. Since coming 
to this place he has bought stock in one of the oil companies and also has 
taken up several excellent government locations. Fraternally he is asso- 
ciated with the Improved Order of Red Men, holds the office of secretary in 




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i4 





HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 607 

the Taft lodge of Knights of Pythias and is also an honorary member of 
the Pythian Sisters in this city. 

NATHAN W. TAUSSIG. — Varied experiences and an association with 
diversified dccupations have given to Mr. Taussig a broad knowledge of the 
great Southwest and have deepened in his mind a conviction that Kern countv 
olTers to settlers of energy and sagacity opportunities unsurpassed by any 
other section of the great empire by the sunset sea. Practically all of his 
mei;nories of childhood cluster around San Bernardino, for he was only a 
little more than three years of age when the family left the East (where 
he had been born at Cleveland, Ohio, August 30, 1862), and cast in their 
fortunes with the then insignificant hamlet situated atThe edge of the desert. 
Vividly he recalls the little schools of San Bernardino, the slow growth 
of the town and the struggle sustained b}^ the people in their unceasing efforts 
to secure an adequate supply of water for irrigation. When only fourteen 
years of age he was hired to drive the stage coach from San Bernardino 
to Resting Springs in Death Valley. This was a task calling for physical 
strength, powers of endurance and fearless courage, and the fact that he 
continued with the company for two years furnishes proof as to his fine 
physical and mental qualities. When he resigned the position he crossed 
over into Arizona and secured a position in the quartermaster's department 
with the government service. 

Returning to San Bernardino at the expiration of three years Mr. Taussig 
made a brief sojourn in that town and then proceeded to Barstow to work in 
a mill connected with the Waterman mines. For five years he remained in 
the mill, of which for a time he acted as foreman. Next he spent three 
years with the Barber Mining and Milling Company at Calico. An ardent 
desire to become a rancher led him to buy property near Santa Ana in 1887. 
but he found conditions unfavorable and sold in about one year, later 
returning to the mines. For a short time he worked in the Ibex mill in 
Death Valley, operated in conjunction with large gold and silver mines. 
From that place he went to Mexico and engaged as foreman in a mine in 
Sonora for one year. 

Upon his arrival in Kern county during 1891 Mr. Taussig bought one 
hundred and twenty acres of unimproved land at Semi-Tropic, where he 
spent nine years in a vain endeavor to make a success of agricultural opera- 
tions. Discouraged by repeated failures, he finally sought another location 
and in 1900 bought one hundred and sixty acres of unimproved land on the 
Goose Lake channel of Kern river. The new property responded to his 
efforts for profitable cultivation. Crops of grain were remunerative. Stock- 
raising brought to him considerable success. Dairying, in which he embarked 
during 1905, also proved a success. Alfalfa, several crops of which were 
cut each year, furnished an abundance of hay for the stock. With the profits 
of a few seasons he felt justified in buying one hundred and sixty acres three 
and one-half miles north of Wasco and this tract has been put in an excellent 
state of cultivation. A well seventy-five feet deep is operated by a pumping 
plant with a ten-horse electric motor, providing a flow of water from fifty to 
sixty inches, sufffcient to furnish an abundance of water for the irrigation 
for a quarter-section. During 1911 IMr. Taussig moved to his Wasco ranch, 
but he still continues to manage the other place. 

The marriage of Mr. Taussig took place at Santa Ana, Cal., December 20, 
1886, and united him with Miss Edith Siegfried, who was born in Waterloo, 
N. Y., April 27, 1862. She was the daughter of Henry and Mary (Poorman) 
Siegfried, natives of New York. Mr. Siegfried came to California via Cape 
Horn in 1849, landing at San Francisco, and for some years he followed 
mining. After a stay of eight years in the West he returned to New York, 
where he was married and there he followed farming until his death in 1870. 
Mrs. Taussig's mother, now ]\Irs. M. A. Hotaling, resides in Orange county. 



608 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Cal. Mrs. Taussig was educated in Syracuse, N. Y., and came to Santa Ana 
in 1882. She is the mother of six children, as follows : Perla E., wife of T. T. 
Miller of Wasco ; James W., who has been educated in public schools and 
the Heald's Business College at Riverside ; Leona, Nathan, Theodore and 
Billie G. 

ROBERT LEE SCOTT.— The Lakeview No. 2 Oil Company, of which 
Mr. Scott acts as superintendent, operates a lease of eighty acres situated 
on section 4, township 11, range 23, and is financed by the following officers 
and directors : Clarence H. White, president ; Floyd G. White, secretary ; and 
W. W. Wickersham, treasurer, the three gentlemen named being capitalists 
residing in Los Angeles. The identification of Mr. Scott with the company 
dates from February, 1911, and since December of the same year he has filled 
the position of superintendent, in which capacity he has proved efficient, 
energetic and resourceful, a thoroughly dependable man for a position of 
great responsibility. When first he entered the employ of the company he 
took charge of the drilling of their well No. 2 situated on section 26, town- 
ship 32, range 24. This well has a depth of forty-five hundred and fifty-five 
feet and is excelled in depth by only one other rotary well in the entire 
country, namely : well No. 4, of the Lakeview Annex (Dil Company, located 
on section 26, township 32, range 24, which has a depth of forty-nine hundred 
feet. Well No. 2, drilled by Mr. Scott, came in January 23, 1913, with a 
record of twenty-six hundred barrels as a gusher and is still a most valuable 
proposition, pumping six hundred barrels per day of twenty-four hours, and 
furnishing oil of twenty-six to twenty-seven degrees gravity. Eighteen men 
are employed on the lease, which presents an appearance of prosperous activ- 
ity and profitable operation. 

Ever since the excitement caused by oil discovery in the Spindletop 
region in Texas Mr. Scott has been closely connected with the oil industry. 
All of his life has been spent in the south and west, where prior to his 
identification with his present business he had been employed as a structural 
iron worker. A member of an old southern family, he was born at Lost 
Prairie, Miller county. Ark., March 19, 1879, and was the fourth and youngest 
child of William B. and Emily Eliza (Evans) Scott, natives respectively of 
Virginia and Louisiana. The father, who migrated to Louisiana in early life, 
there met and married Miss Evans and later removed to Arkansas, where he 
became well-known locally as an expert judge of stock. About the time that 
his youngest child was born he was killed by being thrown from a horse. His 
widow afterward continued to reside in Arkansas, where in a few years she 
again married ; her death occurred at Texarkana in December of 1904. Three 
sons survive her and a daughter died in childhood. The eldest son, John 
Harrison Scott, is engaged in farming at Texarkana, Tex., and the second son, 
William B., Jr., is employed as a structural iron worker in St. Louis. The 
youngest child, Robert Lee, who has always been known as Lee Scott, passed 
the years of boyhood at Texarkana, Ark., where the family moved shortly 
after the accidental death of the father. A difference of opinion with his step- 
father caused him to leave home at the age of thirteen, in 1892, and since then 
he has been self-supporting. For two years he worked on a farm about thirty- 
five miles from Texarkana, but agriculture was not congenial to him and he 
was glad to turn from it to general work in a mechanical line, being engaged 
in saw-mills, shingle-mills and planing-mills as a mechanic. From that he 
drifted into structural iron work. 

The owners of the Missouri Valley Bridge and Iron Works in Leaven- 
worth, Kan., were at that time extensively engaged in bridge construction 
through the middle west and Mr. Scott found employment with one of their 
construction gangs. For two years he was employed in building a bridge on 
the Kansas City, Pittsburg & Gulf (now the Kansas City-Southern) Railroad 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 609 

across the Red river and later he worked on the South Canadian bridge at 
Sapulpa, in the Indian Territory. With his employers he worked in various 
parts of Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma as a bridge-builder. At the outbreak 
of the Spanish-American war he resigned his position and enlisted at Little 
Rock, Ark., in Company L, First Regiment of Arkansas Infantry, but at the 
expiration of five months he was honorably discharged, there being no need 
of his regiment at the front. Returning to the structural iron line of w^ork, 
he continued in the south and was employed on the North Washataw bridge 
at Ravia in the Indian Territory at the time of the excitement in the Spindle- 
top region. Leaving the work in which he had been so notably successful, he 
embarked in the oil business. March 10, 1900, he began to work at Beaumont 
and Spindletop. During December of the same year he turned his attention 
to drilling in the Spindletop field. There he helped to bring in three gushers. 
Leaving that field in 1902, he went to Evangeline, La., as a driller and super- 
intendent of production. Upon returning to Texas he continued as a driller. 
About that time he made the acquaintance of the lady whom he married, 
February 22, 1904, at Houston, Tex., and who was Mrs. Mary Hill, daughter 
of John Manning, of Alabama. By her first marriage Mrs. Scott had one child, 
Mayna, who is now a student in St. Augustine's Academy at Fresno. 

As owner of a one-half interest in two drilling rigs, with J. W. Boynton, 
of Beaumont, Tex., as a partner, Mr. Scott took contracts for drilling in 
a number of fields and made considerable money at such work. Unfor- 
tunately he and Mr. Boynton invested their means in a venture that lost 
each of them $8,000 or more, the two wells which they drilled proving 
to be unproductive. Later Mr. Scott engaged in drilling for the larger 
companies on the Gulf coast of Texas, but in 1906 returned to his previous 
location at Saratoga and secured employment as a fireman and pumper. 
During October, 1910, he came from Texas to California and established 
himself in the Sunset field, where in addition to serving as superintendent 
of one of the prominent companies he has acquired an enviable reputation 
as one of the best rotary drillers in the west. A portion of his time has been 
given to contract drilling and he has drilled four important wells on the 
leases of the Pacific Midway, Obispo and Brookshire Oil Companies. 

ELONZO P. DAVIS.— The call of the frontier brought the Davis familv 
by gradual migration and with several sojourns in the intervening territory, 
from the plantations of old Virginia, where they became established during 
the colonial era, to the coast of the Pacific ocean. The head of the house 
at the time of the removal to California was Isham Turner Davis, born near 
Lebanon. Wilson county, Tenn., but a pioneer farmer of Arkansas from a 
period antedating the struggle with Mexico. In that war he bore an hon- 
orable part and during the battle of Vera Cruz, serving under the illustrious 
general, Zachary Taylor, he received a severe wound in the leg. Upon the 
declaration of peace and the discharge of the army he returned to his 
Arkansas farm, where for many years he continued the arduous struggle for 
a livelihood. Meanwhile he had married Miss Mary A. Farley, a native of 
East Tennessee and a member of an old Virginia family. It became 
increasingly more and more difficult to earn a livelihood for their large 
family on their farm, so their thoughts turned longingly toward the west. 
Finally, during 1869, they started across the plains via Texas, New Mexico 
and Arizona, loading their necessary equipment in wagons and using 
oxen for motive power. The son, Elonzo P., was at that time a youth 
of about sixteen years, strong, willing and industrious. With a kind heart 
and willing spirit he often stood guard at night in place of older members 
of the party whose turn it was for such a task and he recalls vividly the 
loneliness of those occasions and the anxiety caused by the least noise of 
unusual portent. One cold, rainy night a strange noise put every nerve on 



610 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

tension. Twice he called, but received no answer. Then he fired. The 
next morning when an investigation was made the body of a large wolf 
was found. Fortunately the Indians did not attack them at any time during 
the long journey. From 1869 until 1871 the family lived at El Monte and 
from that time until 1876 they made their home in Kern county, but in 
the year last-named the father, accompanied by all of the family excepting 
a daughter and Elonzo P., went back to Arkansas, only to return to the 
west in 1883 and settle again in Kern county, where he died in 1900 at the 
age of eighty-seven. . Here also occurred the demise of his wife. 

In the family of Isham Turner Davis there were eight children who 
reached maturity, Elonzo P. having been the second among these. The 
eldest, William H., is a mining man at Rosamond, Kern county. Two 
daughters, JNIrs. Addle Egan and Mrs. Mollie Purcell, are widows living in 
Bakersfield. Mrs. Sarah Houston resides in Los Angeles and Lucetta, Mrs. 
Martin Pettis, is a resident of Bakersfield. The youngest sons are John 
Edward and Robert Lee, the latter a resident of Rosamond, while the 
former, who lives in Bakersfield, is operating oil land on the west side 
in the McKittrick field. During early boyhood Elonzo P. Davis attended 
subscription schools in Arkansas. When the family crossed the plains he 
was able to do a man's work and proved of the greatest assistance in bring- 
ing the hazardous trip to a safe consummation. While living at El Monte 
he earned a livelihood by teaming and working on a farm. November 
of 1871 found him in Kern county, where he since has made his home. He 
had lived here but a short time when the county-seat question came up 
before the people and at election time he rode mule-back through Bear 
valley and Tehachapi, carrying tickets for voting as well as the other neces- 
sities of the election. Both l)efore and after the return of his father to 
Arkansas he engaged in teaming to the mountains and into Inyo county, 
using twelve or fourteen mules to two wagons. 

Ever since the autumn of 1881 Mr. Davis has engaged in the livery 
business in Bakersfield. For the first two years he carried on the Over- 
land stable located on Eighteenth near K street. Next he bought the old 
Dexter barn on Nineteenth between L and M streets. After having managed 
that stable for almost seven years he sold out and soon afterward the 
barn was destroyed by fire. Meanwhile he had purchased the old French 
stable, but when the Dexter was rebuilt on Nineteenth between M and N 
streets, he leased the place and for more than twenty years conducted a 
livery business at that location. During February of 1910 he leased the 
Union stable on K and Twenty-first streets and since then he has conducted 
here a large business in his line. 

Politically a Democrat, Mr. Davis has maintained a warm interest in 
local and national issues. During a service of nine years as a member of 
the ])(iard of education he assisted in raising the standard of the graded 
schools and putting them into excellent condition for permanent helpfulness. 
For four years he served as city marshal of Bakersfield. His comfortable 
home in Bakersfield is presided over by Mrs. Davis, formerly Miss Margaret 
Hope Taylor, who is a native of Virginia and a member of an old. and 
cultured family of that commonwealth. About 1879 she was brought to 
California by her father, J. C. Taylor, who settled in Kern county and 
engaged in general farming. In this county she received her education and 
here she became the wife of Mr. Davis. They are the parents of five chil- 
dren. Myrtle, Elonzo P., Jr., Pearl, Marvin and Erna. In young girlhood 
Mrs. Davis became identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church South. 

ANTON THORAND.— Born in Germany, May 14. 1863. Mr. Thorand is 
a son of Joseph and Mary (Hanke) Thorand. the latter of whom was born in 
Germany and died in Illinois. The father brought his family to America when 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 613 

Anton was l)ut four years of age, and they located in Trenton, Clinton countv, 
111., where he has ever since made his home. He was the father of ten children, 
of whom six are now living, Anton being the youngest son. 

Anton Thorand was reared in Trenton, and received but meager educa- 
tional advantages, being obliged early in life, when but a lad, to go to work in 
the coal mines in that vicinity. This work he followed until 1889, when he 
came west and on October 7 or 8, 1897, arrived at Bakersfield, w"here he en- 
tered the employ of the Sumner Water Company, under Simon W. Wible. 
He began work at the bottom as a general hand, by his diligent and attentive 
labor receiving rapid promotion, and in July, 1898, he was made foreman [or 
the company. He superintended the laying of the pipes and mains (and there 
were miles of mains and pipe laid) and gave close attention to the plant until 
it was sold to the Bakersfield Water Compan3\ As he was one of the organ- 
izers of the present company, Mr. Thorand was elected vice-president of the 
board of directors as well as superintendent, and in this capacity he has taken 
an active part in building the new plant, which they immediately proceeded 
to do. Five new wells were sunk, these yielding them more than ample supply 
for all present needs; three new electric pumping stations have been installed, 
giving a service that has become appreciated by the consumers, and that, too, 
of a splendid quality of water ; and it has all been constructed on the plan 
that it can be easily enlarged as the population grows and there is greater 
demand. A storage system is arranged by means of a reservoir with a capac- 
ity of over two million gallons, constructed on the heights above East Bakers- 
field. Since the installation of the new ])lant there has been more activity in 
building operations in East Bakersfield from the fact that the citizens became 
convinced that they could be assured ( f adequate water supply and a good 
S3^stem for same. Politically Mr. Thorand is a Republican. 

WILLIAM J. SCHULTZ.— On the paternal side he is of Teutonic 
origin, while the Genaud family were of French lineage, and in his own 
mentality may be seen the attributes of both nationalities, supplemented 
by traits distinctively American. His father, Frederick F., a native of Ger- 
many, but from 3'oung manhood a resident of Ohio and for many years a 
contractor and builder, is now living retired in Cincinnati, where the wife 
and mother died in May of 1901. Of the five children comprising the family, 
William J. was born at Mount Carmel, Clermont county, Ohio. March 23. 
1879, received his education in Cincinnati, where he lived from the age of 
six years until after he had attained man's estate. Upon leaving school he 
became a clerk in a grocery and for three years continued in that business. 

Coming to California and to Bakersfield during 1901. ^Ir. Schultz pro- 
ceeded direct to the Kern river field and secured employment as a roustabout. 
The exercise of ability brought him merited promotion. As a tool-dresser 
he proved efficient, as a driller he made good, and in a short time he rose to be 
superintendent of a company, where as in the less important posts of duty 
he displaved energy, discrimination and sagacity. At the time of his arrival 
in the .Sunset field Jewell & Blodoett owned the princi])al interests, but the 
north end of the field was entirelv undeveloped and the importance of the 
district as an oil center was not realized by the most optimistic residents. 
The Maricopa Oil Company owned forty acres lying in the southwest quar- 
ter of section 1, 12-23, and out of this tract they leased seventeen acres to the 
Gate Citv Oil Compan^^ which later Iwught the land and platted the town 
site of Maricona. As early as 1903 an extension (^f the Sunset Railroad had 
been built to ^Monarch (practicallv the nucleus of Maricopa), but it was not 
until some time afterward that the seventeen acres on section 1 Avere platted 
and sold. Upon the incorporation of Maricona in 1910 other lands were 
included in the town site, so that now the town lies on. sections 1.2. 11 and 12, 
township 12, range 23. Even as earlv as 1902 ]\Tr. Schultz was familiar with 



614 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the tract where the present city stands. The possibility of oil discoveries had 
led him to this locality. For some time he had engaged with a firm of contract 
drillers. The first well that he drilled for the Maricopa Oil Company came in 
as a gusher and this led to his appointment as superintendent and general 
manager of the lease. Later he became interested in the property. 

In 1906 a corporation known as the Maricopa Road Oil and Development 
Company was organized with the late Capt. F. F. Weed as secretary and 
Mr. Schultz as general manager. Four wells were drilled, all proving to be 
good producers. In the fall of 1908 the Maricopa Road Oil and Development 
Company sold out to the Gate City Oil Company. The two gentlemen worked 
together in the utmost harmony and with the most satisfactory results and 
acquired six hundred and forty acres of land in the gusher belt of the Midway 
field. The title to this land is held in the name of the Alaricopa Investment 
Company, with Mr. Schultz as manager, while in addition he is manager of 
the Maple Leaf, I^uxor and Maricopa Oil Companies, operating on the same 
section, namely : 22, 32-24. 

WALLACE MELVIN MORGAN.— Mr. Morgan was born in De Soto, 
Johnson County, Kan., April 21, 1868. His father was Nelson Wallace 
Morgan, a native of New York, whose forebears had been residents of New 
York and the New England states since 1620. His mother was Jeanet Storms, 
also born in New York, of English-Dutch ancestry. They were married in 
Michigan, of which state both their families were pioneers, and moved 
to Kansas during the time when that territory was the principal battleground 
in the contest over the extension or restriction of slavery. When the Civil 
War began, Nelson W. Morgan enlisted in the First Kansas Infantry and 
served through the war. Except for a visit of a few months to her parents 
in Michigan, his wife, with three young children, remained in De Soto, a 
little town a few miles east of Lawrence, directly in the path of the guerilla 
bands that terrorized Eastern Kansas in the days when nearly all the 
able-bodied men of that section were fighting the larger battles in the 
East and South. In 1870 Nelson AA'. ?\Iorgan moved his family to iMarshall 
County, Kan., where he tO( k up a homestead close to the town of Irving, 
and a few years later moved to the latter place, where he conducted a wagon- 
making shop during the remainder of his active life. 

The subject of this sketch grew up in Irving and was educated in the 
public school of that place with a few months' additional instruction in a 
little college at Holton, Kan. Up to the time he was twenty-one, outside 
of the months he spent in school, he worked on farms in the summer, chopped 
wood in winter, quarried rock, worked in a railroad grading camp, lived a 
generally vigorous out-door life, and acquired a greater or less degree of 
proficiency in several of the building trades to which his early intimacy 
with the wagon-making shop had afl:'orded him a natural introduction. 

In December, 1889. crops and the general business and industrial outlook 
in Kansas being uniformly bad, ^lorgan. then just past twenty-one years of 
age. followed the family instinct to go West, and bought a ticket to Bakers- 
field, Cal. After six months s))ent on a Rosedale raisin vineyard, he went 
to Miranionte in the artesian belt in the northern part of the county, where 
he homesteaded a cjuarter-section of land, farmed and raised a little livestock 
until June, 1^)02. when he Ixnight the Delano Record and moved to that place. 

Meantime, on l"»)ruary 18. 1896. he was married to Frances Howard 
Raymond, a nati^■e of San Francisco, daughter of George A. Raymond and 
Mary Hatch Raymond. Mr. Raymond is a son of one of the early California 
pioneers and a desceiulant, through his mother's family, of Abraham Howard, 
who came to New England in 1722. ( )ne of Mrs. Raymond's ancestors was 
Capt. Thomas White, o.ne of the original settlers of Weymouth and a resident 
of Plymouth in 1635. After a nine-months' apprenticeship in country jour- 




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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 619 

nalisni in whicli both Mr. and .Mrs. Morgan learned enough about the 
art preservative to get out a httle weekly paper without assistance at any 
stage of its manufacture, they came to Bakersfield, where Mr. Morgan took 
a place on the newsgathering staff of the Morning F.cho. 

Since April, 1903, Mr. Morgan has been continuously with the Morning 
Echo. In the summer of 1904 S. C. Smith, editor and principal owner of the 
Echo, began a successful campaign for election to Congress, and delegated 
to the subject of this sketch the duty of editorial writing. Since that time, 
with one or two intermissions of two or three weeks each, nearly all of the 
editorials in the Echo have been his work. In addition he filled the position 
of city editor for a part of the time, and at all times has been one of the 
paper's general newsgatherers. Since Mr. Smith's death in January, 1913, 
the editorial direction of the paper has been in his hands. 

Mr. and Mrs. Morgan have one daughter, P'rances, born in FJakersfield 
on September 6, 1903. 

ALEXIS FLAGG LOWELL.— The family of which Alexis F. Lowell 
is a member comes of English extraction and exhibits the tiualities inherent 
in that race. The initial period of American development found the name 
transplanted to the soil of New England, where a number of genera- 
tions has lived and labored and where it is still worthily represented by 
men of intelligence and patriotism. Genealogical records show that John 
Lowell devoted his entire life to agriculture in New England. His son, 
William, a native of Olney, Me., learned the trade of ship carpenter in youth 
and for years engaged in the occupation, together with that of farming. 
Late in life he joined his sons in California and died in Bakersfield. By his 
marriage to Mary Tyler, a native of Maine, he became the father of six sons, 
of whom Wilmot, Danville and William Harrison died in Bakersfield, which 
city is still the home of John and Alexis Flagg. The only son who remained 
in the east was Henry H., who died in Boston, November 20, 1912. 

The youngest of the sons, Alexis, was born at Concord, Me., November 
19, 1846, and attended schools in his native township, where also at an early 
age he acquired a thorough knowledge of farm duties. An older brother, 
Wilmot, had come to California about 1862, and in 1873 he joined him here. 
For two years he engaged in the sheep industry near Hollister with that 
brother. During 1875 they removed the flock to Kern county and estab- 
lished their headquarters at Bakersfield. Here for a year or two they were 
exceptionally successful. Their flocks grazed on the Greenhorn mountains 
and along the plains, Avhere an abundance of pasturage was to be found. 
However, the severe drought of 1877 completely changed conditions and 
wiped out all of their profits, so that their flock of four thousand was re- 
duced to a scant four hundred. With undaunted courage the brothers began 
anew. Fortunately they were not again called upon to sustain such a loss 
or endure such a drought. When they disposed of their flocks about 1887 
they did so at a fair profit. About that time they bought three hundred and 
twenty acres adjoining Bakersfield. This tract they devoted to general farm 
products and to fruit, particularly to peaches. Eventually the property was 
sold and a portion subdivided as the Lowell addition to Bakersfield, but 
Alexis F., having a fondness for the place, bought back twenty acres and 
planted it to fruit. He continued to superintend the acreage and care for 
the trees until 1910, when he disposed of the entire tract with the exception 
of the corner occupied by his residence. In addition he owns six houses 
in the Lowell addition, as well as other property in the city, and these various 
places he oversees personally. A\'ith that exception he has retired from all 
business activities, nor does he take any part in fraternal organizations, nor 
in politics aside from the casting of a Republican ballot at all national 
elections. 

It was the good fortune of Mr. Lowell to have the cheerful co-oi^eration 



620 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

and capable assistance of an appreciated helpmate. Mrs. Luella (Rogers) 
Lowell was born in Vanderburg county, Ind., and was next to the youngest 
among five children, all of whom attained maturity. Her parents, Samuel 
Curtis and Marilla J. (Sirkle) Rogers, were natives respectively of New 
Hampshire and Indiana. Early in life Mr. Rogers became a resident of 
Indiana and took up a raw tract of land, which he developed into a pro- 
ductive farm. During the summer of 1852 he crossed the plains to Cali- 
fornia and engaged in mining, but without any gratifying returns. Deter- 
mining to resume his profession of teacher, he went to Santa Clara county, 
where he opened and founded the first public school in the county. About 
three years later he went back to Indiana and resumed farm pursuits. How- 
ever, the lure of the west had sent its call to his soul and in 1867 conditions 
were such that he decided to remove his family to Arizona. The trip was 
made with wagon and ox-teams and he settled in Prescott, where he found 
employment as a teacher, in addition to which he engaged in general farm- 
ing, and while living there he also served as internal revenue collector at 
Prescott. After the death of his wife, which occurred in Arizona, he came 
to California and spent his last days in the home of his daughter. Mrs. Lowell. 
Here he passed away in 1909. Another bereavement came to Mrs. Lowell 
in 1910, when the second son of the family, Raymond Lowell, was called from 
the home by death. There still survive tw^o sons, William Curtis and Alexis, 
who are the pride of their parents and in whose welfare they maintain the 
deepest concern. 

THOMAS H. SMITH.— For fifty years Mr. Smith has been an active 
factor in the agricultural upbuilding of the remote but rich valley where he 
owns valuable holdings in land and stock and where, in the calm fruition of 
a life worthily spent, he is passing the twilight of a useful existence beneath 
his own vine and fig tree and surrounded by evidences of his thrifty manage- 
ment. It is said that his was the second family to locate in this valley and 
certain it is that none surpasses him in point of long and intimate association 
with the locality. A typical pioneer in temperament, he was well qualified for 
the hardships of the frontier and the loneliness of an isolated cattle ranch. 
As he pursued the even tenor of his way, adding to his acreage and increasing 
his herds, he did not neglect his duties as a citizen, but gave liberally to com- 
munity movements and especially interested himself in the starting of schools, 
for he was solicitous that the young people of the community should receive 
excellent educations. -Known and honored for miles in every direction from 
his homestead, he is recognized as a pioneer who aided in the local upbuilding 
and who achieved success in local enterprises. His own individual success 
proves the possibilities of the valley and laid the foundation of the extensive 
stock business continued satisfactorily by his son, Thomas S.. represented 
elsewhere in this volume. 

Descended from an ancient Anglo-Saxon family. Thomas H. Smith was 
born in Bristol. England, in 1824, and from early life followed the sea. In the 
course of several voyages he saw much of the world and visited many im- 
portant ports, but he finally decided to locate permanently in the United States. 
For his wife he chose Miss Sophia M. W'hittock, who was born at Salem, 
Washington county, Ohio, in 1829, being the granddaughter (on the maternal 
side) of Major Stanley, an illustrious ofifiicer in the war of 1812. The young 
couple were married at Salem and remained there for some time, but in 1853 
Mr. Smith, lea\ing his wife in Ohio, came to California via Panama. Three 
years later Mrs. Smith came via the same route and joined him at Oakland, 
where he had engaged in clerking. During 1859 the family removed from 
Oakland to Tulare county and Mr. Smith took up land near Visalia, where 
he embarked in ranching. In 1862 he crossed the line into Kern county and 
located a claim on the South Fork of the Kern river, where the following year 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 623 

he was joined by his family. As time passed his fields <^revv larger, his tracts 
more widely extended and his herd (;f cattle more important, so that the brand 
13 then, as now, became known far and near. It became apparent to him at an 
early period of his identification with the valley that he must take steps to 
secure irrigation facilities. Accordingly he took out what is now the oldest 
ditch at the head of the river, thus bringing under irrigation some four hun- 
dred acres of excellent land. 

Because his large ranching interests have kept Mr. Smith remote from the 
great centers of population, it must not be supposed that he has neglected any 
duty devolving upon a public-spirited citizen or that he has failed to keep 
posted concerning national problems. In pt)litics he stanchly upholds Repub- 
lican principles. An abiding faith in the uplifting influence of religion has 
deepened his character and harmonized the elements entering into his men- 
tality. For years he and his wife have been earnest Methodists, loyal to the 
church of their choice and generous in contributions to missionary and benev- 
olent causes. Of their six children three attained mature years and two sur- 
vive. One daughter, Sophia, became the wife of J. B. Batz and is living in 
Bakersfield. The other, Henrietta, Mrs. J. H. Powers, died in the South Fork 
district. The only son, Thomas S., is represented elsewhere. 

EDWARD D. GILLETTE. — As an active, benign personality comi)ining 
successful business achievement with the highest social, moral and political 
ideals, Mr. Gillette stands out prominently among the production men in 
the Midway oil field and particularly on 25 Hill. Since April of 1909 he 
has been the efficient superintendent of the T. W. Oil Company, whose 
holding on section 25, township 32. range 23, now shows five producing wells 
with a monthly production of twenty thousand barrels. In addition he has 
been appointed superintendent of the W. T. M. Oil Company, also on 
25, 32, 23, with six producing wells that average a monthly production of 
twenty thousand barrels ; and the Carbo-Petroleum Oil Company, on 
26-32-23, with eleven producing w^ells and a monthly production of twelve 
thousand barrels. The two other organizations of which he is superin- 
tendent (the Los Posos Oil Company and the San Francisco Midway Oil 
Company) have no producing wells at present and are now idle, while the 
Los Angeles Midway Oil Company, on 6-31-23, which he owns, also has 
proved to be unproductive. In the management of the producing companies 
there is, however, sufificient responsibility to engross the time of even so 
energetic and forceful a superintendent as Mr. Gillette. Withal he has 
found leisure to identify himself with influences uplifting to the community. 

Not only is Mr. ( iillette a native son, but his parents, James O. and 

Augusta E. (Murley) Gillette, likewise are natives of the state, the latter 
born and reared in Alameda county. The paternal grandfather, James Gil- 
lette, the first civil engineer in Humboldt county, this state, started on a 
surveying expedition in 1849, and in order to take advantage of a short 
cut to his destination he left the other members of the party. When he 
failed to put in an appearance a search was made and his body was found 
where he had been shot by Indians. For many years James O. Gillette has 
engaged in ranching in Monterey county and there Edward D. was born 
July 29, 1877. There were three sons in the family. The eldest, Robert L., 
a skilled machinist, learned the trade with the Union iron works in San 
Francisco and helped to build the great battleship, Oregon, ^^"hile still a 
young man he died of appendicitis. The second son, Nathaniel, who studied 
assaying and became a practical miner, now owns the Gold Hill, a placer 
claim near the home ranch in Monterey county. The third son, Edward D.. 
was five years of age when the family removed to Santa Cruz, the father 
carrying on a lumber business in that city. After two years a return was 
made to Monterev countv and to the old homestead in the Chelam vallev. 



624 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

where the lad was sent to the grammar school until he had completed the 
course. He had no higher educational advantages. Through wide general 
reading he has become well informed. When only sixteen years of age he 
began to operate a threshing machine and he continued at the work for 
three years, meanwhile threshing thousands of bushels of wheat. When 
nineteen he went to the Santa Margarita oil fields in San Luis Obispo 
county and there secured employment in hewing out timber for oil der- 
ricks and rigs. Next he worked as a roustabout, then as tool-dresser and 
rig-builder. After some experience as tool-dresser with the San Luis Obispo 
Oil Company he was transferred back to Parkfield, Monterey county. 
Eleven holes were drilled there, but no oil was found, nor was he much 
more fortunate at San Pablo, where he drilled three holes and found two 
dry and one with only ten barrels. 

Left penniless by these disastrous experiences, the young man drilled 
a water well for the Santa Fe Railroad Company at Point Richmond and 
in that way earned money enough" to pay his expenses to the Kern river 
field. Arriving here, he went to work for the Associated Oil Company and 
became superintendent on the Green and Whittier division of that concern. 
When he resigned his position, July 1, 1908, at the expiration of five years 
of continuous service, he had thoroughly learned the production part of the 
oil industry. In the Sunset field he spent one year with the Sunset Road 
Oil Company and when that concern became the property of the Union 
Oil Company he remained about ninety days with the new crew, in order 
that the Union employes might become acquainted with the location and 
outputs of the wells. During that period, in addition to his responsibilities 
on the field, he owned the hospital at Maricopa. On leaving the Sunset 
he was offered the superintendency of the T. W. Oil Company, which he 
accepted and has since filled. At the time of his first association with the 
lease well No. 1 had been condemned as hazardous and unprofitable. After 
drilling twenty-nine days he secured an average of four hundred barrels and 
there is now a dail}- average of two hundred and fifty barrels. The well 
was the first profitable venture of the kind on the south side of 25 Hill, 
where John Conley had first discovered oil and where the Sunset Coast Oil 
Company had brought in the first well. The pioneers of the hill were 
Messrs. Barlow and Hill, of Bakersfield. 

Fraternally ]\Ir. Gillette belongs to Bakersfield Camp No. 266, B. P. O. E. 
For some years he has been a director in the First National Bank of Taft. 
His first marriage took place in 1906 and united him with Miss Helen D. 
Campbell, of San Francisco, who died in 1907 when her child, Isabella 
Helen, was only thirty days old. In 1910 Mr. Gillette was united with 
Mrs. Constance H. AVilson, widow of Dr. W. C. Wilson, of South Africa, 
and a daughter of AA'illiam Harshaw, of Toronto, Canada. The attractive 
residence of Mr. Gillette on the W. T. & M. lease affords a decided im- 
provement on the primitive conditions in the oil fields, when canvas tents 
served as houses. Often Mr. Gillette mentions the fact that the first 
night on his present lease he spent in a rude shack built on posts over a 
rough board floor, under which, the first sight to greet his eyes as he awak- 
ened in the morning, he saw three rattlesnakes ready for action. No local 
movement is of deeper interest to him than the growth of the Petroleum 
Club, which owes its organization in part to his energy^ and enthusiasm. 
In addition to his prominent work in the Petroleum Club and in other local 
enterprises, Mr. Gillette has been a booster for good roads and maintains a 
warm interest in the "Three Hours to the Coast" movement, for no one 
realizes more than he the value to the oil fields (and to all of Kern county 
as well) of a first-class highway leading to the ocean. 

HARRY F. MURDOCK.— The citv clerk of Bakersfield traces his lin- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 625 

eage to the Old Dominion and bears the name of his paternal grandfather, 
a Virginian of fine family and irreproachable character, who removed to 
Illinois when migration was at its flood tide and settled at Vandalia, Fay- 
ette county. Having acquired skill in the carpenter's trade during youth, 
he gave attention to that occupation and for years made a specialty of 
building contracts. Such work occupied his attention in Vandalia until the 
infirmities of advancing years prevented manual labor. His death occurred 
in Illinois in 1910. Under his wise supervision a son, E. E., born in Bond 
county. 111., had been trained to a thorough knowledge of carpentering and 
had entered upon contracting and building, these activities filling the entire 
period of his business career. At this writing he makes his home in 
Omaha, Neb., and though no longer active, he retains full possession of 
mental and physical faculties and keeps abreast with current affairs of city 
and nation. His wife, who like himself claims Bond county, 111., as her 
native home, bore the maiden name of Emma Gill and was a daughter of 
James Gill, a Virginian by birth and ancestry. Subsequent to his removal 
from the Old Dominion Mr. Gill followed the occupation of a stage-driver 
on the plank road between St. Louis and Vandalia. 

The family of E. E. and Emma Murdock comprised three sons and one 
daughter, all still living, the eldest being Harry F., who was born in Bond 
county. 111., September 22, 1871, and received excellent advantages in the 
grammar and high schools of Greenville, that county. After he had com- 
pleted the high-school course he spent three years in Greenville College and 
then gave up educational interests in order to earn his own way in the 
world. Going to St. Louis he entered the office of the "Big Four" Railroad 
and held clerkships in different departments, but at the outbreak of the 
Spanish-American war resigned the position in order to enlist in the service. 
His name was placed upon the muster rolls of Battery L, First United 
States Artillery, in Indianapolis, Ind., and soon he was appointed to special 
duty in the paymaster's department, serving at Pensacola, Fla., until he 
received an honorable discharge by reason of the adjutant-general's orders. 

Immediately after his return from the south Mr. Murdock came to 
California during the autumn of 1898 and entered the Southern Pacific Rail- 
road offices at San Francisco. The following year he came to Kern as 
a clerk in the superintendent's office of the operating department with the 
Southern Pacific Railroad and in a short time was promoted to be pay- 
master, which position he filled for some years. During July of 1910 he 
retired from the railroad service. Meanwhile in 1908 he had been elected 
town clerk of Kern. Upon the consolidation of Kern and Bakersfield July 
19, 1910, he was elected city clerk of the new consolidated city. At the 
regular election in April, 1911, he was chosen to serve as city clerk for a 
term of four years and he has devoted his time and attention to official 
duties, having his office in the Producers Bank building. Realizing the need 
of securing a new and adequate supply of water for Kern, or East Bakers- 
field, the old Sumner Water Company having failed to keep pace with 
the growth and to supply the needs of the place, he began individually in 
1911 to lay plans to interest people of that section in a new company to 
take over the old franchise and put in a new water plant and system. He 
secured an option on the plant for S. W. Wible and organized the Bakers- 
field Water Company, of which he became secretary and treasurer and one 
of the largest stockholders. This company sunk five w^ells and put in three 
pumping plants and a modern system at present sufficient for a period of 
twenty years. Since the plant's completion he has resigned his official 
position and management of the company in order to devote his time to 
other improvements which he is fostering, which are of general interest 
in the welfare of the communitv. It should be stated that the comple- 



626 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

tion of the new water system for East Bakersfield has established renewed 
confidence in that section as shown in the activities of improvement and 
building that is now going on. In national principles Mr. Murdock favors 
Republican tenets, but he is not a partisan in any respect and his election to 
office represents the choice of the people irrespective of political ties. The 
Spanish-American War Veterans number him among their most interested 
and loyal members and he is further connected with the Eagles and 
Woodmen of the World. Since coming to Bakersfield he has purchased 
propert}' and maintains an active interest in realty developments here and 
in adjacent communities. His family consists of wife and three children, 
Elizabeth, Kelton and Virginia, Airs. Murdock formerly having been Miss 
Margaret Clay, a resident of St. Louis, Mo., but a member of an old Ten- 
nessee family and herself a native of Nashville. 

HORACE GREELEY PARSONS.— Thirty years after the Mayflower 
had made its memorable voyage across the ocean to the new world the first 
representatives of the Parsons family in America came from England and set- 
tled among the colonists of Massachusetts, whence a later generation became 
transplanted upon New Hampshire soil. When the tide of migration began to 
turn toward the new west Jonathan Parsons removed from his native New 
Hampshire and settled upon the prairies of Wisconsin, where he developed a 
farm out of raw land in the primeval condition of nature. In his family was a 
son, Samos, born and reared in New Hampshire and during early manhood a 
business man of Dunkirk, N. Y., where he engaged in the manufacture of 
fanning mills. Later he made a somewhat brief sojourn in Ontario, Canada, 
whence he removed to Wisconsin and settled in A\"aukesha county. In addi- 
tion to the difficulty connected with the developing of a large tract of raw 
land into a productive farm he gave considerable time to public afifairs and 
served efficiently as a justice of the peace and postmaster. Eventually he 
became a citizen of Whitewater, Walworth county. Wis., and a stockholder 
in the Esterly reaper factory. Selling out his interests there in 1874 he came 
to California and purchased a home in Santa Clara county, where occurred 
the demise of his wife, Sophronia (Burt) Parsons, a native of New York. 
His own life was spared to the age of ninety years, when he died at his home. 
In his family there were four sons and two daughters. Two of the sons were 
gallant soldiers during the Civil war and one of these, Silas, was killed at 
Chickamauga while bravely fighting with the Twenty-fourth Wisconsin In- 
fantry. The other soldier son, William, served in the Thirteenth Wisconsin 
Infantry and remained at the front throughout the entire four years of the 
war; his death occurred in 1911 in Santa Clara county. 

The youngest member of the family circle, Horace Greeley Parsons, 
was born in Waukesha county, \A'is.. August 19, 1847, and received a grammar- 
school education at Whitewater, that state, later spending a year in the 
University of Wisconsin. When yet a mere lad he learned the trade of a 
printer and in it became exceptionally expert. A brother-in-law, L. H. Rann, 
pul)lisher of the Whitewater Register, began to fail in health and at his 
solicitation Mr. Parsons agreed to take charge of the paper, which he did 
with considerable success, having the management of the sheet after the 
death of the brother-in-law and until the sale of the plant. Later for three 
years he published the Blue Valley Record at Milford, Seward county, Nebr. 
At the expiration of that time he moved the plant to Lincoln, that state, and 
merged the sheet into the Lincoln Leader, a well-known daily. A year later 
he sold the paper and plant and shortly afterward in 1874 he came to Cali- 
fornia, where he secured work at his trade in San Francisco. By carefully sav- 
ing his wages he was able to open a printing office of his own and in it he 
published twelve or more periodicals, including The Pacific (Congrega- 
tional), The Pacific Methodist. California Christian Advocate, The Rescue, 





ai/cd-^d^W^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 629 

and other publications. The business proved fairly profitable, but it was 
too confining for his health and he was obliged to seek other lines of activity. 
Selling out he began to travel for the Dewey Publishing Company and for 
eight years he remained steadily in their employ, meanwhile traveling 
from San Diego as far north as Seattle. After three or four years as pub- 
lisher of the Grass Valley Tidings and owner of a one-half interest, he 
returned to the employ of the Dewey Publishing Company, this time traveling 
in their interests for six years. 

When the oil excitement was bringing many newcomers to Kern county 
Mr. Parsons became a resident of Bakersfield in 1900 and the following year 
embarked in the real-estate business. For a time he was a member of the 
firm of Williams & Parsons, but since 1906 he has been alone. The distinction 
of being, in point of years of continuous business, the oldest real-estate agent 
in Bakersfield belongs to him. City realty and country property have been 
handled by him with equal success. Besides improving a ranch of one hun- 
dred and sixty acres he has been interested in orange properties in the Edison 
section and in other lands. At his office on Chester avenue is located the 
agency for the Provident Building & Loan Association of Los Angeles and 
the Continental Building & Loan Association of San Francisco, also the 
agency for six of the leading insurance companies of the world, viz. : Hart- 
ford, New Zealand, Scottish Union and National, Law Union and Rock, 
Manchester of London and Teutonia of New Orleans. Deeply interested in 
the progress of Bakersfield, he has officiated for two terms as a director of 
its board of trade and has ranked among its most resourceful members. All 
movements for the local upbuilding receive his stanch support. He was one 
of the organizers of Bakersfield Realty Board and was elected its first presi- 
dent and is now serving his third term. 

Mr. Parsons' marriage was solemnized in Nevada City, Cal., and united 
him with Miss Anne Naffziger, who was born near Keokuk, Iowa, and is a 
graduate of the Laurel Hall school in San Mateo county. Gifted with excep- 
tional artistic ability, she has devoted herself to music from young girlhood 
and completed the course in the New England Conservatory of Music at 
Boston. After her graduation from that noted school she became a teacher of 
the art and built up a wide reputation for skill as an instructor as well as for 
proficiency as a pianist. Two children were born of her marriage to Mr. 
Parsons, the elder being Carrie, wife of George D. Keller, of Los Angeles, 
and the younger being Horace G., Jr., who is interested in a drug business in 
Fresno. 

MILTON DALLAS BERINGER.— Born in Cambria county, Pa., De- 
cember 5, 1858, Mr. Beringer is a son of John Beringer, a farmer by occu- 
pation. The latter moved across the line from Cambria county into Clearfield 
county and spent his last days at Burnside, where still lives the aged mother, 
Mary Jane (Patrick) Beringer. There were seven children in the family, 
namely : Milton Dallas ; George Elmore ; Porter Jesse, a machinist now 
femployed at Tyrone, Pa. ; A, L., an assistant to his eldest brother in the Kern 
river oil field ; John Oscar, a farmer, who remains at the old Pennsylvania 
homestead ; Charles ; and Olie, the widow of Clarence McAleese and a resi- 
dent of Parsborough, Nova Scotia. The youngest son, Charles, was acci- 
dentally killed in 1906 at a railroad crossing in Pittsburg, Pa.; he left a wife 
but no children. 

While yet a mere boy M. D. Beringer aided his father on the home 
farm and earned extra money as a helper in lumber camps. At the age of 
fourteen years he secured employment as trimmer and edger with the 
Empire Lumber and Mining Company of Philadelphia. After he had spent 
four years with the same concern he went south to North Carolina and 
secured work as a lumberman in Mitchell countv, where he met and mar- 



630 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

ried Aliss Callie Franklin, daughter of the late Andrew Franklin, of Elk- 
park, Mitchell county. Two years were spent in that locality and he 
then removed to Little River, Blount county, Tenn., where he remained 
for four years in the employ of a lumber company. From Tennessee in 
1907 he came to California and settled in the Kern river oil field. With- 
out delay he was able to secure a position as engineer with a natural gas 
engine used in the Central Point division of the Associated Oil Company 
and he continued in that place until 1910, when he was chosen as foreman 
of the waterworks system of the Kern River Oil Felds of California, Limited. 
With his family, consisting of wife and four children, Charles D., George E., 
Margaret and Mabel, he is comfortably domiciled in the residence of the 
superintendent. 

DANIEL BOONE NEWELL. — From Kentucky many men have come 
out to the W est who have made their marks as citizens and public officials 
and been factors in the general development of the community. One such 
is Daniel Boone Newell, of Bakersfield, who bears the name of a distinguished 
pioneer and has himself won a notable success in the home of his 
adoption, lie was born May 20, 1865, at Antioch Mills, Pendleton county, 
Ky. His father, William Stich Newell, a native of Pennsylvania, was brought 
to Pendleton county by his parents. There he became a prosperous farmer 
and stockman and remained until 1889, when he took up land near Perkins, 
Lincoln county, Okla., where he improved a farm on which he died aged 
eighty-five years. He was descended remotely from Scotch ancestors. His 
wife, before their marriage Miss Mary Williams, was born in Pendleton 
county, Ky., and died while on a visit to Bakersfield when she was seventy- 
two years old. 

Of the eleven children comprising the parental family ten grew to 
manhood and womanhood. Daniel B., the seventh oldest, was early put to 
work on a farm in Kentucky and had brief educational opportunities in public 
schools, at the age of thirteen taking up the battle of life for himself. Lo- 
cating in Hickman county, Ky., he worked there for an uncle until 1881. 
when he went to Fort Worth, Tex., which town was then primitive and 
without a railroad. There he engaged in farming and stock-raising and he 
and his brother John bought land. They were quite successful and accum- 
ulated considerable money, which they lost, however, by failure of a bank 
in Fort Worth to which they had instrusted it. From Fort Worth Mr. 
Newell went to Winfield, Kan., where he farmed until 1888, when he came 
to California, without capital. He and a partner, Charles Hess, came to- 
gether to Kern county, having only twenty-five cents between them. They 
found employment with John Hendrickson as choppers of cord wood at $2 
a cord. After they had completed a contract for five hundred cords Mr. 
Newell found work in the bridge department of the Southern Pacific Railroad 
Company, in which he was employed about four years. Then becoming a 
citizen of Tehachapi, he followed carpentering during the first winter and 
then he purchased the Cuddeback stable and ran it about one year, after 
which he traded it for a farming outfit. For two years he engaged in 
grain-raising on two sections of land, but both years proved dry and the 
venture did not turn out successfully. In the meantime, in 1892, he had 
been elected constable, in which capacity he served two years to the entire 
satisfaction of all interested. For six years afterward he was the proprietor 
of a feed yard at Oarlock, and at the same time he tried mining on the desert 
without success. In 1901 he located in Bakersfield. For a short time he 
was employed in the work of the street department, and after that he was 
for about four years a street car motorman. July 5, 1905, he was appointed 
an officer on the city police force. In 1906 he was elected on the Republican 



HISTORY Ui' KERN COUNTY 633 

ticket as constable for the sixth judicial township of Kern, and in January, 
1907, he assumed the duties of the office. So able and so satisfactory was his 
service that in 1910 he was re-elected to serve until January, 1915. Since 
1903 he has filled the office of deputy sheriff of Kern county. He was made 
a Mason in Tehachapi Lodge No. 313, F. & A. M., and affiliates with the 
Woodmen of the World and the Modern Woodmen of America. Mrs. Newell 
is a member of the Order of the Eastern Star and of L. O. T. M. 

At Tehachapi Mr. Newell married Miss Kate Davis, a daughter of 
James L. and Alartha (Moffett) Davis, and a native of Los Angeles, Cal. 
Her father, who was born in Missouri, moved to Arkansas and there married 
Miss Moffett, of Tennessee birth. They crossed the plains to California with 
an ox-team caravan in 1853, and he was for many years successful as a 
builder in Los Angeles. He pursued the same business after his removal in 
1882 to Bakersfield, where he and his wife both passed away. Of their ten 
children Mrs. Newell was the third youngest, She was brought up at Bakers- 
field and educated in local public schools. She has borne her husband two 
children. Roy and Elsa. Mr. Newell owns his comfortable residence at 
No. 1015 I street. He is locally active in the work of the Republican party 
and is a citizen of much public spirit. 

CHESSMAN J. CHADWICK.— The remarkable development of the 
oil industry in the Kern ri\er fields may be attributed in large degree to 
the energy and ability of the men connected therewith and not the least 
important of these is Chessman J. Chadwick, whose first identification with 
the business in Kern county dates back to the year 1901 and who now 
fills a very responsible position as general foreman of the Columbian. 
M. and S., and the Lorenzo Oil Companies, all located on section 29, town- 
ship 28, range 28. In addition he has the foreman ship of the Minnehaha 
Water Company, legally organized as the Minnehaha Oil Company, whose 
lease is located on section 19, township 28, range 28. 

Shortly after the discovery of gold in the west Benjamin D. Chad- 
wick left his eastern home and sailed around the Horn for California, where 
he landed safely, but without means or friends. In order to secure funds 
necessary for mining he became a sea-faring man and sailed on vessels 
between San Francisco and Panama. Later he was a pioneer placer miner 
in Yuba and Nevada counties. For seventeen years he made his home 
in Nevada county. Rising to prominence in his chosen occupation, he was 
elected president of the Sailor Flat Hydraulic Mining Company and con- 
tinued to superintend the business policy of the organization until its 
operations were discontinued by reason of the filling in of the Sacramento 
river at that point. His death occurred in 1903. His widow, who bore the 
maiden name of Mary A. Landing, resides in Hanford, Kings county, and 
at the age of sixty-two is physically and mentally well preserved. 

Out of a family of four sons and four daughters all are still living 
except two sons. The eldest of the eight. Chessman J., was born in 
Yuba county, Cal., June 11, 1869, and grew to manhood in Nevada City, 
where he supplemented a country school education by a course of study 
in Potter's Academy. When a mere boy he was accustomed to assist his 
father in mining operations and at the age of sixteen he devoted his entire 
time to placer and quartz mining. For two years he was employed in 
the Sierra Butte mine at Sierra City and for some years he continued to 
work in the mines of Nevada county. Later he leased a hydraulic proposi- 
tion at Bloomfield and this he operated with considerable profit. When 
oil was discovered at Coalinga, Fresno county, about seventeen years ago, 
he went to that point and secured employment as a tool-dresser. Little 
more than a year was spent in that place, after which he spent about the 
same time in the Los Angeles oil fields, coming thence to Bakersfield in 



634 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

1901 and engaging with a contractor to drill on the Sacramentcj lease. 
Next he drilled on the Sterling and later continued as its foreman under 
Messrs. Henderson and Martin. Six busy years were spent with the Sterl- 
ing and when he resigned there he traveled through Nevada, visiting mines 
of importance, among them those at Tonopah and Goldfield. Upon his 
return to the Kern river fields in 1908 he immediately was appointed general 
foreman of the Expansion and soon was promoted to be superintendent, 
but when that organization was overtaken by the Traders he returned 
to the foremanship and for the past few years has been retained in that 
capacity by the Columbian, M. & S., and Lorenzo Oil Companies, also by 
the Minnehaha Oil Company. Politically he votes the Republican ticket. 

HON. PAUL W. BENNETT.— Rarely is there to be found in a com- 
munity a man so deeply honored, so thoroughly respected or so generally 
beloved as was the Hon. Paul W. Bennett, whose association with Bakers- 
field covered the period from 1897 until June, 1913, when he passed from 
his earthly labors. As Judge of the Superior Court of Kern county for 
the past ten years, he had proved himself one of the state's ablest jurists, 
commanding the attention of many outside of the county who frequently 
called upon him to hear important cases away from Bakersfield and the 
surrounding county. 

Judge Bennett's birth occurred in Gloucester, Mass., in 1836, and had 
he lived until June 12, 1913, he would have celebrated his seventy-seventh 
birthday. His early days were passed in Canada, but as he grew 'tp he 
evinced a desire to see the west and accordingly sailed from Boston, round 
the Horn, to San Francisco, whence he made his way to Sonoma county 
and lived there a short time. Mining then attracted him and he went to 
the mines and subsequently became a resident of the Owens River valley, 
in order to investigate the country. When Inyo county was organized he 
became an undersherifif, at which time the study of law was taking all of 
his spare time. In 1868 he received the appointment of district attorney 
of Inyo county and election by the people to a second term followed. Inde- 
pendence had been his place of residence for some time, but he found it 
expedient for him to go to Mono county, as he there formed a partnership 
with the late Senator Pat Reddy, the firm of Reddy & Bennett becoming 
well known throughout the entire mining sections of Nevada and California. 
Through handling numerous mining suits Judge Bennett became an 
acknowledged authority on mining law. In 1884 he went to Stockton to 
practice his profession and there was associated at dififerent times with J. C. 
Campbell, David Terry and F. D. Nicol. His unusual ability was soon 
recognized, he was elected district attorney, but retired after one term. 

The year 1897 brought Judge Bennett to Bakersfield, where he formed 
a partnership with the late J. W. Ahern. His reputation had preceded 
him and his associations with the court work there brought him immedi- 
ate attention ; his clientele was large and his wise, unerring judgment was 
sought by scores. With the creation of a second Superior Court depart- 
ment Judge Bennett was named as judge by former Governor George C. 
Pardee, and he remained on the bench continuously until his death. He 
was re-elected after a partial term and at a subsequent election he was 
nominated by both political parties and chosen without opposition, which 
was evidence of his popularity and the deep regard in which he was held 
by his fellow citizens. Many important cases came under his hearing and 
he presided over many notable ones, not the least of which was the great 
irrigation suit in San Bernardino that had to do with the use of subter- 
ranean water, and his decision in that case governs the use of such waters 
throughout the state today. 

Like many other strong pul)lic characters, Judge Bennett was not a 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 637 

partisan, though a Republican of the old school. Nevertheless Democrats 
and Republicans alike followed in his support and he was the friend and 
associate of many of the foremost Democrats in the state. 

Judge Bennett left a widow, who before her marriage was Sarah B. 
Potter, a native of IMaine. An only child, a daughter, passed away a few 
years ago. Judge Bennett was in fraternal circles a Knight Templar and 
a member of the Elks, and his associates in both bodies mourned the loss 
of a loyal, high-minded and conscientious member. The loss to Bakersfield 
was irreparable, to the county it proved to be deep and sorrowful, for the 
judge was loved not alone for his ability and broad-mindedness, but for his 
unselfishness and sweet, wholesome character. 

JOHN HICKEY. — Only those familiar with the hardships and sacrifices 
incident to the labors of a pioneer preacher can grasp with understanding 
the record of the life of John Hickey, who while earning a livelihood in an- 
other occupation labored with unwearied zeal as a local minister in the 
Methodist Episcopal denomination. As early as 1868, while yet living in 
Illinois, he was licensed as an exhorter and there began the work which has 
since become so dear to him. Upon coming to California he found great need 
of such Christian work as he could ofifer and his was not the spirit to stand 
aloof when the harvest was ripe and the laborers few. 

Born in Ireland in 1848, John Hickey was brought to America by an aunt 
in his childhood and settled in Illinois. There was nothing unusual in the 
disposition of the boy except his love of study and determination to secure 
a thorough education. With that object in view he worked at any honest 
occupation ofifered and saved his earnings with the utmost frugality. After 
he had finished the studies of the common schools at Godfrey, 111., he beo-an 
teaching and with the earnings he took a course in McKendree College at 
Lebanon, same state, and later attended the university at Mount Pleasant, 
Iowa. At the close of the sophomore year he left college and spent a year 
in Kearney, Buflfalo county. Neb., as principal of the city schools. From 
there he came to California in 1875, and settled in Kern county. After teach- 
ing school in Bear valley he spent three years teaching the Woody School, 
Linns Valley district, then returned and taught for one year in Bear valley 
and for two years in Cummings valley. Meanwhile he had studied the soil 
and had become convinced of its possibilities for agriculture, hence he took 
up a pre-emption, settled on the land, later bought railroad land adjoining 
and finally acquired four hundred and eighty acres in one body. Until the 
farm became productive he taught school in Bear valley, and when he re- 
signed there he was succeeded by S. C. Smith, who later became United 
States senator. 

Discontinuance of work as an educator did not lessen the interest main- 
tained by Mr. Hickey in the local schools and for twelve years he served as 
school trustee with the greatest efificiency. Meanwhile he was devoting 
much time also to his labors as an itinerant preacher, filling some pulpit 
almost every Sunday and aiding in the starting of congregations of his 
denomination. During the week he was busy with his ranch, where he 
raised grain and other crops, also developed quite a large herd of cattle, so 
that his brand, the letter P, became known all through that section of coun- 
try. Finally feeling the imperative need of lightening his labors, he left the 
ranch in 1908 and removed to Tehachapi. For four years he managed the 
ranch from his town place and then in 1912 disposed of the property, since 
which time he has been retired. 

Upon the incorporation of Tehachapi in 1910 Mr. Hickey Avas elected a 
member of the first board of trustees. At the general election he received 
a higher number of votes than any candidate. When the board was organ- 
ized he was chosen chairman and now is deeply interested in the improve- 
ment of streets and the buildipg of a water system. The village has in him 



638 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

a progressive citizen and loyal promoter. Its best interests have been 
carefully protected by him. In its citizenship he occupies a place of distinc- 
tion. Fraternally he was made a Mason in Tehachapi Lodge No. 313, F. & 
A. M., and later became identified with the Los Angeles Consistory. His 
marriage, in Godfrey, Madison county. 111., August 21, 1873, united him with 
Miss Laura E. Waggoner, a native of that place and a daughter of Samuel 
and Louise (Powell) Waggoner, natives respectively of Tennessee and Dela- 
ware. The five children of Mr. and Mrs. Hickey are natives of Kern county, 
but are now living elsewhere in the state. Edwin C. is employed with the 
Pacific Electric in Los Angeles ; Mrs. Laura Edith Howland also lives in that 
city; John H. is connected with the Southern Pacific Company in San Luis 
Obispo; Mrs. Bertha L. Perkins lives in Los Angeles; and Morris L. has a 
position in San Luis Obispo. 

GEORGE C. SPROULE.— At Oil Springs, Ontario, Canada, where he 
was horn I'^ebruary 10, 1880, and where his parents, Jacob and Elizabeth 
(Hardman) Sproule, reside, George C. Sproule became familiar with the 
oil industry in childhood through the fact that his father was engaged 
as a driller and in other capacities around oil fields. The family had no 
means outside of the daily wages of the father. There were nine children 
and it was absolutely necessary that each one should become self-supporting 
at the earliest possible age. Therefore George C, who was sixth among the 
nine, had meager educational advantages, but at the age of sixteen was a 
contributor to the family maintenance. From being a roustabout in the 
Oil Springs field he was promoted to be a tool-dresser and for four years 
he followed that line of work, after which he became a driller. When 
nineteen years of age he came to the Kern river fields for the first time and 
secured employment as a tool-dresser. Next he drilled for Chancellor & 
Canfield in the Midway fields. After he had worked steadily in the 
Kern county fields for four years he returned to Canada, bought a one- 
third interest in a well-drilling outfit and embarked in independent contract- 
ing. Although he returned to California in 1906 he still owns an interesct 
in the oil outfit, his partners being two brothers, John and Jacob Sproule, 

Upon his return to the Kern river fields from his Canadian home 
Mr. Sproule engaged as a well puller on the Monte Cristo. Six months 
later he entered the employ of the Associated Oil Company and began to 
drill on the San Joaquin and Canfield divisions. For a time he worked as 
sub-foreman on the San Joaquin. During June of 1909 he was made foreman 
on the Green and Whittier division of the Associated and continued to 
fill the position with ability and devotion for three years. June 1, 1912. 
he resigned to become superintendent of the Enos Oil Company at an 
advance of salary. The Enos employs nine men and controls two hundred 
and twenty acres on section 6, township 29, range 28, where six producing 
wells (out of a total of twenty) give an average gross return of thirty-two 
hundred barrels of oil per month. It has not been possible for Mr. 
Sproule to identify himself with public afitairs in his adopted country, for 
the duties of his position confine him closely to the oil fields. However, he 
is intelligently posted concerning public afifairs and evinces a deep devotion 
toward the land of his adoption. Fraternally he holds membership with 
the Woodmen of the World. When he came to the west he had not yet 
established domestic ties, but in Kern county he formed the acquaintance 
of Miss Nora M. Barnes, a sister of Tom Barnes, the popular superin- 
tendent of the Associated Oil Company. Miss Barnes had come to the 
west from Conway, Laclede county. Mo., and August 21, 1909, she became 
the wife of Mr. Sproule in Kern county, where they have established a 
comfortable home in the oil fields. Their daughter, Imogene Elaine, was 
born here in 1911. 





N 



V 




c^ 

"^6 

^ 




HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 641 

WILLIAM E. UNDERWOOD.— Throup:h long identification with the 
landed development of Kern county Mr. ITnderwood has been brouo^ht into 
intimate association with people similarly engaf^ed and has acquired thorough 
knowledge of soils, climate, crops and methods of cultivation. An expensive 
series of experiments with dififerent products, particularly with several varie- 
ties of grapes, finally convinced him that grain and alfalfa are the crops 
best adapted to successful growth in his district and hence he now specializes 
with these, adding thereto an important interest in the stock business and par- 
ticularly in the dairy industry. When he arrived in Kern county February 3, 
1890. he bought land in Rosedale colonv and began its development. Now 
he owns two hundred and sixty-five acres under cultivation to alfalfa and 
grain and in addition he has on the farm about forty head of stock. When 
he first came to the colony he bought eighty acres and later added to the 
farm until he gave it adequate size for grain-raising. Besides the manage- 
ment of his farm he is interested financially in the Tejon Oil Company, oper- 
ating in the Kern river field. 

A member of a pioneer California family, William E. Underwood was born 
near Stockton, San Joaquin county, November 13, 1864, and is a son of Ezra 
Edwin and Mary (Hughes) Underwood, natives of Ohio and Pennsylvania. 
Ezra E. Underwood, who came of Cok nial and Revolutionary stock, crossed 
the plains with ox teams in 1859 and engaged in grain farming in San Joaquin 
county. There he married his wife, who was a daughter of William H. 
Hughes, a native of Pennsylvania, afterwards a settler in Missouri, where 
his wife died. Tn 1849 he brought his children across the plains and settled 
at Sonora. later locating near what is now Ripon, where he followed stock- 
raising. Old Uncle Billie Hughes was well known in those parts, where he 
resided until his death. Ezra E. Underwood settled near Waterford, Stanis- 
laus county, and was closely identified with the upbuilding of that county, 
being a member of the county board of supervisors. Upon retiring he re- 
moved to Santa Cruz, where he died October 7, 1911; his wife continues to 
reside in the same place. Of this union there were three children, William 
E. being the oldest; Alfred E. resides near Hollister; Herbert L. is a farmer 
and dairyman in the Panama district. After he had completed the studies of 
the public schools William E. was sent to University Mound Collesre in San 
Francisco and afterwards to the Stockton Business College, so that from 
an educational standpoint he was well qualified for life's responsibilities. Leav- 
ing business college at the age of twenty years, he assumed the management 
of a ranch of sixteen hundred acres owned by his father and situated in Fresno 
county. The portion of the large tract under cultivation was devoted to 
wheat-growing and for five years he continued the oversight of the property, 
meanwhile, plowinc:, sowing, harvesting and threshing upon a very extensive 
scale. When he left Fresno county it was for the purpose of identifiying him- 
self with the new Rosedale colony, and he purchased the small tract six miles 
west of Bakersfield on the Rosedale road where he continues to reside, hav- 
ing, however, enlarged the farm by subsequent purchase. From 1890 to 1900 
he devoted himself chiefly to the cultivation of grapes.. This was not a suc- 
cess and in 1900 he embarked in dairying, which proved more profitable. 
Later he specialized with alfalfa, which is well suited to the soil and cli- 
mate and is perhaps the most dependable and remunerative crop that could 
be grown in the district. On his ranch he has sunk three twelve-inch wells ; 
on one ranch of one hundred and sixty acres he installed a fifty horse-power 
Western engine, which yields a capacity of two hundred inches of water. 
This latter property he is rapidly putting into alfalfa. He is a stockholder 
of the Security Trust Companv of Bakersfield. He was married in Santa 
Cruz. January 1, 1890, to Miss Roxana J. Adams, born in Essex 
county, Vt., the daughter of Jonathan C. and Elizabeth (Babcock) Adams, 
born in Vermont. Her parents, who were farmers, still reside in Vermont. 



642 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Mrs. Underwood came to California in 1888. Her uncle, Moses Adams, was 
a pioneer of Modesto. 

For some years Mr. Underwood has served as a clerk of the board of trus- 
tees of Fruitvale School District, and in this capacity his intelligence and 
sagacious judgment have been very helpful to the free educational system 
of the community. Politically he is a Republican in national issues. He has 
always stood for public improvement and organized and was president of 
the Rosedale Improvement Club, and through that organization set out shade 
trees on each side of the Rosedale road for eight miles between Rosedale and 
Bakersfield. For years he has been identified with Masonry and has enjoyed 
fraternal relations with Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M. 

WILLIAM BREUCH.— The first representative of the Breuch family 
to seek a home in the new world was Peter Breuch, a native of Witzenburg, 
Germany, and a wheelwright by trade, who at the expiration of his appren- 
ticeship when eighteen years of age crossed the seas to the United States and 
secured employment in Georgia. His marriage united him with Miss Johanna 
Wagner, a native of Georgia and now a resident of Denver, Colo. From 
the south he removed to Wisconsin prior to the opening of the Civil war 
and settled at Madison, where he was employed at the trade of wagon-maker 
Twice during the progress of the Rebellion he ofifered his services to the 
Union, but each time he was rejected on account of injury to his leg. Dur- 
ing 1871 he removed to Colorado and settled in Denver, where he resided 
until death, meanwhile engaging in business as a carriage-maker. Of his 
twelve children all but three are still living and the third in order of birth is 
William, born at Madison, Wis., July 18, 1864, and reared in Denver, Colo. 
At the age of eleven years he was taken from school and apprenticed to the 
trade of machinist in the Denver & Rio Grande shops in Denver, where he 
completed the trade prior to the age of eighteen. For eleven years alto- 
gether he continued in the same shops and meanwhile he had attended night 
schools, so that his education had not been entire!}^ neglected. 

After two years in the machine shops of the Union Pacific Railroad in 
Denver and three years in the shops of the same road at Como, Colo., Mr. 
Breuch spent several months at Pocatello, Ida., in the shops of the Oregon 
Short Line. Coming to California in June of 1890, he entered the Southern 
Pacific shops at East Bakersfield on the 1st of July, 1890, and there held a 
position as machinist. During 1901 he was promoted to be foreman of the 
machine sho]). in which capacity he has continued up to the present time, 
being now the oldest employe in the plant in point of years of continuous 
service. Tie has given his attention very closely to his chosen work and has 
taken little interest in public affairs. Politically he is independent. After 
coming to Bakersfield he was made a Mason in Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, 
F. & A. M., and he also holds membership with the Uniform Rank. Knights 
of Pythias, and the Woodmen of the World. 

The residence of Mr. Breuch, erected under his personal supervision, 
stands at No. 508 Monterey street and is presided over by Mrs. Breuch, a 
lady of culture and gracious courtesy. Prior to their marriage, which was 
solemnized in Denver, July 23, 1885, she bore the name of Ella Sutherland. 
Born and reared in Denver, she had the advantages offered by the excellent 
schools of that city. At the time of her removal to California she was in 
such ill health that Colorado physicians had abandoned all hope of her re- 
covery. Her present excellent health she attributes to the fine air and un- 
excelled climate of Bakersfield. The family of which she was a member and 
in which she was next to the eldest comprised fourteen children, seven of 
whom are now living. Her parents were Prof. Alexander and Anna (Mills) 
Sutherland, the former a native of England, the latter a southern lady. The 
paternal grandfather was a Scotchman by birth and ancestry and for years 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 645 

served as an officer in the English army, in which Alexander Sutherland also 
served as bandmaster and trumpeteer. During the memorable battle of 
Balaklava the trumpeteer served in the first platoon and sounded the first 
charge of the Light Brigade under Lord Carrigan. He was one of the few 
survivors of the charge and received a wound from which he never fully 
recovered. Upon leaving the army service he crossed the ocean to New 
York and for a time taught music in St. Joseph, Mo., but in 1859 crossed the 
plains to Denver, where he organized the first band in Colorado. For years 
he engaged in teaching band instruments and his reputation as a musician 
and instructor was the highest. His death occurred in Denver about 1908 
and his wife died in that city thirteen years prior to his demise. 

FRANCIS M. CARLOCK.— The memorable era of the '50s found the 
Carlock family established among the pioneers of California. The father, 
George i\L Carlock, who had taken his wife and children from Adams county, 
111., to Clark county, ]Mo., made only a brief sojourn in the latter location, but 
in the summer of 1853 brought his family to the coast via the Platte route, 
settling at Georgetown, Eldorado county, and trying his luck in nearby mines. 
Neither the occupation nor the locality proved satisfactory and accordingly 
he turned his attention to ranching in Washington and there spent his last 
days. By his marriage to Margaret E. Rohr, who was born in Germany and 
died in Ivern county, Cal., he had a family of eight children. Of these we note 
the following: A. B., born February 8, 1833, is a resident of Portland, Ore.; 
Elizabeth, Mrs. Carter, born September 15, 1834, now lives at Lodi. Cal.; 
[acob. born April 28, 1836, also makes his home at Lodi ; Ervin W., born 
December 3, 1842. died at Ashland. Ore., October 14. 1912; Francis M. and 
Mary (twins), were born in Adams county, 111., August 12, 1844. the latter. 
Mrs. Pease, dying near Lodi, Cal., at thirty-eight years of age; George H., 
born August 27, 1847, died in Oakland in November, 1911; and Hiram M., 
born May 28, 1855, makes Portland his home. 

When a little less than nine years of age Francis M. Carlock crossed 
the plains with his parents and he recalls vividly his anxiety on account of 
the close proximity of the Indians. Their depredations among other emigrants 
were recounted frequently and caused him great concern as to their own 
safety, but the end came in due time and without any attacks from the 
savages. While he had limited opportunities to attend school he yet acquired 
an excellent education. After clerking a time at Ft. Tones, Siskiyou county, 
he entered Heald's Business College in San Francisco, from which he grad- 
uated in 1868. Returning to Siskiyou county he became head bookkeeper 
for his brother, A. B., in a mercantile business at Ft. Jones some distance 
from the railroad and near the mountains. During 1871 he went to Portland, 
Ore., and for a year was connected with a mercantile business, but in 1872 
returned to California and became a pioneer of Bakersfield. The first resi- 
dence in what is now East Bakersfield was built by him in 1874 and he also 
started in the lumber business there, but in a short time he moved his 
yards to what is now the corner of Chester avenue and Eighteenth street. 
Bakersfield. This was the first lumber yard in the town and for some time 
he carried on the business, but in 1889 the fire completely destroyed his 
yards and material, after which he did not resume the business. Altogether he 
was burned out three times and on two occasions, notwithstanding the fact 
that he had sustained a total loss, he rebuilt. From the time of his arrival 
in the city until 1904 he also engaged in the transfer business, eventually 
selling out and retiring from business activities. For thirty-two years his 
dray-teams were to be seen upon the streets. 

Since his retirement from the transfer business Mr. Carlock has given his 
attention to looking after his varied interests. In East Bakersfield he has 
held valuable propertv, including a residence on the corner of Kern and 



646 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Humboldt streets and four stores. Jt is his intention to improve some of the 
vacant property he now owns. Some years ago he built the Overland stables 
on Eighteenth street and in 1888 erected a residence at No. 1623 H street, 
both of which he still owns. From its organization he has been interested in 
the Sui)erior Oil Company operating at Maricopa and in addition he owns 
stock in the Sunset Security Oil Company in the Sunset field. In politics he 
always has supported the Republican party. As early as 1865 he became 
associated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Fort Jones, Sis- 
"kiyou county, and in 1876 he identified himself with the lodge at Bakersfield, 
of which he since has been an honored luember and which now he serves as 
financial secretary. May 1. 1870. at Fort Jones, Siskiyou county, he married 
Miss Emma E. Tucker, who was born at Milton. Pike county, 111., and during 
1865 came across the plains by ox teams with her father, Walter W. Tucker, 
a Kentuckian by birth. After a six-months trip they first settled in Marion 
county, Ore., but later came to California. The Tucker family were devoted 
adherents of the Christian Church and Mrs. Carlock is a firm believer in that 
faith, aiding in the charities and missionary movements of the church to the 
extent of her means. Of her marriage seven children were born, but a heavy 
bereavement came in the loss by death of four of the number. Warren and 
Edmund R. were still in their infancy when taken from the home, the former 
being only two months old. The eldest of the family circle, Charles C, died 
in Bakersfield in 1904. and the youngest, Inez, wife of Duncan McLennan, 
passed away May 12, 1911, at the family residence in this city. Harriet E. 
and Howard \\ . reside in Bakersfield, the latter being engaged in a livery 
business here, while Iva, Mrs. Hayes, makes her home at Healdsburg, this 
state. The latter's daughter. Azalea, took the prize as a child orator when 
nine years of age. The Carlock family are of German descent and migrated in 
1816 to Virginia, where members of the family still reside and where in 1916 
there will be a home-coming and gathering of their descendants from the 
dififerent parts of the Union. 

JOHN LEWIS WASSON.— John Lewis Wasson was born near Pleas- 
ant Grove, Des Moines county, Iowa, April 7, 1844, and was the son of John 
and Ruth (Sherwood) W^asson. The parents were natives of Sandusky. 
Ohio, and were early settlers of Des Moines county, Iowa, where they died 
of cholera in 1849. Of their six children John L. is the third in order of 
birth and the only one now living. 

After his parents' death Mr. Wasson went to live on his Grandfather 
Wasson's farm in the same county, receiving his education in the public 
schools. In 1864 he crossed the plains with an ox-team to Oregon, where 
he was employed until 1868. He then came to Stanislaus county, remaining 
until 1871, when he returned to his old home in Iowa. While there he was 
married, February 7, 1872, l)eing united with Miss Sarah E. Wilhite, wh(^ 
was l)orn in Washington, Iowa. Her father, E. K. \\^ilhite, a native of Ohio, 
was married in that state to Sarah Carr and removed to Washington, Iowa. 

In 1873 John Wasson with his young wife came to Hanford, Cal., located 
a homestead of eighty acres in Mussel Slough and proved up on it. In 1883 
he sold this place. From 1885 to 1887 he farmed on White river. Tulare 
county. P.eing entitled to another eighty acres of homestead land, in 1887 
he located eighty acres one-half mile west of Delano, which he has im- 
proved and wdiere he now makes his home. For many years he was engaged 
in raising grain on the i)lains, but now he devotes his land to raising alfalfa, 
having improved it with a well, ])umping plant and reservoir. 

Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Wasson there are six children: Ida Bell, 
]\Irs. Merrill, Lucy May, Mrs. Johnson, Nettie Martha, ^^Irs. George Small, 
all of Delano; Martin resides in Monmouth, Ore.; Grover is assisting his 
father on the home ranch and Minnie is unmarried. .Mwavs interested in 




^^^i'^^u/^^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 651 

the cause of education Mr. Wasson has been active in building up schools 
in the different localities where he has lived and is at present a member of 
of the board of school trustees of Delano district. In his political views he 
is strongly Democratic. 

PIERRE SARTIAT.— His parents, Jean and Mary (Lassalle) Sartiat, 
were natives of Easses-Pyrenees in the south of France and spent their entire 
lives in that district, where the father carried on a small farm and to some ex- 
tent engaged in raising stock. The old homestead was in the village of Escot 
and there occurred the birth of Pierre Sartiat November 5, 1852. He was the 
youngest of three children. A brother, Bernard, about four years older than 
himself, came to America in 1871, settled in California and after his own 
arrixal in 1872, the two pre-empted land in the mountainous district of Kern 
county, bought a flock of sheep in partnership and thus started the large 
agricultural operations that since have made them financially independent. 

L'pon coming to this country in 1872 and joining his older brother in 
Kern county, Pierre Sartiat found employment with a sheep-raiser in the 
Cummings valley. For two years he continued in the same employment 
and then left to start a flock of his own, beginning in the sheep business and 
in farm pursuits with his brother and taking up a homestead in the San 
Emidio district. From time to time they bought property near to their 
original pre-emption. At this writing they own five thousand acres in one 
body, lying in the shadow of the San Emidio range, and watered by Salt 
creek. Cacuya creek and numerous springs. The ranch is one of the best 
improved in that section of the county. The sheep industrv by no means 
represents the limit of the activities of the brothers, who also are now engaged 
in raising horses and Durham cattle and use for their brand the letters SP>. 
Grain is raised in large quantities upon the ranch. Horticulture gives diversi- 
fied products and greatly adds to the income from the property, a specialty 
being made of apples, pears and peaches. Another occupation of importance 
is viticulture. To care for the grapes in the most profitable manner a winery 
has been built on the ranch. Some years ago a mine was opened on the land 
which is known as the Black Bob and in connection therewith a substantial 
two-stamp quartz mill has been erected. A part of the land is now being 
developed fcr oil and at present drilling is being actively prosecuted. 

The marriage of Pierre Sartiat took place in East Bakersfield June 19. 
1890. and united him with Miss Mary Louisa Octavie Richaud, who was 
born at Pont-du-Fosse near Gap, Hautes Alpes, France, and came to Kern 
county in the fall of 1887. She was a graduate of the Female Seminary in Gap 
and after teaching four years obtained a leave of absence to visit California 
and she liked it so well she remained. An only son. Pierre Bernard, was born 
in Bakersfield April 13, 1892. He was educated in the public schools and au 
Heald's Business College, San Francisco, and is now manager of the National 
Hotel. In Los Angeles, in 1911, he was married to Alice Jouglard. The 
family own and occupy a residence at No. 510 K street. East Bakersfield. 
In addition the two brothers built and still own the National hotel, on the 
corner of Baker and Humboldt streets. East Bakersfield. ^Nlr. Sartiat is a 
Republican and a member of the Eagles. Concerning the early years of his 
identification with the county he reccnints many interesting experiences, not 
the least memorable of which has to do with a stranger who stopped one 
evening at his sheep camp in the mountains and asked for food and lodging. 
\\'ith the kindness and hospitality ever characteristic of him, Mr. Sartiat will- 
ingly kept him over night, only to ascertain after the stranger had departed 
the following da\- that all miaware he had entertained the notorious Vasquez. 

LEVI ERWiN FOUST.— In its varied departments of activity the As- 
sociated Oil Company has brought into its service man}^ young men of ca- 
pability and intelligence, who. finding in the development of its holdings an 



652 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

adequate outlet for their energies, are acquiring meanwhile so thorough a 
knowledge of the oil industry as to give weight to their influence and value 
to their opinions concerning any lease. The energies of Air. Foust have 
been concentrated upon the rig-building and house-carpentering of the great 
corporation in the Midway division. 

A member of a pioneer Iowa family and himself a native of the vicinity 
of Des jNIoines, born July 20. 1885, Mr. Foust is the youngest among the 
four children of A. J. and Electra L. (Bishop) Foust, natives of Iowa and 
farmers of that state. During 1888 the family removed to California and 
settled in Kern county, where the father took up agricultural pursuits and 
where he still owns a farm adjacent to East Bakersfield. The maternal 
grandfather, Levi Bishop, was a soldier in an Iowa regiment during the 
Civil war and fought on the side of the Union with courage and devotion. 
At the time of the removal of the family to the west Mr. Foust was a child 
only three years. Hence his education was obtained in the schools of Kern 
county. By study and observation he has become a man of broad informa- 
tion. At the age of seventeen, during the spring of 1903, he became an em- 
ploye of the Associated Oil Company on its San Joaquin division in the 
Kern river field. 

After he had been in charge of the rig-building gang in that division for 
a time, in 1908 Mr. Foust was transferred to McKittrick as foreman of rig- 
building and house-carpentering. The year 1910 found him engaged in a 
similar capacity in the Midway division, where he has filled the same re- 
sponsible position ever since, discharging his duties with alertness and 
energy. Politically he is a Republican. In Bakersfield he was married to 
Miss Christine Church, a native of San Luis Obispo, this state. Tw^o daugh- 
ters comprise their family, Dorthy Evelyn and Ellen Loraine. 

BELLAMY KOSSUTH SAID.— The president of the Kern County 
Pioneer Society dates his first association with the county from February of 
1873 and his residence in California from 1852, when he was brought across 
the plains by his parents, Elkanah and Jane (Hayden) Said, natives respec- 
tively of Kentucky and Missouri. The eldest in a family comprising five chil- 
dren, three of whom are now living, he was born at Shullsburg, Lafayette 
county, Wis., July 22. 1848. For some years the father engaged in lead min- 
ing in Southern Wisconsin. In 1848 he went to Panama, where he was at the 
time of the gold discovery in California. He immediately came to San Fran- 
cisco, landing in 1849, and after spending some time in the mines he returned 
to Wisconsin. In 1852 he brought his wife and children to California, cross- 
ing the plains with ox and horse teams, and settled in Sierra county, where he 
mined for gold with more or less success. When rumors came concerning the 
discovery of gold at Virginia City he traveled on foot over the mountains in 
company with John W. Mackey, another adventurous Argonaut. Later he 
visited other camps at the times of great mining excitement and he continued 
to follow the occupation until his death, which occurred in Eldorado county. 
The death of his wife occurred at Bodie, Mono county, Cal. Their eldest 
child, Bellamy Kossuth, was four years of age at the time of the removal to 
California, hence his education was obtained wholly in the west. After he 
had completed the studies of the common schools he attended Santa Clara 
College and later was a student at Gates Institute, San Jose. The first occu- 
pation to which he devoted himself was that of clerking. 

Upon his arrival in Kern county Mr. Said secured a tract of government 
land sixteen miles west of Bakersfield under what is now the Pioneer ditch, 
which improvement he helped to survey and build. Later he bought a tract 
of one hundred and sixty acres adjacent to his original claim. In addition 
he managed claims owned by his mother and uncle, so that altogether he 
had charge of a whole section of land under the Pioneer ditch. The possi- 




UO.L//ay^ <i^di.<uj^ jJ^^iA^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 655 

bility of irrigation in abundance led him into the alfalfa business and for 
some time he made this his principal crop, although he also engaged in 
general farming and horticulture. On leaving the ranch he spent two years 
in Mono county, whence he came to Bakersfield and has since devoted his 
time to the supervision of his property interests, although for six years he 
was in business in the Kern River oil fields and for some years he also acted 
as the head bookkeeper for the Union Oil Company at their refining plant. 
Near Cordelia, Solano county, he was united in marriage with Miss Bertha C. 
Morrison, who was born at Downieville, Sierra county, Cal. She graduated 
from the San Jose State Normal and prior to her marriage followed teaching. 
She died at Berkeley, September 27, 1910. Very early in the colonization of 
the west her father, J. Z. Morrison, came across the plains and settled in 
California, where he still lives, owning and operating a farm in Solano county. 
The family of Mr. and Mrs. Said comprise four children, namely : Kinney M., 
a resident of Arizona; Mark E. and Ethel M., students in the University of 
California at Berkeley, and Harry B., a pupil in the Kern county high school. 
The Congregational denomination has had the active co-operation and gener- 
ous assistance of Mr. Said for many years and in the church of that faith at 
Bakersfield he not only officiates as a deacon, but in addition has been active 
and helpful in the Sunday school work. 

J. H. CROFT. — The fact that he has reached a position of influence and 
importance in the oil business may be attributed to the energy which Air. 
Croft has thrown into every task since first at the age of twelve years, or- 
phaned by the death of his father, he took up the battle of self-support. The 
hardships that followed the dark period of facing the world alone were met 
with a courage and cheerfulness that never deserted him and that laid the 
foundation for a later gratifying degree of success. After an extended ex- 
perience in the oil fields of various states, he came to California in 1908 and 
during September, 1912, arrived in the Sunset field to engage as drilling fore- 
man on the North Midway leases of the Kern Trading & Oil Company, with 
which great corporation he still is connected as head driller, filling with char- 
acteristic fidelity and intelligence a position of importance and showing in 
his work an intimate acquaintance with both the production and operating 
departments of the oil business. 

A son of Christian Croft, a native of Ohio and a farmer by occupation, 
J. H. Croft was born at St. Marys, Auglaize county, Ohio, in 1882 and 
passed the years of childhood on the home farm. After the death of his 
father in 1894 he began to work as a farm hand, in this way earning his 
board and clothes, but having little opportunity for attending school. At 
the age of sixteen he had his first experience in the oil industry. The fields 
at Lima, Ohio, afiforded him an opportunity to gain a livelihood as a rousl- 
?bout. Little by little he rose to positions of importance. As a tool-dresser 
he received good wages and from that he advanced to be a driller in the gas 
fields of Marion, Grant county, Ind., where he remained for five years. Going 
to Kansas, he engaged in drilling at Independence, from which place he went 
to the new oil fields at Dewey, Okla., to engage in drilling wells. When he 
came to California in 1908 he secured employment as a driller at Coalinga 
with the Associated Oil Company, but five months later changed to the em- 
ploy of the Kern Trading & Oil Company in its Coalinga division. During 
the fall of 1912 the company sent him to the Sunset field, where since he has 
engaged as head driller of the North Midway leases. While engaged in the 
oil business in Oklahoma he married at Bartlesville, that state. Miss Lena 
Warren, a native of ^^'aynesfield, Auglaize county, Ohio, and an earnest mem- 
ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church. By the marriage there is one son, 
Robert. In Oklahoma Mr. Croft joined Bartlesville Lodge No. 1060, B. P. O. E. 



656 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

MRS. PAULINE DARNUL PETRAY.— The hardships of pioneer 
existence in Cahfornia form a remote but distinct background in the 
memories of Airs. Petray, whose busy life has been crowded with useful 
activities and crowned with the honors always accorded t(j women of intel- 
ligence, industry and inherent kindliness of spirit. When her parents, 
Cook B. and Elizabeth (Shinn) Darnul, removed from her native county of 
Pope in Arkansas and sought the larger opportunities of the west, she was 
brought with the other children to the then little known land of California. 
At the exi)iration of an overland trip that consumed five tedious months, 
the famil}- arrived in Calaveras county and entered upon the difficult task 
of securing a home and profitable work in a frontier environment. Schools 
were few and widely scattered in those days and it was not possible for 
her to secure a broad, thorough education, but she found an abundance of 
work in the home. At an early age she became adept in the culinary 
art and this accomplishment she has in no wise forgotten; on the other 
hand, she is still numbered among the most efficient housekeepers and 
skilled cooks in her neighborhood. While yet a young girl she became 
the wife of Robert Bowen. whom in 1870 she accompanied to Linn's valley 
in Kern county. 

A claim of one hundred and sixty acres was homesteaded in the upper 
end of the valley and there Mr. and Mrs. Bowen labored with indefatigable 
earnestness to earn a livelihood and improve a farm. There were two chil- 
dren born of this union; the oldest, a daughter, Alice, passed awav in 1891. 
at the age of twenty-three years; the son, Robert A. Bowen, a native- 
born son of California, is now engaged in general farming south of Bakers- 
field. Upon the sale of the claim the old Hughes farm on Poso creek was 
bought and occupied and until his death, which occurred on that ranch. 
Mr. Bowen devoted himself to the care and cultivation of the two hundred 
and forty acres comprising the tract. After the death of Mr. Bowen his 
widow spent some time in Healdsburg and there she was united in mar- 
riage with R. A. Petray. whose death occurred some years later in the 
same city. Since her return to Linn's valley she has made her home prin- 
cipally with her brother, J. J. Darnul, over whose ranch house she pre- 
sides with unbounded hospitality and unfailing energy. Besides owning 
a residence at A^^^ite River she still owns a valuable farm, which is leased. 

EDWARD T. McMAHON.— As division superintendent Mr. McMahon's 
field extends to the Sigma pumping station in the Sunset field, and to the 
Midway pumping station in the Midway field, including also the pumping of 
all the water used on the various leaseholds. The water is pumped from wells 
at the Rio Bravo pum])ing station near Lake Buena Vista in Kern county. 
From the two oil Dumping stations the oil is sent on its way from- the Mid- 
way and Sunset fields to the storage tanks at Point Richmond. That an 
immense amount of oil can be cared for and disposed of promptly is evident 
from the fact that the ])umps on section 1, township 32, range 23, have a 
capacity of three thousand barrels per hour. The equipment is the most 
modern and in e\ery branch of the pipe line department, skill, great expense 
and large results are apparent. 

The division superintendent is a New Yorker by birth and was born at 
Fllicottville, Cattaraugus county, July 3, 1876. From earlv life he has been 
familiar with the oil industry. At the age of twenty he secured employment 
as a tool-dresser with the Northwestern Gas Company in the Findlay field 
in Hancock coimty. Ohio, where he remained for two years. Chance turned 
him from the oil business into structural iron work. .Xs an employe of the 
Pittsburg Construction Com])any he helped to build bridges on the Nickel 
Plate and New York Central railroads. In addition he was employed in the 
construction of the American radiator works in Buffalo and the Kingsford 




^fa^<^c/.*-2,<i^ ^ Oyt-^-t^^t-^t^'^, w/!iZt::ci^, 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 659 

boiler works at Oswego, l^'or five years he followed the structural iron trade, 
and during that period he married Miss Mary Murray, of Ellicottville, N. Y., 
of which union there is now one son, Edward J. 

Re-entering the oil industry about 1903, Mr. McMahon engaged with 
the East Ohio Gas Company as an employe of its distribution department. 
Much of his work was in connection with the laying of mains in Cleveland, 
Ohio, where he was promoted to be pipe line foreman. After six years with 
the gas and oil business in Ohio, in 1909. he came to California, arriving in 
the Midway field during March and immediately beginning work as field 
foreman with the Standard. When oil was discovered it was his duty to 
connect the lease with the main line of the Standard and from that work 
developed the pipe line department, of which since October, 1912, he has been 
division superintendent. Since coming to this post of duty he has estab- 
lished a home for his family on section 1, township 32, range 23, at the Mid- 
way station of the Standard. With his wife he belongs to the Roman Catho- 
lic Church at Taft. 

THOMAS L. CUMMINS. — Discouragements neither few nor small 
have been met by Mr. Cummins since the time when, a boy of nine years, 
he began to earn his livelihood by driving a team and doing other farm 
work on his father's place in Illinois. More than once he has made a grati- 
fying start in business or occupative tasks, only to have the fruits of his 
labors destroyed, but each time he has started with undiminished optimism 
and since coming to Bakersfield in 1904 he has been gratified by continued 
prosperity represented by a large and important building business. Previous 
experience had given him a thorough knowledge of carpentering. 

In a family of eight children, all but one of whom are still living, the 
third in order of birth, Thomas L. Cummins, was born at Shelbyville, Ind., 
June 13, 1864, and at the age of less than one year was taken to Iowa by 
his parents, William L. and Edna (Short) Cummins, natives respectively 
of Ohio and New York. The paternal grandfather, Jesse Cummins, a native 
of Ohio, developed farms successively in Indiana, Illinois and Iowa and rep- 
resented the hardy class of frontiersmen whose efforts laid the foundation 
of the remarkable agricultural development of the middle west. During the 
early part of the Civil war William L. Cummins served as a private in an 
Indiana regiment, but upon receiving an honorable discharge at the expira- 
tion of his time he returned to farm pursuits, removing in 1864 with his fam- 
ily to Wayne county, Iowa. In 1873 he made another move, this time set- 
tling on an Illinois farm, and about 1879 he took up a homestead in Sumner 
county, Kan., near the town of Wellington. The last move of his life took 
him to Los Angeles in 1883, and his death occurred there in the same year. 
His widow, now eighty years and still active, makes her home in Bakersfield. 

When the family came to California in 1883 Thomas L. Cummins im- 
mediately secured employment on a ranch. For such work he was well 
qualified, being experienced, industrious and persevering, but at the expira- 
tion of two years he gave up farming in order to serve an apprenticeship 
to the trade of a carpenter in Los Angeles. His time ended, he worked at 
the trade and soon became foreman for a contractor. From 1889 until 1896 
he followed the trade in San Diego, where he became known as a careful 
builder and skilled carpenter. Meanwhile he had become interestd in min- 
ing and during 1897 he turned his attention entirely to the building and 
operating of mills in mines of San Bernardino county, where with a partner 
he owned a valuable mine and mill. The interests 'became highly profitable 
in their developed state, but the partner proved dishonest and Mr. Cummins 
lost heavily in the enterprise. Nor was his next venture any more success- 
ful. Going to Madera county, he leased a sawmill in the pines, began to 
operate the plant and had every promise of a large business, but his .sanguine 



660 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

expectations came to an end with the burning of the mill, entailing a heavv 
loss. During 1904 he came to Bakersfield and took up carpentering, since 
which time he has bought a residence. Interested also in farming lie owns 
three hundred and twenty acres, eight miles southeast of the city in the 
Weed Patch country, which he has checked and ditched and will seed to 
alfalfa. In this city he married Miss Susan Fleckner, a native of New York 
City, a woman of education and an active worker in the Women of Wood 
craft. She is very literary and a playwriter of ability, having written and 
staged "The Matrimonial Club," "The Last Rehearsal," "Women's Rights 
in Pumpkin Center," "Life of David," "Life of Joseph," also being the author 
of Scotch. Irish and American songs as well as lectures. All her productions 
proved popular and were favorably commented upon. Mr. Cummins is a 
well-known member of the Woodmen of the World. 

WILLIAM HARRISON LOWELL.— Although not one of the earliest 
settlers of Bakersfield, the date of the arrival of Mr. Lowell, May 27, 1876, 
indicates that he identified himself with Kern county long before its present 
wealth of resources was appreciated and before its present era of expansion 
had been inaugurated. From the time of his arrival until his useful existence 
came to an end. May 11, 1910, he labored for the advancement of his adopted 
home and while endeavoring to attain independence for himself never slighted 
any movement that would promote the growth of the community. 

Descended from an old English family long resident in New England, 
William Harrison Lowell was born at Concord, Me., April 14, 1841, and was 
a son of William and Mary (Tyler) Lowell, also natives of Maine. When 
but little more than twenty years of age he enlisted in the Civil war as a 
member of the Fourth Maine Cavalry and accompanied his regiment to the 
front, where he served with \'alor and fidelity for a period of three years. 
In January, 1865, he received an honorable discharge and returned to his 
home in Maine, where he took up farm pursuits. July 2, 1875, at Pleasant 
Ridge. Me., he was united in marriage with Miss Hannah C. Ball, a native 
of the same village as himself, and a daughter of Daniel and Eliza (Carl) 
Ball, farmers by occupation. Both of her parents died in early life and she 
was but eighteen nicnths old when left an orphan, after which she 
was taken into the home of Mrs. Mary Bridgen, an English lady. The 
foster mother sent her to school and trained her carefully in a knowledge 
of housekeeping duties, so that she was well qualified to take charge of a 
home of her own. Shortly after her marriage she started with her husband 
for California and here established a home in Bakersfield. 

The Lowell brothers, Wilmot, Danville, Alexis and William Harrison, 
engaged in sheep-raising, the last-named being first merely a salaried em- 
ploye, but later admitted as a partner. While they met with the reverses 
always to be counted upon in the sheep industry, in the main they were suc- 
cessful and their large investments of means and time in the business brought 
them satisfactory returns. With a portion of their profits they bought a 
ranch of three hundred and twenty acres adjoining Bakersfield, and there 
they engaged in raising alfalfa and fruit. A part of the tract was eventually 
made a subdivision and as such was sold off in lots, many of which were 
improved by the brothers themselves with neat cottages or commodious 
residences. Eleven of the houses were erected by Wilmot and William H., 
and they also built a number of houses on Chester avenue, besides which 
William H. bought a large residence at K and Twenty-first streets, that he 
owned but rented for ^ rooming house up to the time of his death. His 
only son, Arthur, is living in Bakersfield, and since her husband's death Mrs. 
Lowell has continued to reside at the old home place. No. 1120 Seventeenth 
street, carefully superintending the family interests, which include the own- 
ership of unimproved property, houses and lots, stock in the Bank of Bakers- 
field and other valuable interests. In national politics he always voted with 




^^y^/(^<h^f<i^(^ (> %/h-ouxyt^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 663 

the Republican party, while fraternally after the organization of Hurlburt Post 
G. A. R., at Bakersfield, he was one of its leading and most highly honored 
members and the incumbent of a number of its leading offices. Mrs. Lowell 
is a member of the Woman's Relief Corps of Bakersiield, and takes an active 
interest and is ever helpful in all movements that tend to improve and better 
the conditions of the city and citizens of her adopted home. 

HERBERT GEORGE BALL.— The history of the Ball family is traced 
back to the early period of the American occupancy of California. The first 
of the name to identify himself with the then unknown west was John Ball, 
a Kentuckian by birth and education and a member of an honored and in- 
fluential southern family. Such was the wealth and prestige of the family 
in the Blue Grass state that in his own name he owned two thousand slaves 
and vast tracts of land. After removing to Missouri he became heavily in- 
terested in cattle. During 1848 he was made high sheriff of Missouri, which 
at the time was undergoing great excitement and trouble owing to the pres- 
ence of the Mormons, exiled from Hancock county, 111., subsequent to the 
killing of Joseph Smith earlier in the same decade. In his capacity as high 
sheriff it became necessary for Mr. Ball to confine Brigham Young in his 
own home for three weeks. The great Mormon leader when released de- 
termined to revenge himself upon his jailer and when the latter determined 
to cress the plains to California, he sent word to him that he would not be 
permitted to cross the plains alive. However, John Ball was not a man to 
be frightened by a threat. Instead, he became all the more resolute in his 
purpose and in the spring of 1848, shortly after Young had been released 
and had gone to Utah, a large company of Missouri people set out for Cali- 
fornia. Twelve hundred persons formed the party, which carried a suitable 
equipment of wagons, cattle, provisions, supplies and, most important of all, 
a large amount of ammunition. In the outfit were two brass cannon made 
at New Orleans, with one and one-half inch bore and shooting balls attached 
together by means of chains from three to seven inches long. 

The winter of 1848-49 was passed in camp, the men of the party build- 
ing Fort Hall and fortifying it against the Indians. Every mile of their 
journey across the plains was contested by savages. Through the country 
where the Mormons could attack them their progress was one continual 
warfare. Particularly memorable was the battle of Bloody Hollow, where 
Ball's forces, consisting of one hundred and six cavalrymen, thirteen scouts 
(of whom Kit Carson was the leader) and twelve hundred men in the train, 
met and conquered a great army of Indians and Mormons, inflicting a heavy 
loss of life. The expedition was the first to get through after the ill-fated 
Donner party. On account of the hostilities of savages they were forced to 
take the northern route, and it was not until the spring of 1850 that they 
landed in California via Portland, Ore. Immediately John Ball put up a 
canvas hotel in Sacramento. For a few years he met with phenomenal suc- 
cess, but his large generosity involved him in financial difficulties and his 
large fortune was spent before his death. He built the first brick house in 
Sacramento and also built and equipped the first railroad ever in California, 
this being a road eight miles in length, built primarily for the purpose of 
hauling wood to Sacramento. From the latter city he moved to Sonoma 
county and founded Frankville, afterwards known as Santa Rosa, where he 
died in 1865 from the result of injuries caused by a kick from a horse. Of 
his family of two daughters and six sons only two are now living. 

At the time of starting from Missouri William P., son of John Ball, was 
a child seven years of age. In youth he learned the trade of a blacksmith. 
For many years he struggled to secure a footing in the business world. 
Meanwhile he lived as far north as Washington and as far in the other direc- 
tion as Southern California. During 1856, when taking a herd of eight 



664 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

hundred Arizona cattle from the lower jjart of California to Sacramento via the 
San Joaquin valley, he and his comrades noticed smoke issuing from the hills 
north of McKittrick. r)elie\ing the smoke to come from a volcano they started 
an investigation. They ascertained that the Indians had set fire to the hills 
where the oil oozed out of the earth and the soil was burned to the color 
and appearance of lava. However, Mr. Ball had no means for developing 
oil and being anxious to get his herd through to their destination, he gave 
no further attention to the discovery of oil. Later he worked in the Kern 
county oil fields, but at this writing he is engaged in the real estate business 
at Santa Rosa. 

Born at Healdsburg, Sonoma county, Cal.. July 28, 1875, Herbert George 
Ball was educated mainly in public schools in Washington, where he finished 
the grammar grade. As a boy he lived in various places, but principally 
at Walla Walla, Wash., and San Francisco. From the age of fourteen until 
twenty-one he was apprenticed to the old California Electric Light Companv 
(now consolidated with the Edison Power & Light Company). From 
twenty-one until twenty-six he was employed as an artistic metal worker 
with Thomas, Day & Co., of San Francisco. Were he not an exceptionally 
proficient oil superintendent, he could earn his livelihood either as an elec- 
trician or as a metal worker. While he was working with the metal com- 
pany an older brother, residing in San Francisco, had made the acquaintance 
of E. C. Landis, then as now connected with the Kern River Oil Company. 
Mr. Landis was in need of a blacksmith to work upon his lease and the 
older brother secured the place for his father, who was an expert at that 
trade. After the father 'had been working for some time on the lease, a 
demand developed for an electrician and he recommended his son, Herbert 
George, who was thereupon requested to begin work at the lease. As an 
electrician, the young man made good. However, the price of oil began to 
drop until it was only ten cents per barrel. This meant practical ruin to the 
oil industry. The plant was shut down, but he was retained as caretaker 
and when an increasing price caused the resuming of operations he was 
ready to start in at the bottom and work his way forward bv dint of 
efiticiency. 

Since first coming to the oil fields, April 8, 1901, Mr. Ball has never 
been out of the employ of the Kern River Oil Company nor has he ever been 
absent from the McKittrick field with the exception of the seven months 
from January 1st to August 1st, 1903, when his employers sent him over to 
the Kern river field to observe the water in the wells and learn the best 
methods of shutting it off. This he did so successfully that he was called 
to many of the leading leases to aid in similar tasks, among them being the 
following: West Shore Oil Company, Monte Cristo Oil Company, Green-W' hit- 
tier Oil Company, Astec Oil Company, Rasmussen Oil Company, Red Bank Oil 
Company, Del Rey Oil Company, Nevada County Oil Company, Peerless Oil 
Comjjany, Kern Oil Company, Omar Oil Company and the Reed Crude Oil 
Company. At this writing he has the Kern River Oil Company's lease of ten 
acres under contract from year to year and through his enterprise he has 
made a success of the property. Out of the four oil wells two are producing 
and give an average monthly output of four thousand barrels. Altogether 
he has spent tens of thousands of dollars in wild-catting and putting down 
discover}' wells in the McKittrick field. Associated with Mr. Bandittini of 
McKittrick and H. S. Williams he put down the discovery well on the 
L X. L. lease, now a part of the Associated, and sold out to advantage after 
striking a good flow of oil. Together with Mr. Williams he put down a well 
to a depth of three thousand one hundred and eighty-seven feet on eighty 
acres of government land, known as the Leader Oil Company lease. As 
thev began operations before the government withdrew the land they are 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 667 

entitled to a patent. Indications for a gusher of high gravity oil are excel- 
lent and in that event the lease will become one of the most valuable prop- 
erties at AIcKittrick. Upon forty acres known as the S. and W. lease, Messrs. 
Williams and Ball have one well producing one hundred barrels per day. 
On his lease of ten acres Mr. Ball uses gas for fuel and for generating steam, 
while he has installed electrical power for pumping purposes. In addition 
he has an electrical pumping plant on his fine ranch of eighty acres in the 
Laurel colony, Tulare county, where he is developing a model country home. 
In politics he is a Progressive Republican, and fraternally he is a member 
of Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M. During 1902 he married Miss 
Jessie N. Mull, member of a prominent family of Tulare county, and their 
union has been blessed with two children, Cornelia Elizabeth and Herbert 
William. 

FERDINAND A. TRACY.— The life which this narrative depicts began 
in Wilkesbarre, Pa., in 1829, and closed at Bakersfield, Cal., January 9, 1908. 
The intervening years represented a period of intense activity crowned by 
the regard of friends. From 1850, when he was attracted to the west by the 
discovery of gold and crossed the plains with a large expedition of emi- 
grants, he was identified with the material upbuilding of California and gave 
to its development an intensity of devotion indicative of his fondness for the 
commonwealth of his adoption. In the early '50s he was commissioned 
lieutenant of a company of United States troops to quell an Indian uprising 
in northern California. The company was successful in establishing peace, 
and it was the last time these Indians were on the warpath. When his ser- 
vices were no longer needed Mr. Tracy was honorably discharged. During 
the period of mining activity he followed the occupation in the Mokelumne 
region and indeed he never lost his interest in the industry, but after he 
had left the Sierras he became interested in the mines of Kern county, 
notably those in the Tehachapi range. From mining he turned to stock-rais- 
ing. During I860, in search of feed for his herds, he came into the Carissa 
valley and from there he proceeded to the Kern delta, whose possibilities 
attracted him. Becoming a resident of Bakersfield in 1862, he operated his 
stock interests from this point and with Wellington Canfield, under the firm 
title of Canfield & Tracy, he became a leader in the cattle industry through- 
out the San Joaquin valley. Their herds increased in size until their brand 
was more frequently seen than that of any of the stockmen in the state. It 
is said that during the fifty-six years of their co-partnership, never a word 
of disagreement arose between the two partners, but they remained in the 
end as in the beginning close personal friends, congenial associates and 
devotedly attached each to the welfare of the other. 

The marriage of Air. Tracy in 1875 united him with Mrs. Ellen Baker, 
the widow of the founder of Bakersfield. Politically he always advocated 
Republican principles. Frequently he was called upon to occupy positions 
of trust in county alTairs, but these came to him without his seeking. In- 
deed he was so unassuming, so reticent in his own claims, so strong in his 
dislike for notoriety that he shunned public life and often was superseded by 
others who had not the moral and intellectual equipment for an honor- 
able career that he possessed. Had it not been for his exceeding modesty 
he would have ranked with men known in the annals of the state. His 
manly nature appealed to men in a manly way. Generous to a fault, hos- 
pitable in act, attractive in personality and genial in companionship, he 
made friends of all whether rich or poor. In every sense of the word he was 
a true gentleman and this was particularly noticeable in his desire to pro- 
tect all helpless and dependent creatures. The poor had in him a helpful 
friend, the suffering never sought his assistance in vain. His integrity and 
honesty were of the kind that sought no personal emoluments, but upheld 
the highest principles of honor through innate purity of soul. Self-poise 



668 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

guided all of his acts and was apparent in every business detail, but it was 
not the self-control of the selfish man, instead the natural temperament of 
one ever ready to make sacrifices for others and one who displayed patience 
and kindness under every circumstance. Possessed of splendid mind, he 
developed this through a wise and long-continued course of reading. The 
master-minds of all the ages became familiar to him in his readings and 
thus he acquired a cosmopolitan culture. A fondness for poetry did not 
deter him from delving into the intricacies of science and political economy, 
while in history he was exceptionally well informed. Of religion too he was 
a thoughtful student and while with innate reticence he never revealed his 
thoughts concerning the spiritual life, his own deeply religious nature per- 
vaded his entire existence and made beautiful his adherence to the strong- 
hold of Christianity. 

CLAUS PETER CHRISTENSEN.— Many of the enterprising men 
who are taking an active part in the development of Kern county came here 
from the fertile country of Denmark and it was there that Claus Peter 
Christensen was born near Nakskov, Laaland, September 27, 1865. He was 
reared on a farm and received a thorough training in the local schools. In 
1882 he came to Illinois and for a time was employed at farming in Sanga- 
mon county. In 1884 he came to Shasta county, California, where for 
eighteen months he worked on a farm and then began placer and quartz min- 
ing and learned millwrighting, building and running quartz mills in Shasta 
and Trinity counties. During this time he completed a course in mining en- 
gineering in the International Correspondence School. 

Mr. Christensen built a dredger on the Klamath river and a smelter at 
Keswick, then was superintendent of the Dunderberg mine in Mono county 
for two years. Wishing to still further perfect himself for his life work he 
entered Vandernaillen's School of Mines at San Francisco, where he was 
graduated in 1898. In December of that year he came to Johannesburg, 
where he built two dififerent cyanide plants and the Phoenix mill. Thence 
he went to Barstow where he rebuilt a cyanide plant. His next venture was 
prospecting and mining in Old Mexico where later he was in the employ of 
the Green-Cananea Company. On his return to California he erected a 100- 
stamp mill in Calaveras county and then went to Goldfield, Nev., where he 
spent nearly a year. For the next three years he was engaged in contracting 
and building in Petaluma when he again returned to the Randsburg district. 
Here he was mill man in the Atolia mills and afterwards in charge of the 
mill and cyanide plant of the Skidoo Mines Company, resigning in 1909 to 
accept the position of superintendent for the Stanford Mining and Reduction 
Company, which position he is filling with conscientious ability. 

In Mokelumne Hill, Calaveras county, May 27, 1900, Mr. Christensen 
was united in marriage with Miss Edna Vaillancourt, a native of Reno, Nev , 
and they have two children, Cecil P. and Hilda. Fraternally he is a member 
of the Dania society in Petaluma and Sergeant lodge No. 368, I. O. O. F., 
San Francisco. Politically he gives his allegiance to Democratic principles. 
Mr. Christensen is much interested in the cause of education and is clerk of 
the board of trustees of the Johannesburg School District. 

GEORGE WALLER. — Two generations of the \\'aller family have been 
and are now in the employ of the same corporation, holding positions of trust 
and discharging their duties with efficiency. The second generation is rep- 
resented by George Waller, now the foreman of the pipe line department- 
on section 1, township 32, range 23, in the Midway field; and the older gen- 
eration is represented by his father, J. H., a life-long employe of the Stand- 
ard Oil Company, and still capable, efBcient and energetic, refusing to give 
up the work in which he takes great satisfaction, although officials of the 
company repeatedly have in_i])ortuned him to retire on a pension. An exam- 




A^^Qr)9^a^,yH, 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 671 

pie of fealty and devotion is afforded by the long and pleasant connection of 
father and son with the same corporation. 

Although a native of West Virginia (born i-'ebruary 15. 1879) Georo-e 
Waller spent his boyhood years in the Lima oil fields in Ohio, for he was 
only one year old when his father, j. H. Waller, moved over to Ohio to take 
up work in the pipe line department of the Standard. The boy was educated 
in Ohio and finished the high-school course at Fort Recovery, Mercer county, 
in 1897. Meanwhile he had become self-supporting by working in the Stand- 
ard office during vacations. As a messenger boy he proved that he had in 
him the making of an expert oil worker. Always the industry has interested 
him. To master its details has been his principal ambition in life. The 
Standard, the only company for which he has ever worked, has given him 
every opportunity to gain a practical knowledge of the business. At the 
age of twenty-one he was promoted to be connecting foreman. In that ca- 
pacity he later worked in Kansas and Oklahoma. Sent back to Illinois, he 
worked successively at Robinson, Bridgeport, Casey and Stoy, and in 1910 
left Stoy for California, being assigned to work in the Coalinga field. For 
two years and eight months he was connected with the pipe line department 
of the Standard at Coalinga, from which point he was transferred to the 
Midway field and has since been foreman of the pipe line department on 
section 1. While making his headquarters at Robinson, 111., he married Miss 
Myrtle Jacobs, and they now occupy one of the Standard houses on 1-32-23, 
where they have a comfortable home. While in Illinois Mr. Waller was made 
a Mason in the Eaton blue lodge and after coming to this state he became 
connected with the Scottish Rite Consistory at Fresno. 

JAMES McKAMY. — Long association with the history of the south pre- 
ceded an}' identification of the McKamy family with the early settlement of 
California. The founder of the name on the Pacific coast was J. M., son of 
James, and a native of Tennessee, born in the vicinity of Memphis in 1822. 
While serving in the Mexican war from 1846 to 1848 he traveled much through 
the south and southwest and became interested in the opportunities afforded 
by the undeveloped country beyond the then confines of civilization. After he 
had sojourned for a time in Texas he joined an expedition of Argonauts bound 
for California. The trip across the plains via Fort Yuma occupied nine 
months of difficulty and danger. Upon one occasion the savages attacked 
the party and decamped with their stock, but the emigrants followed on 
horseback and were able to regain the animals. Among the people crossing 
the plains in this expedition there was a young lady. Miss Eleanor Petty, a 
native of Alabama, born in 1823. 

The young couple became acquainted and their friendship ripened into 
affection. Some time after they landed in California they were married at 
Stockton, from which point Mr. McKamy engaged in freighting to the mines. 
Later he took up land on the ]\Iariposa road ten miles east of Stockton and 
moved his family to the claim, where he engaged in ranching. While the 
family lived at that location a son, James, was born March 7, 1856. During 
1873 the father visited Kern county and was favorablv impressed with the 
country. Accordingly the following year he- brought his family hither and 
settled on Poso creek at the old stage crossing, where he embarked in the 
sheep business unon a large scale. At first fortune favored him. The flock 
prospered and thrived. Returns were gratifying. However, with the drought 
of 1877 conditions changed, feed became scarce and water difficult to secure 
in sufficient quantities, so that he lost all of his flock, thus leaving him prac- 
tically bankrupted. Forced to besfin anew, he took the family to Glennville, 
Kern county, and engaged in stock-raisinc: there until his death in 1895. His 
widow, now eighty-eight vears of age. still remains at Glenn\'ille. For several 



672 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

terms he served as supervisor and during part of the time he was honored 
with the chairmanship of the board. 

There were four daughters and four sons in the parental family, namely: 
Isabella, who married P. J. Garwood and lives at Glennville, Kern county; 
Minerva, J\lrs. Collins, who died in this county; James, city marshal of Bakers- 
field; John, a farmer living in Tulare county; Julian, a stockman who follows 
his occupation in the vicinity of Glennville; Daniel, who died in Mendocino 
county in 1885; Virginia, Mrs. Alfred Harrald, of Bakersfield; and Mrs. 
Fannie Hughes, of Glennville. The eldest son, James, passed his childhood 
years on a ranch in San Joaquin county and attended the school of which 
his father was trustee. The district, indeed, had been organized largely through 
the influence of the father and still bears the name of the McKaniy school 
district, although years have passed since the family removed from the vicin- 
ity. Even before leaving that county the lad had earned his livelihood by 
teaming and hauling, harvesting and threshing, and after he had permanently 
located in Kern county in 1874 he aided his father in the care of the sheep. 
When the flock was lost in the drought of 1877 he entered the employ of 
Carr & Haggin and operated a threshing machine on their ranch during the 
summer months. In the spring he engaged in sheep-shearing, a work in 
which he gained such remarkable speed that he was able to shear from one 
hundred and forty to one hundred and fifty sheep per day. 

Leaving the busy activities of the ranch and the farm in 1882 Mr. Mc- 
Kamy went to Colorado and engaged in mining in the San Juan and Ouray 
districts. Upon his return to Bakersfield in 1887 he secured a deputyship 
under the county assessor, Thomas Harding. Later for four years he acted 
as deputy constable and for two terms of four years each he was constable. 
In April of 1907 he was elected city marshal and took the oath of office for a 
term of four years. However, the consolidation of Kern and Bakersfield called 
for a special election, which occurred July 19, 1910. After a hot campaign he 
was elected. During April of 1911, at the regular election, he won by a 
majority of twenty-seven votes. The election was contested and he won in 
the contest. The city marshal's office is now in- the second story of the fire 
department house on the corner of K and Twentieth streets and here Mr. 
McKamy makes his headquarters. In national politics he votes with the 
Democratic party. In his work as an officer he does not consider party, but 
endeavors to maintain law and order and to promote the reputation of Ba- 
kersfield as a law-abiding city of patriotic citizens and high moral standing. 
Since coming to this city he has erected a residence at No. 2124 E Street. 
His marriage took place in Bakersfield and united him with Mrs. Emma 
Gagne. who was born in Ontario, Canada, and died in Los Angeles January 31, 
1909, leaving one son, James L. McKamy. In fraternal relations he is a local 
leader in the work of the Eagles, besides being actively interested in the 
Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. 

GEORGE KAMMERER. — It would be difficult to name any phase of 
the oil industry with which Mr. Kammerer is not familiar, for he has been 
connected with the business from childhood and has ever been a close ob- 
server and careful student of the occupation. A native of Pennsylvania, 
born at Pleasantville, Venango county, March 11, 1873, he was only six years 
of age when the familv removed to Bradford in the same state and thus he 
was made familiar with the oil fields of McKean county. The chief topic 
of conversation in the neighborhood was some development in oil, so that 
he grew up to a thorough knowledge of the business, and he also learned 
much from his father, who was a pioneer driller in Pennsylvania. Ever since 
thirteen years of age he has earned a livelihood as a worker in oil fields. 
Industrv and perseverance came naturally to him, and an intelligent mind 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 673 

enabled him to i^ras]) every problem presented by the work. The path to 
success was not easy. For hours each day he worked as a pumper, but pro- 
motion came as a result of his diligent attention to duty. He was only fif- 
teen when he was trained in the task of tool-dressing. All through his early 
life he worked for large firms in the oil and gas fields of the east, mainly in 
New York and Pennsylvania, and in that way he gained an experience of 
the greatest value to him in subsequent positions. 

The Fullerton field was first sought by Mr. Kammerer when he arrived 
in California in 1899 and for six years he was an employe of the Santa Fe 
on its leases at that point. He then went to work for the Union Oil Company 
and spent one year at Casmalia, four years in the Fullerton and three year::^ 
in the Midvc'ay field. He has been an employe of the Union Oil Company 
continuously since 1905, and has been in the Midway since 1910. He and 
his wife, formerly Miss Kathleen Enoch, and their daughter, Virginia, now 
make their hime in a company cottage on the Bed Rock lease, one mile 
north of Taft, on section 14, township 31, range 23. In his present position 
as superintendent of development in the Midway and Maricopa districts, he 
gives not only faithful, but also intelligent and remarkably efficient service 
to the Union Oil Company, whose interests have been protected and pro- 
moted by his alert supervision. Besides his identification with the oil indus- 
try he has other interests at Taft, where he now owns one-third interest in 
the Taft garage and where also he is popular in the Petroleum Club, of 
which he is a charter member. While making his headquarters in the Fuller- 
ton field he was initiated into Masonry at Fullerton, became a member also 
of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at that place, identified himself 
with the Elks at Santa Ana and with the Eagles at Anaheim. 

F. B. GORMLEY,— Born at Marion, Ihd., September 7, 1891, F. B. 
Gormley is the second son of Thomas and Sarah (Finnigan) Gormley, 
long residents of Marion. The family consisted of nine children and 
six of these are now living. The father, a native of West Virginia, 
born about 1854, has been employed by the Pennsylvania (known as the 
Panhandle) Railroad Company since 1880, holding the position of telegraph 
inspector in charge of poles, instruments and lines extending from Logans- 
port, Ind.. to Bradford, same state. From the age of seventeen years F. B. 
Gormley has been self-supporting. Upon the completion of the studies of 
the grammar grade in the Marion schools he turned his attention to the 
earning of a livelihood and for a time worked at bookkeeping. While he 
was employed by the Gulf Pipe Line Company at Tulsa, Okla., he received 
a telegram stating that his older brother, who had come to California suffer- 
ing from tuberculosis and was temporarily at Maricopa, was very ill and in 
all probability would soon pass away. Hurriedly severing his business con- 
necticius at Tulsa he started for California and May 10, 1909, arrived at Mar- 
icopa, where he cared for his brother until the end came seven weeks after- 
ward. Accompanying the remains he went back to the old Indiana home 
and afterward visited with friends and relatives for two months. Upon hi? 
second arrival at Maricopa he became an employe in the men's furnishing 
department of the store owned by Coons & Price. Eight months later he 
entered the employ of the Honolulu Oil Company, with which he continued 
for nine months, meanwhile filling the position of warehouseman. Resign- 
ing from the Honolulu he spent three weeks in San Francisco. On coming 
back to Maricopa he became a clerk in the hardware store of J. F. Blessing, 
with whom he continued for eighteen months. From April until June of 
1912 he visited in Indiana and since his return to Maricopa he has been en- 
gaged as warehouseman with the Lakeview Oil Company, whose interests 
he has promt ited by his uniform business tact, strict integrity and recognized 
capability. 



674 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

LAYTON JUDD KING.— An efficient oil operator, Air. King is the son 
of a pioneer in that business, for his father. John King, a native of 
Geauga county, Ohio, worked at oil camps in Ohio and Indiana, then re- 
turned to Ohio to resume the business in the fields of that state and event- 
ually came to Los Angeles, where he makes his home. While living in Ohio 
he married Miss Etta judd. who was born in Massachusetts, a descendant 
of a colonial family of New England. Their son, Layton Judd, was born 
in Geauga county. Ohio, in 1880, and received his education in public schools 
and Geauga Seminary. During 1895 he removed to Indiana with his father 
and found employment in the oil fields near Alontpelier, but in a short time 
returned to Geauga county, and resumed drilling in Ohio. Besides working 
in oil fields he drilled water wells and took many contracts for such woik 
in Geauga. Cuyahoga and Ashtabula counties. Upon his arrival in Cali- 
fornia in 1902 he secured a position with the R. D. Robinson Drilling Com- 
pany as a tool-dresser. Nine months later in 1903 he entered the employ of 
the Associated Oil Company as a driller in the Kern river field. 

An experience of nine months as a driller in the oil fields of Cofifeyville, 
Kan., was followed by the return of ]\Ir. King to California, where in Octo- 
ber, 1904, he again became an employe of the Associated in the Kern river 
field. In July of 1905 the company appointed him foreman of the Central 
Point division in the same field. A merited promotion to be superintendent 
of the same division came to him in April, 1906, and in February, 1907, he 
was transferred to be superintendent of the San Joaquin division, at that time 
the largest division of the entire concern. The year 1908 found him super- 
intendent of the McKittrick division and in that capacity he developed the 
valuable holdings of the company in that field. Transferred in February, 
1910, to act as superintendent of the Midway division, he since has had 
charge of development work in the Midway field and Elk Hills territory. 
When at leisure from the heavy responsibilities incident to his important 
position he finds his chief pleasure in the society of his wife and four chil- 
dren, Rupert, Ronald, Reginald and Ethelyn. Prior to their marriage at 
Chagrin Falls, Cuyahoga county, Ohio. Mrs. King was Aliss Ethelyn Parker; 
born in the Buckeye state, educated in its schools, a graduate of the high, 
school at Burton, Geauga county, she is a woman of education and culture 
and has many friends back in her girlhood home, as well as in the newer 
home of the west. In politics Mr. King always has voted with the Republi- 
can party. Since 1905 he has been connected with Masonry, having been 
made a Mason during that year in Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M. 

H. E. BECKER. — From the beginning of the development work under- 
taken by the Pacific Crude Oil Company in the Midway field Mr. Becker 
has had charge of its important enterprises in the capacity of superintendent 
and has made good in a position demanding boundless energy, great tact, 
quickness of decision and a thorough knowledge of the oil industry. Since 
November, 1911, when he entered the employ of the company, work on 
the lease near Fellows has been started and brought up to a point of great 
importance and considerable promise. Well No. 1 on the lease came in as 
a gusher, but in the midst of its first enormous output the rig caught fire. 
After having burned for. five days the fire was smothered with steam and 
brought under control. In the seven following months the well produced 
one million barrels and is now flowing at the rate of two hundred and fifty 
barrels per day. Well No. 2 came in as a gusher of eighty-five hundred 
barrels and is still producing seven hundred barrels of 26 gravity oil as 
the daily output. The latest development has been in well No. 3, the drilling 
of which was completed in 1913 and which is proving a valuable acquisi- 
tion to the holdings of the company. 

In boyhood Mr. Becker lived in his native city of Pittsburg, Pa., where 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 677 

he attended the schcjols and at the age of seventeen was graduated from 
the high school, later completing the trade of machinist as an apprentice in 
the Pittsburg locomotive works. His father, Elias, a machinist by trade 
and a lifelong resident of Pennsylvania, served throughout the entire period 
of the Civil war as a soldier in the Ninth Pennsylvania Infantry. Upon com- 
ing to California in 1901 the son, H. E., learned the oil business in the Newhall 
field as an employe of the Standard Oil Company. \\'hile in that field he 
worked first as a tool-dresser and then as a driller. In the Santa Maria field 
he engaged as a driller with the Union Oil Company. Coming to Mari- 
copa, Kern county, in 1908, he continued to work for the L'nion Oil Company 
as a driller. Later he entered the employ of the American Alidway Oil Com- 
pany, of which he became superintendent, and he was further associated 
with the Cleveland Oil Company and the Canadian Pacific Oil Company 
in the Midway field, where since November of 1911 he has worked in the 
interests of the Pacific Crude Oil Company. Always busily engaged in 
occupative duties, he has had no leisure for participation in public affairs 
and has taken no part in fraternal matters aside from being a member of 
Bakersfield Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E. 

JOHN J. BRINKMAN. — \A'ith characteristic modesty and affection he 
attributes his success largely to the noble example set by his mother and to 
the encouraging companionship of his wife. The former, who was Sophronia 
Beacock and a native of Michigan, is now seventy-four years old and 
resides at the old Ohio homestead associated with her younger days. The 
father, Henry Brinkman. was a farmer by occupation and died in 1910 at 
the age of seventy-three, his death being caused by an accidental injury. The 
fifth among seven children, John J. was born in \A'illiams county, Ohio. De- 
cember 28, 1871. and had but meager advantages for an education in his early 
life. For a time he attended the public schools of Angola, Ind., from which 
place he went to Kansas, where he earned his livelihood by teaching in the 
winter and working on ranches during the summer months. His own efforts 
were made to defray his expenses in the Salina Normal University, from 
which he was graduated in 1895. 

Arrival in California during the fall of 1900 and an immediate identifica- 
tion with the oil fields of Kern county brought to Mr. Brinkman an early 
and adequate comprehension of the oil industry. Thus apparently by chance 
he was led into the occupation with which, although indirectly, his greatest 
lifework has been accomplished. After he had worked in the fields until he 
thoroughly understood the business he entered the employ of the Hardison 
Perforating Company. \\'hen he left the employ of that concern many of his 
friends urged him to secure a perforator of his own and, acting upon their 
suggestions, he leased two old contrivances, but found them to be unservice- 
able, so he turned his mind toward the invention of a new machine. In this 
difficult task he was remarkably successful. However, he was wholly with- 
out means and unable to build a machine for lack of money. At this crisis 
the Associated Oil Company came to his aid and built the first machine, 
also made the first test, which proved the value of the perforator without a 
question. Even then all was not "smooth sailing," for the Hardison Per- 
forating Company in 1903-4 brought suits against him in the United States 
district court for infringement of their patent. The outcome of the case was 
that y\r. Brinkman was upheld in court on every point of the case. 

The business having proved very profitable, Mr. Urinkman has been 
enabled to invest in farm lands and real estate and now owns four hundred 
acres in the Weed Patch, which by means of artesian water and an adequate 
pumping system he is bringing under a high state of cultivation. His faith 
in Kern county is great and he is proving it by his investments, and pos- 
sessing a commendable spirit, he rightly ranks high among the busi- 



678 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

ness men of the county. Sharing with him in this popularity is his accom- 
jilished wife, who prior to their marriage in March. 1908. was Miss Margaret 
Jenkins of Oakland, this state. They are the parents of two children. Rolla 
and Helen. 

CLARENCE S. GREEN.— The business men of Maricopa have been 
leading factors in its rapid growth and not. the least of these is Clarence S. 
Green, who during May of 1907 came to the west side and since then has 
witnessed the entire material growth of the town. At first its destiny seemed 
uncertain. The mushroom character of the original growth caused many to 
believe its importance would be temporary, but with each year it has 
planted its rcots, deeper in the soil of prosperous existence and since 1907 
it has developed into a city. rich, progressive and permanent. July 20. 1911, 
it was incorporated as a city and Mr. Green, who had been chosen a mem- 
ber of the board of school trustees in 1909, was again chosen to serve the 
newly-incorporated city in the same office. In fact, it was his work, together 
with that of other leading men. that rendered possible the successful incorpo- 
lation. and since then these same citizens have fostered all public enterprises 

Born at Watsonville, Monterey county, Cal., September 16, 1868. Air. 
Green has little recollection of his birthplace, for at the age of three year- 
he was taken by the family to Santa Barbara, where later he was sent to the 
public school. He began to earn a livelihood as a farm hand and soon be- 
came an expert in the care of stock as well as in the tilling of the soil. As 
early as 1889, when scarcely twenty-one years of age he came to Kern county 
and here he has since made his home, having in 1892 married Miss Mollie 
Emerson, of Kern county, but who was born in San Luis Obispo county, 
Cal. She was reared there until she was eighteen years of age, when she came 
with her parents to Kern county. Three sons were born of the union, Clar- 
ence, Robert and Edward. The first home of the couple was in the south- 
west part of the county, where Mr. Green made a specialty of stock-raising 
and general ranching. During 1904 he moved to the vicinity of Bakersfield 
and rented land, which he devoted to the raising of general crops and of 
stock. As previously stated, he came to the west side in 1907 and has been 
a resident of Maricopa ever since the town started. For one year he devoted 
his time to contract teaming, next he started a livery stable and six months 
later he opened a blacksmith shop and started in the harness business also. 
During 1911 he erected a building for a harness shop and this he now occu- 
pies, doing an excellent business in the making, repair and sale of harness 
of all kinds. Although he left his farm some years ago he still retains the 
tract near Old River twelve miles southwest of Bakersfield, where he owns 
a well-improved estate of three hundred acres in grain and alfalfa. He is 
identified with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks at Bakersfield. also 
with the Ancient Order of United Workmen in the same city. 

Mr. Green continues to run the livery, harness, blacksmith and team 
contracting business at Maricopa, while Mrs. Green, with the help of her 
three sons, operates the large three hundred acre alfalfa, grain and stock 
ranch in the Old River district of Kern county. 

Mrs. Green is the daughter of E. S. Emerson, who was born in Missouri 
and came to California in the early days. He was with the Government 
troops in Mexico driving team during the Mexican war and then came up 
to California and engaged in the stock business. He was married in So- 
noma county to Miss Julia Duncan, of Missouri, who crossed the plains in 
1849 in company with her parents. Settlement was made in Sonoma county, 
where she grew up to young womanhood and where she was married. A 
part of her children were born in that county. Later the parents moved to 
San Luis Obispo county and in 1886 the parents and their family came to 
Kern county and settled on the I'aleto country land. Here they homesteaded 




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^^ eM^ S^ 



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TITSTORY OF KERN COUNTY 683 

one hundred and sixty acres. The seven sons also took homesteads there, 
and this gave rise to bitter litigation which ran through several years, but 
the case was finally won by the Emersons. 

HENRY THOMAS FREEAR.— Many years ago, when the nineteenth 
century had scarcely rounded out one-half of its era of progress, a parish in 
Norfolk, England, had as its rector Rev. Henry T. Freear. a popular and 
talented 3-oung clergyman in the Church of England, beloved among his 
parishioners and deeply mourned when in 1852 death brought an untimely 
end to his ministerial labors. Surviving him were an only child, Henry 
Thomas, and the widow, Ann (Stribling) Freear, who was a native of the 
city of London. After being left a widow she and her small son accom- 
panied her brother, John Stribling, to the United States and settled with 
him in Dekalb county. 111., where she met and married Robert Mott, a pros- 
perous pioneer farmer of the community. Thus it happened that Henry 
Thomas Freear, whose birth had occurred in London, England, December 
18, 1845, passed the years of his youth upon an Illinois farm owned by his 
stepfather, Mr. Mott, and he gave cheerful aid to such farm work as his 
strength and years permitted. In 1863 at the age of almost eighteen he 
enlisted in Company C, Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry, and continued in the 
service until the close of the war, meanwhile receiving a wound in battle 
which proved slight in imp.ortance and did not prevent him from accompany- 
ing the regiment through all of its marches and campaigns. At the expira- 
tion of the war he engaged in farming. At Sycamore, 111., October 24, 1866, 
he married Miss Mary Garlick. who was born on a farm near Kingston, 
Canada, and in 1853 removed to Illinois, settling on a farm in Dekalb 
county, where she was sent to the neighboring schools and trained to a 
knowledge of housekeeping. Her father, Joseph Garlick, was born in York- 
shire. England, and died in Illinois ; the mother, who bore the maiden name 
of Elizabeth Holderness, was born in Kingston, Canada, of EngHsh parent- 
age, and upon leaving Illinois came to California, where her declining years 
were passed happilv in the home of her daughter, Mrs. Freear. until her death 
about 1884. 

For three years after marriage Mr. and Mrs. Freear lived upon an 
Illincis farm. During 1869 they became pioneers of Nebraska and pre- 
empted a homestead in Lancaster county near Lincoln, where a small sod 
house was their home for a number of years. Meanwhile two sons, Horace R. 
and Charles H., were born on that frontier Nebraska farm. In 1874 the 
family came to California and located on a claim ten miles south of Bakers- 
field in the Old River district, where Mr. Freear developed a fine farm out 
of an uninviting and unpromising quarter section. After disposing of the 
property he bought another farm of one hundred and sixty acres one 
and one-half miles from the old place, and this in turn he developed from raw 
land into a remunerative proposition. The work of improvement was still 
being prosecuted when death interrupted his activities, March 4, 1902, and 
terminated the career of one of the most honored and successful farmers of 
Kern crunty. In religion he had always clung to the Episcopal faith, in 
politics he had been a stanch Republican and fraternally he held membership 
with Hurlburt Post, G. A. R.. in Bakersfield. For years he served efficiently 
as school trustee of the Old River district. As superintendent of roads, 
which position he held for some years, he maintained a close supervision of 
the roads of the district. 

For five years after the death cf Mr. Freear the widow continued to 
make the ranch her home, but in 1907 she rented the property and removed to 
Bakersfield, where she erected and now occupies an elegant residence at No. 
1709 ?klaple avenue. In addition she has built and now owns two other houses 
in this city. During 1910 she sold the old homestead to R. L. McCutchen, the 
hus1)and of her third child. Lena. Her eldest sons. Horace R. and Charles H.. 



684 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

are living in the Old River district and Bakersfield respectively, while the 
fourth child, Joseph P., makes Bakersfield his home. The twins, Burt and 
Alfred, are now in Maricopa. The youngest members of the family circle are 
Mrs. Laverna Bess, of Maricopa, and Mrs. Viola Perry, of Bakersfield. In 
religion Mrs. Freear is of the Baptist faith and has been interested continu- 
ously in all movements for the religious and moral uplifting of humanity. 
Since coming to Bakersfield she has become a prominent member of the 
Women's Relief Corps and has participated in many of its philanthropies and 
social fimctions. 

MILO G. McKEE.— This well known citizen of Kern county was born in 
the town of Adams, Jefferson county, N. Y., October 17, 1862, and attended 
the public school near his parents' home until he was fifteen years old. Then 
he learned the tinner's and plumber's trades, at which he worked until his 
removal to California. He remained in his native state until 1888, when he 
came to California and located in Kern county. Here he worked as a tinner 
and plumber until 1891, when he bought twenty acres, which he farmed until 
1898. It was in the last-mentioned year that his brother George S. McKee 
came to the county and the two formed a business partnership. They bought 
land from time to time until they now have a fine homestead of one hundred 
and sixty acres all under cultivation, seven miles south of Bakersfield on the 
Kern Island road, and of this sixty-five acres are in orchard, sixteen in peaches, 
twenty-six in prunes and ten in apricots, and ninety-five in alfalfa and grain. 

Jeflferson county, N. Y., was also the birthplace of George S. McKee, who 
was l)orn December 29, 1860. He was educated in the public schools in his 
neighborhood and when he was seventeen years old began to sup[)ort himself 
by farm labor. In 1885. he located in Perkins county, Nebr., where he home- 
steaded, after which he moved to Ft. Lupton, Colo., and there for eight years 
was successful as a butter-maker. From Colorado he came to California in 
1898, since which he and his brother have contributed to the success which 
they both enjoy. ]\Iilo G. McKee is a Mason, and both are Republicans. 

' CHARLES REMAN SHERMAN.— From practically the very begin- 
ning of liis identification with the ^Midway field Mr. Sherman has been finan- 
cially interested in the May's Oil Company and its successor, the May's Con- 
solidated Oil Company, of which he is now treasurer and superintendent. 
When he entered the employ of the company in 1909, the work of develop- 
ment had only begun and he has been identified wath all of the subsequent 
operations. Shortly after the concern commenced to develop their lease he 
was elected treasurer of the company and a member of the board of direc- 
tors, having charge of the office in the Midway field, and in February, 1913, he 
was appointed superintendent. Articles of incorporation were again taken out 
in 1911 and the title changed to its present form. The properties of the organi- 
zation on section 30, 31-23. and on section 28. 31-23, contain seven producing 
wells, the out])ut of which entitles the company to rank among the most suc- 
cessful in the entire field. 

Of Canadian birth, born in Ontario in 1883, Mr. Sherman is a member 
of an old family of New York state and was second among the four children 
of Heman and Margaret (Parks) Sherman, natives of New York, the former 
born at Flizabethtown, Essex county. For many years the father lived in 
Ontario and acted as administrator of a large estate. After having com- 
pleted the studies of the public schools at Roche Point, Charles H. Sherman 
worked in the lumber woods in Western Ontario and saved his earnings in 
order to secure a college education. He attended the British-American Col- 
lege in Toronto until the close of the sophomore year, when he returned to 
the lumber region for another year. 

Entering the banking business as bookkeeper in the Sovereign Bank 
of Canada at Aylmer, in five months Mr. Sherman was promoted to be 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 687 

cashier and a year later he was transferred to the head ofifices of the bank 
in Toronto, where he ranked as sixth on a staff of sixty-five men. On account 
of failing- health he resigned from the bank, where he had established an 
enviable record for ability as an accountant, and entered the employ of F. B. 
Chapin. a silverminer at Cobalt, Canada, and in a short time he was pro- 
moted to be cashier, filling- the same position with the successor of Mr. Chapin. 
However, at the expiration of. two years he again found his health impaired 
by the confining work, and he resolved to come to California, where his 
former employer, Mr. Chapin, had acquired interests in the Midway field. 

JOEL Wright coulter.— Numbered conspicuously among the 
young men of Southern California who have forsaken city life for the broad 
acres, .seeking rather to live his life in the open under the blue skies than to 
experience the exciting tumult of city life, is Joel Wright Coulter, whose 
grandfather, B. F. Coulter, is well known in Los Angeles as the founder 
-of the large establishment known as the Coulter Dry Goods Co., of which 
F. M. Coulter is now the head. 

Joel Wright Coulter was born in Los Angeles, October 20, 1886. son of 
F. M. and Lelia (Lockhart) Coulter. After attendance in the public schools 
of his native city he was sent to Harvard Military College, from which he 
graduated in 1905, and then spent two years at the University of California, 
taking the agricultural course. Subsequently, under his grandfather's instruc- 
tion, he entered the Coulter Dry Goods Co. as a clerk, and after working in the 
different departments in order to familiarize himself with the details of the 
business he finally became head of the toy department. It was in 1912 that 
Mr. Coulter turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, and buying six 
hundred and forty acres in Kern county, in Buena Vista district, he resigned 
his position with the Coulter Dry Goods Co. and located on his new place in 
order to give his personal supervision and aid in the improvement of his land. 
The tract is splendidly located twelve miles southwest of Bakersfield, and 
the whole section is irrigated by the Buena Vista Canal. It is gradually being 
leveled, checked and improved for raising alfalfa. Mr. Coulter expects to have 
four hundred acres in that crop, and the land not set apart for this purpose 
is devoted to general farming. In the improvement of his ranch he finds 
the knowledge which he acquired in agricultural college to be of 
great benefit, enabling him to run his own levels and surveys, as well as 
to make field tests and soil analysis, and make the selection of crops. He is 
making a specialty of stock raising and has already made splendid progress 
in his undertaking. He built a large eight-room residence, necessary barns 
and outbuildings, and has introduced every modern device to complete the 
place and it ranks among the foremost of its kind in the county. 

On June 22, 1909, in Los Angeles, Mr. Coulter was married to Aliss Edna 
Barlow, who was born in Ft. Covington, N. Y., daughter of Allison Barlow, 
who. has been engaged in the real estate business in Los Angeles for many 
years. Mrs. Coulter was educated in Stanford and is a member of the Kappa 
Alpha Theta Society. Mr. Coulter is a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon at 
Berkeley. They are the parents of one child, Alison Lelia. With his wife Mr. 
Coulter is a member of the Broadway Christian Church in Los Angeles. 

CHARLES C. SMETZER.— The president of the Master Plumbers' Asso- 
ciation of Bakersfield ranks as an artisan of exceptional skill and as a business 
man of high reputation for probity, careful w^orkmanship and accuracy of 
judgment. Although the period of his identification with the interests of 
Bakersfield has not been long in duration, it has been of sufficient length to 
prove the high cpiality of his citizenship and the substantial nature of his occu- 
pative knowledge. It was in this city that he completed his apprenticeship to 
the trade of plumber and worked as a journeyman, later embarking in business 
for himself at No. 959 Baker street, East Bakersfield, where his wife has 



688 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

charge of the office, thus enabling him to devote his entire attention to the 
carrying out of contracts for the plumbing of residences of every size and 
style. 

Since coming to California in 1900 Mr. Smetzer has seen many portions 
of the state and it is his conviction, founded on experience and observation, 
that Kern county offers advantages not to be surpassed by other sections 
of the commonwealth. Of German ancestry and Ohioan birth, he is a son of 
the late David and Rebecca (Shaffer) Smetzer, who lived upon a farm in Ohio 
for many years prior to their demise. There were five children in the family 
and two of these came to California, Charles C. and William, both now living 
in East Rakersfield. The former, who was next to the youngest among the 
children, was born in Williams county, Ohio, June 20, 1881, and passed the 
years of early life upon the home farm, meanwhile having such advantages 
as the country grammar schools and local high school offered. At the age 
of nineteen he started out to earn his own way in the world and immediately 
came to California, where he found employment on a ranch in Tulare county. 
Next he learned how to manufacture fruit-boxes and thereafter worked as 
box-maker in packing-houses from Fresno on the north to Redlands on the 
south, remaining in that business until he turned his attention to the trade 
of plumber. Since 1905 he has lived in Bakersfield and East Bakersfield and in 
the latter city he opened a plumber's shop in the spring of 1911, since which 
time he has devoted time and attention to the doing of first-class work in his 
special line. 

The marriage of Mr. Smetzer took place in Bakersfield December 12, 1908, 
and united him with Miss Ethel Oren, who was born in Topeka, Kan., but was 
reared and educated in Kentucky. Possessing excellent business ability, she 
has been of assistance to her husband by taking charge of the office and 
keeping the books. For some years she has been a leading local worker in 
the organization of Pythian Sisters, while Mr. Smetzer is an interested 
participant in the activities of the Knights of Pythias. Local movements of 
merit receive his quiet but stanch support and in politics he gives allegiance to 
the Republican party. 

THE WOMEN'S IMPROVEMENT CLUB,— Under the laws of Cali- 
fornia and federated with the state federation of Women's Clubs, the Women's 
Improvement Club of Taft was incorporated in 1912, its object being for civic, 
literary and choral improvement. The following officers direct the executive 
policy (f the organization: president, Mrs. W. M. Mikesell ; first vice-presi- 
dent, Mrs. J. Walter Key ; second vice-president, Mrs. George Seybolt ; record- 
ing secretary, Mrs. J. P. Plaugher ; corresponding secretary, Mrs. L. P. 
Guiberson : and treasurer, Mrs. H. E. Smith. The literary and choral depart- 
«nents are yet in the incipiency of their usefulness, but will be developed at no 
distant day. Up to the present time the civic branch, as expressed in the Taft 
branch of the Kern county free library, has been developed to such an extent 
that there are now four hundred volumes of choice, up-to-date literature, 
including all branches of history, art, travel, fiction, humor and exploration, 
as well as juvenile books and magazines, and in addition the leading dailies 
and weeklies and a number of the best magazines. 

Co-operation with the county and state lil^rary organizations makes it 
possible for a patron of the Taft library to secure an}^ book he or she may 
wish on any desired subject. Since its inception the library has had the 
kindly co-operation and financial support of the city trustees of Taft. The 
first home of the library was in the City Hall. The rapid growth of the project 
demonstrated that more commodious quarters were needed. Four of the 
leading women of Taft took the matter into consideration. These women, 
Mrs. Charles Heath, the then president of the Club, and the building com- 
mittee consisting of "Sirs. L. P. Guiberson, Mrs. T- ^^^ Kev and Mrs. W. M. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 689 

Mikesell, gave a note to the bank in order to secure funds for erecting a build- 
ing in 1912. Donations were not urged, but the money has been raised 
through entertainments and in other ways. By the 1st of January, 1914, the 
ladies hope to have the building entirely free from debt, and this in itself will 
speak volumes for their determination and executive management. The 
uplifting influence of the library is evident to all. x'Vbout three hundred and 
fifty books were added to the shelves on the 1st of July, 1913, and immediately 
afterward the rooms began to be filled with people, old and young, eager to 
avail themselves of the privilege of reading the choicest output of the large 
publishing houses of the world. In addition to the books and magazines, the 
library has been a center for good lectures by local and Kern county profes- 
sional men and advanced thinkers. The custodian, Mrs. B. J. Krekeler, a 
courteous and intelligent woman, ably and faithfully attends to the duties of 
librarian and assists the members of the Women's Improvement Club in a 
wise endeavor to promote the moral and educational welfare of Taft. 

LUCIUS JOHNSTON.— The lineage of the Johnston family is traced 
back to Virginia, where the original immigrant to America made settlement 
and became a planter of considerable local prominence. Of later generations 
the pioneer instinct showed strongest in Basil Johnston, a Virginian by birth 
and education, but throughout young manhood a planter in Tennessee and 
ultimately one of the first settlers of Jefiferson county. 111., where he took up 
raw land and developed a farm. Among his children was a son, William 
Ambrose Johnston, a native of Tennessee and now a resident of Jefferson 
county. 111., where he has improved and still owns a valuable farm near 
Mount Vernon. Shortly after the opening of the Civil war he left wife and 
family and went to the front as a volunteer in the Sixtieth Illinois Infantry, 
with which he continued until the expiration of his period of enlistment. 
Upon receiving an honorable discharge from the army he resumed the man- 
agement of his farm and since has devoted his attention to agricultural pur- 
suits. By his marriage to Mary Lynch, who was born in Jefiferson county and 
died there in 1871, he had a family of five children and all but one of these 
still survive. The eldest, Lucius, was born at the home farm near Mount 
Vernon, 111., February 25, 1861, and received his education in country schools, 
supplemented by attendance at Ewing College. 

During a period of ten years devoted to teaching school Mr. Johnston 
empkyed all his spare time to the development of the farm which he had 
purchased when he was twenty-two years of age. The earnings of the school- 
room were given over to the improvement of the land and to the erection 
of needed buildings. Later on, besides tilling the soil of the farm and raising 
stock thereon, he filled the positions of township tax collector and assessor 
and served with efficiency as a justice of the peace. During 1893 he came to 
California and engaged in ranching in Kern county. After seven years he left 
the farm and settled in Bakersfield, where he built his home at- No. 2510 H 
street, besides erecting three other bungalows which he rents. Immediately 
after coming to this city he secured a position as chief operator in charge 
of the main distributing station of the Power Development Company, later 
known as the Power Transit and Light Company. Recognition of his faith- 
ful service came in a merited promotion to the position of superintendent of 
the meter department. When the San Joaquin Power and Light Corporation 
absorbed the old concern in 1911 he was retained in the same position, which 
he since has filled with customary attention to details and unswerving fidelity. 

While engaged in farming in Jefiferson county. 111., Mr. Johnston was first 
married, in 1883, to Miss Florida Crosno, a native of that county, who died 
there in 1893. His second marriage occurred in Bakersfield in 1897, uniting 
him with Miss Lucy Range, a native of Germany who came to San Diego. Cal., 
when a child. She was educated in the schools of that city and Los Angeles. 



690 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

One son, Donald, was born of this union, he now being a student in the 
Kern county high school. The family are interested in all movements for the 
upbuilding of Bakersfield and Mrs. Johnston is an earnest member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church of this city. In politics Mr. Johnston votes 
with the Democratic party. Fraternally he not only belongs to the Woodmen 
of the World, but in addition he has been very prominent in the local ranks of 
the Knights of Pythias, which he has represented in the grand lodge, besides 
holding the ofifice of past chancellor commander. 

H. H. McCLINTOCK. — To witness the remarkable development of the 
Midway field and to contribute thereto through the force of his own 
mechanical and constructive ability has been the privilege of Mr. McClin- 
tock, who occupies a most responsible position as superintendent in Kern 
county for the Northern Exploration Company and for the Southern Cali- 
fornia Gas Company as well as the predecessor of the latter concern, the 
Tllidway Gas Company. The corporation named, which like the others rep- 
resents enormous financial institutions, had for its principal task the build- 
ing of gas-pipe lines from the Midway field to Los Angeles, where the gas 
is distributed and sold to the various existing gas companies through the 
agents of the Southern California Gas Company. In turn the latter is 
associated with the Northern Exploration Company, which engages in the 
drilling of gas wells and the production of natural gas, a product superior 
to the manufactured gas for heating purposes. 

In the local work of these large institutions the commanding person- 
ality of H. H. McClintock has wielded a permanent influence. Through all 
his life a resident of California, of which he is a native son, he yet has 
traveled extensively, has enjoyed the advantages of training abroad and in 
the course of his career as a marine engineer visited the principal ports of 
the world. Born at San Jose, Santa Clara county, November 18, 1873, edu- 
cated in the public schools and business college in his native city, married 
June 20, 1900, and identified with the Midway field in the early days when 
its total output was less than one thousand barrels, these facts give a sum- 
mary of his eventful existence, but fail to indicate the thoroughness of his 
training and the scope of his influence in occupative enterprises. In early 
years he served an apprenticeship in the Fulton iron works at San Fran- 
cisco and at the expiration of four years in that plant he went abroad in 
order to study marine engineering with a famous firm of shipbuilders in 
Belfast, Ireland. From the great yards of the firm have been sent forth 
some of the largest and finest ships that sail the high seas. The ill-fated 
Titanic was one of their most majestic creations. 

After a practical experience in marine engine-building that kept him 
in Belfast from 1899 until March, 1902, Mr. McClintock then returned to 
San Francisco. For several years he engaged as a licensed marine engineer 
and master mechanic. Meanwhile he sailed around the world three times 
and had charge of the engines on a number of the greatest steamships. 
Meeting Mr. Rockefeller at San Francisco, he was induced to take up pipe- 
line construction work. For a time he was employed in the mechanical 
department and for one year engaged as superintendent of the Central 
Division with headquarters at Hanford. During 1907 he directed the con- 
struction of the line into the Midway field, an eight-inch pipe to Richmond 
and the pipes for the water system to Rio Bravo. Since 1908 he has been 
a very active constructive agent in the development of the Midway, where 
as previously stated he acts as superintendent of the Northern Exploration 
Company, the Southern California Gas Company and the Midway Gas 
Company, the latter recently overtaken by the concern previously named. 
In July of 1911 he took charge of the construction work for the Western 
Water Company and from that time until the completion of the task in 
June, 1912, he superintended the laying of pipes and the building of the 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 693 

line for the concern. Besides being connected with the Elks at Bakersfield 
he is actively interested in the Petroleum Club at Taft. 

MRS. HARRIET JASPER.— The Boucher family, of which Mrs. Jasper 
is a member, descends from old French lineage, but has been represented in 
America for a number of generations and her father, Stephen Boucher, was a 
native of New York. During a residence of some years in Indiana he met and 
married Zoe Rahome, a descendant of German and French ancestry and a 
connection of the Pollock family, for years influential citizens of Louisville, 
Ky. Accompanied by his young wife ]\Ir. Boucher removed to Canada and 
established a home at Chatham, Ontario, un the Thames river, where he en- 
gaged in the lumber business and also bought and sold grain. The daughter, 
Harriet, was born at Chatham during the period of the sojourn of the family 
at that point. During 1866 the family came via Panama to California and 
spent two years in San Francisco, where the court for purposes of convenience 
changed the spelling of the family name from Boucher to Boushey. From San 
P'rancisco Mr. Boushey went to Catalina Island and engaged in lead and 
silver mining with Temple and W'orkman. 'In the interests of the same 
gentlemen he came to Kern county in 1881 and located antimony mines in the 
San Emidio mountains. In addition he and a partner developed some claims 
of their own, then he bought out the partner and engaged alone in the man- 
agement of the mill and smelting plant. In 1889 occurred the death of his w-ife 
and a son, Alexander, who had assisted him in the development of the antimony 
mines. His own demise occurred July 24, 1891, when he was seventy-eight 
years of age. Of the other members of the family his son, Dr. JuHus Boushey, 
died in San Francisco, and a daughter, Anzoe, Airs. Thomas E. O'Hare, died 
in Los Angeles. 

Of the four children in the Boushey family who attained mature 
years JVIrs. Jasper is the sole survivor. She was educated in San Francisco 
and Los Angeles and in the latter city became the wife of William Jasper, 
a native of Bremen, Germany, and by occupation a machinist and locomotive 
engineer. At the age of twenty-one years Mr. Jasper came to California and 
secured employment as an engineer in San Francisco. After his marriage he 
removed from San Francisco to Los Angeles, where he engaged in the mer- 
cantile business. About 1885 he came to Kern county, where afterward he 
assisted Mr. Boushey in the mines until the death of the latter and the 
subsequent sale of the antimony mine and smelter by the administrator to the 
Kern County Land Company. Thereupon he came to East Bakersfield and 
erected a residence for his family. Much of his time was spent in the oil fields 
until his death, which occurred January 20. 1903, at the age of sixty-two years. 
He had taken up a homestead in San Emidio, which he left to his wife. Later 
Mrs. Jasper entered a claim adjoining that which he had developed. Upon 
it she remained for five years as required by law. Meanwhile she made needed 
improvements on both places. The stipulated time having expired, she will 
soon hold a title to her claim. In entering upon such an undertaking after 
having been left a widow with a large family, she showed commendable 
energy and a desire not only to secure independence for herself, but also to 
aid her children in subsequent years, for undoubtedly the land will increase 
in value with development of the surrounding country and of its own resources. 
With her family she has been a lifelong adherent of the Roman Catholic faith 
and for some years past she has belonged to St. Joseph's parish. In politics 
both she and her husband were quiet but firm believers in the principles 
tf the Democratic party. Of her seven children we note the following 
James William is a locomotive engineer now living at San Bernardino 
George Alexander is employed as cattle buyer for Miller & Lux at Hanford 
Edith Adelaide is the wife of A. C. Silver and lives in East Bakersfield ; Fred- 
erick Stephen is an oil-well contractor operating on the west side; Albert L. 



694 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

is a locomotive engineer of East Bakerstield ; Emma married ^lark Wilson 
and lives at Waites, Kern county; and ^lyrtle A. married II. B. Jones and 
resides in Los Angeles. 

HENRY FORD CONDICT.— A study of genealogical records indicates 
that when William the Conqueror crossed the channel to England he had 
among his soldiers a member of the Condict family, a gallant Norman of 
noble blood, who bore his part in the triumphal entry of the troops into the 
British Isles. Wliatever of heroism characterized his subsequent activities and 
whatever of honor came to his Anglo-Saxon descendants, these possibilities 
are hidden in the mists of historical obscurity. The next fact that can be ascer- 
tained in the family history proves that one John Condict came from Wales 
to America as early as 1640 and settled in the then wilderness of New Jersey. 
I^'rom him descended Nathaniel Condict, a brave soldier and lieutenant-colonel 
in the Revolutionary war, in which he perished ere yet victory had crowned 
the self-sacrificing efforts of the feeble band of patriots. Among his children 
there was a son, Silas, a native of New Jersey and a farmer in the vicinity of 
Paterson, that state, where also he had banking interests. The next genera- 
tion was represented by Sidney Condict, who was born at Paterson, N. J., 
became a merchant in New York City, but during 1842 removed to the fron- 
tier of Illinois and took up government land in McHenry county. From that 
time until his death in 1856 he labored with unceasing energy to transform 
the raw tract into a productive farm, but the end came ere he had realized 
his anticipations of agricultural success. 

The marriage of Silas Condict united him with Charlotte Reynolds, who 
was born in New Jersey and died in Illinois in 1874. She was a daughter of 
Capt. Abram Reynolds, an officer under General Scott in the war of 1812 and 
a pioneer of 1842 in McHenry county, 111., where he died about 1856. By his 
own energetic eft'orts he acquired large holdings in land. Not only was he 
successful in private aft'airs, but in addition he wielded a wide influence 
in public enterprises and at one time filled the office of sheriff of his county 
in New Jersey. The family of Silas and Charlotte Condict numbered six 
children. P^our of these attained maturity, Init only one still survives, Henry 
Ford Condict. who was born at Newark, X. J., July 5, 1837, and was 
brought to the frontier of Illinois in 1842. As a boy he attended the country 
schools of McHenry county. Through the kindly assistance of Hon. E. B. 
VVashburne, member of congress from Illinois and a distinguished citizen 
of Galena, in 1854 the youth was appointed to a cadetship in the United 
States Naval Academy at Annapolis. Among his classmates was one who, 
as Admiral Dewey, later acquired a worldwide fame. After he had spent 
two years in the academy he was forced to resign on account of failing eyes. 
Returning to Illinois he later married Miss Nancy J. Young, a native of 
Maine. During 1859 he came via Panama to California and became interested 
in mining at Deadwood, Siskiyou county. When the news reached him con- 
cerning the breaking out of war he at once returned to the east and at 
Manchester, N. H., enlisted in the First New Hampshire Battery Septem- 
ber 26, 1861. Upon the organization of the troops he was elected lieutenant 
of his company. Ordered to the front, he fought in numerous desperate 
engagements, including the second battle of Bull Run, Antietam, Chancel- 
lorsville and Fredericksburg. In the last-named battle the battery was 
reduced to four guns. This almost total annihilation obliged the young lieu- 
tenant to resign his commission and retire. Not content, however, to leave 
the service of the Union he went immediately to Illinois and June 3, 1863, 
became a member of Company H, Eighth Illinois Cavalry, which he ac- 
companied to the front. In the historic engagement at Gettysburg his regi- 
ment fired the first shot. Throughout the balance of the war he bore a 
gallant part. After the surrender of the Confederate troops he was sent 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 697 

to Washington, where he joined in the desperate chase after Wilkes Booth, 
the slayer of President Lincoln, then a clerk at headcjuarters, administering 
the oath of allegiance to the Confederates, and afterwards he participated in 
the grand review and jnne 2, 1865, was mustered out of the service at 
Washington. 

Returning to Illinois Air. Condict had charge of the old homestead until 
1872.* when he sold out there and came to California. Bakersfield was 
then a small hamlet, but in the fall of the same year it secured the county- 
seat and its real development began at that time. For about two years he 
was proprietor of the old Stage hotel on the present site of the Odd Fellows 
hall and next he ran the old ferry for one season. During 1877 he embarked 
in the soda business on Nineteenth street, where the Southern block is, 
and later he moved it to G and Seventeenth streets. Two years later he 
bought one-half block across the street reaching from G to H on Seventeenth 
street and moved to the new location, where he has continued to the pres- 
ent time, meanwhile building up an important trade in all kinds of soft 
drinks, making his own syrups and manufacturing his popular products 
at his headquarters, known as the C. O. D. soda works. At the same time 
for twenty-five years he followed the truck and dray business, having four 
large trucks, and was agent for the Standard Oil Company. In 1905 he 
sold out the truck business and also gave up the oil agency. Since then 
he has devoted his time to soda works and looking after his private interests. 
He is secretary and director of the Paraffin Oil Company, one of the oldest 
producers on the west side, and is a stockholder in the Coalinga Peerless 
and the U. S. Oil Company. On account of the bad well water, Mr. Condtct, 
with others, was induced to organize the Bakersfield waterworks, becoming 
a director and the first superintendent, and putting in all the original pipes. 
After serving as superintendent for several years he resigned. Near his 
large manufacturing establishment stands his comfortable residence on FI 
and Seventeenth streets and here he and his wife hospitably entertain the 
many friends won during the long period of their residence in Bakersfield. 
With them is one daughter, Miss Charlotte, while the other daughter. Bertha. 
Mrs. C. L. Hollis, makes her home in San Francisco. At the adoption of the 
city charter Mr. Condict was chosen the first city assessor of Bakersfield. 
Throughout all of his life he has believed in the Republican party and sup- 
ported its principles. Besides being connected with the Sons of the Revolu- 
tion, he is a charter member of Hurlburt Post No. 127, G. A. R., and in 1886 
was chosen its first commander. When he identified himself with the An- 
cient Order of United Workmen in 1879 his worth was recognized and he 
was chosen for official responsibilities. For twenty-three years he served 
as financier of the local lodge, of which he also is past master workman. 
After coming to Bakersfield in 1873 he was made a Mason in Bakersfield 
Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M. During that year also he identified himself 
with Kern Lodge No. 202, L O. O. F., and afterward he was selected to 
serve as noble grand of the organization, besides which he became prominent 
in encampment work and was the first selected to fill the office t;f chief 
patriarch. 

FREDERICK S. MAZE.— The emigrant trail across the plains, although 
less sought by ambitious Argonauts than in the memorable years of 1849 and 
1850. was still a popular highway when in the summer of 1853 J. W^ Maze, 
a Kentuckian by birth and ancestry, traveled the course of its monotonous 
miles in "prairie schooner" drawn by ox-teams. Accompanying him was Mrs. 
Maze, formerly Miss Elizabeth Mann, who was born in Missouri about 1834 
and who, now an invalid as the result of an accidental fall that broke the hip- 
bone, is considerately cared for by her son. Frederick S. The father engaged 
in grain-raising in Stanislaus county and removed from there to Fresno 



698 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

county, settling- near Selma about fourteen miles from Fresno. His death 
occurred about 1^.07 at the age of seventy-eight. Of his seven living children 
we note the following: Julia is the wife of S. B. Shaw, a carpenter at Visalia ; 
William E. is engaged in farming in Kern county; Alice married Marshall 
A. Cotton, a fruit-packer at Visalia; Laura is the wife of C. H. Brown, a team 
contractor at Fowler ; Zetta married F. S. Jasper, a drilling contractor at Fel- 
lows ; rVederick S., a twin of Zetta. was born near ]\Iodesto. Stani'slaus 
county, August 22, 1872; and Christopher E., is engaged in the poultry busi- 
ness at Fowder. 

Reared on a farm in Fresno county, Frederick S. Maze began to work in 
the oil business at the age of fourteen years and since 1899. when he came to 
the McKittrick oil field, he has given his attention wholly to the industry. 
At first he was employed in driving teams and handled as many as eight 
head of horses at one time, hauling heavy machinery to the McKittrick field. 
When he ceased to work as a teamster he began to tend boilers with the 
Kern River Oil Company at McKittrick. In 1900 he came to the Midway field 
as a tool-dresser. However, drilling has been his main business and he has 
made an enviable record in this department of the oil industry. Eight wells on 
the Pierpont stand to his credit as a driller. In 1907 he drilled one well at 
McKittrick, later drilled a well on the Brockton, then returned to the Pier- 
pont and from that went successively to several other leases. Since 1911 he 
has been connected with the General Petroleum Oil Company, with which 
he has made a record for successful drilling on the Nevada Midway, Holloway 
and other leases. The demands of the work are so engrossing that it leaves 
liim no leisure for outside affairs.' Early and late he has been at his post of 
duty. At one time he had five strings of tools running on the Holloway, 
Scrongo. Nevada Midway and Bankline. also five strings of tools on the Mid- 
way 32. having charge of a production that averaged about seventy-five 
thousand barrels per month until February 1, 1913, since which time his entire 
attention has been concentrated upon the Midway 32. One of his noteworthy 
achievements was with well No. 14, which came to him as a fishing job 
November 1, 1912. Practically abandoned, with boiler lost and equipment 
useless, he undertook a task of the greatest difficulty, and when he was suc- 
cessful in the attempt, removing the old casing, providing new equipment and 
making practically a new \vell that in June, 1913, came in as a three thousand 
barrel per day gusher, he was accorded the heartiest praise for the accom- 
plishment of a feat than which nothing more difficult had ever been accom- 
plished in the field. 

MRS. W. M. MIKESELL.— The president of the W^omen's Improvement 
Club at Taft has. through co-operation with other progressive women of the 
city, accomplished much of inestimable value to the community and made pos- 
sible the Taft library together with allied enterprises inseparable from civic 
advancement. In the very fineness of its far-reaching influence the spirit of 
the Club eludes definition. Its officers and members endeavor to exercise the 
art of kindliness, of light and of progress, and the city of Taft is not unmindful 
of the obligations of its large debt to these women of large-hearted service 
and philanthropic natures. In the task of promoting civic advancement the 
president has received the most able assistance from other officers and from 
members. Their tasks have been labors of beneficence and philanthropy, and 
their achievements have marked the pathway of local growth. 

Born and reared in Pennsylvania, educated in the State Normal School 
of Pennsylvania and granted a state teacher's certificate in that state. Mrs. 
Mikesell folUnved the profession of an instructor in schools until her marriage 
to \\'. M. Mikesell. of Indiana. During 1909 she came to California and settled 
among the pioneers of the new town of Taft, where Mr. Mikesell became the 
proprietor of a hardware and fm-niture store and where she has thoroughly 




M». 



^^^h/ryrX^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 701 

identified herself with every movement for community development. Of her 
union with Mr. Mikesell there are two sons, Emerson and William Milton, Jr. 
To enjoy the friendship of Mrs. Mikesell is a privilege. CJentle in thought, yet 
positive in convictions and resolute in action, she possesses the qualities neces- 
sary to a successful presiding officer, yet invaluable also in the home, in the 
church and in society. The value of her uplifting influence has been seen in 
many a life outside of her home circle and has been particularly apparent in 
the philanthropic enterprises of the Women's Improvement Club. The Ladies' 
Aid Society of the Presbyterian Church of Taft was organized in Mrs. Mike- 
sell's home at Taft. As an active worker in that organization she has been 
instrumental in building the fine Presbyterian Church at the corner, of Fifth 
and Kern streets, as well as the manse, which was built in 1912 and continues 
to be an uplifting influence in Taft. 

J. C. PAYNE. — The colonial era of American history witnessed the 
arrival from Scotland of a sturdy representative of the Payne family, the 
founder of the name in the new world and a pioneer planter in Virginia. It is 
interesting to note that Collins' Early History of Kentucky records a dispute 
and disagreement that arose between General Washington and the progenitor 
of the Payne family, who were contemporaries, but differed in opinions con- 
cerning national policies. A Virginian by birth, Duval Payne became an 
early settler of Miss(.uri and took up a tract of farm land five miles east of 
Kansas City on the road to Independence. When that property was sold he 
moved to Cass county. Mo., about fifty miles from Sedalia, and there his 
death occurred during November of 1862. Years before he had married 
Mary Jane Wilson, a native of Kentucky, and seven children had been born 
to the union. The next to the youngest of these, J. C, was born in Jackson 
county. Mo., March 10. 1853, and was only eight years of age at the time of 
his father's untimely demise. The widow was left in poverty-stricken circum- 
stances with a large family, only the eldest of w^hom were able to go out in 
the world to earn their own livelihoods. Upon the boy of eight devolved 
much of the burden of the family maintenance and his condition was ren- 
dered the more pitiable by reason of the Civil war being then at its climax. 
The portion of Missouri in which the family lived was a hotbed of guerrilla 
warfare. The lives of all, old and yc.ung, Union and Confederate, were con- 
stantly in danger. The rising sun of each day gave no prediction of what 
h^(Trror might befall the community before its setting. The barefoot boy, 
clad in coarse homespun clothing, had no opportunity to attend school during 
the war, l)ut as he bravely tried to earn his livelihood he saw much tliat 
left an indelible impression upon his mind. ^lore than once his life was 
threatened by outlaw soldiers who sought to get secret information. Quan- 
trell's gang operated in the neighborhood. At one time he saw six innocent 
men shot after they had been compelled to dig their own graves. Before the 
fatal shot was fired each man was required to stand in such a position that his 
b( dy would drop into the grave he had dug. 

Finally the long civil struggle came to an end and in 1866 the fatherless 
lad. who had been given a temporary home with an aunt, Mrs. B. F. Smith, 
was- taken to Kentucky by his mother, who joined relatives in the vicinit}' 
of Paris. There he attended the common schools and became trained to 
farm pursuits. At the age of twenty-four years he returned to Missouri. 
From 1878 to 1880 he lived in Johnson county and there, in the year last- 
named, he married ^Miss Martha Cook, who had been born in Indiana, but 
had spent the greater part of her life in Missouri. During 1883 the family 
came to California and settled near Selma, Fresno county, where Mr. Payne 
planted a tract of land to vines and deciduous fruit trees. After the fruit 
was in bearing condition he disposed of the property to advantage. Next 
he engaged in raising wheat and had from two thousand to three thousand 



702 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

acres in grain, conducting extensive operations and meeting with consid- 
erable success. During 1902 he removed to Bakersfield, where with his only- 
child, lames Bruce Payne, he now conducts an undertaking business. The 
son is a skilled embalmer and a scientist as well. June 10, 1905, he was 
graduated from the l^arnes School of Embalming and Anatomy at New 
York and March 4, 1908, from the Cincinnati College of Embalming. 

The Christian Church of Bakersfield has had the benefit of the capable 
assistance of the Payne family, who are devoted to the doctrines of that 
organization. In pulitics Mr. Payne votes with the Democratic party. Fra- 
ternally he holds membership with the blue lodge of Masonry, the Knights 
of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. For many years 
he has been a forceful worker with the Kern County Board of Trade and 
more recently he has served on the executive committee of the Bakersfield 
Board of Trade, in which he is a leading spirit and enthusiastic worker. 
Never has he lost an opportunity to "boost" his city, county and state. His 
faith in the city and his belief in its future prosperity found evidence in 
his erection during 1912 of a three-story brick building at No. 1928 Nineteenth 
street. On the top floor the family have a modern apartment fitted up 
for residential purposes. The basement floor is devoted to a display, sales 
and stock room and a workshop, while on the first floor are the office, the 
operating room, the morgue and a funeral chapel with a capacity of one 
hundred visitors. 

FRED C. BROCKMAN. — Teutonic descent in an unbroken line is indi- 
cated by the genealogy of the Brockman family, whose American representa- 
tive, Fred C. Brockman, the proprietor of the Plant apartments in Bakersfield, 
is himself a native of Hesse-Darmstadt and identified throughout youth with 
that important kingdom in Germany. In the neighborhood where he was 
born December 21, 1866, he attended the national schools and served an ap- 
prenticeship to the trade of butcher, thus entering into manhood's activities 
fortified by a fair education and a thorough knowledge of a useful occupation. 
Meanwhile he had heard much concerning the new world and the oppor- 
tunities which it offers to men of energy and determination. Determining 
to try his fortune in the land across the seas, he bade farewell to the friends 
of boyhood and took passage on a steamship bound for the port of New 
York. It was during 1884 that he became a resident of the United States and at 
first he settled in New Mexico, where he engaged in mining at Rio Mimbres. 
All the ups and downs incident to the existence of a miner and prospector fell 
to his lot in those early years of effort. There were times when all went well 
and the returns were fair, but also some seasons of depression and dis- 
couragement, when the profits of other times were forced to be turned to the 
payment of losses in unfortunate mining ventures. The Apache Indians were 
very troublesome in New Mexico and more than once they imperiled his life 
with their dastardly attacks, but in each instance he escaped in safety. 

Mining interests in Colorado attracted Mr. Brockman to Ouray in 1890 
and there or near by he continued for some time, combining with his work in 
mines the management of a meat market which he had started shortly after 
his arrival in Colorado. The next enterprise that engaged his attention was the 
purchase of a tract of one hundred and sixty acres at Hotchkiss, where he 
engaged in general farm pursuits and secured water under a canal from the 
mountains. The presence of irrigation facilities and the fertile nature of the 
soil rendered possible the undertaking of horticultural enterprises. With this 
idea in view he platted the tract in tracts of ten acres and sold to fruit-grow- 
ers, himself retaining ten acres for his home place and planting the land in 
apples and peaches. The raising of fruit proved profitable, but the high alti- 
tude affected the health of his wife injuriously and he therefore came to Cali- 
fornia in the fall of 1912, settling in Bakersfield, where he purchased the Plant 




.^^.(^Xv-t^/^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 705 

apartinents at No. 806 Nineteenth street. The building contains twenty-four 
furnished apartments and Mr. Brockman conducts a grocery on the first floor. 

When a lad in his early (iernian home Mr. Brockman was confirmed in 
the Lutheran Church and ever since then he has upheld the doctrines of the 
denomination. Fraternally he holds membershi]) with the Woi dmen of the 
World. During 1896 he was united in marriage .at Delta, Colo., with 
Mrs. Mattie (Rosenkranz) Esch. a native of Keil, Germany, and a lady of 
amiable qualities, who since coming to Bakersfield has made many friends and 
also been greatly benefited in health. Besides being active in church work and 
a model housekeeper in the home, she takes a warm interest and leading part in 
the work of the Royal Neighbors and the Women of Woodcraft. By her f( rmer 
marriage she was the mother of three children, namely: Walter Esch, a fruit- 
grower residing at Hotchkiss, Ct lo. ; Mrs. (lertrude A'^incent, of Spokane, 
Wash. ; and Flsa. who makes her home in Denver. 

CHARLES E. COOPER.— It is conceded by competent judges that few 
citizens of Kern county are more familiar with soil conditions and pn^perty 
valuations than Charles E. Cooper, who conducts a real-estate, insurance and 
loan business in Bakersfield, with office at No. 1514 Twentieth street. One 
of his specialties has been the agency for the Chester Park tract on Fourth 
street and Chester avenue, on the east line, comprising one hundred and 
forty-four lots well located on the main thoroughfare of Bakersfield from 
north to south four blocks from the street car line. In addition he acts as 
agent for the Mountain View tract in the Edison district east of Bakersfield 
and three miles from Edison station. 

By virtue of long residence in the west Mr. Cooper has acquired the 
enthusiasm and mental breadth characteristic of those who breathe the air 
of mountain or sea. Besides the qualities that come through long association 
with the west, he inherited the substantial characteristics that belong to the 
sons of Iowa. That commonwealth was his early home and Janesville, 
Bremer county, his native community, while a nearby farm gave him an in- 
itiation into agricultural knowledge as well as valuable information concern- 
ing soil necessities and possibilities. His father, a man of sterling worth and 
of considerable prominence in Bremer county, traced his lineage to Peter 
Cooper, who coming from England to America during the colonial era founded 
a numerous family whose influence has been felt in the majority of the states 
of the Union and whose present-day representatives are contributing effect- 
ively to the material upbuilding of their varied localities. That eminent writer 
on horticulture and recognized authority on olives and olive culture, Elwood 
Cooper, the millionaire olive grower of Santa Barbara, is a distant relative 
of our subject. 

With the self-reliance that has characterized every generation of the 
family in the new world Charles E. Cooper started out to earn his own way 
in the world at an early age and became a resident of Denver, Colo., where 
for fifteen years he engaged in the real-estate business. Meanwhile he enjoyed 
a substantial prosperity in material matters and became popular in the most 
refined social circles. A later period of real-estate activity was passed in San 
Francisco, whence he came to Bakersfield and in this city he has won recog- 
nition through marked business ability and agreeable personality. Giving 
his attention very closely to realty enterprises, he takes no part in politics 
aside from voting the Republican ticket at all elections. In religion he holds 
to the doctrines of the Presbyterian Church. Aside fn m his large real-estate 
business ]Mr. Cooper is resident agent for the Philadelphia Life Insurance 
Company of Philadelphia and the West Coast Life of San Francisco, as well 
as agent for the Continental of New York (with assets of $26,000,000), the 
Firemen's Insurance Company of Newark, the Fidelity Phoenix of New 
York (with assets of $17,000,000). the New Jersey Fidelity and Plate Glass 



706 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Insurance Company, the American Union i^^ire Insurance Company of Phila- 
delphia, and the Fire Association of Philadelphia. 

In September, 1913, Mr. Cooper was elected president of the Bakersfield 
Realty Board and also selected one of the committee of five to secure the ap- 
pointment of fifteen freeholders to draft a new charter for the city. December 3, 
1913. at the Van Nuys Hotel in Los Angeles occurred the marriage of C. E. 
Cooper and Miss Cora May St. Clair, a member of one of the pioneer families 
of Bakersfield, whose father. L. P. St. Clair, was the first mayor of Bakers- 
field, owner of the first electric light plant and a pioneer in the oil business. 
Mrs. Cooper had been identified with the oil business prior to her marriage 
and was a lady of prominence in her home city. Her brother, L. P. St. Clair, 
is president of the Independent Oil Producers agency. 

ST. LAWRENCE OIL COMPANY.— Numbered conspicuously among 
the prosperous oil producers of the Kern county district is that of the St. 
Lawrence Oil Company, wdiich represents the industry in its best form and fur- 
nishes to the investigator a splendid example of the methods employed in 
that industry. The company operates a- one hundred and sixty-acre tract, 
it being the southeast quarter of section 5, township 32, range 23, and is com- 
posed of San I'^rancisco investors, who started operations there in VOH, I. B. 
Strassburger of that city being president. 

Under great difficulty well No. 1 was drilled, but at length was finished 
in November, 1910, when it was perforated and came in as a gusher about 
the same time as the No. 2-6 on the C. C. AI. Oil Company's holdings. The 
well flowed from fifteen hundred to two thousand barrels and was soon placed 
under control. It is still producing, which marks the unusually fine con- 
ditions of the vicinity. The company has since put down five more wells and 
all are producers of better than twenty-one gravity oil. Ably superintending 
it is William G. Follansbee, who has met with signal success in his opera- 
tions. 

JOHN C. MARLEY. — The superintendent of the Stratton Water Com- 
pany has been identified with the Midway field since January of 1910, when 
he came to Fellows to enter upon the duties connected with his present 
positicjn. The organization of which he has charge and which ranks as the 
pioneer water concern of the entire field obtains water from a system of four 
wells, having a capacity of about thirty thousand barrels per day. 

A resident of California since 1895, John C Marley was born at Winterset, 
Madison county, Iowa, in 1859, and is a son of J. A. Marley. a florist during his 
lifetime. After he had completed the studies of the grammar and high schools 
he became an apprentice to the trades of millwright and carpenter, which 
he learned thoroughly and in which he became unusually skilled. However, 
instead of following these trades, he turned his attention to a department 
of the railroad business and for some years acted as station agent for various 
roads in Iowa, his first work being done with the Burlington Railroad. After 
his arrival in California in 1895 he worked as a millwright with the Demming- 
Palmer Milling Company. An important position as superintendent of the 
Holmes Lime Company at Felton, Santa Cruz county, he filled for six 
years, and upon resigning from that place he came to Fellows at the begin- 
ning of the A'ear 1910, since which he has developed the business of the Strat- 
ton Water Company and also has engaged as local representative of the 
Midway Oil Company of Oregon, having charge of the holdings of that con- 
cern in the Midway field. His family, consisting of wife and son Donald, still 
maintain a residence at No. 640 Post street, San Francisco. Mrs. Marley was 
formerly Miss Ida Hollingshead, of Albia, Iowa, where she was born and 
reared. In politics Mr. Marley votes with the Republican party, while fra- 
ternally he holds membership with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
the ^Modern Woodmen of America and the P>aternal Brotherhood. 




:4a^^-<i </^ 4^^^^^^ 




HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 709 

FRANK S. JUDD. — Very early in the C()lt)nization of America the fudd 
family came from England to the shores of the Atlantic and the rock-bound 
coast of New Ens^land, where they aided in the agricultural development 
of that undeveloped region and gave of their energies through successive 
generations to the material upbuilding of the new world. Of all their repre- 
sentatives none was more forceful in intellect and none more adventurous 
in his investigations of new countries than Truman Judd, a native of W^ey- 
bridge, AT., and a graduate of Potsdam Academy in St. Lawrence county, 
N. Y. Within the span of his earthly existence, which began .March 10, 
1813, and came to an end August 10, 1885, he witnessed the development 
of much of the United States and contributed thereto with the energy and 
resourcefulness typical of the progressive pioneer. While attending school 
in New York he formed the acquaintance of the young lady who later became 
his wife and who shared in his hardships and frontier experiences until her 
death left him bereaved and alone. A native of Potsdam, N. Y., she bore 
the name of Lournda U. Taylor and was a daughter of Reuben Taylor. 

Removing from New York state to Illinois, Truman Judd settled at 
Pecatonica, Winnebago county, where his son, Frank S., was born March 
28, 1857, and where he himself for some years engaged in pedagogical work. 
The quiet routine of the schoolroom, however, was irksome to his adventur- 
ous temperament and at times he abandoned the profession temporarily for 
travels, then later gave up the work entirely in order to enter other avoca- 
tions. During the spring of 1849 he joined an expedition of Argonauts bound 
for the gold fields of the west. Crossing the plains with ox-teams and wagons, 
he found so much of interest in the journey that he recorded his impressions 
of the country in a journal written as he traveled from point to point along 
the lonely route. Such a record would be of priceless value to his descend- 
ants and its k ss in the Sacramento fire of the '50s was deplored. After his 
arrival in California he engaged in mining and later he took a contract for 
building a portion of the levee at Sacramento, whence in 1856 he returned 
to Illinois. Not long after the discovery of gold in Pike's Peak he traveled 
across the plains to that portion of the countr}^ and camped on the present 
site of Denver at a time when only a few rude shacks marked the spot 
destined for a commercial center. For years he made his headquarters at 
Monument, where he built three sawmills. Later he built a sawmill on the 
Little Fountain and engaged in the manufacture of lumber which was used 
in the early material upbuilding of both Denver and Pueblo. 

Disposing of his holdings in Colorado and removing to Texas a few 
years after the death of his wife, which had occurred in the former state in 
October of 1867, Truman Judd soon became a power in the journalistic circles 
of the Lone Star state, where he edited and i)ublished the Fort Worth 
Tribune. Forceful as a writer and able as an editor, he made a name for 
himself throughout his part of the state and was recognized as a nower 
on the side of progress and achievement. During 1880 he came to California 
as a permanent resident. After a sojourn of five years in Nevada county 
he came to Kern county in July. 1885, and here his death occurred in .August 
of that year. To this same county his brother, Stoel Judd, a California 
pioneer of 1851, had come during the '60s and here he continued to make 
his home until he passed from earth in 1909 at the age of eighty-four years. 

Seven children formed the family of Truman Judd. Five of these attained 
maturity, namely: Airs. Julia Squires, wdio died in Colorado; Mrs. Alniina 
Reader, who died in Nevada county. Cal.. in 1889; Mrs. Hattie Webb, of 
Texarkana, Tex.; Airs. Lucina Weir, wife of Jerome A^^eir. a pioneer and 
prominent upbuilder of Colorado Springs, Colo. ; and Frank S.. the youngest 
Uiember of the family circle. The second daughter. Alniina, migrated to 
California via Panama in 1863 and later became the wife of James Reader; 



710 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

upon her death she left five children, of whom only one, Hattie, came to 
Bakersfield to make her home, although there is also a granddaughter, ]\Irs. 
Amanda Krelle, residing in this cit}'. When Frank S. Judd was a child four 
years of age he accompanied his parents from Illinois to Colorado and later 
became a pupil in the public school in Colorado City. During 1870 he re- 
moved to Texas with his father. Having finished the study of the common 
branches in the Fort Worth schools he learned the trade of printer in the 
composing room of the Fort Worth Tribune. During May of 1881 he came 
to California and settled in Nevada county, where he engaged in mining 
at French Corral. A first visit to Kern county in 1885 gave him a favor- 
able impression concerning this portion of the state. Returning in the early 
part of 1887, he became a permanent resident of the county on the 12th of 
Aprii and has since lived on ranches or in Bakersfield. For seven years he 
engaged in farming as an employe of his uncle, Stoel Judd. Later he bought 
land in the San Emidio country, where he engaged in ranching and stock- 
raising. 

Upon the retirement of his uncle from active ranch pursuits Mr. Judd 
purchased the Judd property near Lakeside ranch and there he remained 
until the sale of the place in 1910. For years he made a specialty of raising 
alfalfa seed. After selling the farm in 1910 he bought forty acres seven 
miles from Bakersfield and there he since has engaged in raising alfalfa. A 
short time since he sold the mountain ranch and built a comfortable resi- 
dence at No. 1720 Maple avenue, from which place he superintends the 
alfalfa farm, besides taking an active part in the buying and selling of real 
estate. He is a Democrat and a member of the Elks. 

JAMES H. THORNBER.— The Thornber family descends from Anglo- 
Saxon ancestry and for g;enerations has been represented in Westmoreland in 
the north of England, where Francis Joseoh and Elizabeth (Peters) Thorn- 
ber passed their entire lives, the former being engaged as an accountant. The 
parental family comprised six sons and six daughters and the eighth in order 
of birth, James H., was born in the village of Kendal, July 5, 1875. Two sons 
and two daughters are still living and all of them have come to America, the 
older son, John P., being- a resident of Bartlesville. Okla.. while the two 
daughters, Mrs. Agnes Grisdale and Mrs. Elizabeth Marriott, make their 
home in Kern county, Cal., the headquarters also of the fourth member of the 
family, James H. The last-named attended the Kendal grammar school in 
Westmoreland, and later was a student in the Friends' school at the same 
place. After he was graduated at the age of fifteen years he was employed 
in the village until 1892, wdien he crossed the ocean to the L^nited States and 
proceeded west to A-Iontana. Securing employment on a ranch near Chinook 
he soon learned the business of operating a stock farm on the plains. Later 
he became interested in operating the Black Coulee coal mine, besides wdiich 
he also engaged in general contracting. 

Upon selling some of his interests in Montana in October of 1908 .Mr. 
Thornber came to Bakersfield. Shortly afterward he purchased one hundred 
and twenty acres of land in the Weed Patch. The task of transforming the 
raw acreage into a productive farm was one of great difficulty, but the land 
was rich and fertile and ultimately produced fruit and alfalfa in paying quan- 
tities. Since 1909 he has made his home in East Bakersfield, where he owns a 
residence at No. 1601 Pacific street. Besides having a real-estate and insur- 
ance office at No. 919 Baker street, he is engaged in the building of cottages 
and bungalows and these interests, together with the supervision of his Mon- 
tana ranch, which he still owns, keep him busily occupied. 

Ever since he came to this city Air. Thornber has been connected with the 
Chesbro Methodist Episcopal Church of East Bakersfield, where at this 
writing he officiates as president of the board of trustees and president of the 




^^"^^ Oj^yC^ 



^JA^ 01 




HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 713 

adult liible class. With the co-cjperation of the pastor of this 
church he organized a Sunday-school at Toltec No. 2 and since 
then he not only has acted as superintendent, but in addition he has given 
exceptionally faithful and efftcient service in the capacity of local preacher. 
Being deeply interested in the religious life of the oil fields, he gives freely of 
his time, ability and means to promote the cause of Christianity in that par- 
ticular portion to which he has been called. While living in Montana he was 
married at Chinook, September 25, 1900, to Miss Alice Greenough, a native 
of Mechanicsburg, Ohio, and a daughter of the late John K. and Minnie 
(Currier) Greenough, the former born in Concord, N. H., of Mayflower stock, 
and the latter a descendant of Scotch forbears. In 1886 the family removed 
to Chanute, Kans., where ^Nlrs. Thornber was reared and educated, remaining 
there until 1899. In that year the family located in Chinook, Mont., where 
the marriage of the young ]3eople occurred. Interested in social functions and 
active in church work, Mrs. Thornber's deepest affections, however, are cen- 
tered upon her four children, Chester Harve, Grace Elizabeth, Agnes Myrtle 
and Alice Celia. Fraternally Mr. Thornber belongs to the Modern Woodmen 
of America and Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M., also with his wife is 
identified with Bakersfield Chapter No. 25, Order of the Eastern Star. 

WILLIAM UPTON.— When Mr. and Mrs. Upton bought a tract of 
twenty acres one mile southeast of Kern in 1893 they realized the difficulties 
facing them. Not an attempt at cultivation had been made. Not an improve- 
ment had been placed on the land. No efifort had been put forward to secure 
irrigation. In all of its raw unattractiveness the land awaited the patient 
hand of labor, and such was the capability of the owner that eventually it 
became known as a farm without a superior in Kern county. When finally 
he sold in order to retire to private life it was with the satisfaction of knowing 
that he had developed one of the finest farms in this portion of the state. 

The Upton family is of old Virginian ancestry. Major James Upton, a 
native of West Virginia, migrated to Indiana and engaged in farming in that 
state until death. The title by which he was known came to him through 
service in the state militia. At the time of removing to Indiana he was a 
youth and later he married Sallie Bracken, a native of Rush county, that 
state. Following his demise she removed to Illinois and settled in Sangamon 
county, where her remaining years were passed. In her family there were 
five sons and one daughter. Two of the older sons served in the Civil war. 
The only survivor of the six children is William, who was next to the young- 
est among them. Born near Lebanon, Boone county, Ind., September 8, 
1849. he was educated in country schools and Lebanon Academy. During 
1866 he accompanied other members of the family to Illinois and settled near 
Springfield, where he aided on his mother's farm for a few years. Later he 
rented a farm and then bought land in Mechanicsburg township, Sangamon 
county. Selling that place in 1889 he removed to Dawson in the same 
county, whence in February of 1891 he'came to California. Limited in means, 
he made a very small beginning as a farmer of Kern county. For two years 
he owned and improved a farm of forty acres in the Rosedale colony and on 
this place he planted fruit and also sowed alfalfa. When he sold the property 
in 1893 he bought the small farm near Kern where he labored diligently 
and successfully until he relinquished farming activities. The first purchase 
included twenty acres and later he bought ten acres adjoining, so that he 
had thirty acres altogether. During the last year on the small ranch Mrs. 
Upton kept a careful account of all receipts and disbursements. For the 
vear a total of $1,823.25 was received from the sale of hay and produce, and 
in addition they raised many of the necessities for their own table. The total 
expense, without counting their time, was limited to $300, this small expense 
being made possible through their industry and wise management. 

The marriage of Mr. Upton and Miss Ella R. Sutherland was solemnized 



714 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

at Illiopolis, 111., February 17, 1875, and has been one of mutual helpfulness 
and happiness, their only sorrow having been the loss of their children in 
early life. i\Irs. Upton was born in Mechanicsburg township, Sangamon 
county, 111., and vyas fourth among the nine children comprising the family 
of Hugh and Abbie (Bird) Sutherland. Only four of the nine are now living. 
Born in 1809, l\\r. Sutherland came from his native city of Edinburgh, Scot- 
land, to the United States in 1825 and shortly thereafter settled in Illinois, 
where he engaged in farming. Some years after locating in that state he 
married Miss Bird, who was born in Frankfort, Ky., September 27, 1824, 
and accompanied her mother to Illinois in 1833. Of late years she has lived 
in Springfield and has been physically active notwithstanding her advanced 
age. Mrs. Upton is an earnest member of the Congregational church and a 
leading worker in the Ladies' Aid Society. In addition she is a popular 
member of the Woman's Relief Cor|)s. ^Ir. Upton is connected with the 
Fraternal Brotherhood and in politics ahvays has voted with the Republican 
party. Upon selling their farm in June of 1909 they came to East Bakersfield, 
where they not only erected their present residence at No. 600 Pacific street, 
but in addition built a number of cottages for rent. 

REV. JAMES S. WEST, A. B.— The history of the First Baptist Church 
of Bakersfield. of which Rev. James Samuel West is now oastor, dates back 
to the year 1889, the inauguration of the movement occurring on the 21st of 
April with the union as a congregation of a very few persons, adherents of 
that faith and formerly communicants of the denomination in previous places 
of residence. The following vears were filled with anxious solicitude regarding 
the future of the congregation, but nevertheless were years of spiritual and 
numerical growth. The following is a list of the pastors together with their 
periods of service: Rev. J. C. tordan, Anril, 1889-February, 1893; Rev. C. 
O. Johnson, Februarv, 1893- April, 1894; Rev. I. M. French. October. 1894- 
Tanuarv, 1896; Rev. J. T. Collins, January, 1897- August, 1899; Rev. William 
Mullen, August. 1899-May, 1900; Rev. W. C. Whitaker, Mav. 1901-Mav. 1902; 
Rev. W, M. Collins. Januarv. 1903-May. 1906; Rev. J. Fred Jenkins. October. 
1906-January, 1908; Rev. Llovd C. Smith, August,' 1908- August. 1911, and 
Rev. James Samuel West, the present pastor, whose ministry commenced in 
September of 1911. 

Immediately after the organization of the few members into a congrega- 
tion steps were taken looking toward the building of a house of worship. The 
corner of T and Twenty-second streets was secured as a suitable site. Febru- 
ary 17, 1890. the corner-stone was laid of a structure of brick, small but sub- 
stantial. The first services were held there on the first Sunday of April, 
1890. With that building as headquarters, an excellent work was conducted 
for years, but eventually the lot was sold March 2, 1904, the last services being 
conducted in the old church on the 13th of March, of the same year. The 
corner-stone of the new structure of white brick was laid September 14. 1904, 
at the new lot on the corner of Twentieth and G streets. The first services 
were held in the Sunday-school room December 6, 1904, and in the main 
auditorium March 5, 1905, while the formal dedication, April 9, 1905. conse- 
crated the noble and dignified edifice to the worship of God. The building 
contains the auditorium, Sunday-school room and pastor's study, and in mode 
of construction adheres to modern ideas of church architecture. In addition 
to the church edifice there is a commodious and attractive parsonage, also of 
white brick. Besides the home Sunday-school a similar work has been estab- 
lished at East Bakersfield, and two hundred children have the advantage of 
the excellent religious training given by teachers thoroughly competent to 
discharge their appointed tasks. The present membership of the church is 
about two hundred and fifty, one hundred and fifteen having been added since 
the beginning of the pastorate of the present minister. While devoting him- 
self with self-sacrificing intensity to the upbuilding of this congregation, the 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 717 

pastor has found time to minister at regular intervals to the congreg-ation of 
Baptists at Edison, which was organized by his predecessor. To aid in the 
missionary work with the Mexican population of Bakersfield an assistant pas- 
tor has been engaged, whose time is almost wholly given to that department 
of Christian effort. 

The present pastor, to whose earnest, sincere and self-denying efforts 
much of the present gratifying growth of the church may be attributed, is a 
member of a family long and honorably identified with the Baptist denomina- 
tion. His father. Rev. W. W. West, a Virginian by birth and a member of a 
colonial family of the Old Dominion established there by Scotch forbears long 
before the Revolutionary war, has met with remarkable success in the Baptist 
ministry in West Virginia, where he has the record of having baptized more 
people into the Baptist Church than any other clergyman in the entire state. 
By his marriage to Miss Margaret Underwood, a native of Franklin County, 
Va., he became the father of four sons and three daughters, all still living 
except two of the sons. The eldest child in the family, James Samuel, was born 
at Highpeak, Franklin county, Va., March 17, 1875. and passed the years of 
boyhood in West Virginia, where at the age of sixteen he began to teach in the 
country district of his home county. It was his ambition to acquire a thorough 
education and with that end in view he carefully hoarded his earnings, so that 
he was able to work his way through higher institutions of learning. In 1897 
he matriculated in Doane Academy, the preparatory department of Denison 
University at Granville, Ohio. After years of study he was graduated from 
the university in 1904 with the degree of A. B., and at the same time was 
licensed to preach, but feeling the need of more experience and further study 
before entering the ministry he accepted a position with the Young Men's 
Christian Association of Ohio as state secretary. In that office he inaugurated 
two departments of the state work, viz. : the county department and the 
bituminous coal miners' department, both of which he pioneered and pro- 
moted by personal supervision. 

x-Vfter having spent eighteen months of pleasant and profitable labor in 
the work of the Young Men's Christian Association, resigning from such 
service Mr. West matriculated in the Rochester (N. Y.) Theological Semin- 
ary. Upon his graduation in 1908 he returned to West Virginia and at West 
Union was ordained to the ministry of the Baptist denomination. For one 
year he served as pastor at West Union, after which he spent two years with 
the First Baptist Church of Bucyrus, Ohio. Meanwhile he had married at 
East Rochester, N. Y., Miss Helen Elizabeth Tufts, who was born in Can- 
andaigua, Ontario county, N. Y., and received excellent advantages in the 
academy in that city. With his wife he has established a comfortable home 
in the Bakersfield Baptist parsonage, which is brightened by the presence of 
their small daughter, Virginia Aileen. Since coming to the west he has 
identified himself with the Los Angeles Baptist Association and the Southern 
California Baptist State convention. In fraternal relations he holds member- 
ship with the Tribe of Ben Hur and the Woodmen of the World, while during 
his university course he was identified with the Kappa Sigma. 

VERNON L. UNDERWOOD.— The growing influence of Mr. I'nder- 
wood as a citizen of Tehachapi and as a participant in the railroad service 
results from the possession of qualifications eminently adapting him for influ- 
ential identification with any measure or movement that may enlist his aid. 
As agent at Tehachapi for the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe Railroads he 
discharges duties of importance and in addition he serves acceptably as local 
agent for the Wells-Fargo Express Ccmpany. 

The only child of Philip and Anne (Mathewson) Lawler. V^ernon L. 
Underwood was born in Pasadena. Cal.. September 3, 1888. and at the age 
of nine months was left fatherless. Some years later his mother became the 



718 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

wife of Dr. Alaro F. Underwood and the boy was given the name of the 
step-father. Philip Lawler, who was a native of Maine, enlisted in the Union 
army at the opening of the Civil war and remained at the front until the 
expiration of his term of service. Later he came to California and engaged 
in the lumber business in Mendocino county. Although he lived until 1889 
and never relincjuished his business enterprises, always he suffered as the 
result of his war service and the hardships of that period were the direct 
cause of his death. His wife, who was born in W^ilmington, Del., and who 
now makes her home with her only child, was a daughter of a pioneer of 
1849 who had come across the plains to California with a brave band of 
argonauts. 

Upon completing the studies of the Los Angeles grammar and high 
schools, Vernon L. Underwood entered the railroad service, his first work 
being that of an assistant in the ticket ofifice at Lindsay, Tulare county, where 
he remained for eighteen months and meantime learned much of value to 
him in subsequent positions. From Lindsay he was sent to Oil City as cashier 
and chief clerk, and later became agent ; and afterwards acted as agent at 
Owenyo for eighteen months. During ]\Tay of 1912 he was transferred to 
Tehachapi as agent for the Southern Pacific Company, besides which he 
has acted as Santa Fe agent and as the local representative of the AA^ells- 
Fargo Express Company. 

FRED ALBERT HILL.— Simeon Smith Hill came to Kern county 
in 1880, having worked formerly with the Great Western Quick Silver 
Mine in Lake county. He had reached California from the East in 1874. He 
and his five sons followed farming in Rosedale district, Kern county, two 
years, but the venture not proving a success Mr. Hill bought eighty acres 
in another section of Rosedale district, and remained there until the death 
of the mother in 1885, when he sold the place and went into the livery busi- 
ness in Bakersfield. In 1888 he sold out and moved to Linns Valley, where 
he became engaged in farming, three years later moving to Golanagi Springs, 
a summer resort situated three miles above Democrat Springs, where he 
stayed for a short time, then deciding to purchase eighty acres of land in 
Linns Valley. Some time later he sold his place here and again launched 
into the livery business, but he finally purchased the Democrat Hot Springs, 
which he afterward sold to his son, D. D. 

Fred A. Hill was born in Monmouth, Warren county. 111., November 1, 
1863. and attended school there. He came with his parents to California in 
1874 and attended public schools in Lake county, this state. With the rest 
of the familv he came to Kern county October 13, 1880, and as early as 1882 
began working for Haggin & Carr, which firm is now known as the Kern 
County Land Company. Mr. Hill has been in the employ of the original 
company and its successor ever since 1880 with the exception of two years, 
when he was in the livery business with his father. In 1890 he was made 
foreman of the Kern County Land Company and in 1895 he was promoted 
to assistant to C. L. Conner, superintendent of the Lakeside ranch, upon whose 
death, in December, 1910, Mr. Hill was given full charge. 

Mr. Hill was married in Bakersfield August 9, 1903. to Miss Edna M. 
Baker, a native of Hanford, Cal. Her father, John M. Baker, crossed the 
plains with ox teams in pioneer days and settled on a farm near Hanford. 
He now resides in East Bakersfield. To Mr. and Mrs. Hill were born three 
children. Milton S. S., Evelyn Edna and Fred Richard. A Democrat in 
politics. Mr. Hill is conversant with all the subjects of the day, and adheres 
closely to the principles of his partv. Fraternally he is a member of the 
Fraternal Order of Eagles and the Knights of Pythias. 

C. E. GETCHELL.— A true and loyal son "of the great west is Mr. 
Getchell. who was born at Helena. Mont., December 18, 1866, and in all of 
his long life has never been east of the Rockv mountains, but with charac- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 721 

teristic energy and progressive devotion has labored fur the material upbuild- 
ing of his section of the country. 

The distinction of being the second white child and the first white boy- 
born in what is now the state of Montana belongs to Mr. Getchell, the first 
white child having been Anna Flowerre. His father, F. S. Getchell, came 
to California via the Isthmus of Panama and landed in San Francisco in 
June of 1850, after which he engaged in placer mining on the American 
river, at Sawmill Flat, Marysville, Grass Valley and other places. In 
Tuolumne county he married Mrs. Sarah (Sparks) De Noielle, a widow with 
three children. Of their union only one child, Charles E., was born, and 
he passed his early years in Montana, where the elder Getchell was an historic 
character and prominent pioneer miner, known throughout the length and 
breadth of the mountain state for his kindly hospitality, positive convictions 
and broad knowledge of gold mines. 

When fourteen years of age C. E. Getchell became a cowboy, engaging 
with the D. H. S. Cattle Company. During 1880 he helped to drive the first 
band of cattle into the now celebrated Judith basin country in Montana. 
For five years he rode the range as an employe of the same organization, 
after which he filled a similar position with Daniel Flowerre for two years. 
In that way he became familiar with the entire country, besides acquiring a 
thorough understanding of stock and a really remarkable skill as a rider. 
At the age of twenty-one he began to run horses for himself, beginning on a 
very small scale and by degrees rising to business of a larger nature. Together 
with his half-brother, R. W. De Noielle, and J. P. Ketchum, he bought out 
the Holter planing mill in 1888. The plant was enlarged immediately after 
its purchase. Everything indicated an era of prosperity. However, there 
soon broke out a local financial depression which ultimately involved the 
whole country in a money stringency, and in 1892 the business went into 
the hands of receivers. 

Forced to make a new start and determined to seek a new location, Mr. 
Getchell came to California and arrived in Los xA.ngeles in June of 1893 with 
only $7 between him and destitution. Without delay he was able to secure 
work. For two years he was employed in the real-estate business. Later 
he secured employment with a large company dealing in electrical, mining 
and irrigation machinery. After some years with that concern he resigned 
and in 1902 became connected with the firm of Fairbanks, Morse & Co., in 
whose interests he traveled through the northern part of Arizona, selling and 
installing electrical, mining and irrigation machinery. During 1903 he was 
dispatched to Bakersfield to take charge of the local interests of the company's 
business and until 1906 he served eliiciently as their manager at this point. 
Since 1906 he has engaged in the automobile livery business, catering to the 
local passenger trade. At Helena, Mont., he met and married Miss Ella V., 
daughter of Joseph Walton, of that city. They are the parents of three 
children, Frances, Willard and Virginia, whose presence brightens the elegant 
residence erected at No. 2118 Eighteenth street. 

The fact that Mr. Getchell possesses a complete knowledge of the roads 
of Kern county led to his selection in January of 1913 to serve on a committee 
of three to investigate and report to the board of supervisors concerning the 
roads of the county. The task demands great familiarity with all parts of 
the county and when it is remember.ed that Kern county is larger than Con- 
necticut, Rhode Island and Delaware put together, it will be seen that his 
study of conditions has been broad and long-continued. A practical system 
of county roads will cost between three and six million dollars, so that the 
committee of three, viz. : A. J. Woody, J. L. Evans and C. E. Getchell, have a 
tremendous responsibility placed upon them. 



722 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

DANIEL BURKE. — One of the men who have achieved success in Kern 
couniy is Daniel Burke, a native son of the county, born twelve miles south- 
east of Glenn ville, January 18, 1867, a son of Daniel Burke, Sr. The father was 
born in County Mayo, Ireland, in October, 1828, and came to the United 
States in 1849 and to California in 1852. Until 1864 he followed mining v\ 
different parts of the state, during this time going to the Frazier river mines 
in British Columbia and remaining two years. In the meantime, in 1862, he 
bought a land claim on Little Poso creek, and in 1883, after a survey had been 
made, he acquired a homestead and four sections of railroad land. In 1889 
he also bought land in the Panama district, to which he moved in 1898, but 
he died on his ranch in the Greenhorn mountains in August, 1900. He was a 
man of prominence in his time and locality, who had much to do with public 
affairs. 

Daniel Burke, Jr., attended public schools until he was sixteen years old 
and afterward worked on his father's homestead at the stock business and on 
the Burke property in the Panama district. The present place of forty acres 
seven miles south of Bakersfield was bought in 1902 and Mr. Burke devotes 
it to raising alfalfa and a small vineyard of choice varieties of table grapes. 

In Hot Springs valley, near Havilah, January 26, 1896. Daniel Burke 
married Miss Rose Palmer, who was born near Kernville, September 29, 1874, 
and they have a son, Palmer Burke. Robert Palmer, IMrs. Burke's father, 
was l)orn in Christian county, Ky., May 7, 1823, and settled at Jacksonville, 
111., whence he came in 1850 to California across the plains on horseback and 
with pack mules. For ten years he was more or less successful in placer 
mining in different parts of the state, and in 1860 he came to the Piute moun- 
tains and made his headcjuarters there while he prospected and mined in 
Kern county. While engaged in his mining ventures he also carried on a 
stock business, establishing his home on the ranch in Hot Springs valley in 
1878, and there he died in 1905, when he was eighty-two years of age. Fra- 
ternally Mr. Burke afifiliates with the Knights of Columbus and the Wood- 
men of the World, politically he is a Republican, and with his wife is a mem- 
ber of St. Francis Catholic Church. 

COL. THOMAS BAKER.— During the pioneer period of the history of 
California one of its foremost men was Col. Thomas Baker, the founder of 
Bakersfield and the original owner of the entire town site. For the difficult 
task of frontier upbuilding he was qualified by temperament and experience. 
He possessed in abundance the qualities characteristic of the progressive 
pioneer, the generosity that sacrifices its own needs for the welfare of 
others and the hospitality that finds a friend in every home-seeker. To an 
unusual degree he possessed foresight and sagacious judgment. When 
first he rode over the broad expanse of country where Bakersfield now 
stands as a commercial metropolis he pointed out the vast possibilities of the 
region and asserted that srnie day a large city would stand on this site. 
Further than that, he pointed out the line of a railroad and the exact point 
where it would pass through the Tehachapi mountains. When finally the 
railroad was built it was remembered by others that it followed the course 
of his prediction. In addition he predicted that some day oil would be 
produced in this valley, although it is scarcely probable that even his vivid 
imagination grasped the enormous magnitude of the industry in the twen- 
tieth century. AVith a broad and prophetic vision he united a kind-hearted 
helpfulness and unwearied hospitality. To strangers he was very hospitable, 
even when hard pressed for money himself and more than once he gave to 
newcomers a sack of flour when he did not have the means to buy another 
for his family use. Travelers were entertained in his adobe house and their 
horses were fed in his corral, nor was a charge ever made for feed or board. 
Although he had acquired large tracts of land he used these not for his own 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 725 

profit, but to induce others to settle thereon. Often he would donate to an 
industrious settler a quarter-section of land and many a time he gave away 
town lots to promising but poor young business men. Indeed, some of the 
best business locations in Bakersfield were donated by him without any pay 
whatever. In his intense desire to see the country settled he gave away all 
pf his lands with the exceptimi of eighty acres on O street and this after 
his death was sold in lots by his widow. When finally death terminated his 
activities, November 24, 1872 (a date memorable in American history as that 
of the demise of Horace Greeley) the success of the town v^^as assured and 
Bakersfield proudly claimed a population of five hundred souls. 

The title by which Thomas Baker was known throughout all of his 
adult life came to him through his service as a colonel in the state militia 
of Ohio before he had attained his majority. Born in 1810 in Muskingum 
county, Ohio, he claimed as his birthplace the picturesque valley through 
which the Ohio canal extends and which was made famous in history on 
account of the identification therewith of the Rosecrans and Sheridan 
families as well as others of note. During youth he lived on a farm. Be- 
sides becoming familiar with agriculture he gained a practical knowledge 
of surveying and also studied law with the intention of making land law his 
specialty. Shortly after his admission to the bar he removed to Illinois, 
but in a short time crossed the Mississippi river into the territory of Iowa. 
During May of 1837 he was driven away by the Indians who burned his 
cabin, but in about one year he returned. In the autumn of 1838 he settled 
in the vicinity of the present site of Washington, Iowa. Without question 
he had reached a point further west than the location of any other white 
settler in that part of the Black Hawk purchase. Frequently he had be- 
friended the Indians and finally, at the time of the Black Hawk uprising, 
they repaid his kindness to them, warning him of the coming trouble and 
thus saving the family while other white settlers were massacred. 

The distinction of being the first United States district attorney of the 
territory of Iowa came to Colonel Baker, who held the office until the adop- 
tion of the state constitution. Elected to the first legislature of the new 
state, on the organization of that body he was chosen president of the senate, 
thus becoming ex officio the first lieutenant-governor of Iowa. Subsequently 
he was re-elected several times to the state senate. No man had a larger 
share than he in the early legislation of that great commonwealth. Many 
ci the important laws still on the statute books of Iowa were devised and 
drafted by him. While he was becoming prominent and successful in Iowa, 
the love of adventure lured him to the western coast after the discovery of 
gold. During the fall of 1850 he arrived at Benicia, Cal., but after a few 
months he left that town for the vicinity of Stockton and during 1852 he 
removed to Tulare county, w^here he was one of the founders of the town of 
Visalia. There in 1857 he married Miss Ellen Alverson. Four children of 
that union lived to mature years. Mary E., who died ]\Iay 24, 1894, was the 
wife of Henr}- A. Jastro, of Bakersfield, chairman of the board of super- 
visors of Kern county and one of the foremost men of California. Thomas A. 
is now sheriff of Kern county. Nellie, ]\Irs. Cowgill, died in Bakersfield 
May 6, 1887. The only surviving daughter, Charlotte E., is the wife of 
John AI. Jameson and resides in Bakersfield, her mother, now ]\Irs. Tracy, 
being an inmate of her home since her second widowhood. 

Elected in 1855 to represent his district in the state legislature, Colonel 
Baker gave satisfactory service in that capacity. During 1858 he was ap- 
pointed receiver of the new land office at Visalia and held the position under 
the administration of President Buchanan. During the legislative sessions of 
1861-62 he served as senator from Fresno and Tulare cmmties. About that 
time, in partnership with Harvey Brown, he purchased the swamp land 
franchise granted to Montgomery Brothers, including the odd sections of all 



726 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the swamp lands extending from Kern river around by the lakes and 
connected by the sloughs, reaching northward to Fresno on the San Joaquin 
river. The original grant contemplated the construction of navigable canals 
through the entire length of this section of the state, but the plan was 
found im])racticable and the legislature released the grantees from that part 
of their obligation. September 20, 1863, Colonel Baker arrived on Kern 
Island with his family preparatory to commencing the work of reclamation, 
remarking at his arri\al, "Here at la^t I have found a resting place and here 
I expect to lay my bones." The country was neither new nor strange to him. 
Several years before he had explored it carefully and noted its possibilities. 
At a glance he had realized the peculiar advantages of the country and 
its natural resources. From the time of his arrival until his death, November 
24, 1872, he was ever ready to promote the advancement of the country 
and maintained an intense interest in the village which bore his name. In 
the early days money was scarce and supplies not too abundant, but, for- 
getful of self, he was ever ready to aid newcomers. Acknowledging every- 
one as entitled to his consideration, he never allowed a man to leave his 
house hungry. The stranger always received a cordial welcome. So genial 
was his hospitality that his guests never suspected that the stores could be 
exhausted nor did they realize how he denied himself in order that they 
might have enough. Coolness of temper and uniform good nature char- 
acterized him. Nothing disturbed his equanimity. However he might feel 
to have his motive impugned and his friends unmindful, he did not allow 
such matters to disturb his disposition. When his favorite projects miscar- 
ried he retained his self-poise. His motto w'as "Time will always justify 
a man who means to do right." How true this statement is both ancient 
and modern history reveals. He considered that rational beings should not 
indulge in vain regrets or useless worries. Whatever ill he suffered (and 
he endured his share of hardships and misunderstandings) his friends could 
not see that he brooded over them. This quality of mind enabled him often 
to gain the mastery over adverse circumstances, but it also made him indif- 
ferent to frequent financial losses. Fortunes were made and lost with indif- 
ference. In owning land his sole ambition was to make it fit for the sup- 
port of families. His absorbing desire was to see the vast tracts reclaimed 
and covered with the permanent improvements made by new settlers. In 
his gifts to homesteaders he displayed greater liberality than the govern- 
ment itself. Being the original owner of the town site of Bakersfield, he 
might have acquired great wealth therefrom, but instead he donated some 
of the best business locations and by his liberality secured the erection of a 
number of the first buildings in the village. While pointing out to these 
pioneers how they might attain wealth he remained indift'erent to the allure- 
ments of fortune, but evinced the financial carelessness characteristic of many 
of the greatest pioneers of the west, losing sight of his own personal ad- 
vancement in his patriotic devotion to the development of the country. His 
personal characteristics came to him as an inheritance from an honored old 
Virginian family of English extraction. His father, Thomas, was a soldier 
in the war of 1812 and his great-grandfather, Thomas, was a participant in 
ihe Revolution, while he inherited their valor and patriotic spirit, but when 
the Civil war came he was prevented from participation by reason of the 
California quota being more than full as well as by reason of his own age, 
which was beyond the limits of military service. However, he served his 
country loyally and well, although it was not his privilege to bear arms 
on the field of battle, but by the development of unreclaimed lands, by the 
building up of a community and by the advancement of progressive civic 
enterprises, he proved himself most loyal to the land of his nativity and the 
country of his adoption. 





^ 





HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 729 

JOSEPH E. YANCEY.— The suburban community known as Broad 
Ripple, which then was adjacent to and now forms a portion of the city of 
IndianapoHs, Ind., made an interesting environment for the early years of 
Joseph E. Yancey, who was born on a farm at that place March 12, 1860, 
being a son of Joseph A. Yancey, a Kentuckian, who became well-known 
among the stock-raisers in the vicinity of Indianapolis. In that city he was 
educated, and at the age of sixteen he started out for himself, working at 
various occupations until he came to California in 1880 and settled at I'akers- 
field. l-'or two winters he carried on his studies in the Crocker school, while in 
the intervening summers he was employed as a clerk or farm hand. During 
the year 1882 he entered the employ of the Kern County Land Company, 
then known by the firm title of Haggin & Carr, and for three years he 
acted as superintendent of their Mountain View ranch, after which for two 
years he followed mining at the Long Tom mine. A subsequent experience 
lasting two years as roadmaster of the Sumner road district was followed by 
employment in teaming, general contracting and building canals for the 
Kern County Land Company and for the Southern California Construction 
Company at Barstow. The business of a contractor filled his time and kept 
him busily occupied until July, 1899, Avhen he discontinued in order to be- 
come street superintendent of Bakersfield. In that capacity he served for 
twelve consecutive years or until after the consolidation of Bakersfield and 
Kern into one city. In addition to filling that position he also served as 
city health officer and plumbing inspector. In an official capacity he proved 
prompt, efficient, reliable and intelligent and the difficult duties of his re- 
sponsible post were discharged with exactness and to the general satisfac- 
tion. Since resigning as street superintendent he has resumed contracting 
and building and now makes a specialty of general contracting and building. 
The supervision of his building operations consumes all of his Lime, although 
he is also interested in the ^.TcKittrick Oil Company and in oil lands in the 
Temblor and McKittrick districts. 

Fraternal connections have been formed by Mr. Yancey with the Benev- 
olent Protective Order of Elks and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. 
Politically he votes with the Republican parfv. Some years after he came 
to Kern county he married Miss Rose L. Williams, who was born in Fort 
Scott, Kan., but came to California at an early age and received a superior 
education in the schools of this state. From an early age she has been a 
devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and in the faith of that 
denomination she reared her adopted daughter, Lena, now Mrs. Harvey 
DeWar, of Bakersfield. Her parents, George and Achsah (Riggs) Wil- 
liams, were identified with pioneer agricultural interests in Kansas, but left 
that state in 1875 to identify themselves with the Pacific coast country. 
The beautiful philanthropic spirit which throughout life has been a leading 
element in the character of Mrs. Yancey led her to take up work among 
the homeless children and waifs of Bakersfield, and in co-operation with Mrs. 
Coolbaugh she started the Kern County Children's Shelter, which from the 
first has proved a most important tmdertaking and has increased in size to 
such an extent that about forty-five children are now cared for by the or- 
ganization. After the plan first became merged into definite form Mrs. 
Yancey officiated as superintendent of the shelter, having the movement in 
charge for three years during the building of the new Home, and when com- 
pleted she resigned on account of a nervous break-down. However, it was 
largely due to her efforts and self-sacrificing and constant assistance that its 
success may be attributed. 

J. B. CARTER. — As a trusted employe of the San Joaquin Light and 
Power Corporation Mr. Carter is associated with the development of 
the valley, particularly the West Side oil fields, where he serves as district 
manager and agent for the corporation. The distinction of being a native son 



730 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

of the great commonwealth belongs to him. He was born and reared in San 
Francisco, spending, however, a portion of the years of his youth in Fresno, 
where he completed the studies of the grammar school. His father, B. B. 
Carter, an Englishman by birth and family, for years held a position as steam- 
ship steward on a vessel out from San Francisco, but is now living a retired 
life in Fresno, where some years ago occurred the death of the wife and mother, 
Margaret rGill) Carter, a member of an old family of Irish lineage. 

Having been employed at various occupations in Fresno during early life, 
at the age ( f twenty-three J. B. Carter returned to San Francisco and secured 
employment with the old Market Street Railroad Company. In the capacities 
of conductor and motorman he remained with the same company for fourteen 
years. Meanwhile he made a record for fidelity, trustworthiness and efficiency. 
During 1902 he left San Francisco and went back to I'^resno, where he 
engaged as a conductor on the Fresno city railway. The following year, 
when the Fresno Street Railroad Company was taken over by the San Joaquin 
Light and Power Corporation, he remained with the new owners of the 
property, taking with them, however, a somewhat different position from 
any in which he had previously served, viz. : that of collector of electric 
light and water bills. For three and one-half years he served as collector 
and then, in recognition of energy and ability, was promoted to the newly 
organized business and extension department. From there, January 15, 1910, 
he was sent to take charge of the corporation interests in Taft and the Mid- 
way fields. Meanwhile he had married in 1897 in San Francisco Miss Alice 
Ball, a native of Butte county, and she accompanied him in his removal to 
Taft. where he still maintains his headquarters. That his work possesses the 
highest importance from the standpoint of development and expansion of the 
corporation lines is indicated by the fact that from 1910 to 1912 he had charge 
of the building of more than sixty miles of distributing line in the West Side 
oil fields, a work involving vast expense and assiduous labor, but promising 
large returns in the increased business secured under his able management. 

" HERBERT ALLEN BALLAGH, D. D. S.— The Ballagh family, whose 
representatives occupy positions of prominence in Kern county and have at- 
tained enviable rei)utation for intellectual worth, possesses in Dr. Ballagh of 
Maricopa a member with the ambition and energy to add prestige to the 
honored family name. A lifelong resident of the west, he is a typical Cali- 
fornian in aspirations, impulses and loyalty. The fact that his father has been 
a Presbyterian minister and therefore stationed in different parts of the pres- 
bytery, gave to him in early youth a knowledge of various sections of the 
state and a familiarity with the general work of industrial, agricultural and 
commercial progress. 

During the residence of the family at Red BlutT Dr. Ballagh was born 
May 7, 1886, being a son of Rev. Robert and Elizabeth (Gotz) Ballagh, now 
residents of Bakersfield. After years of prominent service in the Presbyterian 
denomination the father to some extent has retired, but he still ministers to 
the congregation at Glenville and maintains a deep interest in matters afifect- 
ing the work, both local and general. While successful in ministerial labors, 
he and his wife were no less fortunate in the training and education of their 
seven children and justly felt proud of the splendid mentality displayed by 
them. The eldest son. A. Scott, is engaged in the life insurance business at 
Fresno. The second son. Charles E., of the Kern river oil fields, is superin- 
tendent of the P^our-Oil and Apollo Oil Companies; R. G. carries on a real- 
estate Inisiness in Bakersfield; T. E.. city clerk of Maricopa, is also engaged 
in the real-estate business; C. S., of East Bakersfield, is a druggist and one of 
the proprietors of the Kern Drug Company ; Herbert Allen was the sixth son ; 
the only daughter. Ahlida. is a teacher in the Bakersfield grammar schools. 

Although living in a number of towns during different years of his boy- 




if^^cM^>-^>^./i? 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 733 

hood. Dr. Ballagh was a resident for the most part of Portersville, where he 
attended ^he grammar school and took the first year of higli-school work. 
Later he was graduated from the Fresno high school. From Fresno he came 
to the Kern river fields and worked as a pumper on the Imperial and 33 lease- 
holds, also on the San Joaquin division of the Associated Oil Company. Mean- 
while he frugally saved his earnings in order to assist in the payment of his 
expenses while studying dentistry. September 6. 1*06, at the age of twenty 
years, he matriculated in the University of Southern California, where he took 
the full course of three years, graduating in 1909 with the degree of D. D. S. 
Immediately after graduation he came to Maricopa and entered upon profes- 
sional work. Soon after the Maricopa fire in 1910 he and his brother, E. E.. 
erected a substantial concrete building, 50x40, on California street, centrally 
located, and divided into two store rooms and ftur offices, his own office being 
located in this block. 

THADDEUS W. HELM, M.D.— Dr. Helm was born at Elkrun, Fauquier 
county. Va.. October 14, 1850, a sen of John G. and Pauline (Jones) Helm. 
In both lines of descent he came of old and honored Virginian families 
and in the paternal line he traced his ancestry to Wales. When he was 
yet but a boy he was taken by his parents to Blackwater, Cooper county, 
Mo. He was reared on a farm and when he was eighteen became a traveling 
salesman. Four years later he went to Texas and there became a school 
teacher and a medical student. Eventually he entered the medical depart- 
ment of the L^niversitv of Missouri at Columbia, from which he was gradu- 
ated with the degree of M. D. in 1877. 

It was at Brookston. Tex., that Dr. Helm be?an his medical practice. 
After a brief experience there he removed to Ballinger, in the same state, 
where he practiced with much success for about ten years. Sometimes he 
traveled sixty or seventy miles on horseback to see patients, carrying his 
medicine and a few surgical appliances in his saddle-bags. As he attained 
prominence as a physician he won admiration as a m.an and popularity as a 
citizen and the office of coroner of his county was conferred upon him. In 
1888 he came to Lemoore, Kings county, Cal., where he labored professionally 
until in 1891, when he settled in Bakersfield. His office was long located 
on Nineteenth street, but eventually he removed it to the Producers Bank 
Building. In California, as he had been in Texas, he was called bv his ad- 
miring fellow-citizens to places of trust and honor and he filled the offices 
of coroner and public administrator of Kern county. In his political affilia- 
tions he was a Democrat, and was active as a member of the Fraternal 
Brotherhood, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Encampment and 
Canton, being captain of the last mentioned. He was an active member of 
the Kern County Medical Society, of which he was twice elected president 
and of which he was vice-president at the time of his death, which occurred 
November 1, 1910. Fle was long identified also with the California State 
Aledical Association and with the American Medical Association. A believer 
in the evangelical religion and in the ministry of the church for the physical 
benefit of men, he was an admirer of General Booth, and his method of work 
for humanity. 

In Paris. Texas, November 27, 1879, Dr. Helm married Miss Mollie 
Hathaway, a native of that town. She was a daug^hter of T- ^^^ Hatha wa}' 
and a granddaughter of William M. Hathaway, natives of Virginia and mem- 
bers of an old Southern family which traced its descent from English an- 
cestry. Her father, who removed to Missouri, and thence to Paris, Tex., 
was a farmer and a well-known and popular merchant near Paris. In the 
course of events he removed to Ballinger, Tex., where he died. During the 
Civil war he was a gallant officer in the Confederate army. His wife, who 
before her marriage was Miss Naomi Yarnell, was born at Nashville, Tenn., 
and died in Texas. Her father. W^illiam Yarnell, a native of England, was 



7ZA HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

a planter in Tennessee, and later in Moniteau county, Mo., where he passed 
away. Mrs. Helm grew to womanhood in Paris, Tex., and was duly gradu- 
ated from Shiloh Academy. The children born to Dr. and Mrs. Helm are 
Lena, Thaddeus W., Jr., De Witt T., Homer H. and Francis. Thaddeus W., 
Jr., was educated as a mining engineer at San Francisco. Mrs. Helm is a 
member of the Rebekahs, of which she is past officer, is president of the Fra- 
ternal Brotherhood, and is an active member of the Salvation Army. 

L. T. THOMPSON. — One of the most capable and enterprising citizens 
of Bakersfield, who has won a wide reputation for his exceptional capability 
in the execution of his duties as superintendent in the oil fields, is L. T, 
Thompson, who has supervision of the Monte Cristo Oil & Development 
Com,)any and the West Shore Oil Company, both in the Kern river oil fields, 
and the Monte Cristo Oil and Developnient Company at Maricopa, as well as 
the Marion Oil Company at Taft. All of these are operated independently of 
the Standard and Union Companies, and are among the heaviest producers in 
Kern county. 

Born at Roseburg, Ore., December 14, 1880, Mr. Thompson was given 
the opportunity of a good educational training, being sent to the public 
schools and then to business college at San Francisco, where was laid the 
foundation of his business knowledge. His first position was that of stenog- 
rapher for Fink & Schindler; he also kept their books, and some time later 
he became private secretary for Lieutenant Ballanger, in the department of 
Quartermaster General, of San Francisco, where he remained for a year. 
Mr. Thompson's ambitions led him to look for a broader field of labor, and 
he was attracted by an advertisement of an attorney in San Francisco, Henry 
Ach, president of the Monte Cristo Oil Company, who was searching for 
a competent bookkeeper and stenographer for the work in the Kern river 
oil fields. He procured the position and came to the oil field in 1903 to take 
up the work there, at which time the Monte Cristo had forty wells. 

Mr. Thompson's interest in the real work of the oil fields was imme- 
diately aroused and he became anxious to know more of the actual workings 
of the business. At the same time he knew that the only way to accomplish 
this was to begin practically at the bottom and work his way to the top 
by actually doing the work himself. It was at this time that his wife came to 
his rescue, for taking up his work as bookkeeper and stenographer she 
familiarized herself with all his system of work and the details of the busi- 
ness, in order that her husband might go to work as a laborer. He began 
as a tool-dresser and all 'round man for the company at Maricopa, then became 
driller there, and so well did he fill those positions that he was put on as 
drilling foreman, which he occupied until 1908. At this time he received 
the position of foreman of the Monte Cristo Company, but he soon after 
was given the superintendency, as he was then recognized as authority on 
the work. He is now the general superintendent of all their divisions, and 
his practical knowledge of the work has made him invaluable to his company. 
He is firm and just with his workers, keen and thorough in all his executions, 
and an upright, honorable man in all his dealings. The Monte Cristo's offi- 
cers are as follows: Henry Ach, an attorney of San Francisco, president; 
T. L. Rosenthal, a wholesale shoe man of San Francisco, vice-president; 
A. A. Power, of San Francisco, secretary, and L. T. Thompson, general super- 
intendent. The London, Paris & American Bank of San Francisco is their 
treasurer. The Monte Cristo employs fifty men, and its daily pay roll is 
$128; the West Shore twenty-two men, and its daily pay roll is $60; the 
Monte Cristo Company at Maricopa twenty-five men, and their daily pay 
roll is $70; and at the Marion Company, at Taft, there are two men. The 
Monte Cristo Oil Company has acquired six hundred and forty acres at Lost 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 737 

Hills by deed, and one hundred and one acres in the T^iUerton oil fields under 
lease, which will be developed in the near future. 

Mr. llionipson was married in 1*07 to Miss Mabel Crosland. and they 
are the parents of one child, Louis T., Jr. Their home is on the ^Monte Cristo 
lease. Mv. Thompson has proved himself to be a man of thrift and has in- 
vested in six houses in Bakersfield. He is a Mason and a Republican. 

DOMITILO CASTRO.— In Hermosillo. Sonora. Mexico. Domitilo Cas- 
tro was Ijorn May 3. 18.v, the son of Thomas and Concepcion (Coronado) 
Castro, both natives of Sonora. ^lexico. 

Thomas Castro, the father, was born in Banamichi, Mexico, and in 1867 
broug-ht his family to Kern county. Cal.. where he started in the stockraising 
business, locating- about three miles southwest of the present town of Bakers- 
field, on sections twelve, thirty and twenty-seven. He here pre-empted a 
hundred and sixty acres, and later homesteaded a like acreage in Mt. Breck- 
enridge, having at the time a large number of cattle, horses, sheep and hogs. 
His death occurred January 14, 1900, when he was seventy-three years old, 
and he was buried in Union cemetery, where his wife had also been laid to 
rest. Mrs. Castro, also born near Banamichi, Mexico, was the daughter of 
Jesus Coronado, who came to California in 1877, soon returning- to Mexico, 
where he passed awav. Her death occurred in Bakersfield April 25, 1896. 

Nine children, eight sons and one daughter, were born to Thomas Castro 
and his Avife, as follows : Ramona. widow of L. O. Castro, residing- in Kern 
City; Lee, a stockman near Bakersfield; Domitilo, mentioned below; Manuel, 
who died near Bakersfield; Thomas C, a farmer and stockman of this city; 
Perfect© C, who is in the hotel business at Lost Hills ; and Luciano A., 
E. P., and Emilio, are farmers and stockmen near Bakersfield. 

Domitilo Castro remained on his father's home farm and followed stock- 
raising for many years after he had left the public schools. In 1879 he mar- 
ried and bought an eighty-acre ranch in sections nineteen, thirty and twenty- 
eight, on Union avenue, about six miles south of Bakersfield. Here he en- 
gaged in farming, making a specialty of raising alfalfa, later raised cattle, 
hogs, horses and mules, and the land is now seeded to alfalfa. The ranch is 
under the Kern Island ditch. The homestead now consists of one hundred 
and sixty acres near the mouth of Ft. Tejon canyon, which he proved up and 
improved for a stock range. After proving up he leased the place and located 
in East Bakersfield in order to give his children better educational facilities. 
Since then he has been engaged in the cattle business on his father's estate 
in the Breckenridge mountains. The brand which he uses, DC, is being 
recorded. 

In January, 1911, after renting his ranch, Mr. Castro built a home in 
Bakersfield on an acre of ground, at No. 1101 Brown street, and he also owns 
other property. His wife, whom he married September 6. 1879. in Bakersfield. 
was before her marriage, Lucy Cage. She was born in Berryessa, Napa 
county, the daughter of Edward Cage, who was born in IMississippi and 
served in the Mexican war. Mr. Cage came across the plains with ox teams 
in 1849, settling in Napa county, where he followed farming for a time, then 
removing to Los Angeles. Later he was a farmer near Bakersfield, but 
finally he returned to Napa county, where he died when over sixty years of 
age. His wife, Mrs. Macaria (Arenas) Cage, a native of Guaymas, Sonora, 
Mexico, came with her parents to Napa county, where she now makes her 
home. Of the nine children born to Mr. and Mrs. Cage five are living. 
Robert died in Kern county; John is a stockraiser living in East Bakersfield; 
Mary, Mrs. Swiggart. died in Bakersfield ; Lucy is Mrs. Castro ; Dixie is 
Mrs. Lee Castro of Kern county ; Alice is Mrs. Barry of Napa ; and Edward 
is a resident of Williams, Cal. Mrs. Castro's maternal aunt, Mrs. Antonia 
Rainey, was the wife of the late Andrew Jackson Rainey, who for many 
years was supervisor of Napa county, and through his eflforts were built the 



738 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

mountain roads into Capell and Berryessa valleys, and it is the concensus 
of opinion that they are the finest mountain ruads in the state. ^.Irs. Rainey 
resides in Napa with her daughter, Mrs. Reams. Mrs. Castro received her 
education in the public schools of Los Angeles and in 1874 came to Kern 
county with her parents. 

To the union of Domitilo Castro and his wife were born nine children, 
as follows : Marguerite, who is a trained nurse in Oakland, Cal. ; Domitilo 
Frank, who is in the oil fields near Fresno; Louis Alfred, who is an oil 
driller located in Bakersfield ; Albert Hamilton, who farms the alfalfa ranch; 
Andrew Martin, who is an oil driller at Taft ; Adlai Stevenson of Coalinga; 
and Lucy May, Felix Clarence and Amelia Gertrude, at home. Mrs. Castro 
is a meniber of the Native Daughters of the Golden West, her husband being 
afifiliated with the Ancient Order of United Workmen. They are devout 
members of the St. Joseph Church of East Bakersfield. 

CLARENCE DENVER BENSON.— A native of California, Clarence 
Denver r.enson was born in San Bernardino, November 1, 1878. His father, 
L H. Benson, came from Illinois to California when a boy with his parents 
in 1852, crossing the ])lains with ox-teams to San Bernardino. In early days 
he followed freighting on the desert and later mining. In 1896 he came to 
Rands])urg, where he has resided ever since. His wife, Etta Tallmadge, was 
l)orn in Los Angeles county, the daughter of Frank Leslie Talmadge, a 
pioneer of Southern California from New England. 

C^larence was the second oldest of a family of eight children and received 
his education in the public schools of San Bernardino. When seventeen he 
entered the enii)l(iy of the Santa Ve in his native town and continued with 
the conr)any until 18')8, when he came to Randsburg, engaging in mining 
with the Yellow Aster and in other camps in Kern and San Bernardino 
counties. In May, 1906, he removed to Goldfield, .\ev., where he mined and 
was also proi)rietor of the Merchants hotel. 

[n 1910 Mr. Benson returned tn Randsburg as foreman in the Con- 
st ilidatcd Mines Company, and in 1913 was appointed superintendent of the 
mine, bis experience making liim well (pialified to fill the important duties of 
ilic i)osition. 

in (loldfield, Xev.. Mr. l5enson was- married to Miss Grace .\. McCann, 
a native daughter of California and they have two children, Talmadge 
Edward and Denver William. Mr. Benson's membership with the Xative 
Sons ( f the Golden West is with Arrowhead Park r No. 110, San T.ernardino. 

JAMES MONTGOMERY. — Randsburg has many loyal citizens who 
are generous m their sii])])ort of movements for the betterment of their 
community. l)nt none more so than Mr. and Mrs. James Montgomery. Mrs. 
Montgomery is serving accejnably as ])ostmistress of Randsburg. while he 
is devoting his time to mining as well as assisting his wife in performing the 
duties of the ofiice. 

James Montgomery was born August 1.^ 18.^4, in Bortadown, County 
Armagh, Ireland, where he was educated until sixteen years of age. He 
then made his way to New York City, where he remained for seventeen 
years, during which time he engaged in the grocery and tea business. In 
1887 he removed to Omaha. Neb., where he was in tlie commission business. 
In 1896 he located in Randsburg, Kern county, and has since been engaged 
in mining. In Septendjer, 1896, he discovered and located the W. J. B>ryan 
group of mines and with others he developed and worked them. These 
mines rank among the high grade ore properties. Aside from these he is 
also the owner of several other claims and mines. 

in Genesee county, N. Y., occurred the marriage of Mr. Montgomery to 
Mi.ss Josephine Gushurst, a native of Rochester, N. Y.. whose education 
was obtained in the ])ublic schools and convent at Rochester. April 12. 1910. 




(^yf!M).(A. ^ f^ff~i-i^yyi^<^^ 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 741 

Airs. Alontj^omery was appointed postmistress at Ranclsburg by President 
Taft and has served acceptably in that capacity ever since, beino^ aided l)v 
Mr. Montgcinierv; and to.^ether thev are well and favorably known. 

ALONZO B. ROBINSON.— F. D. Robinson was a native of old Vir- 
p^inia, who moved to Missouri, from which state he enlisted in the Alexican 
war. After serving- until the close of the conflict he was mustered out at 
Fort Leavenworth in 1848. In the spring of 1849 he came to California, 
crossing the plains w'ith ox teams. Eager to try his fortunes in the gold 
mines he went to Eldorado county. Later he removed to Mendocino county 
and took up ranching, which he followed the remainder of his life. His 
marriage united him with Orpha Ilackler, a native of Tennessee, who crossed 
the plains with relatives in 1852. They were married at Diamond Springs, 
Eldc.rado county, and of the nine children born to them five are living, Alonzo 
being the third in order of birth. He was born December 8, 1858, in Ander- 
son valley, Mendocino county, attending school there until he was about 
seventeen years of age. P^ollowing the custom of many boys of that day 
he took up work on the home farm for a while, but he w^as and:)itious to 
do for himself, and at the age of twenty secured emj^loyment in the lumber 
mills, leaving this, however, to engage in sheep shearing, and later again 
entered the lumber business as shingle sawyer. His experience in handling 
stock began in 1879, when he bought and sold stock for a short time, two 
years later, in the summer of 1881, taking a position as tree-feller, wdiich 
he continued ^'or some years. At the age cf twenty-four, on December 6, 
1882. Air. Robinson came to Kern county, which has been the field of his 
labors ever since, and he began w-ork for his father-in-law. Three years 
later he homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres on the west side, which 
is now part of his holdings in this county. In 1888 he went into the cattle 
business for himself, adding to his pr< perty from time to time in order to 
have a wide range for his stock, until he now owns and controls a large 
stock range in San Emidio district. His home ranch of one hundred and sixty 
acres eleven miles southwest of Bakersfield is well improved and under 
irrigation from Stine canal, and devoted to grain and alfalfa. 

On December 2, 1882, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Rcbinson and 
Mary J. Rector. Her father w-as Bartley Franklin Rector, a large sheep owner 
in the county, who came to California across the plains in 1847 and followed 
mining. Later, in 1879, he came to Kern county and engaged in the sheep 
business, which he built up to a most flourishing state. Mrs. Robinson 
was born in Yountville. Xapa county, October 2, 1861, and to her and her 
husband were born six children. Albert D.. of Alaricopa, married Lillie 
Denny, and they have one son. Byron D. ; Minnie M. married \V. E. Wood- 
son, and they have one child. Alary AL; Stella D., Frank E.. Archie A\'. and 
Dorothy B. are unmarried and living at home with their parents. 

Along with his extensive ranching interests. Air. Robinson has taken an 
active part in oil development, and owns an interest in several fields in 
Kern county. Withal, he has been active in politics, serving from 1901 to 
1903 as deputy assessor under A. P. Lightner, and later being elected to the 
office of constable, which together with the office of deputy tax collector 
he filled for three years, and he has filled the position of trustee of the Paleto 
school board for sixteen years. He is a member of the Alodern Woodmen 
of .America and the \\'( odmen of the World. 

LEON BIMAT. — While it may be a source of gratification to Air. Bimat 
that he cast in his fortunes with those of the great western country, he has 
never forgotten the land of his birth and the home of his youth. On the con- 
trary he cherishes a deep, intense devotion for France and particularly for the 
department of Basses Pyrenees, lying in the shadow of the lofty Pyrenees 
mountains, near the northern border of Spain. The memories of youth binil 
him to that peaceful farming country. There his ]iarents. Edward and 



742 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Marie (Merisou) Bimat, passed their uneventful but useful lives and there 
the former earned a livelihood for the family through the tilling- of the soil 
and the raising of stock. The five children survive their parents and three of 
them have established homes in the United States. The fourth among the 
five. Leon, was born in the village of Preslion, Basses Pyrenees, November 
22, 1859, and began to help on the farm as soon as old enough to work. Thus 
he learned to be industrious, painstaking and efficient. He can scarcely recall 
the time when first he decided to migrate to the new world. During July, 1878, 
he arrived in San Francisco, where he found employment as a gardener. 

Coming to Kern county early in 1880 Mr. Bimat entered the employ of a 
sheepman, in whose interests he took the flock to Los Angeles county and 
from there to Inyo county, thence returning to Kern county. These various 
moves were made for the purpose of securing free range for the flock. Since 
1881 he has engaged in the sheep business for himself and specializes with 
Merinos and Shrcpshires. the former valuable by reason of their splendid 
fleece, and the latter ofifering special advantages on account of their dual 
value of fleece and mutton. 

Various interests in both business and residence property in East Bakers- 
field, where during 1910 he erected a substantial residence on the corner of 
Kern and Nile streets, bind Mr. Bimat to this place. Here he was married 
May 14, 1892, to Miss Malvina Rostain, a native of the village of Manse, 
department of Hautes-Alpes, France, and a daughter of the late Joseph and 
Marie (Cesmat) Rostain. For years before his death her father had engaged 
in farming and stock-raising in France. In a family of six children (only three 
of whom survive), she was third in order of birth and came to the United 
States during 1891, settling in Bakersfield, Cal. Her only surviving brtither. 
Val Rostain, settled in East Bakersfield, as did also a sister, Mrs. Jeanne Bon- 
net, while another sister, Marie, Mrs. B. Bimat, made her home on a ranch 
near Bakersfield until her death in 1911. Since becoming a citizen of the 
United States Mr. Bimat has. voted with the Republican party. In religion 
he and his wife are earnest members of the St. Joseph Catholic Church. Their 
family comprises five children, of whom the two eldest, Edward and Felsie, 
are graduates of the class of 1912 Kern county high school, while the three 
younger children, Leon jr.. Pascal and George, are attending the public 
schools of East Bakersfield. 

JAMES H. PENSINGER.— There are to be found in the famous oil fields 
of Kern county operators who came hither from Canada, workers from the 
east and foreigners from other lands, but comparatively few of the large 
number of men identified wnth the development of the oil industry at this 
point can claim that they are natives of Kern county and lifelong residents 
of the same region. Such a statement may be made in regard to James H. 
Pensinger, formerly superintendent of the Colloma Oil Company on section 
31, township 28, range 28, and now foreman of the Traders Oil Company's 
lease. Throughout all of his life he has been identified with this portion of 
California and his earliest childhood memories cluster around Kern county, 
where he was born February 16, 1878, and where he lived as a boy in poverty 
but in comfort and independence, helping with the maintenance of the family 
through his energetic labors on the home farm. The father, Jerry Pensinger, 
had been a gold miner in Nevada and a man inured to the hardships of frontier 
existence. When he came tt) Kern county in 1872 settlers were few, towns 
small and the future outlook discouraging, but with characteristic optimism 
he secured land and set himself resolutely to the task of supporting his family. 
As soon as the children were old enough to assist, they became assets of value 
to the family welfare. Since the death of the father the widowed mother has 
remained on the home farm of eighty acres situated southwest of Bakersfield. 
Of her seven children the sixth in order of birth. James H.. displayed great 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 743 

physical prowess even in early life and his splendid constitution has enabled 
him to do the work of two men without injury to himself. All through his 
life he has been a hard worker and in boyhood was earning his own livelihood 
when other lads of his age were enjoying school advantages. In 1900 he mar- 
ried Miss Lulu Hunter, by whom he had one child, Bessie. 

Upon discontinuing agricultural work in favor of other pursuits Mr. 
Pensinger finally drifted to the Kern river fields about 1904 and there secured 
employment with the Provident Oil Company. He was later with C. B. Colby 
and the Colloma Oil Company, and October 1, 1913, became lease foreman 
for the Traders Oil Company under Joseph Raney. 

C. H. DAWLEY.— Born January 26, 1844, in Ashtabula county, Ohio, 
when ten years old Mr. Dawley removed with his parents to New York, 
where in Chautauqua county he was reared to manhood. He learned the 
carpenter's trade, and later took up well drilling, and it was at Scrubgrass. 
A'enango county, Pa., that he first drilled for oil, beginning as a laborer. 
For five or six years Mr. Dawley continued this work of drilling, in the 
meantime becoming familiar with all the methods employed in the work, 
and then removed to Nebraska, near Lincoln, where he engaged in carpen- 
tering and iDuilding. This was his home for twenty years, but in 1904, learning 
of the new industry opened up in California, he moved to Kern county, where 
he procured employment on the well-working gang of the Del Rey lease. 

The Del Rey has eleven producing wells, the production being from 
eight to ten thousand barrels per month, and they employ on an average 
from five to six men all the time. Under Mr. Dawley's able management it 
has proved a paying enterprise, and it is largely due to the close attention 
and well-informed acquaintance which Mr. Dawley has with the conduct of 
the business. 

In 1869, before coming west to Nebraska, Mr. Dawley married Miss 
Hattie M. Bates, and for many years they made their home on the Del Rey 
property, where now Mr. Dawley resides alone, his wife having died August 
24, 1912. Both of their children died in infancy. 

W. W. COLM. — As superintendent of the Sacramento Oil Company 
and the Acme Development Company. W. W. Colm heads interests which 
represent the most active industry in this part of the county. He is a native 
of Butte county, Cal., where he grew up, and attended school at Sacramento, 
and later entered Bainbridge College, from which he graduated. He has 
proved himself to be a clever, sagacious manager of the firm he represents, 
and has brought it to a paying basis by his own efforts. The stockholders of 
the company reside mostly in Sacramento, and the officers of the Sacramento 
Oil Co. are, J. L. Gillis, president, Charles Robb, vice-president, D. W. Car- 
michael, secretary and treasurer, and W. W. Colm. superintendent ; of the 
Acme Development Co., Charles Robb, president, Charles Richardson, vice- 
president. J. L. Gillis. secretary and treasurer, and W. W. Colm, superin- 
tendent. 

According to experienced oil men. there is no lease in the Kern river 
field which has been better drilled or better managed or can show better 
results in general than the twenty acres owned by the Acme Development 
Co. under the efficient management of Mr. Colm. Drilling on the Acme was 
begun on April 1, 1907, and eight wells were put down with one string of 
tools. The deepest of these wells is nine hundred and fifty feet, and the 
shallowest is nine hundred feet. None of the wells is large, but all are 
uniform prcjducers. The drilling w^as completed on October 5, 1907, with no 
dry holes, no sp( iled wells, no poorly finished jobs and no breaks of any kind 
in a uniform run of clean, successful work. In connection with this record 
it should be stated that this section (twenty-nine) is probably the easiest 
and cheapest part of the field to drill, but even considering this fact the 



744 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

record of ei^^ht good producing wells in six months with one string of tools is 
one of which any superintendent may well be proud. 

The product of the company has been exceedingly high, the receipts for 
which reached a large figure. The records show that up to Alay 1 of this year 
the wells have steadily increased in production, so that the prospects are that 
the Acme property will go on paying for itself many times over before its 
wells are pumped dry, which time is variously estimated from ten to forty 
years. This territory is underlaid with four hundred feet of oil sand, pro- 
ducing oil of fourteen gravity. I\f r. Colm has been manager of the Sacramento 
Oil Company ever since it was started. This lease covers forty acres, and 
has ten oil wells and three water wells, and is fast developing to a highly 
productive point. Under his experienced management there is a splendid 
future success assured the company. 

Mr. Colm married Miss Alary E. Flickinger, of Pennsylvania, and thev 
make their residence in the Kern river oil fields, where they are surrounded 
by many warm friends. 

JAMES HEROD.— On the bluffs above East Bakersfield commanding 
a most magnificent view of the valley stands an attractive country residence 
known as Plainview home, which with its complete equipment of modern 
conveniences, including a private water plant operated by electricity, offers 
every boasted advantage of the city, together with the many indisputable 
benefits associated with suburban life. An admirable adjunct of the home is 
the rose garden, while scarcely less attractive are the groves planted to 
trees of oranges, lemons and grape fruit. 

The Herods come of a very old Kentucky family, whose first representa- 
tive in Indiana, John Herod, settled on a tract of raw land near Greencastle 
and developed the claim into a productive farm. The next generation was 
represented by Baila Herod, born and reared on the Indiana farm, an agri- 
culturist throughout his active years, but now living retired at Coatesville, 
Hendricks county, that state. His wife, who also has spent her entire life 
in Indiana, bore the maiden name of Harriet Minter and comes of an old 
and honored Virginia family, her mother having been a sister of John Clark 
Ridpath, the famous historian. There were ten children in the family of 
Raila Herod and all but two of these attained to maturity, while six now 
survive. Three live in California. Airs. Scofield having her home on Chester 
avenue, Bakersfield, and Lester living on Cedar street in the same city. The 
next to the oldest member of the family, James, was born on the old home- 
stead near Greencastle, Ind., October 24, 1858. and received a country-school 
education. Starting out for himself in 1880 he found employment on a 
ranch near Wellington, Sumner county, Kan., and there he worked for two 
years. In April of 1882 he arrived in California, and after a month in Los 
Angeles came on to Kern county during May. His identification with this 
county therefore covers a period of more than thirty years. 

After having worked first as a day laborer and later as a foreman for 
Dr. D. O. C. Williams on San Emidio ranch for some time, Mr. Herod 
resigned in 1885 in order to take up ranching for himself. At first he en- 
gaged in raising stock in a general way, but later he drifted into the dairy 
industry, and in it he was very successful. The ranch in the Panama dis- 
trict which he still owns, comprises one hundred and twenty acres under 
irrigation and mostly in alfalfa. During November of 1911 he leased the 
ranch and removed to his present home in the suburbs of East Bakersfield, 
where he continues the dairy business as a retail dealer in milk. While 
living on the ranch he assisted in the organization of the First Congregational 
Church of Panama, and in it he served as treasurer and a trustee until his 
removal to East Bakersfield, when he and his wife became members of the 
Pilgrim Congregational Church. For several years he served as a director 
of the Farmers' Mutual Telephone Company of Kern county, which he 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 747 

assisted in or^^anizing- and steadfastly promoted in its important work of 
bringing- telephone lines into the entire district. In politics he always has 
voted with the Democratic party. Fraternally he holds membership with 
the Woodmen of the World and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. 

The first marriage of Mr. Herod united him with Miss Nellie Crocker, 
a native of Gilroy, Santa Clara county. Cal., and a daughter of J. C. Crocker, 
a pioneer of Kern county. Mrs. Nellie Herod died on the "home ranch, 
leaving two children, namely: Mrs. Stella G. Hastings, whose husband has 
leased the ranch owned by Mr. Herod ; and Lester E., who is engaged in the 
stock business in Breckenridge district. In 1897 in Bakersfield occurred the 
marriage of Mr. Herod and Miss Mary A. May, a native of Healdsburg, 
Sonoma county, Cal., and a lady of education and culture. There are no 
children of this union, but with them lives an adopted son, Rov, born in 
1900 and now a student in the public schools. Mrs. Herod is the eldest of the 
six living children of Frank and Amelia (Alexander) May, natives respect- 
ively of Pennsylvania and St. Clair county. 111. During the Civil war Mr. 
May served as a volunteer in the First Virginia cavalry regiment. At the 
close of the war he removed to California and settled in Sonoma county,^ 
where he married a daughter of Charles Alexander, the honored pioneer of 
Alexander valley in Sonoma county. In St. Clair county, 111., where he 
was born, Mr. Alexander married Achsah Smith, a native of New York. In 
1849 he crossed the plains with ox teams. His family joined him in 1852, 
coming by way of Panama. After mining a while he located in the valley 
that was named for the family. In 1872 Mr. May came to Kern county with 
his wife and family, which then comprised two children, four children having 
been born in Kern county. Settling in the Panama district, he took up a 
claim and began to develop the barren tract into a productive farm, starting 
housekeeping in a box house 14x14. Largely through Mr. May's intUience 
the Farmers' canal was constructed and it proved of great benefit to the 
early settlers. Until his death in 1892 he continued on the same ranch and 
engaged in the stock business. The ranch is still owned by his widow, who 
is now making her home with Mrs. Herod at Plainview, East Bakersfield. 

FRED. P. BOLSTAD, D. D. S.— Born in Minnesota. March 20, 1878, Dr. 
Bolstad was educated in public schools of the east. After coming to Cali- 
fornia he matriculated in the dental department of the University of Southern 
California, where he took the regular course of lectures and exoeri- 
mental work and was graduated with the class of 1909. For a brief period 
following his .srraduation he had charge of an office in Covina. January 25, 
1910, he arrived in Taft for the purpose of entering upon professional work 
and here he since has engaged in practice. September 15, 1911, he moved his 
suite to the Key building, where he now has pleasant quarters and every 
iacility for the satisfactory continuance of professional work. August 22, 1911, 
he was united in marriage with Miss Grace M. Bursell, and they have estab- 
lished a comfortable home in Taft, where they are prominent socially. 

A number of the fraternities receive the co-operation and assistance of 
Dr. Bolstad in their philanthropies and social functions, among these being 
the Woodmen, of the \\'orld. the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the 
Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, Camp No. 266, at Bakersfield. Inter- 
ested in political problems and stanch in his allegiance to the Republican 
party, he has taken a warm interest in national issues and has kept posted 
concerning large governmental afifairs. Particularly deep has been his interest 
in local matters. Any measure for the upbuilding of Taft receives his warm 
support, for he is an enthusiastic booster of the city. After the incorporation 
of Taft he was elected the first city clerk November 7, 1910, and at the ex- 
piration of his term he was re-elected April 8, 1912, since which time he has 
continued to give close attention to the duties of the clerkship, which office 
he has filled with credit to himself and satisfaction to the general public. 



748 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

LEONARD HOPPER.— A native of Stuart, Guthrie county, Iowa, 
Leonard Hopper was burn November 14, 1881, and was educated in the 
public and high schools in Iowa. When he removed with his parents to 
CaHfornia and located at Fresno he was seventeen years of age. So well 
has he prospered in this country that he has adopted it as his permanent home, 
and is one of those who has only the best to say of the west and its environ- 
ment. In Fresno he worked for two years as a steam engineer, at the same 
time taking a course in the International Correspondence School at Scranton, 
Pa. Coming to Bakersfield in 1900 he continued at his trade for two years, 
when he purchased the Gusher lunch counter. This was located on the 
present site of the Brower building and at the time he assumed proprietorship 
boasted only three or four stools. From this small beginning he built up a 
large business which he sold after three years. In 1906 he bought out the 
American Towel Supply Co. at Bakersfield, which at the time was doing a 
small business, the new proprietor increasing it sixfold. After taking a course 
in Heald's Business College, from which he graduated in 1908, he branched 
out in the laundry business on a large scale, starting the American Laundry, 
of which he is the sole proprietor. After starting the enterprise he purchased 
the site and erected the large and commodious building at No. 2125 I street, 
and has installed the latest and most modern machinery and other facilities 
that go to make it up-todate in every respect. So well has the business pros- 
pered that today it is the largest one of the kind in the county. Mr. Hopper 
employs fifty people on an average, of whom sixty per cent are women, and 
his weekly payroll amounts to $600. Twenty thousand dollars were expended 
in May, 1908, by Mr. Hopper in the erection of this building and the business. 

Mr. Hopper has become most popular in the social as well as the business 
world of Bakersfield. Fraternally he is a member of the Order of Moose, 
also the Woodmen of the World, in which he has taken great interest. 

C. E. BALLAGH. — The superintendent of the Apollo, 4-Oil and Amaurot 
Oil Companies in the Kern river field, who is recognized as one of the able 
men of the business, claims California as his native commonwealth and is 
justly proud of the fact that he has spent his entire life within the limits of 
this great state. The ministerial duties of his father, Rev. R. Ballagh, caused 
the family to be residents successively of a number of flourishing towns in 
the interior of the state, and it was while they were living at Vacaville, 
Solano county, that C. E. was born, March 31, 1880, but subsequent changes 
made him familiar with different villages. During the sojourn of the family 
at Selma. Fresno county, he attended the high school there and began to earn 
his own livelihood upon the completion of his educational course. When 
nineteen years of age he came to Kern county seeking employment. The 
first job he secured was at McKittrick, where he learned the task of tool- 
dressing and where he worked with the Eldorado Oil Company for five 
months. Since 19C0 he has been employed in the Kern river oil field in 
various capacities with different companies. For a time he was retained as 
field foreman with Green and Whittier, while he also held a responsible 
position with the San Joaquin division of the Associated Oil Company. 
During January of 1911 he became connected with the 4-Oil, and as the 
two other leases are under the same ownership he acts as superintendent 
of all. 

The marriage of Mr. Ballagh took place March 3, 1909, and united him 
with Miss Myrtle Barker of Bakersfield, a niece of the late Congressman 
Smith, one of the most distinguished citizens ever identified with the devel- 
npment of the San Joaquin valley. Since his marriage Mr. Ballagh has 
(iccupied a substantial cottage provided by the company on the Apollo lease. 
Although still young in years, he is one of the pioneer oil men of Kern 
countv and has not only a long, but also an honfirable record in the industry. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 751 

THOMAS WILEY BROWN.— The justice of the peace of the fifteenth 
township of Kern county, who hkewise serves as city recorder of Maricopa, 
has been identified with the history of California ever since the '50s and for 
a number of years has made Maricopa his home, having come to this locality 
in order to fill a position as foreman for the Occidental (now the Sunset 
Monarch) Oil Company in 1900. An occasion not to be soon forgotten is a 
visit with Judge Brown, for he is an interesting conversationalist, possesses 
a remarkable memory and narrates incidents connected with pioneer days 
in a manner impressive and entertaining. Notwithstanding his advanced years 
and arduous life he is as active, whether measured physically or mentally, as 
many men of fifty, and not only is still an omnivorous reader, but a clear 
thinker, logical reasoner and forceful debater. The busy round of a frontier 
existence and the almost utter lack of educational advantages did not dwarf 
his fine mentality, but in the intervals of leisure on ranch or in mine he has 
familiarized himself with the best literature of the past and present, has 
thoroughly enjoyed the works of Charles Dickens .and Walter Scott and has 
been a constant admirer of the brilliant poemis of Edgar Allan Poe. With an 
exact memory that never fails he quotes classical poems in their entirety 
and shows a wide acquaintance with both English and American writers. 

Both the paternal and maternal ancestors of Mr. Brown were living in 
America prior to the Revolutionary war. His grandfathers Brown and 
Slocumb were soldiers in the war of 1812. His father, John Hancock Brown, 
son of Thomas Brown, was born in Louisiana in 1808 and was named in 
honor of the illustrious signer of the Declaration of Independence. In lineage 
he was of Scotch-Irish extraction. Excellent advantages were bestowed 
upon him in youth and he was sent to one of the best schools in New 
Orleans. He was said to have been one of the best Greek and Latin scholars 
of his day. In his family there were three children, the eldest being Thomas 
Wiley, born at Fairfield, Wayne county, 111., November 4, 1842. The second. 
George E., of Berkeley, this state, is interested in mining and oil lands. The 
only daughter, Julia, is the wife of John G. Knox, deputy county clerk of 
Tulare county. When the father came across the plains to California during 
the summer of 1850 he left wife and children in Southern Illinois and in 
1853 they joined him, coming via Panama. The mother, Caroline, was an 
own sister of Judge Rigdon B. Slocumb, of Wayne county. 111., and a native 
of Morganfield, Union county, Ky., being a descendant of English ancestors 
who settled in North Carolina in the colonial era of colonization. In the 
early part of the nineteenth century the family migrated from the Pedee 
river region to Kentucky and a later generation settled in Illinois. 

Although about eleven years of age at the time of coming to the west 
Judge Brown had attended school only three months in his whole life, nor 
were his school advantages in California any more satisfactory, but fortunately 
he had the opportunity of learning from his father, who was teacher, preceptor 
and companion to him. The work of earning a livelihood was strenuous, but a 
little leisure was always found for Study and of this he availed himself to 
the utmost. While still quite young he engaged in placer mining in Eldorado, 
Calaveras and Tuolumne counties. Familiar with both placer and quartz 
mining, he has devoted much of his life to the work, but never has met with 
the success his efforts justified. Besides mining all through the west he 
even went into Old Mexico. At one time he owned land now in the heart 
of Porterville, this state, and Phoenix, Ariz., but he sold it before its value 
was known ; he now owns valuable residence property in East Bakersfield. 
Throughout his entire life he has been consistent in his allegiance to the 
Democratic party and since coming to Maricopa he has served as the first 
city recorder., having turned over to the city $2783.50 as fees of his office 
during the first year. 



752 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

The marriage of Thomas Wiley Brown and IMiss Cornelia Glass was 
solemnized March 11, 1867, and was blessed with two children. The sole 
survivor, Russell, of Maricopa, married Miss Stella Dunlap of Bakersfield 
and they have one child, Thomas Calvin Brown. Mrs. Brown was a daughter 
of Rol)ert and Jane (Miller) Glass, natives respectively of Virginia and 
Alabama, but residents of Texas from childhood. The Glass family originally 
came from Ireland, while the Millers were of German ancestry. The parents 
of Mrs. Brown were married in Texas and lived there for many years after- 
ward, her birth occurring in that state. During 1853 they joined an expedition 
composed of seventy-five families and crossed the plains and deserts through 
New Mexico and Arizona into California. \\'hen near the present site of 
Deming, N. M., the expedition camped to rest their teams. All around them 
were Indians and one of the braves seized Mrs. Brown, then a babe of eight 
months, and endeavored to escape with her in his arms. Evidently the 
intentic-n was to extort a ransom. The dastardly act was seen by J. P. Ownby, 
who took aim and fired at the Indian, thus saving the life of the child. No 
other event occurred to imperil the lives of any and at last they safely landed 
in Los Angeles, where Mr. Glass bought ten acres one block from the present 
site of the Downey building. Having no thought of its future value, he sold it 
later for a small sum. 

When Mrs. Brown was nine years of age the family removed to Tulare 
county and settled six miles south of Visalia, where the father took up land and 
engaged in ranching. Through intelligent and unw'earied industry he became 
well-to-do. His death occurred in California at the age of sixty-nine. When 
the mother was about seventy-six she went to New Mexico to visit her 
daughter, Mrs. J. P. Ownby, and during the course of her sojourn there she 
was taken ill and died. There were seven daughters and two sons in the 
family. Amanda married J. P. Ownby and they were early settlers of 
Bakersfield, but eventually located in New Mexico, where Mr. Ownby 
engaged in raising sheep and also carried on a hotel business until his death; 
his wife also has passed away, leaving three children. Laura and her 
husband, Solomon Slinkard of Los Angeles, are both deceased and left nine 
children. Corley, of East Bakersfield, is engaged in contract teaming. Dora 
married E. S. Baalam, who has an orange grove at Lemon Cove, Tulare 
county. Cornelia, the fifth in order cf birth, spent her girlhood principally 
in Tulare county and there married Mr. Brown. Sarah and her husband, 
J. C. Turner, formerly a carpenter in Bakersfield, are both deceased and left 
six children. Barbara Ellen, deceased, was the wife of M. C. Purcell, a sheep- 
man living at Bakersfield, and at her death she left six children. William 
is a teaming contractor in Bakersfield. The youngest member of the family, 
Louisiana Beauregard, married Henry ]\Iuller and lives on a ranch six miles 
east of liakersfield. 

JOSEPH BENSON FRY.— One of the self-made men active in the 
recent history of Bakersfield, Kern county, was Joseph Benson Fry. w'ho was 
born in Iroquois county, 111., July 28, 1852, and died at Bakersfield, May 26, 
1911. He was a son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Frazier) Fry. His father, a 
native of Ohio and a pioneer in Illinois, passed away in the latter state ; his 
mother, who also was born in the Buckeye state, died in Indiana. His 
father's brother, John Fry. a member of an Illinois regiment which served 
in the Civil war, died in 1873 as a result of hardshi]) and exposure in Libby 
Prison at Richmond, Va. 

Twelfth in order of birth of his parents' fourteen children, three of whom 
are living. Joseph B. Fry was reared on a farm in Illinois and educated in 
public schools near his boyhood home. When he was about sixteen years 
old he went to Girard, Kans., and found employment on a farm near by. Sep- 
tember 29, 1872, he married Miss Joanna Banks, who was born near Quincy, 
A.dams Countv, 111., the daughter of Willis Banks, a native of Kentucky, who 





(^ 




HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 755 

came with an ox-team caravan acrtjss the plains to California in 1850. Later 
Mr. JJanks returned east to l)ring- out his family, but being fearful of Indian 
attacks he gave uj) the idea of coming to California and in 1861 located at 
Girard, Kans., honiesteading land, a part of which is now within the city 
limits. During" the war he was burned out by bushwhackers, who drove his 
cattle away and he was compelled to go to Marmaton to reclaim them. After 
the war he returned to his home in Girard and later located eight miles from 
that town. In 1880 he came to Bakersfield and in 1881 died at the home of 
his daughter, Mrs. Fry. His wife, who was Miss Eveline Thomas, was born 
in Kentucky, a daughter of James Thomas, who removed to Illinois and 
later to Kansas, where he died and where his wife also passed away. Of 
their seven sons and seven daughters, six of whom are living, Mrs. Joseph 
B. Fry was the next to the youngest child and the ynungest daughter. She 
was ten years old when her parents took her to Kansas, where she was edu- 
cated in the public schools. 

I'ntil 1876 Mr. Fry farmed; then he came to Trinity county, Cal., where 
he worked six months in the mines. In July, 1877, he came to Bakersfield 
as foreman on Poso creek for the Kern County Land Company. After an 
unsuccessful attempt at farming at Fresno, he returned to his work as fore- 
man for the Kern County Land Company at Bakersfield. Next he tried again 
to farm near Paso Robles, but did not win out and again returned to Bakers- 
field and engaged in general contracting and heavy teaming. In this business 
he was very successful and was soon able to build his fine residence at No. 925 
Eighth street, on a property of one and one-third acres which was also his 
business headquarters. Eventually he acquired four other residences and a 
store in Bakersfield, all on Chester avenue, the store being on the corner of 
Eighth street. His business grew so large that he came in time to give em- 
ployment to a large number of men and teams. He had the contract to lay 
the pipe line for the Standard Oil Company from the oil fields in Kern County 
to Point Richmond, which occupied a year in building. Since his death his 
widow has had his business interests in charge, and is looking after her 
property also. In politics he was a Republican. Socially he affiliated with 
the Elks and the Indeuendent Order of Foresters. Mrs. Fry is a member 
of the Christian Church and of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. 
She has five children : Bertha. Mrs. W. W. Ramage of Bakersfield ; Charles 
H., a well known rancher in Kern county; Hattie, Mrs. Freal Neighbert, of 
Bakersfield; Arthur Delano, a b( okkeeper in the employ of a local concern; 
and Lola, Mrs. Floyd Busby, of Bakersfield. 

WILLIAM ALBERT LAYERS.— David Lavers, pioneer, father of 
William Albert Lavers, was born in Nova Scotia, in January, 1831. and 
came to California in 1852, when he was about twenty-one years old. For 
a short time he was employed in the mining regions, but soon took up 
farming in San Jose and in 1855 settled at Glennville, Kern county, taking up 
a government claim on one hundred and sixty acres of land. The story of 
his success is briefiy suggested in a statement that he is now the owner of 
three thousand acres of land, sixty acres of this under cultivation, three 
acres in orchard, and he is extensively engaged in breeding horses, cattle 
and hogs. For several years past he has been in practical retirement from 
active life and his business interests have been in charge of his son above 
mentioned. Miss Anna Cook, born in New Brunswick, March 6. 1848, 
became his wife. They had five children named as follows: Morton A.. 
Mattie A., Minnie S., William A. and Fred D. The two daughters have 
passed away. 

It was on the old Lavers homestead near Glennville that William Albert 
Lavers was born November 12, 1886. He was educated in the public schools 
at Linn's Valley and learned the carpenter's trade at Wilmerding school in 
San Francisco, graduating in 1905. After leaving school he returned to 



756 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Linn's Valley to take chari^e of his father's extensive land interests, and so 
successfully has he handled them that he is recognized as one of the fore- 
most of the younger business men of his community. 

PAUL CHATOM. — P.orn April 4, 1.S63, in Canton Ticino, Switzerland, 
Paul Chatom is the son of ^lichael and Maria (Magnaghi) Chatom. [Michael 
Chatom had varied experiences in the gold fields of Australia, where he made 
a small fortune, and upon returning to his native Switzerland, built up a 
tannery and butcher shop, which he continued to operate successfully until 
his death in 1868, when his son Paul was but five years of age. His widow 
still survives, at the age of seventy-three, making her home in Switzerland 
in the old home. Four sons and one daughter were born to Michael Chatom 
and wife, viz. : Albert, Paul, Michael, Jack and Fannie (who was a sister 
in the convent in Genoa City and is now deceased). 

Paul Chatom attended the public schools of his native village and also 
St. Joseph's College at Locarno, Switzerland. In 1882 he came to California 
and was first engaged in the building of the Southern Pacific Railroad from 
Reading to Roseburg, Ore., and thence to Shasta county, Cal. The next 
year he worked in the Maison Doree restaurant at San Francisco, where he 
remained for a year, going from there to Merced, where he had charge of a 
restaurant for Johnny Smith. After conducting the latter place for two 
vears he went to Modesto, where he engaged in the same business on his 
own account, and here met with gratifying prosperity. Two years later he 
sold out and went to Santa Barbara, where he soon built up a fine business, 
but after five or six months was obliged to relinquish this interest because 
of poor health, and going from there to Phoenix, Ariz., he accepted the 
position of steward in the Commercial hotel. After six months he returned 
to Fresno and opened up The Reception, a fine restaurant there which he 
conducted for the next two years, in 1890 disposing of it and coming to 
Bakersfield, which place suited his tastes so well that he has ever since made 
it his home. For one year he ran the Mocha restaurant, and then leased 
the Monte Carlo restaurant for five years. During the panic of 1893 he lost 
about ten thousand dollars, which left him without funds and almost dis- 
heartened. Nevertheless he dauntlessly opened up a small place in the east 
end of Bakersfield, which he called The Klondike, in which business he 
was enabled to save a little money and his next move was to embark in the 
furniture business which he built up to a flourishing condition. Ill luck, 
however, seemed to follow him, for the last mentioned place was destroyed 
bv fire and the loss was considerable. He then took charge of the Bakers- 
field Club for five years, during which time he exercised the utmost economy 
and his thrift proved valuable to him, as he was soon able to open the 
restaurant over which he is at present the proprietor, the Mascot, located in 
the old Berges building, on Nineteenth street, for which he obtained a three 
years' lease. He then purchased the Packard property at No. 1517 Eight- 
eenth street, where he erected the brick building 30x65 feet, which is occupied 
by the New Mascot, also purchased the residence at No. 1521 Eighteenth 
street. In 1909 he erected the splendid Mascot Apartment house on Six- 
teenth street, and a year later the Chatom apartment on Seventeenth street. 

In 1890, Mr. Chatom was married to Miss Laura Rose Wall, a native of 
St. Louis, Mo., and two children were born to them : Paul, a student in the 
University of California ; and Virginia, who is being educated at the convent 
of the Notre Dame, at San Jose. In politics Mr. Chatom is a stanch Repub- 
lican, always voting that ticket. 

JAMES MARCUS HAYDEN.— A diversity of occupations and the 
various environments which have surrounded him in his work have con- 
tributed to James Marcus Hayden his wide knowledge of afifairs. his broad 
business experience and his clear insight into affairs in general. The son 
of Capt. Marcus A. and Eliza (Proctor) Hayden, he inherited from these 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 759 

two sturdy children of Kentucky the many admirable traits of those country- 
men. The father was engaged in the general merchandise business at May- 
ville, and during the war served as a captain in a Missouri regiment under 
General Price. After receiving an honorable discharge from duty in the 
war he resumed his mercantile pursuits, and ])Oth he and his wife passed 
away in jNIissouri. 

Afr. Hayden, who was born in Lexington. Mo., March 26, 1869, is the 
only surviving child of his parents. Reared in Lafayette county, that state, 
he attended the local public schools and was later sent to the Wentworth 
Military Academy at Lexington, where he was schooled in the rigid prin- 
ciples of honor, courage and trustworthiness. His first occupation was rail- 
roading, as agent at Corder, Mo., for the Chicago & Alton Railroad, with 
which company he continued at various points for a period of three years. 
He then for six months filled the position of city agent for the Burlington 
& Missouri at Deadwood, and became interested in mining in the Black 
Hills region. Butte, Mont., was his next location and when the Rossland, 
B. C, excitement was reported he made his way to British Columbia, where 
he mined at dififerent places for some time with varying success. An oppor- 
tunity to return to railroading led him to return to the States and he accepted 
the position of agent at American Fork, Utah, for the Oregon Railroad & 
Navigation Company. In 1906 he came to California and entered the employ 
of the Standard Oil Company in the pipe line department at Corcoran, when 
he was transferred to Coalinga. Here he was bookkeeper for a short period, 
his ability being soon recognized by his promotion to superintendent of 
the Coalinga division, and in this capacity he served with splendid success 
for three years, and in 1911 was transferred to the main office at Bakersfield 
as chief accountant under J. M. Atwell. When the property at Lost Hills 
was purchased by the company he was sent there to superintend the division 
and as such opened the work and continued the supervision until July, 1912, 
when he resigned to enter the mercantile business for himself in Lost Hills, 
where he has already built up a good trade. 

Mr. Flayden was married in Logan, Utah, September 21. 1905, to Thelma 
Johnson, who was a native of Logan. They have three children, Thomas, 
Marcus and James, Jr. The family make their home in Wasco, where they 
enjoy the friendship of a host of well-wishers. Mr. Hayden is a Democrat. 

CHARLES MINER VROOMAN.— The genealogy of the Vrooman 
family is traced back to the old Knickerbocker stock that formed a most 
important element in the colonial upbuilding of New York. During the 
Revolution the family had representatives at the front and bore its share 
in the sanguinary struggles of the period. Joseph Brown Vrooman, a native 
of New York state and a land speculator through his active years, married 
Abbie Chapman, of Stonington, Conn., whose ancestt rs had served in the navy 
during the Revolutionary war and had been identified otherwise with the 
early history of New England. The only living son of this marriage. Judge 
Charles Miner Vrooman, was born in the city of Rochester, N. Y., November 
29. 1852, and received a public-school education in his native town, later 
attending the University of Rochester, from which he was graduated, in 1873. 
with the degree of A. B. Afterward he held a position as teacher in the 
Rochester high school. Coming to California in 1877 and settling in the then 
sparsely inhabited county of Kern", he was duly chosen principal of the 
Sumner (now East Bakersfield) schools, a position that he filled acceptably 
for five years. After having taught in East Bakersfield and other parts of 
Kern county until 1889, he then gave up the work of a teacher to engage in 
stockraising on Mount Breckenridge. From his advent in the county his 
summers were spent in the South Fork country and he has been a permanent 



760 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

resident of this section since 1905, meanwhile maintaining- a close association 
with local advancement along every line of progress. 

The title ])y which Judge \'ro(.man is familiarly known came to him 
through his occupancy of the office of justice of the peace of the first judicial 
township of Kern county, to which office he was elected in 1910 on the Repub- 
lican ticket. During January of 1911 he took the oath of office and entered 
upon its duties, which he has since discharged with impartiality, efficiency 
and exceptional promptness. The judicial district is the oldest in the county 
and he has in his office the docket extending back into the '60s, when it was a 
part of Tulare county. His office is located at Isabella, it being the most 
central place in the judicial township. On the organization of the Bakersfield 
Lodge, Knights of Pythias, he became one of its charter members, and in 
addition he is a member of the Delta Psi. In the midst of his labors as a 
stockraiser and as a justice he has never lost his early interest in educational 
matters. The relinquishment of the work of teaching did not mean an aban- 
donment of interest in the profession. In every way possible he has striven to 
promote the success of the public school system, which he believes to lie at the 
very foundation of all future prosperity and progress in our country. For 
eight years he served as a member of the county board of education and during 
part of the time he was honored by being chosen president of the board, in 
which ca])acity he was instrumental in promoting the welfare of the schools 
and advancing the standard of education in the county. 

JAMES E. CHITTENDEN.— The state of Illinois has taken a place in 
the history of the development of western America as a stopping place for 
pioneers from the East and a breeding ground of pioneers destined for the 
tar west. Among well known citizens of Kern county, Cal., who were born in 
the Prairie State none are better or more favorably known than is James E. 
Chittenden, of Glennville. Mr. Chittenden was born in Warsaw, Hancock 
county, 111., Alay 17, 1839, and when he was old enough entered public school 
there and studied until he was about fifteen years old. His father, E. F. Chit- 
tenden, crossed the plains to California in 1852 and the rest of the family, the 
mother and four children, came to the state in 1855 by way of the Isthmus of 
Panama, and settlement was made at Calaveras, fifteen miles from Stockton. 
There James E. worked for his father until he was twenty-four years old, 
and then for six years he was a salesman in the employ of Bowen Brothers in 
Stockton. Taking up his residence in Sacramento he was employed during the 
ensuing six years in "a pre duce house. For a time he was a proof reader on the 
Sacramento Union and assisted in the delivery of the paper to its subscribers. 
.After his father's death he returned to .Stockton in order the better to help 
care for the household. There he engaged in the notion and cigar business, 
continuing this for seme time, besides which he was agent for and manager 
of the Stockton Theatre. Subsequently he became agent of the Southern Pa- 
cific road at Banta Station. His identification with Kern county dates from the 
year 1875 and soon after coming here he located at Sumner, where he estab- 
lished himself in the general commission business which ultimately grew to 
large proportions. In 1890 he settled on the property which has come to be 
known as his home place, on Sandy creek near Glennville. It consists of 
three hundred and twenty acres, of which about sixty-five acres are under 
cultivation, thirty acres in alfalfa and the remainder in fruit. His chief busi- 
ness, however, is the raising of horses, cattle and hogs. His buildings, ap- 
pointments and implements are thoroughlv up-to-date and his methods are 
modern and productive of the best results. 

Politically Mr. Chittenden is a stanch Republican. In 1888 he was united 
in marriage with Mrs. Elizabeth (Clapp) Rigby, a native of Eldorado county, 
Cal. She passed away October 17. 1905, having become the mother of five 
children, of whom four are living, as follows : Virgil E., a rancher in Linn's 




s^ 






^ 




HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 763 

valley; Justin L., who assists with the ranch duties; Julia F., who presides 
over his household ; and Elbert F., in Porterville. 

CHRISTIAN AND MARGARET BAPTISTA.— Anionjr the enterpris- 
ing citizens who have aided in the developing of farm lands in Kern county 
we find Mr. and Mrs. Ilaptista, who have been industrious, energetic and 
hduorable in their efTort to secure a competency, which they have accom- 
plished and are now living comfortably on their twenty-acre ranch in the 
Buena Vista district, while they lease their other ranch for dairy purposes. 

Mrs. Baptista was in maidenhood Margaret Wolf, a native of Canton 
Graubunden, Switzerland, and was the daughter of Peter and Mary (Solis) 
Wolf, both natives of that canton, where they followed farming fur a liveli- 
hood. \\'hen Margaret Wolf was eight years of age there occurred a 
tragedy in the family. WHiile her father and mother and three of their 
children were making hay on another place an earthsHde occurred in which 
they lost their lives, thus leaving the eight-year-old girl and her brother Christ, 
ten years of age, orphans. The brother still resides on the old home place. 
Her girlhood was spent in the home of her grandfather, George Solis, a 
farmer in Grisons, where she attended the common schools. In early life 
it became necessary for her to learn habits of self-reliance, and these have 
stood her in good stead in her later years. Having heard very favorable 
reports from people returning from trips to the United States, she concluded 
to cast her fortunes in the New W'orld and in 1889 crossed the ocean and 
came forthwith to Hastings, Adams county, Neb. The next year, in 1890, 
she came on to Bakersfield, Cal., where she found satisfactory employment. 

February 3, 1894, in Mrs. Ellen M. Tracy's home, occurred her marriage 
with Christian Baptista. He was born in Iner-ferera, Canton Graubunden, 
Switzerland. July 25. 1865, the son of John and Minnie (Meule) Baptista. 
farmers in the Alps, where he was reared, receiving his education in the 
free schools of his native country. In 1887 he came to Kern county, Cal.. 
where he was employed by the Kern County Land Company. After their 
marriage they engaged in grain-raising in the Old River district until 1896, 
when they purchased twenty acres under the Stine canal in that same district. 
This was seeded to alfalfa and later they added to it until they had fift3'-six 
acres all in alfalfa and a dairy herd of thirty-five cows. They met with de- 
cided success and in 1909 leased the ranch. They now own and resirle on 
their alfalfa ranch in the Buena Vista district, where they live comfortably 
and well. \\'ith them resides their niece. Augusta Piper, who has brought 
youth and joy into their home, and they take genuine pleasure in bringing 
her up and doing for her as if she were their own child. 

Mr. and Mrs. Baptista are both Reoublicans in their political views. 
AA'hile Mr. Baptista is a member of the Woodmen of the World, his wife is 
an active member of the W'omen of W'oodcraft and in religion is a member of 
the Baptist Church in Bakersfield. 

H. GUY HUGHES. — Kern county has many citizens born within the 
borders of the state, not a few of them within her own borders, wdio are 
leaders in the various industrial and commercial movements which are rapidly 
making her great. H. Guy Hughes was born on the Hughes homestead 
at Glennville in 1887. a son of William B. and Fannie (McKamy) Hughes. 
His father, who was born in Missouri in 1849, was brought across the 
plains by his parents, leaving his native state when he was about nine 
months old. The family settled at Sonora, Tuolumne county, and there 
he passed his childhood and while yet but a boy began working in the mines. 
Such local advantages as were available were afforded him, however, and 
when he was sixteen years old he became a student in a business college 
at Stockton. After the removal of the family to Glennville he bought the 
old Hight place and engaged in stock-raising, wdiich he continued until his 



764 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

death. Fannie McKamy was born in Stockton, Cal., June 7, 1866, and was 
married in June, 1886, when she was about twenty years old. She bore her 
husband two children, H. Guy and Florence. The father died January 4, 
1897. Coming to Kern county in 1870, his life here embraced the era of 
small and crude things and he experienced many of the hardships incident 
to pioneer life in this part of the country. For a time he was in charge of a 
large bunch of cattle in Arizona and he often drove cattle to San Francisco 
to market, the round trip consuming three months. He was interested in 
education and long served as school trustee in the Wicher district. In many 
ways he demonstrated a public spirit which was potent in the advance- 
ment of worthy local interests. The grandparents of H. Guy Hughes, in 
both the paternal and the maternal line, were pioneer emigrants who came 
across the plains from the east. 

H. Guy Hughes attended public school and high school until he was 
seventeen years old, meantime and afterward, busying himself on the farm. 
He was only ten years old when his father died and his mother came natur- 
ally, while he was yet very young, to depend on him in many matters of 
importance. He went to work in the oil field in 1908, but eventually returned 
to the home farm and devoted himself to general farming and cattle-raising. 
He was married to Miss Fannie Guthrie, a native of Tulare, Cal. He has 
from early manhood taken an active interest in public matters of importance, 
has been clerk of the board of education three years and is now filling 
the office of school trustee. 

BARNEY A. ANDERSEN.— The father of B. A. Andersen, the late Fred- 
erick Andersen, for years was a merchant in Germany, where the mother, 
Anke, still makes her home. There were nine children in the family, but 
the eldest, Barney A., was the only one of the large family to establish a 
home in California and he came to this country and state in 1881 after hav- 
ing learned the trade of a tailor under his father at Uhlebull, Germany, 
where he was born November 12, 1863, and wdiere he had received an 
excellent German education in the national schools. 

A brief experience in farming followed the arrival of Mr. Andersen in 
California. From the neighborhood of Los Angeles he went to San Francisco 
and learned the trade of dyer and cleaner, which he followed for some 
lime in the employ of others. As soon as possible, however, he embarked 
in the business for himself. Coming to Bakersfield in December of 1900 
he bought property and built a dyeing and cleaning establishment on the 
corner of Eighth and L streets. In a short time he had built up a large 
trade. IMeanwhile he established his up-town office on Nineteenth street, 
later removed it to No. 2027 Chester avenue and eventually purchased a 
lot at No. 1669 Chester avenue, where he built a suitable structure for the 
prosecution of the business. Prosperity had crowned his efiforts and the 
future looked bright before him. when suddenly he was stricken by the hand 
of death and passed away May 19, 1910, in Los Angeles, where his body was 
laid to its last rest. In his last days he had the consoling influences of a 
deep religious faith, for he was an earnest member of St. John's German 
Lutheran Church in Bakersfield and had served ably as president of its 
board of trustees, doing all within his power to enlarge the sphere of its 
usefulness as well as to exemplify in his own daily acts the inspiring and 
uplifting influence of its doctrines. After he became a resident of Bakersfield 
he identified himself with various fraternities, including the Independent 
Order of Foresters, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Improved 
Order of Red Men. 

Surviving Mr. Andersen are his widow and daughter, Frieda, the latter 
now the wife of Martin Fechtner, of Bakersfield. Prior to her marriage in 
San Francisco in 1893 Mrs. Andersen was Miss Louise Van Goethem. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 767 

Although born in Collinsville, 111., she has lived in California since the 
age of four years and received her education in St. Paul's school, San 
Francisco. Her father, Frank Van Goethem, was a member of an honored 
old Flemish family, while her mother, who bore the maiden name of Bern- 
hardena Keisker, was a native of (jermany. After a residence of some years 
in Illinois the family came to California and Mr. Van Goethem secured 
work as a tanner in San Francisco, where the daughter was reared, edu- 
cated and married. Heing a woman of business ability as well as social 
charm, she has cared for her husband's interests with discrimination, has 
disposed of his business and now manages the property with discretion 
and energy. 

JOHN JEFFERSON DARNUL.— As one of that illustrious band of 
pioneers who braved the dangers and endured the hardships of a new country 
in order that the way might be paved for the greater prosperity and the 
easier life of our great era cf progress. Wv. Darnul occupies an enviable posi- 
tion in the regard of the people of Kern county. While his identification with 
this section of the state dates back as far as 1873, it by no means covers 
the duration of his residence in the west, for as early as 1855 he crossed the 
plains and became a permanent resident of the new commonwealth. He 
was at that time a youth of nineteen years, re bust of constitution, indus- 
trious in habits of work, persistent in application and well qualified to suc- 
ceed in the west, although he had received only scant educational advantages 
and had been deprived of all the opportunities considered so essential to 
twentieth-century progress. Since coming to Kern county life for him has 
meant a close association with local development. 

The first nineteen years in the life of John Jefiferson Darnul were passed 
in Arkansas, where he was born in Pope county October 2, 1836. His father, 
Cook P.. Darnul, was born and reared in Illinois and there married Miss 
Petray, who died in Arkansas leaving an only child, J( hn J. Later the 
father was united in marriage with Elizabeth Shinn. By that union eight 
children were born, but only two of these survive, viz. : Mrs. Pauline Petray, 
of Linn's valley and Mrs. Hannah Wiley of Calaveras county. The parents 
spent their last years in California and died in Calaveras count^^ During 
the five months spent in crossing the plains from Arkansas to California the 
eldest son of the family, then a youth of nineteen, proved an indispensable 
assistant in the capacity of driver of the ox-teams and in the other work 
incident to such an arduous undertaking. Arriving at Sacramento, he pro- 
ceeded to the mines, but did not find the occupation of miner sufficiently 
profitable to induce continuance therein. AVith the exception of that early 
period of activity as a miner, he has devoted himself entirely to general 
farming, although he is now retired. 

Settling in Sonoma county in 1858, Mr. Darnul there engaged in ranch- 
ing. Later he was similarly occupied in Ventura county. Since 1873 he 
has made his home in Kern county, where he was the first settler on the 
north side of the Kern river, on the site of what is now Oil Center. From 
that neighborhood he removed to Linn's valley in 1894 and has since occupied 
and operated a farm comprising two hundred and forty acres. While 
owning a quarter section at Oil Center he decided to dig a ditch, in order 
that he might irrigate the land from the Kern river. During the prosecu- 
tion of that work he discovered deposits of petroleum in the soil, being 
indeed the first to note the presence of oil in that field of later fame. Through 
his efforts the Kern River Water and Irrigating Ditch Company was organ- 
ized and incorporated, thereby establishing the now well-known Beardsley 
canal. In addition to doing valuable work in the development of the canal, 
he was associated with another important enterprise in Kern county, viz. : 
the first street railroad in Bakersfield, for which he did considerable grading. 



768 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

FREDERICK LAYERS. — Near Glennville, where he was born October 
26, 1888, Frederick Lavers was educated in the public schools. Later 
he was sent to Stockton as a student in Heald's Business College and con- 
tinued there until the completion of the commercial course in 1910, after 
which he acted as bookkeeper for a Bakersfield firm for six months. After 
a subsequent short sojourn at the parental home he removed to Hanford, 
Kings county, but in a short time he returned to his native county and pur- 
chased forty acres, comprising his present homestead. Upon this farm he 
has engaged in intensive agriculture. October 22, 1910, he was united in 
marriage wath Miss Mary Engle, who was born at Granite Station. Kern 
county, and is a daughter of David Engle. The only child of this union, 
David, bears the name of both of his paternal grandfathers. 

The discovery of gold induced David Lavers, the father, to come to 
the Pacific coast. Born at Windsor, Nova Scotia, in January, 1831, his 
was the childhood of poverty, the boyhood of self-sacrifice and the youth 
of privation. At the age of sixteen he accompanied his parents to Cum- 
berland county. Nova Scotia, but work being scarce and illy-paid he 
soon went on to Massachusetts, where he was better able to earn a live- 
lihood. During 1852 he sailed from the Long wharf at Boston on a ship 
bound for San Francisco via the Horn. The voyage occupied six months 
of tedious travel not altogether exemot from danger and privation, but in 
the end anchor was cast safely within the Golden Gate. For almost one 
year he worked in Stockton, but the great floods of 1853 caused him to 
leave that section and to secure employment at San Jose. During 1855 
he came to Kern county and mined in the Greenhorn mountains as a day 
laborer, after which for one year he worked on the ranch owned by William 
Lynn, then for a while engaged in mining with Samuel Reed. However, 
he soon began to realize that the only avenue to financial independence was 
the securing of a farm and, having no means with which to make a pur- 
chase, he took up a claim of one hundred and sixty acres which now lies half 
a mile south of Glennville. As best he could with scanty means and no 
machinery, he began to improve the land. Later a stage coach made regular 
trips betW'Cen Visalia and Havilah, the then county-seat. There was con- 
siderable patronage of the old coach and this gave him an incentive for a 
new enteri^rise. Building the first hotel in the northern part of the county, 
he started the first hotel in Linn's valley and from the first had a fair 
patronage. The hotel later was converted into a private residence and 
now gives him a comfortable home for his old age. For two years he 
engaged in mining on the White river and later mined the Ball moimtain 
mine, where he met with gratifying success. 

The year of 1859 found David Lavers joined by his father and mother, 
the former of whom aided him in stock-raising, while the latter acted as 
ranch housekeeper besides hx king after the hotel. The assistance of his 
parents proved very helpful to him, while at the same time he was able 
to give them every comfort for their last days. Meanwdiile he purchased 
railroad land as he was able and added to his holdings until now he has the 
title to three thousand acres, the larger part of which is utilized as a stock 
range. In the early days, when population was meager and money scarce, 
he had constant difficulty in meeting expenses and his life was one of labor 
and incessant self-denial. During the winter of 1856-57 he drove with three 
head of oxen and a wagon of potatoes through to Ft. Tejon and then 
made a trip through Tulare county from Porterville to Millerton, selling the 
spuds at high prices. .As people began to settle in the region it became easier 
for him to dispo.se of his crops and existence became less of a drudgery, 
while the newcomers welcomed his advice and friendship with gratitude. 
From the first he was a local leader and his interest has continued up to 



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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 771 

the present time. The land fur the Glennville cemetery was donated by him. 
He is an elder of the Presbyterian Church, has been a school trustee and is a 
Republican. 

It was not until about forty-four years of age that David Lavers estab- 
lished a home of his own. October 30, 1875, he was united in marriage with 
Miss Annie Cook, who was born in New Brunswick. Canada, in 1848. The 
wedding occurred at Dorchester, New Brunswick, Mr. Lavers having g(jne 
east from California for the purpose of winning his bride. They settled in 
Kern county and successfully managed their farm in Linn's valley, so that 
eventually they became one of the wealthiest families of the entire district. 
Five children were born of their union. Two daughters, Mattie and Minnie, 
died at the old home farm near Glennville. Three sons survive, namely: 
Morton, of Bakersfield ; William, who is assisting his father in the stock 
business ; and Frederick, a farmer near Panama. 

PETER LAMBERT.— The zeal, untiring effort and thrifty habits char- 
acteristic of the French race are conspicuously found in the life of Peter 
Lambert, whose birth occurred in the lofty mountains of Hautes Alpes, in 
the small village of Ancel, February 15. 1852. He was named for his father, 
who reared him in his native home and gave him the advantages of a thor- 
ough schooling, meanwhile teaching him the rudiments of farming in order 
to prepare him for the rugged road toward self-support and independence. 
He remained at his father's side until he reached the age of twenty, at which 
time he determined to visit an uncle, John Roux, who was a pioneer miner 
in far-off California and who had become a prominent sheep man in Los 
Angeles. In January. 1872. Mr. Lambert left his mountain home and came 
hy way of Havre to New York City and from there on an overland train 
to San Francisco. Cal. Being held up in the mountains by the heavy snow 
storms he did not reach the latter point until March and he immediately 
boarded a boat for Los Angeles. His uncle took him into his employ and 
he was soon well informed in the sheep business, in April driving a flock 
across the mountains to South Fork, Kern county. Twenty-five months 
later he drove them into (jilroy, where they were disposed of to buyers 
from San Francisco. He then returned to Los Angeles to drive another 
flock, this time to the Mexican border below San Diego, where he remained 
until December. Riding a saddle horse to San Fernando, he took a stage 
to Bakersfield and then went by rail to Delano, where he entered the employ 
of Germain Pellissier. a prominent sheep man, remaining with him until 
June, 1875, when with his two brothers he purchased a flock of sheep which 
they ranged in the north of Kern county. The drouth of 1877 caused a 
loss of one-third of the sheep and one of the brothers dropped out of the 
partnership; in 1880 Peter Lambert purchased the other brother's interest and 
continued the business alone until 1884, when he sold his sheep. He 
had watched closely the development of the industry and the advancement 
in the method of handling sheep. He saw how the range was being fenced 
and realized that the safest mode of continuing in the stock business was 
for the individual to own landed interests, broad acres on which to range 
his stock. Accordingly, he in 1883 ])urchased a school section, two and a 
half miles east of Granite station, and he afterward purchased railroad 
lands adjacent until he had over eleven sections, or something over seven 
thousand acres of land. At the time of the oil boom, however, he was 
induced to sell seven sections, retaining two thousand and eighty acres which 
he still owns. This land is well watered by springs which afford ample 
water for the stock the year round. In the year 1895 he again embarked 
in the sheep business and continued it until 1898, when he again sold, owing 
to the drouth of that year; but three years later, in 1901. he purchased a 
flock of sheep in New ^lexico and bringing them to Kern county, continued 



772 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the business until 1908, when he sold his flock and has since rented his ranch 
for a cattle ranch. 

Since 1889 Mr. Lambert has made his home on his present place in East 
Bakersfield. owning a valuable piece of property on Humboldt near Kern 
street. He was married in that year in Sumner, now East Bakersfield, to 
Miss Malvina Rambaud, who was also born in Hautes Alpes, France, and 
who came to Bakersfield the year of her marriage. They have a daughter. 
Marie. In his politics ]\Ir. Lambert is a Republican. 

HENRY LOUIS BORGWARDT.— An honored place among the Cali- 
fornia pioneers of the '50s is held l)y Mr. Borgwardt of Bakersfield, who has 
been a resident of Kern county since 1868 and meanwhile has contributed to 
the development of the agricultural and stock-raising interests of this portion 
of the state, as well as to the material upbuilding of his home city. Of 
German nativity and lineage, he was born July 30, 1832, in the city oi 
Lubeck. By reason of the town being one of the principal harbors along 
the Baltic coast and therefore a headquarters for sailors and also through 
the fact that his father, Capt. Henry Borgwardt, was a pilot and captain 
on an ocean vessel, he himself early turned to the sea as affording a means 
of livelihood and at thirteen years of age shipped on the barque Luba 
which was engaged in the South American trade. For four and one-half 
years he remained on the same vessel and afterward sailed on other ships, 
at times from Lubeck and often from Hamburg. During 1854 he left Ham- 
burg on the New Ed that sailed around Cape Horn, making stops only at 
Valparaiso, Chile, and other leading ports, and arriving at San Francisco 
on the 28th of November after a tedious voyage of six months. 

A desire to hunt for gold led the young sailor to abandon his trade for 
the more uncertain occupation of mining. For some years he engaged in 
placer and hydraulic mining on the middle fork of the American river in 
Eldorado county. With the exception of a brief period, beginning in 1859. 
devoted to the dair}- industry, he remained in the mines of California and 
Nevada until 1868. when he permanently retired from the work and took 
up sheep-raising on I\:)so creek in Kern county. At that time Havilah was 
still the county-seat and few settlers had identified themselves with the 
development of the region. Range was plentiful and the sheep industry, 
with favorable weather, ofifered large possibilities. Pre-empting one hundred 
and sixty acres on the creek and building a cabin for his family, Mr. 
Borgwardt remained there for thirteen years. Meanwhile he experienced the 
ups and downs incident to the business. His heaviest loss resulted from the 
drought of 1877 and four years later he sold all of the sheep and retired 
from the business. 

At the time of removing to Bakersfield and acquiring eighty acres 
adjacent to the city limits, Mr. Borgwardt turned his attention to the raising 
of alfalfa on the tract. A portion of this he cut for hay and the balance 
was used for the pasturage of stock. With the growth of the city, he 
decided to lay out the land into lots and this he did in 1889. ITnion and 
California streets forming the beginning of the Borgwardt tract, from which 
a large number of lots have been sold and which has the advantage of 
lying twenty feet higher than Bakersfield. The supervision of the property 
naturally took the owner into the real-estate business and for more than 
twenty years he has given his attention almost wholly to such work as 
related to the development of his sub-divisions. Shortlv after he arrived 
in San T-'rancisco at the close of his long voyage from Germany he was 
united in marriage with Miss Caroline Peterson, who was born in Schleswig- 
Holstein. (Germany, and came to America in the same ship with Mr. Borg- 
wardt. Their long wedded life of mutual happiness and helpfulness was 
broken 1)\- her death in |une, 1003. Vine children had been born of their 




-<^^^ayU^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 177 

union, namely: Mary, who died in Bakersfield June 3, 1888; Henry, who for 
twelve years served as sheriff of Kern county and died here in August, 
1904; Andrew, who died in this city June 10, 1878; William, a rancher 
near Bakersfield ; Dora, who was taken from the home when only one 
month old; Charles, living in Fresno; Francis, a merchant at Mill Valley; 
George W., who follows the painter's trade in Bakersfield ; and Morris, 
who is also a resident of this city, and his family make their home with 
Mr. Borgwardt. As early as 1872 Mr. Borgwardt became identified with the 
Bakersfield Lodge, I. O. O. F. In politics he is a Republican. 

JOSEPH GIRARD. — Alany of the men who have contributed materially 
to the development and upbuilding of Kern county have come here from 
the south of France and among these we find Joseph Girard, who is one of 
the old settlers of Delano, coming as he did to this vicinity in 1889. tie was 
engaged in the sheep business up to 1909, since which time he has been in 
the cattle business. He was born in Ancelles, Hautes Alpes, France. January 
4, 1869, being the son of Francois and Delphino (Jullian) Girard. 

From a boy Joseph Girard made himself useful on the farm, becoming 
thoroughly familiar with the stock business, a knowledge that was of the 
greatest assistance to him after he came to California. In the local schools 
near his home he received a good education and training. When nineteen he 
determined to migrate to California, having an uncle, G. Jullian, and a 
brother, Emil, in San Francisco, and he accordingly left the old home to seek 
his fortune in the land of the Golden West, arriving in San Francisco in 
December of 1888. Here he remained for three months and in March, 1889, 
came to Kern county, where he entered into partnership with his brother, 
Philipp, and they continued together in sheep raising. Purchasing a ranch 
sixteen miles w'est of Delano, which was their headquarters, they introduced 
full-lilooded merinos, thus bringing their flock to a very high grade. In 
19C9 they sold their flocks and began the cattle business, in which they are 
very successful, raising short horn Durhams for beef cattle. They continue 
using the same brand, a small circle within a circle and joined by a bar on 
opposite sides. Their ranch comprises about five thousand acres, all under 
fence, being well watered by springs and by a pumping plant ; two sets of 
buildings have been erected, one at the Springs and the other at the pumping 
plant. A\'ith his family he resides in Delano, where he owns fifteen acres, 
adjoining the city, with a comfortable residence. In 1905 he visited his old 
home in France and there met the lady who became his wife October 18, 
1905. She was Eva Chabot, who was also a native of Hautes Alpes, born 
October 27, 1887, the daughter of Louis and Marie (Marron) Chabot. who 
were both teachers and for many years engaged in educational work. 

Mr. and Airs. Girard have had five children, four of whom are living: 
Arthur M., Justin F., Marcel P., deceased, Emil J. and Josephine Marie. Mr. 
Girard is public-spirited and a Republican in politics. 

JOHN KAAR. — Born in New Jersey in 1845, he traced his lineage to 
Germany through the Kaars, while on the maternal side he came from 
Scotch forefatliers. At an early age he removed from New Jersey to Illinois 
in company with his father. George Kaar, and settled on a tract of raw land 
near Princeton, where he soon learned to be helpful in the difficult tasks 
connected with the improvement of a farm. Meanwhile he was permitted to 
attend the country schools during the winter months when his help on the 
farm was not needed. During young manhood he married Miss Emma 
LeFever, who was born in Pennsylvania and died in California in 1909. 
Having acquired a thorough knowledge of brick-making, he settled in 
Benton county. Ind., and embarked in the manufacture of tile and brick, 
but at the same time carried on a farm in that locality. 

Bringing his familv to California in 1894, John Kaar arrived at Kern 



778 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

(now East Bakersfield) on the 5th of March and established a home on 
Central avenue. Immediately he became interested in the manufacture of 
brick. In connection with this industry he engaged in contracting and 
building. It soon came to be understood that he was an unusually skilled 
workman. Indeed, his reputation in that regard has not been surpassed. In 
Kern he erected a number of brick residences and cottages that are still 
owned by his children and it is said that they stand today apparently in 
as good condition as the day they were completed. People in a position 
to make authoritative statements assert that he built more residences and 
buildings in Kern than any other man in the town. Other enterprises 
enlisted his sympathy and co-operation, l)ut it was to the building business 
that he gave his keenest abilities and most unwearied devotion and until 
his death in 1909 he ranked among the most proficient and successful build- 
ers in Kern. Surviving him are five children, all of whom are well-known 
residents of East Bakersfield, namely : Eliza, Mrs. O. F. Howell ; Nellie, ]Mrs. 
David Sheedy ; George S., manager of the Citizens' Laundry ; Charles H., 
who is engaged in the automobile business as pro])rietor of the Studebaker 
Garage, at Eighteenth and L streets, Bakersfield; and Jacob P., a real 
estate dealer and rancher near Bakersfield. 

J. FRANK FOX. — Among the revered and beloved pioneers of California 
none was more thoroughly grounded in the facts historical and geographical, 
political and industrial, pertaining to the state than the late J. Frank Pox, 
who C( mbined with this knowledge the faculty of putting it into writing with 
that graphic ease and clever pen which attracted many readers. He was a 
member of a well-known, historic family, his maternal grandfather, Enoch 
Page, a native of New Hampshire, having seen active service in the French 
and Indian war, as well as the Revolutionary war. He held the commission 
of captain in the latter controversy, and he was with Washington when he 
crossed the Delaware and was present at the Battle of Bennington under 
General Stark. The Fox family was one of the oldest in Somerset county, Me., 
and Fox Hill was so named for the family. J. Prank Fox was born in Athens, 
that county and state, on April 2, 1826, and was there reared to young man- 
hood. In 1851 he came to California via Nicaragua and made San Francisco his 
destination. His first occupation was aiding in the building of the first steam- 
boat on Mission Bay. In 1853 he was United States consul in Old Alexico, 
where he remained for about fifteen years. He traveled considerably and was 
a newspaper correspondent, his natural bent being to accumulate knowledge 
and write down his ideas of conditicms and observations, which always 
proved entertaining as well as instructive. He later spent several years on the 
frontier of Texas and in 1876 returned to California. After spending a few years 
in Oakland and Sonoma county in ]\Iay of 1886 he located in Kern county, 
homesteading a ranch two and a half miles west of Delano. He improved a 
larm of one hundred and sixty acres and resided there until his retirement, 
and thereafter made his home with his daughter, Mrs. Martin, until his death, 
October 12, 1913. Mr. Fox was married in Mexico to Miss Lucita Benavidez, 
who was born in Pueblo, Mexico, of Castilian extraction. She passed away in 
Delano. 

Six children were bi rn to this union, of whom l)ut two arc now living, 
Mrs. Alice J. Pox-Martin, and Mrs. Emma DeSoto of Stockton. Mr. Fox was 
an ardent supporter of Republican principles, and was always well posted on 
current topics. He was an able historian, a clear and forcefid writer, and was 
at the time of his death writing the history of National Presidential Cam- 
])aigns, covering the ])eriod from 1828 to the present, drafting principally from 
his own recollections, and it bids fair to be one of the most interesting works 
of its kind ever published. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 781 

RICHARD JAMES MARTIN.— Just west of the flourishing town of 
Delano is situated a ranch of eighty acres whose well-improved condition 
together with the fine cattle seen on the ranch evidence the thorough con- 
ception of the details essential in the dairy business which the proprietor, 
Richard J. Martin, has been able to give them. A member of an old family, Mr. 
Martin was born in Bristol. England, August 5, 1864, the son of Alfred and 
Ann (Garland) Martin of that place. The father was a merchant and shoe 
manufacturer. He brought his family to the United States, locating at Colum- 
bus, Ohio, in 1869, and two years later found him located thirteen miles 
southwest of Tulare, Cal., on a homestead wdiich lay two miles from Tulare 
lake. It is interesting to note that at this time there was a steamboat plying 
on the lake. Alfred Martin followed the stock business until he was obfiged 
to retire from active labors, and thereafter he made his home in Tulare, where 
he passed away at the age of eighty-four years. His wife passed away at the 
age of eighty years. Six children had been born to this worthy pioneer couple, 
four now surviving. 

The youngest child born to his parents, Richard J. Martin was reared on 
the parental farm and received his literary training in the public school of the 
locality. He was married in Visalia March 5, 1890, to Miss Alice J. Fox, who 
was born in Monterey, daughter of J. Frank Fox, who was a pioneer in Cali- 
fornia and one of the first settlers in the vicinity of Delano. Mrs. Martin 
was educated in the public schools of Oakland and Santa Rosa, and later 
received a thorough musical training at Pacific University, Santa Rosa. For 
many years she engaged as a music teacher and her splendid talent was recog- 
nized and deeply appreciated by all her associates. After their marriage Mr. 
and Mrs. Martin resided in Tulare until 1893, when they located permanently 
in Kern county and engaged in the dairy business. On their ranch is a pump- 
ing plant with a caoacity of sixty-five inches, and Air. Martin is sowing most 
tif the acreage to alfalfa. The dairy business is conducted on the most sanitarv 
and carefully-adjusted plans, and the vicinity around Delano is supplied with 
its product, a portion being shipped to Tulare. Together with these dairy 
interests Mr. Martin owns valuable residence property in Delano and three 
hundred and twenty acres further west. He is an active member of the Wood- 
men of the World and affiliates too with the Modern Woodmen of-America at 
Delano. Mrs. Martin is a member of the Women of Woodcraft at liakers- 
field and the Royal Neighbors of Delano, of which latter she has been pre- 
siding officer for two terms. Socially active and popular they are prominent 
in religious and musical circles, and Mrs. Martin has been organist for both 
the Methodist and Baptist churches at Delano at different times for the past 
twenty-five years. As ardent Republicans the Martins take public-spirited 
interest in all local issues and unite with all good purposes for the common 
welfare. 

E. H. LEIERITZ. — A feature of the modern building in Bakersfield is 
the development of the bungalow plan. When Mr. Leieritz came to this city 
in December of 1908 to make his home and to embark in contracting, he 
brought with him many ideas profitably utilized in Los Angeles, his former 
place of business, and in addition he evolved many original ideas of his own 
that added to the beauty and utility of these artistic structures. The first 
bungalow in this city was erected under his supervision. At once the popu- 
larity of the plan was pronounced. Since then over one hundred bungalows 
have been erected from his own plans and under his personal supervision, 
all of these buildings constituting a distinct addition to the attractions of 
Bakersfield as a city of pretty homes. 

By virtue of his birth in Los Angeles Mr. Leieritz ranks as a native son. 
His parents, George and Julia (Meyers) Leieritz, were natives respectively of 
Alsace, Germany, and Kansas City, Kan., and are now living on a farm at 



782 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Downey. Cal. The maternal grandfather, Ernest Meyers, born and reared 
in Germany, became a pioneer of Kansas and served throughout the entire 
Civil war as a member of a Kansas regiment of infantry. After some years 
in Kansas, George Leieritz came to California and settled in Los Angeles, 
where his son, E. H.. was born October 11, 1880. There were thirteen chil- 
dren in the family and it is a noteworthy fact that all but two are still 
living. The fourth in order of birth, E. H., received his education in the 
Los Angeles schools and later served an apprenticeship to the trade of 
carpenter in his native city. Upon having gained a thorough practical 
knowledge of every detail connected with the occupation he began to work 
by the day, from that he gradually drifted into contract work. After three 
years as a contractor in Los Angeles he came to Bakersfield and here he has 
enjoyed a successful business experience and has also become a member of 
the Bakersfield Club. Accompanying him to this city was his wife, whom he 
had married in Los Angeles and who was formerly Miss Elizabeth Kennedy, 
member of a family that came to California from her native city of Burling- 
ton, Iowa. One child blesses their union, Francis Louis. 

JACOB WALTER.— Since 1901 Mr. Walter has devoted his time to 
the management of his interests, which include the ownership of the Walter's 
hotel building on Nineteenth street, a ranch near Corners, eighty acres in the 
Weed Patch, forty acres in peaches and apricots near Beardsley school house 
and an alfalfa ranch under the Beardsley canal three miles northwest of 
Bakersfield. 

The village of Lohningen, Canton Schafifhausen, Switzerland, near the bor- 
der of Germany, was the childhood home of Jacob Walter, who was born there 
October 7. 1840, being a son of Johannes and Ann (Bollinger) Walter, lifelong 
residents of the same region. There w^ere seven children in the parental family 
and Jacob is the youngest of the three now living. As a boy he assisted on 
the farm operated by his father, who being a practical weaver as well as a 
farmer taught the lad the trade of a linen weaver. At the age of twenty-five 
years he relinquished his work in Europe and came to the United States, in 
1865, where he found employment in a factory in Chicago. From there in 
1868 he removed to San Francisco and learned the trade of a baker and cook. 
The following year found him employed as a cook in Sacramento and in 1872 
he went to Nevada, but from there in 1873 he came to Bakersfield as the first 
cook in the Arlington house. At the expiration of five months he bought 
out the City bakery on Nineteenth street and operated this in connection with 
a restaurant. Upon being burned out in 1889 he erected a brick block on 
Nineteenth between L and M streets. The structure, still known as the 
Walter's hotel, is 99x68 feet in dimensions, on a lot 99x1 15>4 feet, and in 
addition to the hotel a grocery and a bakery also lease space on the first 
floor. Since the retirement of the original proprietor in 1901 the hotel has 
been rented and he has devoted his attention to the management of his 
large property interests. Upon the organization of the Security Trust Com- 
pany he became one of the first stockholders and still retains shares in the 
concern, besides being interested in the Los Angeles Fire Insurance Company. 

The attractive family residence at No. 1008 Truxtun avenue is graciously 
presided over by Mrs. ^^^alter, formerly Miss Evelena Funk, whose native 
home was in Eldorado county, this state, but who had lived in Bakersfield for 
some time prior to her marriage. A lifelong resident of the state and a mem- 
ber of a pioneer family, she cherishes a deep devotion to the welfare of the 
west and with her husband finds pleasure in the reunions of the Society of 
Pioneers, to which both belong. Their family comprises four children, name- 
ly: Gustav, Mrs. Olive Grogg, Leo and Gertrude, all of whom make Bakers- 
field their home. The political views of Mr. Walter bring him into sympathy 
with the Republican party and he always has kept posted concerning prob- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 785 

lems of national or civic importance, his devotion to the city leading him to 
fill the office of city trustee for a period of two years. 

MRS. ELLEN M. TRACY.— As a link between the deprivations of 
frontier existence and the refinements of twentieth-century civilization the 
life of Mrs. Tracy possesses a rare and permanent interest to the residents of 
Bakersfield, who appreciate the importance of her optimistic faith to the 
early upbuilding of the city and the value of her unfailing hospitality to the 
social amenities of the then frontier town. Rooted deep in her soul, a part 
indeed of life itself, is her love for California, whither she came during 
the '50s and to whose material progress she has given of time and physical 
strength and mental resources. Particularly has she been interested in the 
advancement of liakersfield, the city named in honor of her first husband, 
Col. Thomas Baker, and dear to her not only for that reason, but also on 
account of her own long identification therewith. As the pioneer woman 
resident of the then unattractive hamlet, she and the Colonel, himself one of 
the few white male citizens, lived in an adobe cabin which he had built on 
the corner of Nineteenth and N streets. During the first three years they 
spent in the cabin it had no floor save Mother Earth. There was, however, 
in the hospitality extended by the mistress of this primeval home a gracious- 
ness, a warmth and a kindness that won the heart of every visitor. 

Descended from Holland-Dutch ancestry, Ellen M. Alverson was born 
in Ann Arbor, Mich., December 21, 1837, being the daughter of a talented 
physician whose birth had occurred in Perry, Wyoming county, N. Y., in 
1808 and whose remarkable professional attainments had led to his selec- 
tion to serve as a lecturer in the medical department of the University of 
Michigan. After resigning that position he removed to Marengo, Iowa 
county, Iowa, where he engaged in practice for twenty years and became 
widely known for skill in diagnosis and accuracy in the treatment of disease. 
Upon his removal to California in 1874 he opened an office at Bakersfield 
and scon built up a practice that extended into all of Kern county, con- 
tinuing in active professional labors until shortly before his death, which 
occurred in 1879 at Tehachapi. Prior to his departure from New York he 
had married in Genesee county Miss Charlotte Graves, who was born in 
Perry, that state, and in 1866 died at Marengo, Iowa. From her earliest rec- 
ollections Mrs. Tracy was familiar with the frontier. During the '40s the now 
cultured and populous city of Ann Arbor was an insignificant hamlet whose 
one claim to distinction was its seat of learning, then as now one of the 
great educational institutions of the country. For a time she attended school 
in that town, but in young girlhood she came to California, where at Visalia 
in 1857 she became the wife of Col. Thomas Baker, one of the noted pioneers 
of the west. In all his work he had the benefit of her shrewd counsel and 
active co-operation. While he was acting as receiver of the United States 
land office at Visalia an occasion arose when he had $20,000 on hand be- 
longing to the United States government and to be taken to San Francisco 
for deposit. When preparing for the journey an Indian smuggled to him a 
note written on a dirty piece of paper and warning him that Vasquez and 
his band were planning to rob him in the stage when he took the govern- 
ment money to San Francisco. The woman's wit of Mrs. Baker saved the 
day. She suggested that she accompany him, taking their infant son, 
Thomas A., (now the sheriff of Kern county), believing that by so doing the 
desperadoes would conclude that they were not taking the money with them. 
The ruse was successful. The money was packed in a buckskin sack and 
placed in the bottom of a carpet-bag, with baby clothes on top. On Monday 
morning they mounted the stage and departed from Visalia. By eight 
o'clock on Tuesday night they were in San Francisco and the money had 
been turned over in safety to the proper authorities. 

After the Colonel's death his widow made her home in Kern county and 



786 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

took charge of his estate. During 1875 she married Ferdinand A. Tracy, a 
pioneer citizen and extensive stockman, whose demise occurred in Bakers- 
field January 9, 1908. Mrs. Tracy now makes her home with her daughter, 
Mrs. John M. Jameson, of Bakersfield. In this city she still owns real estate 
purchased In' her first husl)and during frontier days. From all of his lands 
and possessions she saved eighty acres located in the vicinity of O and 
Twenty-seccnd streets. On Nineteenth street she erected a neat frame 
house, but shortly after the completion of the residence it was destroyed by 
fire, July 7, 1889. The tract of eighty acres was mostly subdivided and sold 
off in lots. From it she donated the site for two public institutions, one of 
these being the Children's Shelter, where about fifty or]:)hans are cared for. 
Under her supervision were erected a number of residences that were a credit 
to r)akersfield. She is a member of Bakersfield Chapter No. 125, O. E. S., 
and for the past fifteen years has been worthy chaplain. 

AMBROISE VILLARD.— Near Gap, Hautes-Alpes, France, Ambroise 
Villard was born July 1, 1851, the son of Ambroise and Amiee (Rambaud) 
Villard, farmers near Gap, where they reared their nine children, of whom 
five are living, Ambroise being the oldest. Educated in public schools 
in his native land, Mr. Villard lived with his parents till in 1872, 
when, having heard good reports of the Golden West, he came to 
California to try his fortune. Settling in Ventura county, Cal., he worked 
there for wages three years, after which he engaged in sheep raising 
for himself in that county, herding his sheep through the San Joaquin valley 
into Inyo county. In 1877 he made his first trip to Kern county, but he did 
not locate here permanently until 1881, at that time making his headquarters 
in Delano. By adhering steadily to the business which he had undertaken 
he finally made a success of it, bringing to bear in its fruition a good knowl- 
edge of affairs and a strong personality. In 1903, after over thirty years con- 
tinuous experience, he sold his sheep in order to give his attention to cattle 
raising, a business which he has since developed to large proportions. Eight- 
een miles east of Delano Mr. Villard took up a claim to which he later added 
from time to time by the purchase of adjoining land until he became the 
owner of forty-eight hundred acres all in one body. All of his cattle and 
horses bear the brand: which he has adopted as his trade mark, which is a 
"V" and "A" closely connected, "VA." All in all Mr. Villard's business 
career is one of which any man might be proud.. Coming to this country 
with very little capital, he has won a place as leader of leaders in a great 
state. As he has found good opportunity he has invested in enterprises of 
different kinds, always with profitable results. He is a stockholder in the 
First Xaiional Bank of Delano and in the Delano-Linn's valley telephone 
system, in which he is a director, and is also interested in the Rochdale store 
here. 

In San Francisco, January 29, 1887, Mr. Villard married Eugenie Marie 
Faure, also a native of Hautes-Alpes, France, born January 24, 1868. Upon 
coming to California she resided in Los Angeles until coming to Kern county. 
Mrs. Villard became the mother of eleven children, as follows. Ambroise, 
deceased; Albert, who in 1912 was married to Agnes Panero ; and Adriene, 
Eugene, August, Joseph, Mary, Jule, Gabriel, Annie and Daniel, all of the 
last mentioned at home, and the older sons assist their father in the cattle 
business. 

WILLIAM TYLER. — 'IMie honor of having recorded the first deed in 
Kern county belongs to this well-known California pioneer of 1859. who 
although of Canadian birth, is of American parents, and allows none to 
surpa.s's him in devotion to the commonwealth of the Stars and Strioes. The 
old homestead where he was born June 20, 1836, stood in Napierville, Que- 
bec, Canada, onlv a few miles north of the New York state line, and the 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 789 

later residence of the family, at Iberville, Quebec, was almost equally near 
to the United States. His father, Orange Tyler, a member of a colonial family 
of New England, was born at Thetford, Orange county, Vt., in 1801 and 
from there reniDved to the province of Quebec, took up land and acquired 
considerable property first at Napierville and later in Iljerville, where he 
remained until death. In the same Canadian district occurred the demise of 
his wife, Mary (Poutre) Tyler, who was of French extraction. After having 
been a student in the public schools of Iberville and an academy at Bakers- 
field. A't., William Tyler went to New York City to earn a livelihood and 
from there in 1859 came via Panama to California, making the voyage on 
the Star of the West to the Isthmus and the Golden Gate on the Pacific. 
After he had landed at San Francisco May 17, 1859, he went direct to Amador 
county and began mining at Jackson, but was unsuccessful and returned to 
San Francisco in 1862. 

A brief experience during 1863 as a clerk in a general mercantile store 
at Santa Clara was followed by a return to mining, but this time Mr. 
Tyler went into Nevada and prospected at Aurora and also in the Mont- 
gomery district. From there in 1864 he and a companion walked across the 
country a distance of three hundred miles, down the Owens river, through 
Walker's Pass and through a valley where only three days before the 
Indians had massacred a party of white men, finally landing at Havilah. 
Kern county, after a perilous and wearisome journey. Shortly after his 
arrival the county was organized with H. D. Bequette as the first county 
clerk and he chose as his deputy Mr. Tyler, who in that capacity recorded 
in his own handwriting the first deed in the county. For several years 
he was employed in a mine owned by Dr. de La Borde. During 1869 he 
went to Los Angeles, then a picturesque but small and unpromising Spanish 
village. Returning to Kern county in 18/0 he resumed mining and pros- 
pecting, but later gave his attention to boring wells in the interests of 
L. R. Hodgkins. L'pon establishing a permanent home in Bakersfield he 
held deputyships under various county ofificers, including the position of 
deputy assessor under T. E. Harding. Later he held the office of county 
auditor for two terms of two years each, after which he engaged in the real- 
estate business for some years with his brother, Edmond Tyler, and since 
retiring from that business he has devoted his attention to the oversight of 
his personal interests. At this writing he acts as manager of the Tyler 
Timber Company of Delano, Kern county, in which capacity he superin- 
tended the planting of one hundred and sixty acres in eucalyptus trees and 
has a general charge of the two hundred and forty acres owned by the 
company in the vicinity of Delano. 

Mr. Tyler is a widower and his home in Bakersfield is presided over 
by his daughter, Miss Louise Adelaide. His wife, whom he married in 
San Francisco and who bore the maiden name of Carrie B. Evans, was born 
at New Durham Ridge, N. H., and died in San Francisco October 24. 1902. 
The only child of the union, who possesses her mother's energy of tempera- 
ment and charm of manner, is a popular guest at social functions and also 
a leading worker in the Eastern Star. Fraternally Mr. Tyler was made a 
Mason in Dorchester Lodge. ¥. & A. M., at St. Johns, Canada, and now 
holds membership with Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M., to whose 
philanthropies he has contributed generously and regularly for years. In 
politics he votes with the Democratic party. 

W. W, KELLY. — Genealogical records attest to the Anglo-Saxon origin 
of the Kelly family and their emigration from England to Alabama, where 
occurred the birth of G. M. Kelly, a son of the original immigrant and him- 
self a pioneer of 1857 in California. When a young man he had married 
Miss Sarah Henderson, who was born in Illinois in 1837, and the eldest 



790 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

of their children was an infant when they joined an expedition bound for 
the western coast. A brother-in-law, Capt. Bass Parker, acted as leader of 
the emigrant train and all went well until a shortage of provisions led to 
changes in the route. The party divided, the larger part going by way of 
Salt Lake in order to secure necessary supplies. A smaller body decided to 
proceed via Mountain Meadows and started along that highway without fear 
of trouble. The savages fell upon them and massacred them without mercy. 
Shortly afterward the larger expedition came along and first learned of the 
disaster when they found the dead bodies of their former companions. 
The bodies were given a Christian burial and the party then came on to 
California. Always afterward Captain Parker clung to the belief that if the 
smaller party had remained with them, they wt uld have formed a force 
sufficiently large to withstand any assault made by the Indians. 

Arriving at Visalia in the autumn of 1857 G. M. Kelly made a temporary 
home there, but soon went to Elkhorn in Fresno county for the purpose of 
conducting a stage station. In the fall of 1858 he again came to Visalia and 
bought land one mile south of town. The property still remains in the 
family. Immediately after his arrival he put up a crude cabin of shakes with 
a puncheon floor. Later he replaced this with a better house and eventually 
erected a modern house. The original tract of forty acres has been enlarged 
until the fine stock and grain farm now includes one hundred and ninety 
acres. Since the death of Mr. Kelly in 1884 at the age of fifty-three years the 
widow has continued at the old homestead and now occupies the third house 
built on the tract. Of her eleven children all but one are still living, W. W., 
the fifth of these, having been born in Visalia, this state, July 22, 1863. 
When the Native Sons of the Golden West organized a parlor in Visalia he 
became one of its charter members. During early life he assisted his father 
on the farm and at the age of sixteen clerked in a store. After the death of 
his father he remained at the old homestead for some time, meanwhile engag- 
ing in the dairy industry, general farming and the raising of alfalfa. 

Upon coming to P)akersfield in 1895 Air. Kelly started in the agricul- 
tural implement business with W. C. Baker and Van Stoner. Eventually 
they sold out to A. F. Stoner, the present owner, for whom Mr. Kelly acted 
as manager until 1902, resigning then in order to embark in the real-estate 
l)usiness. Since then he has been among the most active and successful 
handlers of property in the county and has bought and sold various farms, 
also bought lots and built residences in Bakersfield. Altogether he has 
erected about sixty houses. Included in his activities may be mentioned the 
improvement of one-half block on Thirteenth and I streets, where he built 
four houses, one of these being his own modern and comfortable residence. 
In the organization of the Bakersfield Realty Board he was deeply inter- 
ested and became its first secretary, holding the office for a long time. 
Besides real estate he has an insurance department and represents the- Mary- 
land Casualty Company, Phoenix Assurance Company of London, Con- 
necticut Fire Insurance Company of Hartford and American Surety Com- 
pany of New York. 

The fraternal relations of Mr. Kelly bring him into active association 
with the Modern Woodmen of America, Woodmen of the World. Knights 
of Pythias and Ancient Order of United Workmen. Politically he always 
supports the men and measures advocated by the Republican party. His 
marriage took place in Kern county and united him with Miss Lillie Pulliam, 
who was born in Clinton, Henry county. Mo., and is the daughter of T. J. 
Pulliam, a builder by occupation. The only child of the union, Edward A., 
a graduate of the Kern county high school, now assists Mr. Kelly in the 
real-estate and insurance business. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 793 

LEWIS B, CROW. — A native son, Lewis B. Crow, of Delano, Kern 
connty, was born on the Stanislaus ri\er near Ripon, San Joaquin county, 
Cal., June 2, 1859, and has lived in Kern county since 1892. He is the son 
of A\'illiam H. and Barbara E. (Dye) Crow, l3orn in Kentucky and Ohio 
respectively. Married in Scotland county. Mo., they were farmers in that 
state as early as 1852. The father first crossed the plains alone to California 
with ox-teams. Returning east, he again crossed the plains in 1854, bringing 
with him his wife and one child. Settling in Sonoma, he later located on 
a ranch near Ripon, where he followed stock-raising and grain-raising until his 
death, in 1884. His wife died about 1866. Of their union were born five 
children, three daughters and two sons, of whom two daughters and one son 
are living, Lewis B. Crow being the youngest member of the family. 

After leaving the grammar school, young Crow was for two years a 
student at Santa Rosa College. Having completed his education, he was for 
two years an assistant to his father in stock-raising, \\4ien at length he 
left hoine he went to Waterford, the same county, where he farmed rented 
land seven years. Failing to make a success there because of adverse con- 
ditions which it was impossible for him to overcome, he came to Kern county 
in 1892, locating at Delano. For fifteen years after his arrival he worked 
for wages at general farming. In 1907, having accumulated a little capital, 
he engaged in the butcher business at Delano, an enterprise which has since 
commanded his best efforts and advanced him to a good position in local 
business circles. The business covers a wide territory, extending throughout 
the northern part of Kern and southern Tulare county, delivery being made 
by automobile. I'^arming also has had his attention and he has been much 
more successful in Kern county than he was in Stanislaus county. At this 
time he is operating over six thousand acres of rented land, raising wheat 
which he gathers with a cond)ined harvester. As occasion has furnished 
opportunity he has had to do with various business interests and he is at 
this time a stockholder in the local telephone system, the Delano & Linn's 
Valley Telephone Company. 

Since his young manhood Mr. Crow has been interested in politics and 
wherever he has lived he has been in a public-spirited way active and helpful 
in the promotion of local interests, and from time to time he has filled various 
offices of importance. "While still a resident of Stanislaus county he was an 
unsuccessful candidate for the office of sheriff. In 1906 he was appointed 
a justice of the peace at Delano to fill a vacancy and afterward elected to 
the office of c(.nstable. Both these offices he filled with signal ability and 
fidelity. Fraternally he affiliates with Camp No. 460, \A\ O. W., at Bakersfield. 

THOMAS BLAINE WISEMAN.— The opportunities offered by the 
great northwest attracted Abner \Mseman from his native commonwealth of 
Kentucky during the year 1884, when, accompanied by his wife, Sarah E. 
(Abney) Wiseman, and their children, he established a home in Walla 
Walla. For some years he was unusually successful and carried on a grain 
business representing large interests. In all probability he would have 
become very wealthy had not the unfortunate panic of the Cleveland admin- 
istration occurred, but in 1894 he was forced to give up his business, having 
lost many thousands of dollars. The following year he moved to California 
and began anew in the world, but he never regained his lost fortune and his 
children were obliged to become self-supporting wdien yet (piite young. At 
this writing he makes his home at Sawtelle, Los Angeles county, and is 
practically retired from business cares. He served in the Civil war as mem- 
ber of the Fourth Kentucky Mounted Infantry for three years and then 
joined the Eighth Kentucky Infantry, serving until the close of the war. He 
is an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic. 

There were six children in the parental family, the eldest of whom, 



794 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Annie, married Jefferson D. Wiseman and died in 1895, leaving two children. 
The eldest son, George AV., resides at Sawtelle, where he owns diversified 
interests as proprietc r of a livery stable, flour and feed business and ice 
business, also buys and sells real estate ; he was a member of the Thirtieth 
United States Infantry and served in the Philippines during the Spanish- 
American war. Martha married J. R. Armstrong, of Turlock, Stanislaus 
county, Cal., now engaged in ranching and in the commission business, 
besides being proprietor of a store and postmaster at Irwin, Stanislaus 
county. Joel S. is a contractor and builder at Sawtelle and Haldon. Ray 
is an inventor, residing at Santa Monica. The youngest of the six members 
of the family circle was Thomas Blaine, whose birth occurred at Walla 
Walla, Wash., April 23, 1885, and who was ten years old when the family 
came to California, where he attended the public schools of Santa Monica. 
At the age of thirteen he left school and began to learn the carpenter's trade. 
When seventeen he began to take contracts for building and in the same 
year he built the Christian Church building in Sawtelle, also the Sawtelle 
branch of the Santa Monica Bank and the first railroad depot at Sawtelle on 
the Los Angeles Pacific road. B. A. Nebeker of Santa Monica was his first 
backer. Later W. E. Sawtelle, founder of the village of that name, Roy 
Jones of Santa Monica, and L. D. Loomis, seeing his ability, industry and 
his skill in construction, backed him financially in his contracts, and this was 
of the greatest assistance to him. The mid-winter edition of the Los Angeles 
Times in 1903 devoted considerable soace to the young contractor and 
emphasized the remarkable success which he had achieved when still less 
than twenty years of age. 

Mr. A\'iseman removed from California to Arizona and on the day of 
his arrival became superintendent of construction on the government cus- 
tom-house building at Douglas. For eighteen months he continued at that 
place, meanwhile building perhaps more than twelve stores and public 
structures, several buildings for the Arizona & Mexico Realty Building Com- 
pany, the Nihart building and the store owned by the Douglas Wholesale 
Feed & Fuel C( mpany, and he also drew plans for and built the branch 
territorial jail at Douglas. On his return to California he became draftsman 
and superintendent of construction for leading architects of Los Angeles. 
During the latter part of 1909 he removed to Bakersfield and took up archi- 
tecture as manager for Train & Williams, of Los Angeles, whose interests 
he purchased in 1910. During February of 1911 he tock the examination 
before the California state board of architecture and received his license as 
architect. At this writing he is the youngest licensed architect in the state 
and enjo3^s the distinction of being the only person who has passed the 
state board examination without a technical training or scholastic course in 
architecture and without having received university or high-school education. 

The marriage of Mr. Wiseman took place in Lcs Angeles in 1902 and 
united him with Miss Alice F. Thacher, a native of Onyx. Kern county, and 
they haA'e three children, Chauncey E., Thomas B., Jr., and Alice. The par- 
ents of Mrs. Wiseman were Oliver and Bertha Thacher, the former a soldier 
of the Civil war (having served in a Pennsylvania regiment) and a pioneer 
of 1869 in Kern county where for some time he resided at Havilah, then 
the county seat. Later the family removed to Los Angeles, where Miss 
Thacher met and married Wr. Wiseman. In the early part of his business 
career Mr. AA'iseman had the contracts for the Roy J( nes residence at Santa 
Monica, the Santa Monica garage and the Savannah school in El Monte. 
Since coming to Bakersfield he has the following buildings in this city to his 
credit: Hotel Euclid, Plotel Manchester, Baldwin building, Gardner build- 
ing. Hotel Moronet, Scofield building, Fl Reposo C(irte, Echo building, Mor- 
gati building, and the manual arts building of the Kern comity high school; 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 797 

also ill the outside districts, the Bank of Maricopa, Coons & Price building 
and the Bush building at Maricopa; the Conley school at Taft ; Midway 
school at Fellows ; grammar school at Wasco, the Helm and Cormack build- 
ings and the Greene building at Wasco; Lowell school at Turlock and Haw- 
thorne grammar school in the same town ; and the Merced Security Savings 
Bank at Atwater, Cal. He is a member of the Los Angeles Architectural 
Club and the American Institute of Architects. 

EDWIN THOMAS LEWIS.— Allured by reports concerning the pos- 
sibilities of the then unknown west, Josuah Flood Lewis, a native of Pike 
county, JNIo., while a young man left his lifelong home during the summer 
of 1851 and crossed the plains to California in an ox-team train. The tedious 
trip contained the usual round of excitement and danger, but came to a 
safe and uneventful end with the arrival of the expedition at its point of 
dispersion. As he had brought cattle and horses across the country from 
Missouri, it was his desire to find land suitable for a stock range. In his 
search for a suitable location he visited Tulare county and selected a tract 
of land above Visalia, where afterward he engaged in the stcck industry 
with more or less success. During the residence of the family on that ranch 
Edwin T. Lewis was born March 12, 1858, and in due time he was sent to 
the Visalia school, later attended the Porterville school, and after his par- 
ents moved to Kern county in 1869 he became a pupil in the Woody school. 
The father continued as a stock-raiser in this county until his death in 
1879. Leaving home, the son worked on farms in California and Arizona for 
a time. 

Upon returning to this part of the state Mr. Lewis worked at Tehachapi 
for a short time, then engaged in the cattle business at Kernville for two 
years and for a similar period made a specialty of hog-raising in Linn's valley 
near Woody. During 1880 he became an employe on the Miller & Lux 
ranch, where he continued for about a year, and in 1881 he became a vaquero 
on the Buena Vista ranch owned by the Kern County Land Company. ]\Iean- 
while he had attained his majority and was thus able to carry out a 
long cherished plan, that of taking up government land under the homestead 
laws. For his tract he selected a quarter section in Jerry slough, where at 
once he began the task of cultivation of the virgin soil. He bored the first 
artesian well on the undeveloped portion of Jerry slough, obtained a flowing 
well, and since then has put down other wells to obtain water for irrigation 
and built a reservoir to store the water. He still retains one hundred and 
forty acres, and engages in general farming and stock-raising. To earn means 
necessary for the development of his ranch he entered the employ of Mr. 
Canfield, for whom he worked about eleven years, and thus secured the 
start so indispensable to a pioneer rancher. A glance at his splendid stand 
of alfalfa convinces a stranger as to the adaptability of the soil to that 
crop, for at times the hay grows as high as seven feet, and each year he cuts 
four or five crops, averaging six tons to the acre. Few sections of the state 
are as well adapted to alfalfa as this part of Kern county and it is largely 
to this fact that Mr. Lewis owes his high rating as a farmer and his suc- 
cess in the stock industry. 

THOMAS HOPPER.— The agent of the AA'ells-Fargo Express Company 
at Bakersfield has been familiar from boyhood with the business in which he 
now engages, for he was but a lad when he began to act as assistant to his 
father, an express agent in a California town, and thus he gained a practical 
experience of the greatest value to him in later positions of responsibility. 
All of his life has been passed within this commonwealth and his native vil- 
lage, lone, afifcrded him fair opportunities in an educational way. It was 
in this town that his father, Benjamin, who was born and reared in the vicin- 
ity of Liverpool, England, and came to California at the age of eighteen to 



798 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

engage in mining ventures, served as agent fur the Wells-Fargo Express 
Company for many years, in addition to carrying on a general store. The 
town being situated at the terminal point of a railroad possessed considerable 
commercial importance and formed the trading point for people living in 
every direction therefrom. Naturally, also, the express business had much 
importance and the agent trained his only son to assist him in every way 
possible. The wife and mother, who bore the maiden name of Mary Miller 
and was born at Volcano, Amador county, died at lone, in the same county, 
when her two children were very small. The younger of the two, Thomas, 
was born at lone August 21, 1879, and remained at home until he was 
twenty-one, meanwhile working in the store of his father. When starting 
out for himself he was given a position with the Wells-Fargo Company as 
messenger between lone and Gait, Sacramento county. Two years later he 
resigned in order to become a messenger on the Santa Fe Railroad out from 
Fresno and at the expiration of three years he was promoted to be agent at 
the Southern Pacific depot in that city. 

The next promotion brought Mr. Hopper to Bakersfield in 1910 as agent 
for the Wells-Fargo Express Connany, whose interests he since has man- 
aged at this point with characteristic intelligence and sagacity. Although 
still a young man, he has had an experience of sixteen years in the business 
and is thoroughly familiar with all of its details, so that he possesses every 
qualification necessary for positions of great responsibility in the express 
service. In the various places of his residence, when voting at all, he invar- 
iably has voted the Republican ticket, for he believes in the principles and 
platform of that party and attributes the growth and prosperity of our coun- 
try to the wise leadership (if its statesmen. His family comprises wife and 
one daughter, Ramona Marbine, Mrs. Hopper, formerly Gertrude Scott 
McArdle, having been a native of Placer county. 

JOE M. ATWELL. — The general superintendent of the producing de- 
partment of the Standard Oil Company in California comes of an old and 
honored American lineage. Through his father the genealogy of the family 
is traced to remote Scotch ancestry. The maternal records indicate a direct 
descent from the illustrious Ethan Allen, leader of the Green Mountain boys 
in the famous attack upon Ticonderoga, the brave and fearless man who hav- 
ing crossed the lake to the fort at dawn marched at the head of his untrained 
and insignificant command, captured the garrison and called on the captain 
(according to tradition) to surrender in the name of the great Jehovah and 
the Continental Congress. The deference shown to Allen and the respect 
entertained for his sagacity appears in the fact that he was sent into Canada 
to endeavor to persuade the Canadians and Indians to ally themselves with 
the Americans. However when later in the same year of 1775 he made an 
attack upc n Montreal he lost many of his men and himself fell into 
the hands of the enemy and was sent to England as a prisoner of war. 

Tracing the family history through the nineteenth century we find that 
Ethan Allen W^ashburn, the lineal descendant of the Revolutionary com- 
mander, left his native Vermont to aid in the agricultural upbuilding of 
Michigan, which at the time was beyond the confines of civilization. Not 
only did he develop a farm in Lenawee county, of which he was one of the 
early settlers, but in addition he served as the first sherifif of that county, 
filled other public offices of trust and responsibility, and further had a local 
reputation for skill as a veterinary surgeon. Among his children there was 
a daughter, Lura Washburn, a native of Adrian, Lenawee county, Mich., 
where in young womanhood she became the wife of John Atwell. who was 
born in Port Henry, N. Y. For some years Mr. Atwell engaged in the 
lumber business, but later he became interested in Michigan mines. Event- 
uallv he devoted his entire time to the mercantile business in Glasgow, 



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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 801 

Lenawee county. Of his two children the sole survivor, Joe M., was born 
in Adrian, Mich.. January 26, 1868, and received a fair education in grammar 
and high schools and in Brown's Business College. For two years after 
lca\ing school he worked along agricultural lines. 

The first association of Mr. Atwell with the Standard Oil Company 
occurred during the year 1889. At the beginning of the construction of the 
refinery at Whiting, Ind., he entered the employ of the corporation, occupy- 
ing different positions and remaining at the same place for about eight years. 
Next he was transferred to Kansas and assigned to work on the construction 
of the refinery at Neodesha, where he remained for one year. Returning to 
Indiana and to Whiting, he was assigned to the paymaster's office with the 
Standard Oil Company. In the general offices at Whiting he held different 
positions, remaining there until 1900, when he was transferred to California 
as a special agent. As superintendent of construction he had charge of the 
pipe-line work through the oil fields of Southern California and the Santa 
Maria and San Joaquin valleys. Meanwhile he had been united in marriage, 
at Oakland, this state, with Miss Emma WAdie, of Cleveland. Ohio, and had 
established a h( me at Bakersfield, where he is now a popular and prominent 
member of the Bakersfield Club. Since 1908 he has officiated as general 
superintendent of the producing department of the Standard Oil Company's 
oil fields in California and since 1911 the headquarters of his business have 
been at Bakersfield. In earlier years he was a member of the Transporta- 
tion Club of San Francisco. 

JOHN BIDART. — Third in a family of twelve children born to Jean 
and Catherine (Inda) Bidart, ten of these children now living, John 
Bidart was born in 1867. in Basses-Pyrenees, in the town of Urapel, 
where he received his education. He remained in his native country until 
he reached his majority, when he fulfilled a long-felt desire to come to the 
United States and try his fortune here. In 1888 he reached California, and 
coming to Kern county engaged in the stock business, starting with sheep, 
which he ranged during the winters in Kern county ; in the summers, how- 
ever, they were ranged in the mountains in the counties of Kern, Inyo, 
Tulare, P^resno, Merced, Stanislaus, Mariposa, Kings, Mono, Sonoma, Cala- 
veras, Tuolumne, Amador, Lassen, Eldorado, Placer, San Luis Obispn, Ven- 
tura and San Joaquin, thus covering an enormous amount of territory. He 
is one of the largest sheep men in the county. He also raises cattle, horses 
and hogs of the best variety, his hcgs being the Poland-China breed, his 
sheep Merino, cattle the full blooded Durham variety and his horses are 
roadsters and saddle bred. 

Mr. Bidart has his residence in East Bakersfield, while his ranch head- 
quarters are at Rancherio on Kern river. His ranch on Kern Island covers 
about four hundred acres, which is planted to alfalfa and corn, and this is 
situated about twelve miles south of Bakersfield. Fifteen hundred head of 
cattle are run out of Rancherio, and are raised with such excellent care 
and attention that their reputation in the market is ranked among the best. 
Mr. Bidart's experience in the stock-raising business has covered a quarter 
of a century more or less, and it is to this that he owes his present pros- 
perity and exceptional success. He is known far and wide as an authority 
on breeding and the care of stock, and his advice is often sought by those 
whose experience has not been so far-reaching. W^hen Mr. Bidart started in 
the sheep business supplies were carried on the backs of pack animals, while 
today he uses an automobile to go from ranch to ranch and to his various 
flocks. 

Mr. ['.idart was married in East Bakersfield to Miss Marian Inda. who 
like himself was a native of Basses-Pyrenees, France. To them have been 
born five children. Leonard. Catherine, Francois, Louisa and John Anton. The 



802 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

last-mentioned child died in 1913. Another child born to the parents now bears 
the name of John A. 

RALEIGH A. MOORE.— With ihe tide of migration that carried the 
sturdy American pioneers from the shores of the Atlantic ocean to the 
undeveloped prairies that stretched out toward the setting sun, the Moore 
family became established in Ohio and thence was transplanted upon the 
soil of Indiana by Samuel Moore, a resourceful frontiersman whose ener- 
getic temperament left a permanent impress upon his own neighborhood. 
William F., son of Samuel, and a teacher by occupation, married Sarah E. 
Danely, who was born in Indiana and died near Mattoon, 111. Descended 
from fine old southern stock, Mrs. Moore was a daughter of Ira Danely, a 
Virginian who removed to Indiana in a very early day and developed a 
large farm from the raw prairie land. After his marriage the young school- 
teacher followed his chosen calling with patient devotion, but when the Civil 
war began he felt that he owed a duty to the Union and accordingly offered 
his services as a private in the ranks. During July of 1861 he was enrolled 
in the army and sent to the front, where he bore a brave part in the battles 
of the Seventy-first Indiana Infantry. The death of officers in the company 
and his own superior knowledge of military tactics caused him to be chosen 
to lead his men in several engagements and he was elected their captain, 
but before the papers had been received commissioning him to the office, 
while he gallantly led his troops, he fell on the battlefield of Kenesaw 
mountain in 1864. At the time of his tragic death he was still a young man. 
His son, Raleigh A., who was born at Worthington, Greene county, Ind., 
February 22, 1859, was taken into the home of an uncle, who gave him such 
advantages as his means permitted, sending him to the grammar and high 
schools of Worthington until he had completed the regular course of study. 

Upon starting out to make his own way in the world Mr. Moore went 
to Kansas in 1879 and took up land near Beloit, Mitchell county. The 
country was new and few attempts at improvement had been inaugurated. 
The location, in the north central portion of the state, was somewhat remote 
from the sections of the commonwealth already improved and developed. 
In time he became the owner of a half-section farm where he made a spe- 
cialty of Polled Angus cattle. Like all who lived in Kansas at that time 
he enjoyed seasons of prosperity alternating with years of discouragement 
and heavy loss, but eventually he sold his holdings at a fair profit. During 
1890 he came west to Oregon and spent a year in Salem. The year 1891 
found him in California, a newcomer in Kern county, where he l)ought 
unimproved land in the Beardsley district. Through his industry and saga- 
cious management the tract was converted into a valuable farm and he 
cultivated the place with profit until, feeling the need of lightening his 
labors, he relinquished agricultural activities and in 1907 began to engage 
in the real-estate business in Bakersfield, where now he handles both city 
and country property, has been a leading associate of the Bakersfield Realty 
Board and is also a charter member of the Kern County Board of Trade. 

After going to Kansas Mr. Moore was married in Beloit to Miss Mary 
M. Talley, who was born in Greene county, Ind. They became the parents 
of two children, Fleda O. and Columbus F. The family are identified with 
the Bakersfield Christian Church and have been among its most generous 
supporters. Every department of congregational activity has felt the 
impetus of their devoted zeal, while as a member of the official board and 
also as a member of the building committee at the time of the erection of 
the new edifice Mr. Moore has been associated intimately and inseparably 
with the policy of advancement manifested by the church. In fraternal 
relations he has been identified with the Ancient Order of United ^^'orkmen 
for many years. In politics he is a Republican. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 803 

BENJAMIN F. AND MAYME B. SUITER.— With the early coloniza- 
tion of America the Suiter family crossed the ocean from Holland and set- 
tled among other Dutch colonists of Pennsylvania, where several successive 
generations lived and labored. Benjamin F., Sr., was born in Davenport, 
Iowa, of Pennsylvania parentage, and he lived in Illinois throught)Ut the 
greater part of his useful existence. During young manhood he married 
Lydia Page, who was born in New York and received a classical education 
in Lombard University. Two children were born of their union, the son, 
Benjamin F.. Jr., having been born in Mercer county, 111., December 15, 1864, 
about the time of the death of the father in ,\ndersonville prison. Leaving 
his home and family, the father had served at the front as a member of the 
Ninth Illinois Cavalry and in one of the battles during the fall of 1864 he fell 
into the hands of the enem3% by whom he was conveyed to the historic south- 
ern prison to end his days in suffering and privation. After his death the 
mother, who was a woman of fine mind and exceptional attainments, sup- 
ported herself and children by teaching school. As soon as the son was old 
enough he began to be self-supporting and thus made it easier for his mother, 
whose last days were passed in comfort and whose death occurred in 1893 
in Illinois. 

Coming to California in 1884 Benjamin F. Suiter, Jr., spent four years 
near Mojave, Kern county, whence he returned to the old home in 1888 and 
became a student in Lombard University. While attending that institution 
he served as non-commissioned ofificer in the Illinois National Guard. After 
leaving the university he engaged in general merchandising at Oneida, Knox 
county, 111. During the fall of 1893 he came to California for the second 
time. At Palo Alto he conducted a mercantile establishment and in that 
university town, June 26, 1895, he was united in marriage to Miss Mayme 
Bass, principal of the Palo Alto schools and a woman of exceptional educa- 
tion, ability and attainments. Born near Chicago, 111., she was the daughter 
of Joseph and Jane (Gordon) Bass, who died when she was a child of three, 
and she was adopted by her uncle. Dr. Cyrus A. Bass. With the latter and 
his wife, Anna (Van de Voort) Bass, she came to California in childhood, 
and settled at Pleasanton, z-Mameda county, where she attended schoi 1 under 
Prof. C. E. ]\Ierwin, a talented educator. In 1886 she was graduated from the 
San Jose State Normal, the youngest member of a class numbering sixty- 
three students. After graduating she taught in the schools of Alameda 
county for seven years. On the opening of the schools of Palo Alto she was 
chosen the first principal. The choice reflected credit upon her ability and 
success as an educator, for there were more than one hundred applicants. 
During the two years of her connection with the schools of the university 
town she gave them a substantial organization and systematized the standard 
of the grades, so that the work was in excellent condition at the time of her 
resignation. In religion she has been for some years a warm believer in 
the doctrines c;f the Christian Science Church. Of her marriage there is -one 
son, Gordon Page Suiter. 

Removing from Palo Alto to Oakland in 1900, Mr. and ^Irs. Suiter 
resided in that city for two years and meantime he located oil lands. Before 
a railroad had been built into the Sunset field in Kern county he located at 
that point and in 1905 removed to the Coalinga fields, where he had the able 
assistance of his wife in land and oil ventures. The family came to Bakers- 
field in the spring of 1907 and since then Mr. and Mrs. Suiter have engaged 
in the real-estate business in partnership, having offices at No. 1615 Nine- 
teenth street. They are Republicans in politics. 

W. A. FERGUSON.— The original promoter of the Knob Hill Oil Com- 
pany and likewise the first and only secretary of the organization, Mr. Fer- 
guson merits recognition for his continuous connection with the concern. 



804 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

The history of the company has been one of uninterrupted success. The 
striking of oil in the lease, September 15, 1900, marked an epoch in the devel- 
opment of the Kern river oil field, for therewith passed the experimental 
stage of the work and since then the field in the opinions of its friends and 
investors has been the safest oil proposition in the entire state. It is worthy 
of mention that the company has never made an assessment on its stockhold- 
ers, nor has it ever failed to declare monthly dividends in the past ten 
years. Since the first derrick was built in July of 1900 under the supervision 
of Air. Ferguson and since the first well was completed, as previously stated, 
in Se|)teniber of the same year, with a fiow of two hundred barrels, there 
have been many other wells sunk by the company, which now owns thirty- 
six producing wells on its lease. The concern has been incorporated with a 
capital stock of $25,000 and with James Porteous as president, W. J. Kittrell, 
secretary, the Fresno National. Bank treasurer, and W. A. Ferguson super- 
intendent, the three gentlemen named acting as directors together with G. T. 
Willis and F. Cathgart. 

The Ferguson family comes of Scotch lineage and was established in 
California by J. R. Ferguson, a native of Kentucky, born in the city of Lex- 
ington, where in early manh( od he married Jnlia Dryden, a native of Mis- 
souri. After their marriage they lived upon a Missouri farm until 1862, when 
they disposed of their holdings and crossed the plains in a "prairie schooner" 
drawn by oxen. Six months were spent in the tedious journey. Settlement 
was made in Santa Cruz county, where Mr. Ferguson engaged in general 
farming and stock-raising until the infirmities of age obliged him to relin- 
quish all responsibilities. Both he and his wife are eighty years of age and 
continue to make their home in Santa Cruz county, where their son, W. A., 
was born March 15, 1870, and where he spent the first fourteen years of life. 
In a family of eight children, all but one still living, he was fourth in order 
of birth. The eldest child. Belle, is the widow of J. T. Lowry and lives in 
Los Angeles. Mollie is a resident of Fresno. Charles, now in the Kern river 
oil field, is a stockholder in the Knob Hill Oil Company and superintendent 
of its power plant. Marie is the widow of Charles Sexton, a court reporter 
in Los Angeles. Ida, Mrs. S. F. Mitchell, is living in San Francisco, and 
Fred, the youngest of the family, engages in the raising of stock in Fresno 
county. 

At the age of fourteen years W. A. Ferguson moved with his parents to 
San Benito county and settled near Hollister. Later he accompanied the 
family to Georgetown. Fldorado county, where he completed the studies of 
the common schools. After leaving school he began to work on a stock 
ranch south of Fresno and from there he came to Kern county in 1899. 
Among his personal friends was j. E. Ellwcod, who sank the first oil well 
in the Kern river field and had the first lease (written on brown paper) with 
the late Thomas Aleans, the same covering section 4, township 28. range 28. 
which property, later absorbed by the Associated, is known as the Central 
Point lease. Through the instrumentality of Air. Ferguson a lease was 
secured from the Aztec Oil Company, managed b}' B. F. Brooks, said lease 
covering forty acres on section 4. township 28. range 28. Upon the organiza- 
tion of the Knob Hill Oil Company, in which he was a large factor and 
principal stockholder, he returned to Fresno, but later established his home 
at No. 2029 Truxtun avenue, Bakersfield. Besides his home place he owns 
several other residence properties in the city and his local investments are 
enlarged through the ])urchase of stock in the new Bakersfield National 
Bank. .\t Fresno in 18<)3 he married Miss Theo Ormsby. of that city, and 
they arc tlie parents of three children. The daughters. Cleo and Tina, are 
graduates of the F'akersfield high school and the only son, Robert, a bright 
lad of twelve years, is a student in the grammar school of the city. 




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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 809 

JOHN E. CALDWELL.— By birth and ancestry he is a southerner 
and his early childhood days were passed in his native commonwealth of 
Mississippi, where his father, the late W. A. F. Caldwell, M. D., had a high 
standing as a physician and surgeon. During the Civil war he went to the 
front as a surgeon and endured all the hardships and privations incident to 
that long struggle, returning to his Mississippi home at the close of the 
conflict to take up again his private practice in the midst of the associations 
long familiar to him. It was not until 1879 that he removed from Mississipi^i 
and for four years he engaged in professional work in Arkansas, whence in 
]8(S3 he brought the family to California. He made his home near White 
Ri\er, Tulare county, where, having given up the practice of medicine and 
being a great lover of horses, throughout the balance of his life he devoted 
his attention almost wholly to raising horses, besides raising a few cattle. 
His death occurred in Tulare county, which is still the home of his widow, 
Mrs. Sarah J. (Cochran) Caldwell. Of their ten children the third in order 
of birth, John E., forms the subject of this article. Educated in grammar 
schools, he has made the cattle industry his life work and has continued in 
Kern county since young manhcjod, with the scle exception of three years 
spent in Arizona. 

Having been joined by a brother, James Robert, in 1909 Mr. Caldwell em- 
barked in the cattle business upon a somewhat larger scale than heretofore, 
the two brothers buying the French ranch of nine hundred and sixty acres, 
in addition to which they own a ranch of eight hundred acres at Granite. 
Both ranches are well watered and therefore ofTer exceptional advantages 
to cattle-raisers. Besides the land which they own they lease land in Kern 
county. Through a long and intimate identification with the stock industry 
in Kern county Air. Caldwell has become known to men in the occupation 
and every wdiere he is hcnored for ability, intelligence and energy. Particu- 
larly is he prominent and popular in the vicinity of Ciranite, where he makes 
his home and has his headquarters. Liberal and enterprising, he favors all 
movements for the upbuilding of Kern county. He is a member of the Eagles. 

JAMES ROBERT CALDWELL.— A firm believer in the future of Kern 
county and in the excellent opportunities it affords to men of intelligence and 
energy is to be found in the person of James Robert Caldwell, whose early 
identification with this and Tulare counties gave him a positive knowledge of 
conditions existing during the '80s and whose later association with the stock 
industry here, dating from 1909, makes him familiar with twentieth century 
possibilities, ^^'hile he has great faith in the county its citizens have an equal 
faith in him and few men are more popular than "Bob" Caldwell, whose 
genial disposition, progressive outlcok upon life, kind heart and energetic 
temperament are as well known as his name- itself. At the time of first com- 
ing to this county and state in 1883 he was a 3^outh of about fifteen years, at 
the impressionable and plastic age when the impressions are the most tenacious 
and the faculties of observation the most alert. Although a later sojourn of 
many years was made in another section of country, it was only to return to 
Kern county with renewed faith in its advantages and increased desire to 
identify himself with its agricultural development. 

A member of an old southern family, James Robert Caldwell was born 
in Sumner, Miss., in 1868, and is a son of the late W. A. F. Caldwell, M. P., a 
graduate physician and skilled surgeon, whose quiet and successful practice 
of the profession in the south covered many years, broken only by arduous 
service as a surgeon in the Civil war. During 1879 the family moved across 
the Mississippi river into Arkansas, but not being satisfied with conditions in 
that state, they came to California in 1883, where afterward Dr. Caldw^ell 
engaged in farming and stock-raising in Kern and Tulare counties. His death 
occurred in Tulare county and the widow is still living at the old homestead 
there. Of the ten children in the family all but four are still living, James 



810 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Robert being the fourth in order of birth. After coming to California he at- 
tended school in Kern county for a brief period, but for the most part he gave 
his time to the cattle industry. During 1891 he went to Arizona, where he 
embarked in the cattle business. As soon as able, he purchased a ranch in 
the Williamson valley. After having continued in stock-raising for a long 
period, in 1909 he disposed of his interests and returned to Kern county, join- 
ing his brother, John E., a cattleman in the Greenhorn mountains. The 
brothers purchased the old French ranch of nine hundred and sixty acres in 
these mountains, adjacent to the government reserve. An abundance of rain- 
fall enables the land to afford excellent grazing for the stock. In addition to 
this large trgct, the brothers own eight hundred acres near Granite, a tract 
well watered and used exclusively for their large and growing cattle business. 
January 17, 1913, Mr. Caldwell was bereaved by the passing of his wife, Laura 
M. (Cook) Caldwell, who left four children, Claude, Alice, Harry and Walter. 
Giving his attention closely to his important cattle interests and devoting his 
leisure to his home and family, Mr. Caldwell has had little opportunity or 
inclination to enter into public life, political campaigns or fraternal activities, 
and the only organization in which he has been especially interested is the 
Woodmen of the World. 

JOHN L. GILL. — The Gill family to which belongs the present editor 
of the San Joaquin Valley Farmer is an old historic one in the United States, 
many of its members numbering among the pioneer citizens who have aided 
in the development of the country, settling first in Virginia, and then pioneer- 
ing in Ohio, Indiana and Missouri. John L. Gill grew to manhood in Kirks- 
ville, Mo., where he was born March 24, 1872. His grandfather, John Gill, 
was one of the early builders of the west. He was a native of Ohio. Upon 
going to Indiana he helped remove the Indians from that section to Kansas, 
and deciding to settle in the west he became a pioneer in Missouri and a 
large landowner in Northeastern Missouri before the war. Developing his 
land he had it in splendid condition when the war broke out, as a result of 
which he lost most of it. 

The parents of John L. Gill were married in Missouri, the father, W'il- 
liam Maxwell Gill, "being an only son. He was a self-educated man, well 
read in history, the scriptures and belles-lettres, and was extremely intel- 
lectual. He enlisted in the Ninth Iowa Cavalry and served during the Civil 
war. For forty years he was in the newspaper business in Missouri and 
California. He established the Kirksville (Mo.) Graphic, and was at one 
time half owner in the Kirksville Journal. He married Anna M. Link, and 
they came together to California and settled at Lemoore in what is now 
Kings county. There he established in connection with his son John L. 
the Lemoore Leader and he made his home in Lemoore until his death, which 
occurred in the fall of 1901. The mother of John L. is still living, making her 
home on a hundred and sixty-acre ranch situated about eleven miles from 
Bakersfield. These children were born to the marriage of William Maxwell 
and Anna M. (Link) Gill; Maud, who is the wife of L. C. Hyde, cashier of 
the National Bank of Visalia ; John Louis, who is mentioned I)elow ; William 
E., who is a farmer in Kern county, having a ranch of a hundred and sixty 
acres eleven miles northwest of Bakersfield; Samuel, who is manager cf the 
Walter Scott Company store and resides in Selma ; Frank, who is manager 
of the \\'alter Scott Company store at Kingsburg; Bert, who is a plumber 
and resides at Lindsay ; and Harry, who is an accountant and connected 
with the K. T. & O. Company at Coalinga. 

John L. Gill was early taught the printer's trade by his father. Gradu- 
ating from the Northeastern jNIissouri Business College he early became 
interested in the business and evinced a ])articular talent for that trade. 
AVhen he was seventeen vears of age he came with his parents to California 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 811 

and settled at Lemoore where he established the Lemoore Leader in partner- 
ship with his father. Competent at so early an age to conduct a newspaper 
business he early branched out for himself, and for one 3^ear was editor 
and manager of the xA.nti(;ch Leader, which he conducted successfully. He 
then established the Sanger News and the Wasco News, the latter of which 
he conducted for fourteen months and brought it to a high state of success. 
Selling the Wasco New^s he then bought out the San Joaquin Valley Farmer, 
and this he is at present conducting along the most modern and up-to-date 
lines. This paper is a first-class family weekly with a circulation of about 
two thousand copies. The subjects treated are the current topics of the day, 
good short stories and some serials, the object being to put before the sub- 
scribers the best literature obtainable, be it fiction, history or politics. 

In 1900 Mr. Gill married Miss Ida May Whitmore, of Sanger, and to 
them six children have been born, viz. : John Louis, Jr., William, Ruth, Doug- 
lass, George and Wilbur. In fraternal relations Air. Gill is a member of the 
Independent Order of Foresters and the Woodmen of the World and in 
political sentiment unites his forces with those of the Progressive party. 

JOSEPH F. ENDERT.— Mr. Endert was born at Crescent City, 
Del Norte county, Cal., 1^'ebruary 24, 1878, the eldest of four children of 
Joseph Bernard and Clara (Fleming) Endert. His father, a native of Ohio, 
and of German descent, was born in 1851, and in due time crossed the plains to 
California. After living many years in San Francisco he removed to San 
Diego, where he was employed in the construction of the first wharf, and 
whence he came forty-two years ago to Del Norte county, locating at Crescent 
City, where he attained distinction in many ways. He filled the office of sher- 
iff of Del Norte county for sixteen years and that of tax collector for fourteen 
years, and he is also well known for his long connection with the banking 
business as a director of the Del Norte County Bank. The first theatre at 
Crescent City having been destroyed by fire, he was the builder of the second 
theatre in the town ; he erected an ice plant and bottling works and became the 
owner of valuable timber land and of much city property. His wife was a 
daughter of John Fleming, a Pennsylvanian, who came overland to the Pa- 
cific coast with ox-teams, went up the Snake river and down the Columbia 
river to Astoria, Ore., and had memorable experiences in the Rogue River 
Indian war in which he served. He farmed for a time and then established the 
Del Norte Hotel at Crescent City, which he owned until he removed to Eureka, 
where he passed away. 

It was in the public school at Crescent City that Joseph F. Endert began 
his education. Later he studied at the Van Der Naillen School of Engineering 
at San Francisco, making a specialty of electricity and graduating in 1901. 
Until 1904 he was associated with his father in different enterprises at Cres- 
cent City, then went to San Francisco to become a traveling salesman with the 
John M. Klein Company, in which capacity he made his earlier visits to Kern 
county. Later he organized the Sterling Electric Company, afterward known 
as the Pacific States Electric Company, with headquarters in San Francisco 
and branches at Oakland, Portland, Seattle and Los Angeles. He severed his 
relations with that concern in 1910 to succeed J. H. Carr as proprietor of the 
Kern Valley Electric Supply Company in Bakersfield, which under his man- 
agement has built up a large trade in Bakersfield and vicinity, affording ample 
service in the way of appliances and repairs to all who use electricity in any 
form. Mr. Endert furnishes estimates for any work in the electrical line and 
contracts awarded to him are carried out according to latest scientific methods. 
He makes a specialty of fixtures, carrying a large stock of electric and gas 
and electric goods, and has wired and furnished fixtures for most of the resi- 
dences and bungalows built in Bakersfield in recent years as well as for the 
Redlick, Tegeler and Brower buildings, the Kern County court house, the 



812 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Southern Hotel and the Security & Trust building. He did the electric work 
in more than two hundred cottages in 1910, averaging more than one cottage 
a day for eight months. From time to time he has interested himself in other 
business enterprises. For years he has been a stockholder in the Olsen & 
Mahoney Steamship Company, which owns thirteen vessels in the coasting 
trade out of San Francisco. He is a member and director and vice-president 
of the Builders Exchange of Bakersfield and a member of the California State 
Electrical Contractors' Association. In his political alliance he is a Democrat. 
He is identified with the Bakersfield Club and with the Merchants Association 
of this city and afftliates with the Knights of Columbus, the Benevolent Pro- 
tective Order of Elks and the Native Sons of the Golden West. He married 
at Bakersfield Miss lola Havey, a native of Oroville, Butte county, and they 
have a son, Joseph Francis Endert. 

DOMINGO BORDA.— Mr. Borda is the son of Martin and Dominica 
(Latsalda ) [jorda, l)otii of whom passed away in their native France, at Basses 
Pyrenees. The father followed farming, and was well informed on all the 
details of that work. Six children were born to this union, four of whom grew 
to maturity and are now all living in California. 

Born December 12, 1863, Domingo Borda was brought up in his native 
place at Cambo, and there was sent to the public school, to attain what edu- 
cation that school afiforded. \^'hen he reached manhood he decided to try his 
luck in the New World and came to the United States in 1884, locating in 
California. His first employment was with a sheep man in San Bernardino 
county, driving between San Gabriel and Pomona valley, and also between 
Perris and San Jacinto. Four years later he bought a lot of sheep and em- 
barked in the sheep business in San Jacinto, following this until 1894, when 
he drove them to Tehachapi, in Kern county. After remaining there four or 
five summers he decided to range them near Famosa, about four miles east 
of there on the plains, and in the summers in the mountains of Garcia. 

Mr. Borda resides at No. 719 Nile street, East Bakersfield. He home- 
steaded a quarter of section twenty-six, one mile frcnn Buena Vista Lake, and 
built a house and barn. In all, his place covers one hundred and sixty acres, 
on which he raises grain. He also owns an eighty-acre ranch about five miles 
south of Bakersfield, which is under irrigation and planted to alfalfa. 

In Tehachapi Mr. Borda married August 28, 1902, Mary Etcheverry. 
who was also born in Basses Pyrenees, I'>ance, and to them have come four 
children: Catherine, Pierre, Baptiste and Michel. Politically Mr. Borda is a 
Republican. 

CHARLES F. JOHNSON.— As manager of the Consolidated Pipe Com- 
pany at llakersfield, president of the Kern County Board of Trade and presi- 
dent of the Kern County Democratic League, Charles F. Johnson is throw- 
ing the influence of his aggressive and forceful personality into the upbuild- 
ing of this part of California. Significant of the future of Bakersfield is the 
increase in its manufacturing plants. One of the recent accessions of local 
industries is the Consolidated Pipe Company, manufacturers and jobbers of 
riveted steel well and water pipe, galvanized steel irrigation pipe, hydrants, 
gates, valves, flanges, tanks and sheet metal pipe of every description. The 
present plant located in Los Angeles covers about three acres of ground 
space, furnishes employment to upwards of one hundred and fifty skilled 
mechanics and is under the personal direction of able business men includ- 
ing the president, Cius D. Harper; the vice-president, Bert G. Harper; and 
the secretary, N. W. Myrick. When the officials determined to establish a 
new ])lant in Bakersfield they chose Mr. Jcihnson as its manager and since 
December 13, 1911, he has filled the position with energy, tact and skill. The 
plant is located on Union avenue at the Santa Fe Railroad tracks. 

Born in San Francisco October 31. 1865, Mr. Johnson accompanied the 
family to Los Angeles in 1870, when according to census reports the popula- 






^:> 



^ 




HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 815 

tion of that place was only five thousand two hundred and seventy. All of 
the subsequent growth he has witnessed with pride and interest. On both 
sides of the house he represents the pioneer element of California. His 
widowed mother, who now makes her home with him in Bakersfield, bore the 
maiden name of Mary M. Johnson and was born in St. Joseph, Mo. During 
the memorable summer of 1849 she traveled across the plains in a wagon 
drawn by oxen. .After the arrival of the family in Sonoma county her father, 
David C, who had been a miller and merchant first in Tennessee and later 
in Missouri, became a pioneer of Healdsburg and turned his attention to 
farm pursuits. Later he tilled the soil in Merced county. During 1870 he 
removed to Los Angeles and there he remained a resident until his death in 
1882. His daughter in young womanhood had become the wife of John 
Henry Johnson, a native of New York City and a pioneer carpenter of San 
Francisco, where he had the contract for the building of the old Lincoln 
school and other public structures. While yet a young man he passed away, 
leaving his widow to care for their children, whom she then took to Los 
Angeles, the home of her father. There were four sons in the family and 
three of these are still living, Charles F. being next to the eldest. After he 
had studied for a short time in the Los Angeles high school he left in order 
to earn his own livelihood. Entering the Los Angeles woulen mills in a 
very humble capacity he worked up to be a weaver. When the late B. F. 
Coulter took over the mills he was made assistant superintendent of the plant 
and uj)on their being closed down, he was tendered a clerkship in the Coulter 
mercantile establishment. 

Upon resigning his position in the Coulter store Mr. Johnson entered 
the employ of the Harper-Reynolds Hardware Company as a shipping clerk 
and later was transferred through other departments until he was made a 
traveling salesman for the firm in Southern California. For twenty-six years 
altogether he continued with the same firm, but eventually resigned in order 
to accent the management of the Consolidated Pipe Company's plant in 
Bakersfield. While lus identification with Bakersfield has not been of long 
duration, already he has become associated with movements for the local 
upbuilding and has proved a factor in commercial progress. The recognition 
of his abilities, led to his unanimous choice as president of the Kern County 
Board of Trade while his devotion to the principles of Democracy caused him 
to be elected president of the Kern County Democratic League. For years 
he was actively connected with the United Commercial Travelers. During 
his residence in Los Angeles he was a leading worker in the Royal Arcanum 
and Modern Woodmen of America, while since coming to Bakersfield he has 
joined the Woodmen of the World. Prominent in the D. O. K. K. and Mira- 
monte Lodge No. 79, K. of P., until his removal from Los Angeles, he had 
officiated in the latter as chancellor commander and also was a member of 
the Grand Domain of California. In Los Angeles occurred his marriage to 
Miss Clara L. Dangerfield, a native of London, England, and a daughter of 
Samuel and Elizabeth Dangerfield, now residents of Los Angeles. The only 
living child of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson is Clinton Shields Johnson, who was 
educated in the Los Angeles Polytechnic high school. Occidental College and 
Holman's Business College and is now engaged as bookkeeper for the Con- 
solidated Pipe Company of Bakersfield. 

GEORGE N. PEMBERTON.— A Californian by birth, having been born 
in Napa in 1873. George N. Pemberton is a son of R. W. Pemberton, who 
came to California in the pioneer days. He was brought up on farms in Kings 
and Kern counties, where he attended the public schools. After farming for 
some time he engaged in the wood and hay business in Hanford for about 
twelve years. During this time he also operated the Henry Burris ranch and 
in one year put u]) twelve hundred tons of hay. On the place he also burned 



816 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

charcoal, having three large pits burning at one time. For ten years of the 
time he had wood choppers busy, sometimes as many as fifty men cutting 
wood on the grant, and during this time he cut the willow and oak wood from 
a strip ten miles in length. He also ran a horseshoeing shop and was pro- 
prietor of the Corey House. 

Selling his interests in Hanford, Mr. Pemberton leased land from Cham- 
berlain and Carr and raised barley and grain on about one thousand acres. 
In April, 1911, he located in Lost Hills, where he built the Pioneer House, the 
third building erected on the townsite, and at the time there were only five 
derricks in the Lost Hills oil field. Here he is engaged in raising corn on 
fifteen hundred acres near his old adobe house on the southwest end of 
Tulare Lake, and for the purpose is utilizing his forty head of mules and 
horses. He is also engaged in contract teaming and heavy hauling. 

The marriage of Mr. Pemberton occurred in Fresno, uniting him with 
Margaret B. Winsor, who was born in Newfoundland, and to them have 
been born four children : George, Evelyn, Alvina and Irene. Fraternally Mr. 
Pemberton is a member of the Eagles. 

ELIAS MARQUESS DEARBORN.— The identification of the Dear- 
born family with California dates from the early period of American oc- 
cupancy and from the exciting era of gold discovery, for it was during 1849 
that Elias Dearborn, a youth of some seventeen years and a native of Bangor, 
Me., came via the Horn to San Francisco for the purpose of trying his luck 
in the vast and unknown west. The stories concerning the presence of 
gold in the streams and mountains aroused his ambition and allured his 
imagination to test by actual experience the prospects of the country. It 
was not, however, his good fortune to make any valuable discoveries or to 
gain wealth from the mines of the state, although he worked in many from 
the north country as far south as Havilah in Kern county. Eventually he 
decided that any chance for independence must come to him from another 
occupation besides mining and he turned to the stock industry, taking up 
land in the Rincon country, Kern county, and eventually becoming the owner 
of large tracts of land and large herds of cattle. Until his death about 1907 
he continued to make his home on the ranch. Three years after his demise 
his widow died in Mojave. Prior to their marriage in Los Angeles she had 
been Mrs. Elizabeth (Lemon) Covington. Born in Indiana, she was a 
young girl when the family crossed the plains in a prairie schooner drawn 
by ox-teams, and from that time she continued to make California her home. 
Of her union with Mr. Dearborn there were three children, two now living, 
Elias Marquess being one of twins ; the other son. Jacob, has charge of the 
old Kern county homestead. 

While the family were living in the Rincon country Elias Marquess 
Dearborn was born on the home ranch October 30, 1872. The first seventeen 
years of his life were spent on the farm. Having comoleted the studies of 
the common schools he went to Los Angeles and matriculated in Wood- 
bury's Business College. From that institution he was graduated in 1895. 
In the mean time he had studied law in an evening school. Upon his return 
to Kern county he settled in Mojave and engaged in mining and prospecting. 
An appointment as justice of the peace in July of 1898 was followed by elec- 
tion to the office during November of the same year and for four years he 
filled the position with fidelity, resigning by reason of removal to Caliente. 
In the latter village he not t nly engaged in mining, but in addition for one 
term he served by election as justice of the peace for the fourteenth town- 
ship of Kern county. On returning to Mojave in 1910 he again was selected 
to serve as justice of the peace for the tenth township and ever since he 
has filled the position, besides engaging in the real-estate business, in mining 
and in farming. The town hall in ^Nlojave was erected by him and he also 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 819 

has built other buildings in the town, where now he owns residence and 
business property. In addition he owns a ranch in the Rincon country. 

As a justice of the peace Judge Dearborn shows impartiality and a wide 
knowledge of the law. Some of the cases brought to his court have per- 
tained to mining rights and have been of great importance. Although some- 
times appealed to higher courts of the state, there has not been in a single 
instance a reversal of his decisions. His family consists of a daughter, 
Catherine, and his wife, who was Miss Catherine Cuddahy, a native of Colo- 
rado, but a resident of Mojave at the time of their marriage. In national 
politics he has given stanch support to the Democratic party. Frequently 
he has been selected to serve as a member of the county Democratic central 
committee, has twice been delegated to the state convention and always his 
work has been efficient, intelligent and helpful. For years he has served as 
a member of the Mojave Board of Education, his principal service having 
been as clerk of the board, in which responsible post he has been vigilant, 
energetic and thoroughly capable. 

J. E. GILLESPIE.— The treasurer of the firm of Templeton & Co., under- 
takers and funeral directors, of Bakersfield, was born June 22, 1865, on a 
farm near Evansville, Ind., where his father, Jacob E. Gillespie, now deceased, 
engaged in agricultural pursuits for many years. The mother, who bore the 
maiden name of Matilda Wilson, is still living, at the advanced age of seventy- 
six years, and now makes her home with her son in Bakersfield. Other 
members of the family have become prominent in localities further east. A 
brother, Re\\ M. L. Gillespie, is a Presbyterian minister at Fayettville, Ark., 
and has a wide acquaintance among the leading men of his denomination. A 
half-brother, C. A. McGrew, acts as manager of the Evansville (Ind.) Coffin 
Company, which is engaged in the manufacture of caskets and undertakers' 
supplies. After he had completed the studies of the public schools and had 
attended the Oakland City (Ind.) Normal School, J. E. Gillespie became an in- 
structor in that institution and for three years followed the profession of an 
educator. During 1894 he became connected with the Evansville Coffin Com- 
l)any as a traveling salesman and for sixteen years he represented the con- 
cern in Illinois and adjacent territory, meanwhile becoming familiar with the 
requirements of the undertaking business, a knowledge that stands him well 
in hand since he became connected with the firm of Templeton & Co., in 
Bakersfield. After he came to this city he was bereaved in 1910 by the death 
of his wife, Mrs. Ida (Harris) Gillespie, who left two children, Cecil, now 
seventeen years of age, and Finis L., twelve years old. On June 22, 1912, Mr. 
Gillespie married Mrs. Ella V. Harris, of Philadelphia, Pa., who is delighted 
with her new social environment at Bakersfield and is an active worker in the 
Presbyterian Church. 

The firm of Templeton & Co. may be denominated the pioneer undertaking 
business of Bakersfield. Jacob Niederauer, the pioneer undertaker of Bakers- 
field, sold to Morton & Connelly, who in turn sold to Dixon & Sons, and 
eventually Messrs. Templeton and Gillespie bought an interest in the busi- 
ness, including the original Niederauer funeral records. On the corner of 
Nineteenth and V streets the firm has erected funeral parlors. The commo- 
dious and attractive building, which is 32x110 feet in dimensions, is built in 
the colonial style of architecture. Instead of being grewsome or dreary in 
aspect, it is beautiful in its architectural simplicity and cheerful furnishings. 
The building contains a vestibule, hall, family reception room, chapel with 
accommodations for upwards of one hundred persons at funerals, a laying- 
(lut room and a morgue with a cement floor, also a stockroom and a casket 
showroom, with fireproof vault and all the other modern conveniences for the 
management of such a business. A lady attendant has charge of the bodies 
(if women and children. In the laying out of the dead Mr. Gillespie himself is 



820 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

exceiJtiunally efficient, being a graduate of Clark's School of Embalming in 
Cincinnati, Ohio, the Uarnes schtol in Chicago and the Myers School of 
Eml^alming in Cincinnati. Automobile ambulance service has been installed 
by the tirm, this being the only service of the kind from San Francisco to Los 
Angeles. By the use of the latest scientific methods bodies are prepared for 
shipment to all parts of the world and in this respect the firm yields superiority 
to none. 

ROBERT T. NORRIS.— An honorable lineage is indicated by the gene- 
alogy of the Nurris family, who belong to the Anglo-Saxon race and were 
identified with England in the remote period to which the records can 
be traced. The colonial era of x-Xmerican development found them associated 
with the agricultural upbuilding of the eastern states and several genera- 
tions remained near the Atlantic seaboard. During the Revolution they 
fought for independence. As the tide of migration began to turn toward 
the west one of the name removed from South Carolina to Tennessee and 
settled upon a plantation, but eventually removed to Missouri to spend his 
last days. Rev. Abner Norris, who was a son of the frontier emigrant, was 
born in Tennessee and died in Missouri. Throughout life he earned a live- 
lihood by farming, but much of his time was given to the ministry of the 
Baptist Church, in which he labored without salary but with a simple-hearted 
devotion that aided greatly in the local upbuilding of the denomination. 
In early manhood he had married Jane Evans, who was born in Kentucky, 
but in childhood went to Missouri with her father, Samuel Evans, and 
later came to California. When ninety-eight years of age her death oc- 
curred at Bakersfield. The Evans family is of Welsh lineage, but has been 
identified with American history for a number of generations. 

There were six sons and four daughters in the family of x\bner and 
jane Norris. Five of the number are still living. It is a noteworthy fact 
that three of the sons, Samuel, David and Robert T.. served during the Civil 
war as members of Company H. Fourth Missouri Cavalry, United States 
Volunteers, and finally received honorable discharges at the expiration of 
the struggle. All settled in Missouri, and David remained there until his 
death ; Samuel removed to California and died in Long Reach in November, 
1912. Robert T., who was seventh among the ten children, was born near 
Platte City, Platte county. Mo., March 4, 1841, the date of the inauguration 
of William Henry Harrison as president of the United States. For a time 
in boyhood he was a pupil in a subscription school and later he attended a 
free school. March 26. 1862, he volunteered in Company H, Fourth Mis- 
souri Cavalry, and was mustered in at Stewartsville as corporal, from which 
later he was promoted to be sergeant. \A'ith his regiment he bore a part in 
battles throughout the south, particularly in Texas and Arkansas. The 
war ended, he was mustered out 'xA^pril 18. 1865. at Warrensburg. Johnson 
county, Mo., and during the same year, in Dekalb county, that state, he 
married Miss \"irginia Tvler. who was born in Ohio and died at Riverside. 
Cal., in 1899. 

The family home continued to be in Missouri until 1875, when Mr. 
Norris came to California and spent one year at Visalia. March of 1876 
foimd him a resident of Kern county, where he located a homestead in the 
Weed Patch and embarked in agricultural pursuits. Later he took up and 
improved a desert claim. Finally he had eighty acres in alfalfa and made 
a snecialty of selling hay. When he sold that property he bought one hun- 
dred and sixty acres in this county and became interested in the cattle 
industry. Coming to Bakersfield in Aucrust of 1888. he bought property, 
planted trees and encaged in raising alfalfa, besides improving the place he 
still owns. Meanw^hile he spent some years on a ranch in Riverside county 




^ 3 T^^f^iA.^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 823 

and after his return to Bakersfield he began to operate the City dye works 
on Eighth and X streets. This business he still owns and manages, his 
trade extending through Bakersfield and East Bakersfield and into the Kern 
river oil field. A few years after the death of his first wife he married Mrs. 
Maggie A. Brooks, of Healdsburg; she was born in Kentucky and died at 
Bakersfield July 6. 1911. Of his first marriage there are two children. The 
daughter, Alfarata, married William W. Baker, associated with Mr. Norris 
in the dye works; they became the parents of eight children, seven living. 
The son. Perry, owns and manages the dye works at Chico, this state. In 
religious belief Mr. Norris adheres to the Presbyterian faith. Politically 
he votes with the Republican party. After coming to Bakersfield he became 
as.sociated with Hurlburt Post No. 127, G. A. R., and holds office as senior 
vice-ccmmander. 

CHRISTIAN WEICHELT.— A native of Zillis, Graubunden, Switzer- 
land, born February 12, 1869, Christian Weichelt was the only son of John 
and Freda (Readhauser) Weichelt, who died at seventy-six and seventy-seven 
years respectively. Bidding farewell to his parents March 29, 1889. Mr. 
Weichelt proceeded to Havre, France, from which point he sailed to New York. 
At the expiration of fourteen days he landed in the new world and at once 
crossed the continent to California, landing at Bakersfield April 30, 1889. For 
six months he worked under Christ Stockton on the Lakeside ranch, then spent 
four months under Mr. Pyle on the Sixteen ranch, and from there went to 
Mono county, where under Mr. Reese as foreman he worked on the railroad 
and in a sawmill for eighteen months. During the winter he worked on Mr. 
Neigh's ranch near Mono Lake. In the spring he proceeded to San Francisco, 
looked up his former employer, Mr. Reese, and asked him for work. Within 
an hour he was given a position as helper to carpenters in the employ of 
Runtra Bros., with whom he continued for six months. About that time Mr. 
Rahtree brought him to the notice of Mr. Button, a large and prosperous 
cement contractor, who taught him the cement business with the utmost 
thoroughness and then gave him steady employment in San Francisco. 

After having continued with Mr. Dutton for four years Mr. Weichelt re- 
turned to Bakersfield in 1897 and found employment in a dairy operated by 
John Ellis, afterward entering the employ of a cousin, Gaudenz Weichelt, 
with whom he continued for two years. During six months of the time he 
drove a milk wagon. Going up to Tehachapi. he spent one winter on the 
Fickett ranch. Returning to Bakersfield in the spring he engaged with George 
Beardsley in the dair}^ business, Mr. Beardsley having purchased the dairy 
formerly owned by Gaudenz Weichelt. Later he was with Klepstein Bros. 
and then with Goode Bros., continuing steadily at work until 1904, when he 
suflfered a very severe attack of typhoid fever. For some time his life hung 
in the balance. It was four months before he was able to leave his bed and 
even longer before he was able to do the lightest work. When he had finally 
regained his strength he entered the employ of T. H. Fogarty, a strckman 
on L^nion avenue. After a year with him he assumed the management of the 
Herschfield fruit orchard on Union avenue and there he was engaged for four 
years, thence returning to Bakersfield to enter the employ of Weitzel & Lar- 
son. In the fall of 1887 he married Miss Mary Heim at the old Andersc^n dairy 
near Stockdale. Mrs. Weichelt was born in Germany, whence in 1892 she had 
immigrated to California. From early life she has been a devoted member 
of the Roman Catholic Church and her two children, Freda Alma and Hilda 
Pauline, are being reared in this religious faith. Since becoming a citizen of 
our country Mr. Weichelt has voted with the Republican party in local and 
general elections, while in fraternal connections he holds membership with 
the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He is one of the strongest and most 
active union labor men in the citv of Bakersfield and is vice-president of 



824 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Local No. 130, Cemeni Workers, and always the delegate to the Labor 
Council. 

ERNEST E. YARBROUGH.— Lcng identification with the oil industry 
in Kern county, dating- back tu the opening of the Kern river field and extend- 
ing almost continuously up to the present time, has made Mr. Yarbrough 
an expert in his judgment concerning the possibilities of any lease and enables 
him to fill with accuracy and intelligence his present position as superintend- 
ent of the leases of the State Consolidated Oil Company in the McKittrick, 
North Midway and I'ellridge districts, in which capacity he has engaged with 
efficiency since July of 1911, besides being a stockholder in the same concern. 

A resident of California since 1891, Ernest E. Yarbrough came to the 
state from Kansas, where he was born near Winfield, Cowley county, Feb- 
ruary 12, 1879. His parents. Newton L. and Mollie Yarbrough, were natives 
res[)ectively of Missouri and Illinois and homesteaded a claim in Kansas, 
where the father engaged extensively in stock-raising. The purchase of land 
adjacent to his original claim gave him a large acreage to superintend and 
cultivate. During 1891 he removed from Kansas to California and settled in 
Sonoma county, where he and his vs/iie own and conduct a summer resort, 
known as the Yarbrough farm, one mile north of Guerneville. Of their two 
children the elder. Ernest E., was about twelve years of age at the time of 
settling near Guerneville, where later he attended school during several terms. 
From the age of sixteen he has been self-suporting. His first experience in 
the industrial world gave him employment in a sawmill at Guerneville for one 
vear. after which he spent another year in the McFadden mill above Spring- 
v-ille. 

With the opening of the Kern river oil field ]\Ir. Yarbrough sought em- 
ployment in the new center of oil development. In a short time he had gained 
a knowledge of dressing tools. After a period of employment with Anderson 
& Morton in 1900 he came to the McKittrick field to work as a driller with the 
Dabney Oil Company. .\ year later he went to the Sunset field, but another 
twelve months found him liack in the McKittrick field, where he did consider- 
able important work in drilling. About that time (1905) he was induced to 
seek employment in the famous Goldfield mines in Nevada and later he located 
and develt ped mines at Lida, Nev., where he remained for a year or until sell- 
ing the property. From that district he went to the Needles, now known as 
California hills, where he discovered and located the Gold Dollar group of 
mines and the Bluebird claims. Upon selling these properties he took employ- 
ment with a Los Angeles capitalist and as a mining expert traveled through 
almost every ptrtion of Nevada and Arizona. Returning to IMcKittrick in 
1907, he began to work with the Associated Oil Company as a driller, but in 
March of 1909 he transferred to the State Consolidated Oil Company for 
similar work, since which he has been promoted to be superintendent of the 
company's holdings in the McKittrick, North Midway and Bellridge fields. 
While in Los Angeles he met and married Mrs. Sadie (Woods) Riggan, who 
was born in San Francisco and by her first marriage had two children, Stan- 
ley and Helen. 

CHARLES TEMPLETON, Jr. — An identification of several years with 
the undertaking firm of Tem])leton & Co. brought Mr. Templeton into promi- 
nent relations with the business men and commercial activities of Bakers- 
field, where he is known and honored as a young man of ability and com- 
mendable public spirit. Born in the southern part of Illinois, at ITarrisburg. 
Saline county, July 28, 1884. he received a fair common-school education in 
that state and also acquired there his early knowledge of the undertaking 
business, being a graduate of the Chicago College of Embalming, class of 
1902. Later he had the advantages afl'orded by a post-graduate course in the 
Renaurd School of Embalming in New York City. During 1909 he was united 





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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 827 

in marriage with Miss Alal)el Robinson, a native of Illinois, and accom])anied 
by her immediately after his marriage he came to Bakersfield, where in the 
same year he acquired an interest in the undertaking business of Dixon & 
Sons, buying out F. S. Dixon, Sr., in the establishment originally founded by 
Jacob Niederauer, then sold by him to Morton & Connelly, who in turn sold 
out to Dixon & Sons. January 1, 1913, Mr. Templeton sold out his interests in 
the said firm of Templeton & Co. to J. C. Flickinger. Mr. and Mrs. Templeton 
have one son, Charles Frederick. 

TOMAS ECHENIQUE.— Jose Maria Echenique. father of Tomas. was 
born in Maya, Navarre, Spain, where his son also was born. He followed 
farming all of his life, his death occurring at the home place. His wife, Petra 
Dendarieta, now deceased, was born there, and was the mother of seven 
children, all of whom are now living, Tomas being the youngest. 

The birth of Tomas Echenique occurred April 19, 1878, at the same 
place where his father first saw light of day, and there he spent his young 
days, receiving his educational training in the local school. As he grew 
up he became interested in accounts of the new world, and in 1897 finally 
started for America, full of ambition and purpose to succeed in his new 
efforts. On January 24, 1897, he came to San Francisco, and in less than 
a week he procured employment with a sheepman at Huron, Fresno county, 
where he remained for some time, learning all the details of the business. 
As he was energetic and thrifty, having the future in mind, he saved his 
earnings, and in 1903 bought a small flock of sheep, which installed him in 
the sheep business on his own account. The ensuing year brought him 
good results, and in 1904 he came to East Bakersfield to make his home, 
ranging his sheep during the winters in Kern county, and in the summers 
in the Tehachapi mountains. His ranch headquarters are on Poso creek. 

On April 4, 1908, Mr. Echenique married one of his countrywomen, 
Miss Jeanne Etcheverry, born in Aldudes, Basses-Pyrenees, becoming his 
wife. They are the parents of two children. Marie and Jeanne Mathilda. 

J. I. WAGY. — It would be practically impossible to name any enterprise 
for the upbuilding of Maricopa and vicinity that has lacked the sturdv sup- 
port of Mr. Wagy, but perhaps his most important association is with the 
West Side Water Company, of which he is manager, director and principal 
owner. The m; st serious problem in the oil districts of Kern county has been 
to secure pure, wholesome water for house use, and it is indeed fortunate that 
Mariccpa, located in a desert country, should be in possession of an abundant 
supply of gocd water furnished by the W^est Side W^ater Comoany, a con- 
cern incorporated in 1910 with a capital stock of $100,000. The method of 
organization included the placing of one thousand shares at $100 each, and of 
these ninety-two thousand have been issued, Mr. Wagy being owner of four- 
fifths of the entire stock and therefore almost sole proprietor of the business. 
The water is available for domestic and other purposes. Several of the finest 
springs located in the Coast Range mountains toward Ozena form the source 
of supply. In four-inch mains, by means of the gravity system, the water is 
piped to Maricopa from Ventura county, a distance of eighteen miles. Sub- 
stantial tanks have been built and lines ( f mains laid with particular reference 
to use for fighting fires, and under a pressure of ninety nounds a three-fourths 
stream can be thrown seventy-five feet into the air. When the pure mountain 
source of the water is appreciated, it will be understood that it is entirelv free 
from disease germs and may be used freely bv all citizens who value their 
health. 

The successful putting through of an undertaking so important as the 
water company by no means represents the limit of the business activities of 
Mr. Wagy, who is further known as the proprietor of the Gordon livery stables 
at Maricopa and engaged in a general contracting, hauling and house-moving 



828 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

business, owning and working sixty head of horses and mules. The develop- 
ment of land also has enlisted his fc.rceful labors. South of Bakersfield he has 
developed a fine alfalfa ranch. In the Coast Range mountains he has estab- 
lished the Ozena ranch, a vast tract embracing four thousand acres, whereon 
he now has approximately seventeen hundred head of cattle. 

To listen to a recital from the friends of Mr. Wagy concerning his finan- 
cial success and large possessions and to glance at his stalwart figure indica- 
tive of robust health and sturdy strength, one finds it difficult to believe that 
he came to California without means and broken in health, given up by 
many friends as beyond hope of recovery. He was born near Chillicothe, the 
county-seat of Ross county, Ohio, February 13, 1865, and passed the years of 
childhood principally in Richland county, 111., where his father engaged 
m farming. From early life he was not rugged and health considerations 
caused him to come to California in 1888. With resolute determination he 
earned his own livelihood in spite of his lack of strength. Soon he began to 
show marked improvement and it was not long before he was able to endure 
the most difficult tasks. The first industry that engaged his attention was the 
raising of grapes. Securing twenty acres in Tulare county, he planted a 
vineyard and soon had his tract covered with grape vines of the raisin varie- 
ties. It was no slight task to remove the sage brush that had covered the land, 
plow and cultivate the soil, plant the vines and care for the vineyard until 
it had become productive, but he proved equal to the emergency. The busi- 
ness, however, did not attract him as a source of permanent income, so he 
sold out and then bought a shoe store in Tulare, where he remained for two 
and one-half years. 

Coming to Kern county in 1893 Mr. Wagy settled east of Lake Buena 
Vista near the present site of Conner's Station and there he rented grain land 
until a succession of dry years made the occupation unprofitable. As early 
as 1894 he began freighting from Bakersfield to the west side oil fields and 
engaged in hauling between the two points until 1901. From 1904 until 1907 he 
was verv successful in the mercantile business at Sunset and during 1907 he 
had a real-estate office in Los Angeles, where he dealt in west side oil lands. 
At this writing he owns eighty acres of oil lands lying one mile east of 
Maricopa. For some years, indeed since the beginning of oil activities at 
Maricopa, he has been interested in this locality and his faith in the future of 
the town itself has been exhibited by the erection of a substantial residence, 
provided with modern conveniences and with all the comforts usually seen only 
in the large cities. This home is presided over graciously by Mrs. Wagy and 
is brightened by the presence of their two sons, Julian and Philip. Mrs. Wagy 
was Julia Maples of Bakersfield, her father, T. W. Maples, having long been a 
well-known citizen of that place. 

ARCHIE H. DIXON. — The secretary of the undertaking firm of Temple- 
ton & Co.. who is also filling the position of deputy coroner of Kern county, 
claims Kansas as his native commonwealth and was born, reared and edu- 
cated at Fairview. Brown county, that state, whence in 1901 he removed to 
California in company with his father and mother and wife. During the period 
of his residence in Bakersfield he has been identified with movements for the 
local upbuilding and assisted in conducting the undertaking business of 
Dixon & Sons, in which his father, F. vS. Dixon, was the senior member and 
leading partner. Later, through the purchase of the interests of the senior 
Dixon by Messrs. Templeton and Gillespie, the name was changed to Temple- 
ton & Co., and as such is now conducted. A new building has been erected, 
modern in every respect, and every convenience has been added for the satis- 
factory management of the business. In addition to acting as secretary of the 
company Mr. Dixon since 1911 has served as deputy coroner, having received 
the appointment from the present coroner and public administrator of Kern 



HISTORY' OF KERN COUNTY 831 

county, viz.: W. A. McGinn, who is also an attorney and has offices in the 
Morgan building. I>y the marriage of Mr. Dixon to Miss Jessie Culverhouse. 
of Kansas, there is one daughter. Alta. 

JOHN WEICHELT.— The science of dairying as taught and worked 
out in Switzerland has formed the basis of the success which has come to 
John Weichelt in the field of dairying in Kern county. Thoughts of his 
boyhood home take him back to the beautiful surroundings in which the 
parental farm was located, nestled among the mountains of Switzerland, 
and there, September 14. 1880, he was born in Zillis. Canton Graubunden. 
His parents were Gottleib and Katherina (Wald) Weichelt, natives of the 
same locality, and stanch communicants of the Lutheran Church, in the 
faith of which they reared their seven children. All of the children are 
living and filling their appointed places in the activities of the world: Chris- 
tian, who still makes his home in Switzerland; Gottleib, a rancher in the 
Panama district. Kern county ; Gaudenz, a resident of Bakersfield ; John, 
the subject of this sketch ; Mrs. Katherina Mattly, wife of Christian Mattly, 
of Bakersfield; Mrs. Mary Koch, the wife of John Koch, of Panama; and 
Carl, a resident of Bakersfield. 

With his brothers and sisters John Weichelt was given the best educa- 
tional advantages that the schools in the neighborhood of the parental home 
afforded, and like them, too, he was given a practical training in the duties 
that fell to them as the sons and daughters of farmers, all working together 
with a common interest and all reaping a benefit that accrues from unity 
of purpose and common weal. He was about seventeen years old when 
he assumed the responsibilities of life on his own account, leaving the con- 
genial surroundings of his boyhood for the unexplored field of activities 
that awaited him in the United States, whither he came in 1897. April 13 
of that year found him in Kern county, and as he had a. good knowledge 
of the dairy business his search for employment was brief. He was for- 
tunate in securing employment with Christian Mattly, in whose service he 
remained for four years, during which time he became familiar with the 
dairy business as conducted in this country and also became familiar with 
the language and customs of his adopted home. After leaving Mr. Mattly's 
employ he worked at the harness-maker's trade in Bakersfield for about a 
year, but as it was not to his liking he turned his attention once more to 
the dairy business and has followed it ever since. His first venture, in 1903, 
was in company with his brcther Gaudenz, they renting the farm of their 
former employer, Christian Mattly, the property comprising five hundred 
and fifty-two acres well adapted to the industry. The partnership lasted 
three years, at the end of which time Gaudenz Weichelt removed to his own 
place and John continued to manage the property alone. Here at times he 
had as high as one hundred and seventy-five head of Durham cows and the 
land not used for pasturage was devoted to alfalfa. The raising of this com- 
modity was not confined to supplying his own needs, but formed a source 
of income in the sale of seed, the yield at times running as high as five hun- 
dred pounds to the acre. A change in Mr. Weichelt's activities was necessi- 
tated by the sale of the Mattly ranch in 1912, when he moved onto a ranch 
of his own which he had purchased in 1910. This consists of eighty acres 
one mile west of the Old River school house, in the district of that name, 
and here he makes a specialty of raising grain and alfalfa. In 1913 he raised 
a banner crop of oat hay, the yield being over four tons to the acre, the 
largest crop of the kind ever raised in the vicinity. The ranch is splendidly 
supplied with irrigation, water being provided by the Stine canal, and he 
also has installed a pumping plant on the property for irrigating the orchard 
and gardens and for domestic use. 

The marriage of Mr. Weichelt occurred in Bakersfield and united him 
with Mrs. Pauline (Ruefernacht) Conger, a native of Yelta, Crimea, Russia. 



832 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Her father, Gottleib Ruefernacht, was a native of Canton Bern, Switzerland, 
while the mother, Fredericka Metzger, was born near Ulm, Wurtemberg. 
Mrs. VVeichelt was educated in Yelta and came to California in 1893. Mr. 
Weichelt and his wife are members of St. John's Lutheran Church, Bakers- 
field, and in sympathy witii Republican principles. 

SAN JOAQUIN HOSPITAL.— With the opening- of the San Joaquin 
Hospital, October 0, 1910. the city of Bakersfield and the surrounding country 
were giyen the opportunity of prompt and skilled attention in surgical opera- 
tions and critical illnesses, and thus was met a need felt for many years not 
only by physicians but by all interested in the general health of the com- 
munity. The building occupies an excellent location at No. 2628 I street, 
being removed from the noise of the commercial centers of the city, yet suffi- 
ciently near to render expeditious and easy all trips with ])atients or any com- 
munication for business purposes. The three-story structure, erected by the 
well-known contractor, M. T. Kean, at a cost of $20,000, represents a total 
investment of $30,000 on the part of its owners. Misses Margaret Ouinn and 
Mary O'Donnell, the fgrmer a native of Richmond, Ind^, and the latter a 
native of Philadelphia. Both are professional nurses, skilled in every depart- 
ment of the healing art and particularly efificient in surgical operations. Since 
the erection of the building and the opening of the hospital Miss Quinn has 
served as the executive and business manager while Miss O'Donnell is in 
charge of the surgical department. 

In erecting the hospital the owners considered suitability to climate 
and therefore placed a broad porch on the south and west, thus tempering the 
strong rays of the sun, while at the same time admitting an abundance of 
light and allowing the cooling breezes to mitigate the heat of midsummer. 
The general ward for men is on the first floor with toilet and bath adjacent, 
while similar quarters for women have been equipped on the second floor. 
In addition there are about twenty private rooms; some equipped with private 
baths, a large kitchen, dining room for nurses, doctors' dining room and 
doctors' dressing rooms. The most remarkable room is the one equipped 
for operations. This has a Baldwin operating table, adjustable at any angle, 
which is a great advantage in surgical operations. The floors are made of 
tile ; walls are enameled. Adjoining the operating room is the sterilizing and 
doctors' scrub room, which is also tiled and enameled. The operating room 
is constructed of glass on practically three sides, making the department very 
light and thus facilitating delicate operations. In an adjoining room two 
enameled wash basins have hot and cold water faucets controlled by pedals 
so that nothing except water touches the hands of the surgeon while cleaning 
them preparatory to the operation. The arrangements of the entire operating 
department are absolutely sanitary in every respect. No expense has been 
spared here, for the owners appreciate the incomparable importance of perfec- 
tion of detail in every matter relative to surgical operations. At the same time 
they exercise equal care in all departments and fever patients or chronic cases 
receive the same skilled supervision given to those undergoing operations, so 
that each class of patients has the experienced care of trained nurses and the 
vigilant attention of conscientious physicians. 

E. E. WINNEY. — Among those industrious and persevering men who 
have come to the coast to aid in making for progress and development the 
younger generation has carried with it the essential spirit and vigor which is 
so necessary in the fight for success in a new country. Among the latter 
we find E. E. \^'inney, manager of the King Lumber Company, and also pro- 
prietor of the bowling alley at Maricopa. Mr. Winney is a native of Manning. 
Carroll county, Iowa, born June 17, 1884. He attended the public schools and 
then became a student at Humboldt College, where he was graduated with 
the class of 1904. He had taken the nt)rmal business course, and after his grad- 
uation became engaged in teaching school until March 17, 1905. On the first 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 835 

of tlie following- April he arrived at Spokane, Wash., and became an employe 
of the W^ashington ]\Iill Company, after a short time being placed in full 
charge of the cutting dei)artment of the sash and door works. Here he re- 
mained employed for about fifteen months, and then went to V^ancouver, B. C, 
to take charge of the sash and door factory of the Fairview Cedar Lumber 
Company, where he was employed about eight months. Through the intro- 
duction and kind offices of his former employer at the Washington Alill Com- 
pany, G. W. Palmer, he secured a position with the West Side Lumber Com- 
pany, at Tuolumne, and he continued there as assistant salesman until in 
December, 1908. At this time he came to iVIaricopa, where he became manager 
of the King Lumber Company, and also the proprietor of a bowling alley. 

Mr. Winney was married in San Luis Obispo county to Margaret Smith. 
Fraternally he is a member of the Order of Elks, of Bakersfield. 

OTTO FRANK RINALDL— The family of which Mr. Rinaldi is a 
member comes of Italian and German descent and was established in Cali- 
fornia by his father, Charles Robert Rinaldi. a German by birth and education, 
but after the '50s a resident of the Pacific coast country. With a partner he 
established the first furniture store in Los Angeles, but in a short time he 
disposed of the business in order to undertake agricultural pursuits near 
San Fernando. After years of varying success as a stock-raiser, during 
which time he also served as deputy sheriff, he sold his property to the city of 
Los Angeles and it is now the reservoir for the Owens river aqueduct. Since 
his death San Fernando has continued to be the home of his wife, who was 
Francisca Valdez, a native of Los Angeles and a member of a prominent 
old Spanish family of that city. Of their seven children all but one are still 
living. The third in order of birth, Otto Frank, was born at San Fernando, 
this state, December 12, 1872, and received a public-school education, mean- 
while learning the details of farm work and stock-raising. xA.t the age of 
twenty-one he began to learn the trade of blacksmith in Los Angeles and on 
thoroughly mastering the occupation he opened a shop in San Fernando, but 
soon abandoned the business in order to devote himself to the butcher's 
trade. For a time he conducted a meat market at Newhall. Meanwhile dur- 
ing 1902 he had purchased the butcher shop at Randsburg and had put 
his brother in charge of the business, but at the expiration of two years he 
closed out other interests in order to devote himself to his enterprises in 
Kern county. 

As proprietor of a Vv'holesale and retail meat market Mr. Rinaldi has 
important interests in Randsburg, from, which point he sells meat to all 
adjacent places. Aside from conducting the market he engages in retail ice 
delivery and also acts as agent for the Maier Brewing Company of Los 
Angeles. A suitable warehouse has been provided for storage purposes. 
Since 1910 he has had charge of the stage between Johannesburg and Ballarat, 
also between Johannesburg and Skidoo, a distance of one hundred and ten 
miles, covered by three trips each week. In addition he hauls all the freight 
and supplies from Johannesburg to all points as far as Skidoo. For this work 
he utilizes about seventy-live head of horses and mules besides a large 
number of wagons and freighting outfits. Since coming to this part of Kern 
county he has purchased three hundred and twenty acres in the Kelso canyon 
in the South Fork country. Of this half-section he has put forty-five acres 
under cultivation to alfalfa and beans. As farmer, business man, agent for 
various companies and stage-coach operator, his interests are diversified, 
important and engrossing, and leave him little leisure for outside enterprises, 
although we find him a leader in local politics. During 1912 Governor John- 
son appointed him supervisor of the first district, to fill out the unexpired term 
of William M. Houser, deceased, and he remained in the office until the 
expiration of the time specified. While still living in San Fernando he was 



836 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

made a Mason in San Fernando Lodge No. 343, F. & A. ^M., and since coming 
to Kern county he has been prominently identified with Randsburg Aerie 
No. 188 of the Eagles. His family comprises a son Fred, and Mrs. Rinaldi. 
formerly Miss Laura Nieto. a native of Los Angeles and member of an old 
family of that city. 

C. E, REAL. — The Real family descends from a long line of Teutonic 
ancestry and was founded in the new world by I'rederick Real, a native of 
Germany, who desirous of improving his condition sought the opportunities of 
America and settled in Salem. Mass.. where he met and married Ellen Gill- 
man, a native of that city and a descendant of French forefathers. For years 
he was associated with a shipping business, but during that long period of 
useful activity he had an interval of travel and experiences in the west. Upon 
hearing of the discovery of gold in Califc rnia he came to the Pacific coast 
during 1849. proceeded direct to the mining camps and began to prospect 
for himself, meeting with some encouragement for a time. As soon as his 
success began to wane he returned to the east with his little store of gold 
and erected in Salem a large and comfortable home for his family. The young- 
est of his twelve children, C. E., was born in Salem December 29. 1861, and 
shortly before his birth the father was taken from the home by death. The 
amount he left was small, wholly insufficient to the support and rearing of so 
large a number of children ; therefore C. E. began to support himself while 
yet he was a small lad. Various occupations earned a livelihc od for him. but 
he worked principally in shoe, glue and box factories in Salem. 

Coming to California during 1883 at the age of twenty-two years C. E. 
Real landed in Los Angeles with only $75 in his possession. The first job he 
found was that of working on the section and he went to work eagerly and 
continued perseveringly. In May of 1884 he came to Bakersfield and for a 
time worked under E. M. Roberts on the old McCord ditch. Proceeding next 
to Stanislaus county, he engaged in wheat farming for three years, but found 
little or no profit in the \enture. As early as 1886 he took up a homestead of 
one hundred and sixty acres at Rio Bravo, sixteen miles west of Bakersfield. 
Proving up on the land, he continued to till the soil until the financial panic of 
1893-94, when unable to meet his interest he lost the entire property. He was 
thus left to begin anew at the bottom once more. Afterward he bLUght and 
sold city property and oil stocks and of recent years has been proprietor of the 
Peerless cafe, at No. 1819 Chester avenue, Bakersfield. In addition he owns a 
ranch of forty acres three miles southwest of this city, also a ranch (.f one 
hundred and sixty acres about thirteen miles west of McKittrick. At the 
time of the organization of Section 12 Oil Company he was a prime mover 
in the enterprise and has since continued as a stockholder, the concern now 
being a dividend-payer. The McKittrick Oil Company and Section 25 Oil Com- 
pany also have the benefit of his identification with their interests as a large 
stockholder and in addition he owns town property in Bakersfield, so that he 
has retrieved the losses of times of panics and is now comfortably provided 
with a competency. During 1902 he married Miss Bettie Monkmyer. by 
whom he has one daughter, Ellen, born in 1904. In political belief he supports 
I^emocratic principles and fiaternally he holds membership with the Eagles. 

OLA G. DIXON. — The four members of the undertaking firm of Temple- 
ton & C\i. ha\c each c( ntributed effectively to the development of the business 
and not the least prominent of these partners is Ola G. Di.xon, who has been 
connected with the concern ever since he became a resident of Bakersfield 
and gives of his time to its upbuilding as one of the essential factors in the 
welfare of the city, liorn in Kansas in 1880, on the 2d of November, he re- 
ceived the best educational advantages afforded l)y Fairview. his native place. 
In addition to completing the study of the various grades of the grammar 
school, he is a graduate of the high school. At the age of twenty-one years 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY • 837 

in 1901 he came to California in company with other members of the family 
and for a time made his home in Los Angeles, where with his brother, A. H. 
(now depnty coroner of Kern county), he conducted a store. After six years 
in business in that city he removed to Bakersfield and united with his father 
and brother in carrying on the undertaking concern of Dixon & Sons, now 
known as Templeton & Co., and he has continued with the same estabhshment 
since its change of name, devoting himself to assisting in the discharge of 
the important duties devolving upon the company. Through his marriage to 
Miss Ethel ]\Iunsinger. a native of Kansas, he is the father of two children, 
Dorris and Hazel. 

V. G. HUTCHINS. — Reared to a knowledge of the oil industry, the son 
of one of the pioneer oj)erators in the Los Angeles fields, it was but natural 
that V. G. Hutchins should select the business as his chosen avenue of occu- 
pative activity. The enthusiasm that he always has possessed for the work 
appears in the fact that, having graduated from' the Los Angeles high school 
on a Friday during 1907, he reported for duty the following Sunday at the 
Coalinga oil fields and at once began an identification with the industry that 
has continued, although in another district, up to the present time. Still a 
young man (he was born October 23, 1885), he has every reason to look for- 
ward to many years of continued usefulness and increasing influence in his 
chosen calling, and taking the past as a criterion a prosperous future may be 
predicted for him. His parents, Alvin G. and Ida Hutchins, continue to make 
Los Angeles, their home and the former, now forty-six years of age, has en- 
gaged in the cil business ever since the first discoveries were made in the 
Los Angeles district. 

Familiar with Los Angeles from his earliest recollections, educated in 
its schools, acquainted with its progress and interested in its activities, 
V. G. Hutchins is a typical Californian in every sense of the word. From 
youthful years the oil industry has engaged his attention. After he went to 
Coalinga he engaged in dressing tools on a rotary drill for the Associated 
Oil Company and scon acquired a practical knowledge of the work. From 
Coalinga he came to Maricopa in October of 1908 and since then has 
engaged in drilling on almost all of the wells on the Ruby lease. On the 
1st of July. 1912, he was promoted to be superintendent of the Ruby Oil 
Company on section 2, township 11. range 24 of the Sunset field, where 
he has charge of a lease < f twenty acres with ten wells, from which is 
secured a net monthly production of fifty-five hundred barrels. Giving his 
attention closely to the oversight of the company's interests, he has had 
little leisure for political or fraternal activities, but has become a member 
of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks at Bakersfield and is a con- 
tributor to its various enterprises. During 1909 at Los Angeles occurred 
ills marriage to Miss Cora E. Canfield, daughter of N. O. Canfield, a pros- 
])erous rancher of Tulare county and a niece of C. A. Canfield of Los 
Angeles, the influential and widely known oil operator. "Sir. and ]\Irs. 
Hutchins are the parents of a (laughter, Frances Ida. 

GEORGE KAY JOHNSTON.— Dr. Johnston was born in Santa Barbara 
county, Cal., April 1, 1876. After attending public school he worked on a 
ranch until he was twenty-one years old. He then matriculated in the Kansas 
City Dental College, taking the regular course, and in the year 1902 was grad- 
uated from there with the degree of D.D.S. He then returned to his native 
state and opened a dental office in San Francisco, practicing there until 1904, 
but in a short time he removed to Lompoc and was there for four and a half 
years, following his chosen work. Thence in 1910 he came to Taft, where he 
has since successfully practiced with gratifying results. 

His profession is Doctor Johnson's chief interest in life. To serve the 
public zealously, to give satisfaction and to build up an honorable, as well 



838 • HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

as a lucrati\e, ])usiness has been his aim, and he has won this l)y untiring- 
energy and effort. He has suffered losses, and it has been only his perse- 
verance and tenacity of purpose which have enabled him to be successful. 
A week after coming to Taft he was burned out and had to begin again 
with renewed effort, which only makes him more to be admired. 

Dr. Johnston was married in 1906 to Miss Eleanor F. Lowe, daughter 
of James F. Lowe of San Jose, who is an ex-State Senator. Two children 
have come to them, viz. : Bernard L. and Enna. 

ORRIN R. TAYLOR.— A native of New York state, Air. Taylor was born 
januar}' 2Z, 1843, in Tioga county, where his father, Alonzo F. Taylor, was also 
born. The facher was a shoemaker and farmer by trade and with his wife, 
Sarah M. (Ellis) Taylor, and their family, removed to Summit county, Ohio, 
where they remained nine years, subsequently going to Orland, Ind., where he 
passed away. The mother, who was born in New York, still survives at the 
age of ninety-four years. Nine children were born to this worthy couple, 
of whom six are now living. The eldest, Lorenzo, also served in the Civil 
war, being a member of the Twelfth Indiana Cavalry, and his death occurred 
in Angola, Ind. 

Orrin Taylor was about seventeen years of age when' his parents re- 
moved to Indiana, having ( btained his educational training in the public 
schools in Ohio. He entered the Orland Seminary to take a preparatory course 
before entering Hiram College, but his enlistment for war cut short this course 
of study. Enlisting on August 14, 1862, he was mustered in as private in 
Company B, One Hundredth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, August 24, and on 
the day before he was ordered to the front he was married to Miss Mary 
E. Barnard, who was born in Steuben county, Ind., daughter of John A. 
Barnard, a native of Massachusetts and a farmer in Indiana. Mr. Taylor 
saw active service until June, 1863, wdien he was mustered out on account of 
physical disability. He re-enlisted in 1864, becoming a member of Com- 
pany K, One Hundred and Fifty-second Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and 
served until after the close of the war, receiving his honorable discharge 
September 5, 1865, when he returned home. He then bought a farm near 
Orland, and engag^ed in general farming for eight years, then embarking in 
the hardware business, which he continued until failing health caused him 
to relinquish those interests. Realizing the need of a more moderate cli- 
mate he came to California in November, 1892, and located in Kern county, 
where he farmed for about eight years; in Rosedale. He then made his 
way to Panama and, buying a forty-acre farm there, engaged in agricul- 
tural pursuits for some years. Two years were spent in the grocery busi- 
ness in Porterville and he then returned to Panama and bought a half inter- 
est with his daughter, Mrs. Hastings, in the general merchandise establish- 
ment, and here he still continues in business. His wife passed away in 
Porterville in 1908; she was the mother of three children, of whom two 
survive, Ona E., Mrs. Hastings of Panama, and Orrin Ross, of Douglas, 
Ariz. Mrs. Hastings is the mother of three children, Guy, Esther and 
Thelma; she is n clever business woman, able, thrifty and full of that splen- 
did integrity which proves the most important characteristic in a noble 
makeup. Mr. Taylor is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 
In religion he unites with the Congregational church in Panama and is a 
member of its board of trustees. To him is largely due the credit for the 
upbuilding of this church, as he served as one of its founders in Panama, 
having drawn <:he plans and aided in the building of the church edifice as 
well as the parsonage, and he gave freely of time, labor and means. 

J. W. RAGESDALE. — From the organization of Taft up to the present 
time Mr. Ragesdale has been a large contributor to the material growth cf 
the place and as a member of the city board of trustees, as proprietor of a 
large and ])0])ular hotel, as a stockholder in \ari()us concerns for the devel- 




(P ^ 3a^/. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 841 

opnient of public utilities and as the optimistic projector of civic enterprises 
of worth, he justly occupies a position of permanent intluence in the midst 
of a growing citizenship. Attracted to this place in January of 1910, almost 
one year prior to the organization of the town under its present name, he 
immediately discerned a favorable opening for an hotel business. The Alvord 
hotel, which he acquired shortly after his arrival, occupied small quarters at 
the time, but by building a substantial addition he has provided am])le 
accommodations for the traveling public. 

The distinction of being a native son of California belongs to Mr. 
Ragesdale, who was born in San Joaquin county in 1862, being a son of 
John W. and Sarah (Ketcham) Ragesdale. As early as 1847 the father made 
his first trip across the plains to California, coming from his home common- 
wealth of Kentucky. Later he returned to Kentucky, but again made the 
tedious trip across the plains to the western coast, this time to make a 
permanent settlement. Some time after settling in the state he met and 
married Miss Ketcham, who had come to the west in 1852 by way of the 
Isthmus of Panama. After years of residence in San Joaquin county the 
family removed to the town of Merced, where the son, J. W., was appren- 
ticed to the trade of blacksmith. For fourteen years he devoted himself to 
that occupation with skill and perserverance and during much of the period 
he operated a shop at Madera. Meanwhile he studied mines and mining, 
in which he gained considerable experience through opening up a quartz 
mine in Maricopa county. 

The most profitable venture ever engaging the attention of Mr. Rages- 
dale was the organization of the Fortune mine by a company of which he 
became president. The mine was named in honor of Mrs. Fortune, one of 
the stockholders of the company, and the name did not prove a misnomer, 
for the results were such as to delight everyone concerned. At intervals 
during ten years Mr. Ragesdale owned important interests in mines. From 
1896 to 1898 he was connected with the Alameda mine at Randsburg. With 
the advent of the oil industry at Coalinga he sought that field, where he 
operated successfully in oil stock. From Coalinga, after a season of suc- 
cessful activities, he came to Taft in 1910 and has since devoted his time 
largely to the management of the Alvord hotel, which he owns jointly wnth 
R. H. McCreary of Hanford, under the firm title of Ragesdale & McCreary. 
In all of his hotel enterprises he has had the capable co-operation of his wife, 
formerly Miss Annie Pratt, a woman of energy, amiability and business 
judgment. Their only son, Elmer, is now in Mono county, this state. 

Upon the organization of the California Well Drilling Company at Taft 
Mr. Ragesdale became a charter member, but after some time he disposed 
of his interest in the concern. For the purpose of aiding the people of the 
town in their efiforts to secure water, he helped to organize the Taft Public 
Utility Company, a concern established by a few leading men of the place 
and engaged in the business of bringing water to Taft in tank cars, from 
which it was distributed to private customers. The directors, H. A. Hop- 
kins, R. H. McCreary, C. C. Painter. R. L. Wood. C. A. Ford and J. W. 
Ragesdale. were actuated by a desire to help the town rather than from 
monetary motives and when they sold out to the Consumers' Water Com- 
pany in 1912 it was at actual cost. The first electric light company was 
organized by Mr. Ragesdale, who became its first president ; it was organized 
for the purpose of securing electricity for the town and received the ener- 
getic assistance of Mr. Ragesdale as a promoter and stockholder. However, 
the original owners soon sold out to the San Joaquin Light and Power Cor- 
poration, the present owners of the plant. The pioneers in this utility move- 
ment managed to generate electric current from the power furnished by a 
large Fairbanks-Morse engine and the small concern was well and success- 



842 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

fully managed by Mr. Ragesdale as president of the company, with the fol- 
lowing hoard of directors: C. C. Painter, H. E. Smith, A. A. McCumber, 
J. A. AJnrdock, E. L. Burnham and I. A. Felter. 

PETER ETCHEVERRY.— The facilities for stock-raising and agri- 
culture that are bringing Kern county increasingly into public notice induced 
Mr. Etcheverry to identify himself with the Rosedale district after fourteen 
years of experience in this portion of the country. Starting in 1908 on an 
unimproved tract of eighty acres, he has since erected a farmhouse and other 
buildings and has put the entire tract into alfalfa. The farm is under the 
Beardsley canal and he has put in an excellent pumping plant. 

A native of Basses-Pyrenees, Erance, born at x^ldudes April 4, 1875, 
Peter Etcheverry is a son of John and Catherine (Laxague) Etcheverry, who 
still live in that district in France, owning and occupying a farm that lies 
in the valley and extends into the foothills near the lofty Pyrenees. Fine 
cattle are kept on the farm and a specialty is made of the manufacture of 
cheese and butter, to which work the owner and his wife still give their per- 
sonal attention. The family comprises nine children, namely: Mrs. Maria 
Laxague, on a farm in Basses-Pyrenees, France ; Jean, on, the old homestead 
in Basses-Pyrenees; Martin, a farmer still living in France; Peter, of Kern 
county; Mathilda, Mrs. Fernando Etcheverry, on a farm in Kern county; 
Mary, Mrs. D. Bordo, also on a farm in Kern county ; Michel, a partner 
of his brother, Peter ; Jennie, wife of Tomas Echenique, of Kern ; and M. 
Eouise, wife of Aliguel Echenique, also a resident of Kern. 

Michel Etcheverry was born in Aldudes, France, January 6, 1882, re- 
ceived his education in the common schools and came to Kern county in 
1901. Two years later he became associated with his brother Peter in the 
sheep industry, and in 1908 in the farming enterprise, to which he has since 
given his entire attention. He was married in 1910 to Miss Marguerite 
Othar, born in Basses-Pyrenees, France, and they have one child, Mathilda. 

On coming to California in 1894 at the age of nineteen Peter Etcheverry 
joined his older brother, Jean, who had preceded him to the new world by a 
number of years and had been one of the early settlers of Kern county, 
there embarking in the sheep business. For five years the young Frenchman 
worked in the employ of the older brother, but about 1899 he bought a few 
head of sheep and gradually acquired a flock of considerable size. From 
that time until 1908 he gave his attention wholly to the sheep industry, 
then with his brother Michel bought eighty acres of land, all now in alfalfa. 

In 1909 at East Bakersfield Peter Etcheverry married Miss Catherine 
Saldonbehere, a native of Basses-Pyrenees, who died seven months later. 
Subsequently Mr. Etcheverry was married again, October 28, 1913, in East 
Bakersfield, being united with Miss Marianne Saroiberry, a native of Al- 
dudes, France. Since coming to this country Mr. Etcheverry has made a 
study of political conditions and is now an ardent supporter of Republican 
principles. 

JOHN J. HENDRICKSON.— The ancestral home of the Hendrickson 
family was situated in the village of Husum on the western coast of Schles- 
wig-Holstein and (;wing to the location being in close proximity to the North 
sea various members of the family in generations gone bv followed mari- 
time ])ursuits. but Henry V., having learned the trade of watchmaker in 
youth, devoted all of his active vears to the occu])ation, including also the 
sale of jewelry and the repair of watches and clocks. All of his life was 
passed in Schleswig-Holstein and there also occurred the death of his wife, 
Catherine (Johnson) Hendrickson, daughter of Caot. John J. Johnson, wlu) 
was commander of an ocean vessel that took him in the course of many 
voyages to the principal ports of the wi rid. There were five children in the 
family of Henry V. Hendrickson and of these John j. was third in order of 
birth, he having been born in 1841 at the familv home in Husum. From his 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 845' 

earliest recollections he was familiar with the sea and very naturally there- 
tore, upon coming to the United States, in 1856 at the a"ge of fifteen, he took 
up a sea-faring- existence. The early voyages -out from New York City took 
him to the Mediterranean sea and South America, after which for sixteen 
months he sailed on the Maygi to the Philippine Islands and around the 
Cape of Gocd Hope, thence back to New York. At the age of nineteen years 
he shipped as mate on the J. N. Hicks out of New York via southern ports 
to England with cargoes of cotton. Three trips were made on that vessel, 
after which he shipped as boatswain on the Minnehaha via Cape Horn to 
San Francisco, and his arrival there in April of 1862 brought to an end all 
identification with the occupation of a sailor. 

Six months after landing in the west Mr. Hendrickson went to the mines 
in the Slate range, located in San Bernardino county. After a few months 
he proceeded to Los Angeles in 1863 and engaged in supplying its residents 
with w^ater from a water-cart filled by buckets dipped into the zanje or ditch 
that ran down Los Angeles street. Recalling the appearance of that place 
during the period of its early history, he has witnessed its subsequent rapid 
development with constant interest. During the early days he and Charles 
Russell prospected for oil at Santa Paula and near the San Fernando mis- 
sion, only to find, after they had discovered quantities sufficient to make 
production profitable, that the land office at Los Angeles had all of that land 
recorded as a portion of a large grant. Coming to Havilah, Kern county, 
in 1864, he operated the Del{:)hi hotel with Andrew Denker and found the 
business profitable owing to the fact that Havilah " was then the county- 
seat and the headquarters for stage lines running from Visalia and Los 
Angeles. At different times he conducted other hotels on the desert and 
more than once he had trouble with the hostile Indians, but he suffered 
small loss from their depredations. In the Tehachapi mountains he bought 
and later operated an hydraulic mine, which eventually he sold to John Brite. 
Meanwhile he had pre-empted a claim of one hundred and sixty acres and 
had taken up a homestead of eighty acres, also bought an adjacent tract of 
one hundred and sixty acres, so that he acquired the title to four hundred 
acres four and one-half miles east of Tehachapi. On the land now stand 
the cement wcjrks of the Los Angeles aqueduct. 

Upon leaving the ranch Mr. Hendrickson embarked in the lime business 
and built his first kiln on a claim in the mountains, where he opened and 
operated quarries. Later he had kilns in other places. After the limestone 
had been burned to lime, the product was shipped to Los Angeles. Bakers- 
field and Fresno, where a large trade was established. In addition to 
managing the lime business he owned a one-half interest in a mercantile busi- 
ness at Tehachapi for two years, having A. Weill as a partner. \\^hile mak- 
ing his headquarters at Tehachapi he there married Mrs. Elizabeth Jane 
McVicar, who was born in Missouri and during 1863 was brought across the 
plains by her parents, Dr. Russell and Margaret (Cook) Peery, born in 
Virginia and Kentucky, respectively. Mrs. Peery traced her ancestry back 
to the Cooks who came from England in the Mayflower. Dr. Peery was a 
pioneer physician of Missouri and Nebraska. The trip west was made with 
wagons and ox-teams and came to an uneventful termination. Three years 
later Dr. Peery returned to Johnson county. Neb., and there passed away. 
By her first marriage Mrs. Hendrickson has three daughters, namely : Mrs. 
Laura Tourpin, of Tacoma, Wash. ; Mrs. Margaret Jones, of Taft, Cal. : and 
Mrs. Emma Lovejoy, of Los Angeles. There are two sons of the second 
marriage. The elder, John James Hendrickson, is connected with the San 
Joaquin Light & Power Company. The younger, Edward Hale Hendrick- 
son, has charge of the postal savings bank department in the Bakersfield 
postoffice. 



846 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

After his marriag^e Mr. Hendrickson lived for many years upon a grain 
and stock ranch of tv\u hundred and forty acres situated near Tehachapi. 
The management of the lana brought him financial prosperity. When event- 
ually in 1905 he retired to Bakersfield, it was with a competency repre- 
sented bv the continued ownership of the fine ranch and by other invest- 
ments. In r.akersfield he makes his home at No. 637 R street, where he 
owns one and one-third acres of land, the whole forming an attractive and 
valuable property. The ranch is rented to tenants and brings him an im- 
portant annual revenue, for the land is the very choicest in its locality and 
the presence of fine springs enhances its value. While living on the ranch 
he maintained a warm interest in the material and educational upbuilding 
of that neighborhood and contributed to all progressive enterprises, and this 
excellent public spirit he has continued to manifest since coming to Bakers- 
field to make his home. From young manhood he has been an advocate of 
Republican principles. During the administration of President Grant he 
served as i)ostmaster at Tehachapi and for years he also served as a trustee 
of the Tehachapi schools, besides holding other local offices that gave him 
an opportunity to work for the advancement of his community. 

OCTAVE CHASTAN. — Jean Chastan was born in France, where he fol- 
lowed the trade of shoemaker all his life, his death occurring there. He 
married Philomen Bressong, and their children were four in number, 
three of whom are now living. Octave being the third oldest in the family. 
The mother of these children also passed away in France. 

Octave Chastan was born January 9, 1872, in Embrun, Hautcs-Alpes, 
France, and was sent to the public school there to obtain his educational 
training. Fie learned the shoemaker's trade under his father, and continued 
to work at this trade until 1895, when he came to California and settled in 
Sumner, now East Bakersfield. For four years he was in the employ of 
Philip and Joseph Girard, sheepmen at Delano, and then purchased a flock 
of sheep, engaging in the business for himself in the vicinity of Delano, but 
he now herds his sheep in both Kern and Tulare counties along the line be- 
tween the two counties. His herd consists of from two to three thousand 
head of fine merino sheep, and he has always found a ready market for them, 
as they are recognized as well-bred and well-kept animals, of the best variety. 

Mr. Chastan was married in East Bakersfield to Berthe Espitallier, also 
a native of Hautes-Alpes, and they make their home in East Bakersfield. 
where T\Tr. Chastan has bought a residence at No. 1410 Baker street. 

CHARLES SOWASH.— The opportunities afiforded by Maricopa. Kern 
county, to men of self-reliant and persevering energy find a most noteworthy 
illustration in the activities and success of Charles Sowash, the proprietor of 
the Sowash Clothing Store of Maricopa, the stock of which embraces fur- 
nishings of all sorts for gentlemen's wear. They are extensive boot and shoe 
outfitters as well and handle a fine and uo-to-date line of clothing supplied from 
the shops of Adlers Collegiate, Royal Tailoring and Lamm & Company busi- 
ness houses, whose reputations for good taste and the fine quality of their 
materials are widely known throughout the country. 

Born October 17, 1881, in Pittsburg, Pa., Charles Sowash was the son of 
Dr. M. F. Sowash, an eminent, well-known physician there, who for a time 
served as county physician and made his home in Pittsburgh. From the latter 
Charles Sowash inherited his logical mind and unusual ability which early 
evidenced itself in the honors which he received at graduation from the high 
school when he was eighteen years of age. At this time he stood third in the 
order of scholarship, ranking high in the estimate of his preceptors, and upon 
his graduation he became engaged in the paymaster's department of the Penn- 
sylvania Railway Company. Later he was employed by the Westinghouse 
Electric Company, serving in the cashier's department, and so well did he 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 849 

fill that position that he was entrusted with large sums of money, handling 
hundreds of thousands of dollars each week. However, the duties of this 
])osition finally became so irksome as to impair his health, and he was obliged 
to relinquish it and remove to California, where he settled at Chino and for 
a period was timekeeper for the American Sugar Beet Company. Going from 
there to Los Angeles, he was in the auditor's office of the Santa Fe Railway 
Company for one year and then went to Bakersfield where he filled the posi- 
tion of cashier for the latter company for four years. In the meantime his 
quick observation and the close study of conditions prompted him to invest in 
Maricopa interests and he resigned from a very lucrative position in order to 
take charge of his business interests in the last named place. He came here 
permanently in 1908. He has rebuilt his store building, which accommodates a 
stock to the value of seven thousand dollars and which is up-to-date and first 
class in every respect. Mr. Sowash enjoys a wide patronage and his pleasant, 
genial manner and kindly disposition have not only made him deservedly 
popular in the business and social world of his community, but have 
brought him many patrons. 

In 1910 Mr. Sowash was married to Miss Eliza Humphreys, of Pitts- 
burgh, Pa., who with her husband enjoys a wide circle of friends. 

H. G. MOSS. — The development of the Kern River oil district has at- 
tracted capital from all portions of the United States and even from abroad, 
but in an especially large degree California capital is invested in this great 
district and it is western capital (the Spreckels interests) which owns the 
great corporation known as the Sunset Monarch Oil Company. Every depart- 
ment of this organization has been established and developed with a view to 
permanence. Modern equioment has been introduced. Large tracts have been 
acquired. The work of oil development is still in its infancy. The demands 
made upon managing employes are therefore unusually great. Particularly is 
the post of superintendent, filled by H. G. Moss, one of arduous application 
and engrossing oversight. 

Mr. Moss comes of English family and naturally possesses the character- 
istics of the Anglo-Saxon race. Fie was born in the shire of Cumberland, Eng- 
land, May 23, 1871. His family came to California when he was fourteen years 
of age and settled in Orange county. At the time the discovery of oil was 
made there he began with a pick and shovel as a day laborer and for several 
years he continued in the district near Los Angeles. Then he became a stu- 
dent in Van Der Naillen's School of Engineers at San Francisco. For three 
winters he carried on engineering studies in that institution. 

After leaving the San Francisco institution Mr. Moss engaged as a civil 
and mining en.gineer. Unfortunately he decided to go to Alaska and there he 
lost everything he had, returning after two seasons in that country as emoty 
of purse as when he first began to be self-supporting. On his return in 1900 
he heard of the discovery of oil in the Kern river field. Immediately he joined 
the throng of operators making for this new prospect. Here he began to 
take contracts for drilling on the property of the Reed-Conde Oil Company. 
For some time he continued to drill, meeting with alternating success and dis- 
couragement. However, his work and ability attracted attention and he w^as 
appointed superintendent of the Eastern Consolidated Oil Company, with 
wdiich he continued for seven years or until his acceptance of the position of 
superintendent with the Sunset Monarch Oil Company in 1908. Since that time 
he has devoted himself with unwearied assiduity to the many responsibilities 
connected with his position, taking no part whatever in political aft'airs or 
fraternal organizations, although when living in Orange county he was con- 
nected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. With his wife, formerly 
Miss Clara Finley, of Orange county, and their two children, Zada and Mar- 
garet, he has established a home on the company property near Maricopa. 



850 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

Under his oversight are the various tlepartnients necessary to the correct 
continuance of the l)usiness. The interests of the company are large and 
inchide one hundred and sixty acres, without wells, situated on section 7, 
township 11, range 23; also ninety acres with five wells, on section 26, town- 
ship 12, range 24; a quarter section and another tract of sixty acres, both on 
section 2, township 11, range 24, having twenty-seven wells, the whole form- 
ing a total of four hundred and seventy acres with thirty-two wells. 

HENRY H. FENNEMAN.— The L'nited Electric and Mercantile Com- 
pany, established at Taft during 1910 under the title of Fenneman Bros., 
and incorpi. rated with its present title in January of the following year, has 
the following well-known citizens of Taft as its ofificers : E. C. Kelermeyer, 
president; L. R. Buchanan, vice-president; J. Pope, secretary, and Henry 
Fenneman, treasurer, superintendent and general manager. The concern 
acts as general contractors for electrical machinery and electrical work of 
all kinds, and makes a specialty of wiring oil rigs, installing motors on oil 
leases and wiring buildings for electric light. All of their work is guaranteed 
to stand the inspection of the National Board of Fire Underwriters. Earn- 
estly recommending the wiring of oil rigs in iron conduits, they have filled 
many contracts of this nature for many of the large operating companies. 
At their office, which is also their warehouse and workshop, they carry a 
complete line of fixtures, motors, batteries, fans and the celebrated Mazda 
lamps, the most perfect light manufactured. A great number of Monarch 
Mazdas have been installed by them in the district. Besides having con- 
tracts for electrical wiring of many cottages, they also had the contracts for 
the work on the buildings erected by Smith Brothers and Dr. Key, the Taft 
garage, C. B. Callahan building, Conley school, First National Bank of Taft, 
Hotel Alvord and the new Mariposa hotel built by C. A. Fox, a leading 
citizen of Taft. While this list is by no means complete, it will give some 
idea of the important nature of the contracts carried by the firm to stic- 
cessful consummation. 

The manager of this large business was born and reared in Indianapolis, 
Ind., and at the age of twenty years entered the employ of the Sanborn 
Electric Company of that city, afterward continuing with the firm for ten 
years altogether. Meanwhile he rose to be construction foreman and was 
assigned to important work in St. Louis, Mount Carmel, 111., Chicago, and 
Soringfield, Ohio. For two years and nine months he worked without vaca- 
tion or change on one government job at Fort Benjamin Harrison, where 
among other tasks he completed the wiring of forty-six two-story houses. 
At the opening of the war with Spain he was eager to enlist and when vol- 
unteers were being accepted for service in the Philippines he became a mem- 
ber of the Sixty-first Comi)any of the Sixth Coast Artillery of Baltimore 
and was sent with the regiment to the islands, where he remained for two 
years and nine months, meanwhile serving as electrician with the rank of 
sergeant. When peace was declared and the troops were returned to the 
United States he went back to Indianapolis to resume work with the San- 
l)orn Electric Company. September 19, 1910, he arrived in Taft, where in 
partnership with a brother, W. H. Fenneman, now the manager of the Inde- 
pendent Oil Well Supply Company, he organized the firm of Fenneman 
Bros., now known as the United Electric and Mercantile Company. Being 
an expert electrician as well as a capable business man, he is well qualified 
for the successful supervision of the business and is making good in his 
important responsibilities. While li\ing in Indianapolis he married Miss 
Vona Louthain of that city, a young lady of education and culture. Since 
coming to California he has allied himself with various organizations of a 
fraternal nature, including the Bakersfield Camp No. 266, B. P. O. E..-«-at 






'^iy^^^fo^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNriY 853 

Bakersfield ; also the Improved Order of Red .Men. 'IVibe of Pocahontas and 
Kni,^"lits of P}thias lodo^ed in Taft. 

EPIFANIO P. CASTRO.— Ao:ricultnre has been the life work of Epifanio 
J'. Castro, who has been identified with the farming interests of Kern county 
since he was able to work, following- the pursuit of his father. Born April 
7. 1872, in Kern county, Cal., he was the son of Thomas Castro, a picjneer 
settler of this county. 

Thomas Castro was born in 1830 in Sonora, Mexico, where he grew to 
manhood and married. In 1867 the Revolution broke out, and because of 
his political inclinations he decided to remove from there, coming to Bakers- 
field, Kern county, where he remained for the balance of his life, successfully 
engaged in stock raising. His death occurred here when he was sixty-eight 
years old. It is of interest to note that the Castros are near relatives to the 
late Gen. Jose Castro, one of the most prominent historical figures in the state 
of California. 

Twelve children were born to Thomas and Concepcion (Coronada) Cas- 
tro, nine of whom grew up, as follows : Ramona, Leonides, Domitilo, Manuel 
Tnow deceased), Thomas, Luciano, Perfecto, Epifanio P. and Amelia. The 
mother of these children passed away at the age of sixty-three years. 

Epifanio P. Castro received his education in the public schools of Kern 
county, attending until he was sixteen years of age, when he went to work 
for his father on the ranch. Until he was twenty-three he gave his entire 
time to this work, giving his father every assistance in his power, and look- 
ing after the home place. Then for two years he worked for the Kern County 
Land Company, in 1896 buying a forty-acre tract four miles south of Bakers- 
field on Kern Island road, which he has cultivated and brought to an excel- 
lent state of production. He has labored industriously and his property is 
yielding a fine crop which he markets at a substantial price. In 1913 he 
leased the Brundage ranch of one hundred and seventy-five acres on South 
Union avenue, and here he is engaged in horticulture and hay and grain 
raising. 

HON. HOWARD ALLEN PEAIRS.— A strong, forceful mentality 
whose judicial bent is no less pronounced than its humanitarian tendencies 
indicates that Judge Peairs has inherited the substantial qualities that char- 
acterized the early settlers of America. The ancestral lineage can be traced 
to several countries, for the Peairs and Davis families were of Welsh origin, 
while the Byers geneak)gy indicates a mingling of the blood of the Scotch, 
the Irish and the Dutch. In the life record of the Judge a careful student of 
humanity may note the thrift of the \A elsh, the sturdiness of the Dutch, 
the logical temperament of the Scotch and the humor of the Celt, mingled 
with the enterprise that is distinctively American, the whole combining to 
form a personality at once progressive and conservative, vividly interesting, 
and well adapted to leadership in any community. The forebears were 
.mostly Presbyterians in their religious views and mostly farmers in their 
chosen life occupations. V/itli the drifting of the tide of emigration toward 
the west they became transplanted from Pennsylvania into Ohio, where some 
of the Peairs family were among the earliest settlers of Zanesville. 

Another removal took the family across the Mississippi and out to the 
prairies of Kansas, where John Byers Peairs and his wife, Jerusha (Davis) 
Peairs, who was a native of Germantown, Pa., became pioneers of Law- 
rence during 1876. Of their seven children the third, Howard Allen, was 
born near Zanesville. Ohio, September 25, 1861, received his early educa- 
tion there, and after the age of fifteen continued his studies in Lawrence, 
Kan., where he spent considerable time at the university. In order to pay 
his way through college he taught school, but it was not his desire to 
make a life work of pedagogy; on the other hand, his talents seemed to point 



854 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

toward the law and he took up special law studies under D. S. Alford, an 
influential attorney in Lawrence. In 1888 he was graduated from the Uni- 
versity of Kansas with the degree of LL.B. and the same 3'ear was admitted 
to practice before the courts of Kansas. Afterward he received the degree 
of A.B. from the same university. F"or a time he was a member of the firm 
of Poehler & Peairs in that city. 

During the entire periud of his continued residence in Lawrence he 
was popular with the faculty at the university and frequently, in the absence 
or illness of one of the professors, he was engaged to act as substitute in the 
chair. [Meanwhile he mastered a number of studies in the institution, where 
he specialized in analytical chemistr3^ law, pharmacy, history and economics. 
In the course of his identification with the bar of Kansas he became inti- 
mately acquainted with William Allen White, General Funston, James H. 
Canfield, Messrs. Kellogg and Franklin, ex-Governor Stubbs of Kansas and 
ex-Governor Hadley of Missouri, together with many other men who since 
have become eminent in various avenues of endeavor. For a short time he 
was connected with the Kansas City Journal and for another peric d, begin- 
ning in 1898, he was connected with the Indian service, where he developed 
various advanced ideas in vocational and manual training and also com- 
menced to apply these methods of instruction. 

Certain unfavorable tendencies in health led Judge Peairs to remove to 
California in 1898 and here he soon regained his former ruggedness and 
strength. For a time he engaged as a manufacturing chemist in Los Angeles. 
His knowledge of pharmacy and analytical chemistry has led him at times 
into research work wholly unallied with his law practice, yet interesting 
to him and often quite important. An instance of his original investiga- 
tions api)ears in his profound knowledge of every phase of food adultera- 
tion and it was this thorough information that enabled him to assist in the 
drafting of the national pure food law passed in 1906. Having embarked in 
the practice of law in Los Angeles, he soon found himself at the head of a 
growing clientele and his worth as an attorney has been demonstrated repeat- 
edly in cases of great responsibility. A stanch Republican of progressive 
sentiments, in 1912 he was his party's candidate for the assembly and was 
elected to represent Los Angeles county in the legislature of 1913. Among 
the important bills which he introduced and championed may be mentioned 
the medical bill, the juvenile law, the Torrens act relating to an improved 
system of land titles, the law fixing the age of consent at eighteen years and 
the asexualization bill. 

The marriage of Judge Peairs in Lawrence, Kan., united him with Miss 
Helen Webber, by whom he has two children, Marion and Howard Allen, Jr. 
Fraternally he holds membership with the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows and Los Angeles Lodge No. 278, F. & A. M., and Fraternal Brother- 
hood. Upon the death of Judge Bennett of Bakersfield, Governor Johnson, 
August 14, 1913, appointed Judge Peairs to fill the vacancy caused by the 
passing of the jurist. Since coming to Bakersfield he also has been made 
judge of the juvenile court. At present he is advocating a project for the 
establishment of a vacation or "opportunity" farm in Kern county, the same 
to comprise about one thousand acres, to be devoted to the industrial and 
vocational training of the boys and girls of the cnunty, the idea being that 
during vacations spent on the farm each child will be taught some special 
work. W'ork, not merely as a necessity, but also as a desirability, will be 
made attractive to their plastic minds. Machinery of all kinds is to be 
explained to the boys who show a fondness for agriculture or mechanics. 
Horticultural courses and agriculture are to be taught to youthful fruit- 
growers and farmers. Classes in cooking and hygiene would be made as 
interesting as possible. In facl, the object of the great enterprise would 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 857 

be to belter i^rcpare the youth of the county for life's responsibihties, thus 
eliminating the work of the juvenile courts. 

FRANK O. BRATT.— A native of Nebraska, Frank O. Bratt was born 
in Nemaha county May 26, 1874. The same county in Nebraska was the 
place of residence and of marriage of his parents, Garrett and Salome (Grove) 
Bratt, the former now deceased, and the latter, at the age of fifty-eight (1912), 
still a resident of Riverside county, Cal. It was during 1891 that the family 
removed from Nebraska, where the father had conducted a wholesale and 
retail furniture business at Hastings, and established their home in Riverside 
county, where the only daughter, Miss Ina. passed away at the age of eighteen 
years. Upon coming to California the family brought considerable means 
with them, but during the panic of 1893-94 the City Bank of Los Angeles 
failed and about $8,000 which the father had deposited in that institution 
was entirely lost to him. 

Having gained a very helpful experience in the stock business while 
assisting his father on the home farm, Frank O. Bratt has had the practical 
benefit of such work in his later operations. During 1902 he went to Nevada 
and engaged in teaming and freighting between Austin, Tonopah and Gold- 
field. By means of his two fourteen-mule teams he was able to haul twenty- 
eight tons each month and for this he received $100 per ton. The profits, 
however, were not as large as this statement would seem to indicate, for his 
expenses were proportionately great, hay being worth $100 per ton and barley 
for feed $135 per ton. When at the expiration of two years the railroad 
had been completed and thus rendered further association with the hauling 
business undesirable, he left Nevada in 1905 and came to Kern county, where 
during some years he engaged in the stock business as a partner of the late 
John E. Bailey, a prominent and well-known resident of Bakersfield. During 
the lifetime of Mr. Bailey they handled as many as three thousand head of 
cattle in one year, as many as four hundred head of mules and about two 
hundred head of hogs. While mainly engaging in the stock business, Mr. 
Bratt also had a fourteen-mule team engaged in hauling borax. After the 
death of Mr. Bailey, which occurred February 22. 1912, Mr. Bratt formed a 
partnership with Joseph L. Bailey, a nephew of John E., and together they 
purchased the ranch and stock and cc'ntinue farming operations on a larger 
scale than ever. They have the home ranch of five hundred forty-seven 
acres, also one thousand acres on the plains. Having gone extensively into 
the dairy business they put in an auxiliary pumping plant with a capacity of 
one hundred fifty inches. They are large producers of alfalfa for their cattle 
and hogs. 

The marriage of Mr. Bratt took place in 1898 and united him with Miss 
Lucy Clark, a native of Inyo county, this state. Two children bless their 
union, namely: Margaret, iDorn in 19C0; and Francis, born in 1910. The 
family now occupy the commodious brick residence of the late Mr. Bailey at 
No. 1002 Nineteenth street. In religious associations Mrs. Bratt belongs to 
the Methodist Episcopal Church and has been a generous contributor to its 
missionary enterprises. Politically Mr. Bratt votes with the Republican party. 
Fraternally he holds membership with the Woodmen and the Foresters. 

JOHN E. BAILEY. — It is a matter of family history that the religious 
persecutions connected with the early history of Scotland forced the Baileys 
to flee from that country across to Ireland, where they established a per- 
manent home in the north country. James Bailey, a farmer by occupation, 
has spent his entire life in county Down, as has also his wife, Rosanna (Edgar) 
Bailey, who ti o claims Scotland as the country of her ancestors. Both are 
still living, he at ninety and she at eighty-five years (1912) and both retain 
their physical and mental faculties to an unusual extent considering their great 
ages. Of their six children all but one have preceded them to the grave. 
The onl}^ one living is Matthew, who resides on a farm in county Down. 



858 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

The next to the oldest, John E., was born November 28, 1852, in county- 
Down, eighteen miles from Belfast, and there he passed the days of boy- 
hood on the home farm and in the neighboring school. During 1869 he left 
Ireland and came via Panama to San Francisco, thence proceeded to Sonoma 
county and found employment on a farm. His identification with Kern 
county dated from 1872, when he secured -work as a farm hand. Husbanding 
and saving his wages with frugal care, he was enabled in 1877 to acquire the 
title to eighty acres eight miles southwest of Rakersfield on the Kern river. 

By subsequent purchases of adjacent tracts Mr. Bailey increased his ranch 
to five hundred and forty-seven acres, all under irrigation, the main conduits 
being two ditches, one on each side of the river. About three hundred acres 
were put into alfalfa and on the balance of the tract grain and corn were 
raised by irrigation. Although he rented much of the ranch during his last 
years, he retained one hundred and sixty acres of alfalfa land and found the 
hay very essential to his industry of cattle-feeding, in which he specialized. 
For twenty years he engaged in raising cattle on his mountain ranch of three 
thousand acres at the Dead Ox and even after he sold that large tract he still 
retained his cattle for a few years. After he had sold the large drove he began 
to buy steers from others as he needed them in his feed-yards. 

In addition to his ranch holdings Mr. Bailey owned property in Bakers- 
field. On the corner of Nineteenth and M streets he conducted a livery busi- 
ness until the stable was destroyed by fire in 1889. Later he erected on the 
same site the Cosmooolitan hotel and ran it for many years until it burned 
to the ground in 1907. He then discontinued the hotel business and only 
partially built up the lots. On Nineteenth street he erected the Decatur, one of 
the finest rooming houses in the city. Included in his other property was a 
modern and substantial residence on the corner of Nineteenth and O streets. 
Besides this valuable real-estate he owned one-half interest in the Southern, 
the largest hotel in Taft, also owned a large amount of stcck in the Kern 
Mutual Telephone Company which operates a line from Bakersfield to 
Maricopa and Taft. Some years after coming to Kern county he married 
Miss Carrie Voges, a native of New Orleans, La., but from girlhood a resident 
of .the west ; she died January 1, 1905. 

The fraternal associations of Mr. Bailey included membership in the 
Eagles, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Foresters. His death, which 
occurred February 22, 1912, was a distinct loss to these lodges as it was to 
other interests in Bakersfield and the county. From the re-incorporation of 
Bakersfield until the consolidation with Kern, a period of about eleven years, 
he served as a member of the board of trustees and for the four years prior 
to the consolidation he was honored with the chairmanship of the board, 
a position corresponding to that of mayor and carrying with it all of the heavy 
resp( nsibilities and official duties connected with the mayoralty. 

It should be mentioned that during the last five years of ]\Ir. Bailey's 
life he was assisted in the management of his diversified interests by his 
nephew. Joseph L. Bailey, a native of county Down, Ireland, and a son of 
Matthew Bailey. Joseph L. Bailey was a graduate of the Royal University of 
Ireland in Dublin. Coming to California in 1907 he assisted in the manage- 
ment of his uncle's general affairs, and after the death of his uncle, he and 
Frank O. Bratt purchased the ranches and stock and are continuing stock- 
raising and dairying on a large scale. In the management of the ranch and 
in making improvements the new owners are following the policy and methods 
wliich ])roved so successful with the elder IVIr. Bailey. 

EDWARD F. EILAND.— Although by occupation an oil-field worker 
and more interested in that occupation than in any other industry, at the 
present time Mr. Eiland gives his attention wholly to the duties of city 
marshal, an appointment to the office having been conferred upon him March 
1, 1913, by the board of city trustees, at the expiration of a year's service 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 861 

as night watchman. From the age of fourteen he has Hved in California, 
but Texas is his native commonwealth and he was born at Henderson. 
Rusk county, June 3. 1875, being a son of E. H. and ]\Iary L. (Moore) 
Eiland, natives respectively of Alabama and Texas, but now living retired at 
Fresno. Cal. Throughout his active life the father engaged in teaching 
school. The parental family comprised nine children and seven of these are 
still living, the third in order of birth being Edward F.. who was fourteen 
years of age at the time of coming to California. After a year at Templeton, 
San Luis Obispo county, he removed to Fresno county and began to work 
upon a farm there. From an early age he was familiar with the oil industry 
and had considerable experience in the fields as a roustabout, later rising 
to be a tool-dresser and from that being promoted to production foreman. 
While working for J. C. McDonald on the Amazon he became a driller 
and to a considerable extent he has made a specialty of that branch of the 
oil business. For a time he had charge of various properties for Barlow 
& Hill, the capitalists, of Bakersfield. 

As a city official Mr. Eiland has had a harmonious connection with 
civic affairs. Cool-headed and quick in action, he is well qualified for the 
position of marshal and has the city's business well in hand. The place is 
quiet and orderly, fortunately having none of the rougher element to be 
found in some towns. The difficulties that confront some marshals have not 
come into his experience at Taft, but should they arise he would receive 
the stanch support of his many friends and the practical aid of other city 
officers. He still owns a farm in Fresno county and also has city property 
at San Diego. Twice married, his first wafe, who bore the maiden name of 
Frances M. Pitts, was born in Chalome valley, Monterey county, Cal., and 
died in 1904, the body being interred in Mountain V^iew cemetery in Fresno 
county. Of that union there are two sons, Franklin W. and Benjamin, now 
sixteen and thirteen years of age respectively. The |)resent wife of Mr. 
Eiland. whom he married at Stockton, was Miss Mabel Askew, of Visalia. 

MRS. MARY J. AVILA. — Descended from a long line of Portuguese 
ancestors, Mrs. IMary J. Avila was born on the Azores islands and received a 
fair education in parochial schools there. Her father, John J. Scares, now 
eighty-two years of age. still makes his home on these islands, but her 
mother, Isabel, has passed from earth. 

On the Azores occurred the birth, May 22, 1861, of Manwell Jose Avila, 
a descendant of a Portuguese family of high standing and ancient pedigree. 
When but eighteen years of age he left his native place and crossed the 
ocean to America, proceeding from New York to San Francisco and securing 
employment in the west. As the years passed busily with their cares and 
labors he gave no thought to marriage or a home of his own, but when 
finally he returned to the Azores to visit the home of his bo^diood he there 
met Miss Soares, then a charming young lady of eighteen years. Instantly 
a change was made in his plans and a new purpose entered into his life. 
When after a visit of one year in Portugal he returned to California in 1893. 
it was with the thought of saving his earnings with the utmost frugality 
in order that he might establish a home of his own. During 1898 he sent 
for his betrothed, who took passage from one of the Portuguese harbors on 
the steamer, Pininiolar, which after a voyage of seven days landed her 
on American soil on the 27th of September. From New York she traveled 
across the continent to San Francisco, where Mr. Avila awaited her coming 
and where they were united in marriage. 

For twenty years Mr. Avila remained an employe of Miller & Lux 
and at the time of his death he was superintendent of their sheep department, 
having charge at times of as many as one hundred thousand head of sheep. 
In the discharge of his great responsibilities he gave universal satisfaction 



862 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

to the firm and acted wilh rare discretion and almost unerring judgment. In 
the meantime he had purchased eighty acres on Union avenue about eight 
miles south of Bakersfield and had commenced to improve the property 
with a view to establishing a permanent home here, but his plans were 
brought to naught by an untimely fate. While at Hanford he became ill with 
ptomaine poisoning and was brought to the hospital at Bakersfield, but 
no remedies availed to^ lighten his suffering and after four weeks he passed 
away November 19, 1910. Besides his wife he is survived by their four 
children, Gloria, John, Manuel and Isabel. During 1911 ]\Irs. Avila erected 
on their farm a residence that for beauty and convenience is surpassed by 
few within the limits of Kern county and here she and her children have 
established their home, meanwhile winning the regard of neighbors and 
holding- a prominent positi(.n in the membership of the Roman C^atholic 
Church of Bakersfield. 

CARLOS GRANT ILLINGWORTH.— The oldest established general 
store in the Mojave Desert, which is situated in the town of Randsburg, 
Kern county, and its several branches which are found in the smaller towns 
in this vicinity, are owned by Carlos Grant Illingworth, the inventory of 
whose stores in 1912 showed stock amounting to $100,000. Mr. Illingworth's 
childhood was passed in various places, he having been born in Mt. Carroll, 
Carroll county, 111., April 30, 1873, and from there brought by his parents 
when he was aged five years to Wichita, Kan. Here he was sent to school for a 
short time, in 1887 moving with his parents to California and settling at 
Pomona, where they stayed but a short time. In the same year they moved 
to Upland, San Bernardino county, and Mr. Illingworth went to work for 
himself. Buying a team he started into the contracting business for grading 
and leveling land, remaining in this vicinity until 1896, when he came to 
Randsburg to contract with the Yellow Aster Mine Company to haul ore 
for them. This he followed until the time the company built their plant 
in 1898. when he embarked in the general mercantile business, which has 
proved such a successful undertaking. It is fitting here to relate that the 
extent of Mr. Illingworth's capital at this time was a thousand dollars worth 
of stock, and when it is considered that he is now the owner of a large 
flourishing establishment with a number of branch stores and four ware- 
houses, it is readily understood that he is peculiarly fitted for the conduct 
of this form of business. One of the branch stores is located at Atolia. San 
Bernardino county. In connection with his mercantile business, Mr. Illing- 
worth has also engaged in mining, at the present time working the Santa 
Ana group, and he also owns the Pearl Wedge mine. These have proved 
profitable, and promise to bring in exceptional results in the near future. 
In 1913 he incorporated the G. B. Mining & Reduction Company, of which he 
is majority owner, and serves as president of the company. They built a 
twenty-ton capacity roll mill and engaged in mining and milling the ore. 
They have already found it necessary to increase it to fifty-ton capacity, 
which has been done, and the showing made demonstrates that it is one of 
the best mines in the state. The ])lant was built to mine and mill $4 rock 
profitables, Init at 285 feet they have $42 rock and find it necessary to build 
the new mill mentioned above. Needless to say the outcome far exceeds his 
expectations. 

Mr. Illingworth married Leah Blanch Fiaker. who was born in Ottawa, 
Canada, their marriage occurring June 17, 1909. Mrs. Illingworth came to 
California in January, 1908. and has since made it her home. She assists 
her husband in making their establishment the modern, well-equipped place 
of business it is today, and is a popular and pleasant woman. They are the 
parents of two children. Myrtle, born March 12, 1910; and James Grant 
Illingworth. born January 2. 1913. ]vlr. Illingworth is interested in the cause 




i4{^ ^lA- <^ u /^ c^, 



£>C-i^ yyj^ (7c^?'iy 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 865 

of education and is a member of the l)oard of trustees of the Randsburg 
district. 

JACOB BAUMAN. — Since his arrival in California during 1887 and his 
settlement in Kern county the following year Mr. IJauman has devoted his 
attention to agricultural pursuits and by his individual success has proved 
the possibilities of dry farming when rightly prosecuted. Wheat raised by 
this process makes an excellent crop in most years and harvests as high 
as fifteen hundred sacks of grain of finest quality, so that his large wheat- 
fields fc rm a positive asset in his agricultural^ operations. The first land, 
a tract of eighty acres, which he acquired in the county was secured by 
pre-emption and lies on section 14 of township 28, range 29, in the famous 
Weed Patch. Later he homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres en section 
4, township 30, range 30. The final acquisition of land gave him the title 
through purchase of three hundred and twenty acres on section 8, township 
30, range 30, so that his landed possessions now^ aggregate five hundred and 
sixty acres. On the tract last acquired he has erected a comfortable cot- 
tage, also a barn 50x60 feet in dimensions, together with a granary and such 
other buildings as the needs of the work render desirable. In addition he 
has fenced the half-section and has further enhanced its value through a well 
three hundred and fifty feet deep, pumped by means of a four horse-power 
gasoline engine. 

Bern, Switzerland, is the native canton of Mr. Bauman, and August 
20, 1860, the date of his birth, his parents having been Jacob and Susan 
(Stadtman) Bauman. lifelong residents of Switzerland, where the father 
gained modest success through intelligent labors in the dairy industry. _ There 
were seven children in the family, namely: Susan, who married in girlhood, 
became the mother of fifteen children and died in Switzerland; Magdalena, 
who is married and remains in her native country ; Jacob, of Kern county ; 
Christ, who immigrated to America, settled in Ohio and died there, leaving 
seven children; Annie and John, both of whom died, unmarried, in Ohio; 
and Fred, a resident of Bakersfield, Cal. Frcm an early age Jacob Bauman 
was familiar with the care of stock and the rudiments of farming. The home 
farm comprised only twenty-five acres, but was made remunerative through 
intensive methods of cultivation and he was taught to be useful in every 
department of the farm work. The family were identified with the German 
Lutheran Church, in which he was confirmed at the age of sixteen. 

Upon attaining his majority in 1881 Jacob P.auman came to the United 
States and secured employment as a farm laborer near Cleveland, Ohio. 
Returning to Switzerland he there married, February 2, 1884, Miss Margaret 
Tschanz, a native of Canton Bern, and a daughter of the late Christ and 
Margaret (Von Gonton) Tschanz, the former a farmer by occupation. Re- 
sides Mrs. Bauman there were three other daughters, Magdalena, Anna and 
Mary, in the Tschanz family and one son, Christ, who died at nineteen years 
of age. The three sisters of Mrs. Bauman are married and reside in 
Switzerland. Upon settling in Ohio after his marriage Mr. Bauman found 
work in a stone quarry at Cleveland and later farmed near that city, whence 
he came to California in 1887 and identified himself with the agricultural 
upbuilding of the west. 

MRS. ELIZABETH COOLBAUGH.— The matron and superintendent 
of the Kern County Children's Shelter is of western birth and has spent the 
greater portion of her life in California. As early as 1843, when the first 
movement of wdiite settlers- was being made in the direction of the Pacific 
coast and ere yet paths had been blazed for the emigrants, Alexander Blevins, 
a native of the vicinity of Lexington, Ky., crossed the plains of Oregon 
accompanied by his wife and their three small children. The trip required 
the greatest courage and fortitude. Dangers seen and unseen surrounded 
them all of the way as well as after they had settled in a little cabin near 



866 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Salem, where the hardy pioneers took up a six hundred and forty acre 
donation land claim from the government. The tract was in the primeval 
condition of nature and he made a number of improvements, also placed 
the land under profitable cultivation. While living on that ranch a daughter. 
Elizabeth, was born. The family removed to the Livermore valley of Cali- 
fornia during 1857 and there Mr. Blevins engaged in ranching and stock- 
raising, but later he moved to Stockton and finally to Lodi, where he passed 
away at the age of eighty-seven years. His wife, who bore the maiden 
name of Levina Vanderpool, was born in Tennessee, lived in Kentucky 
during girlhood, and now, at the age of ninety-four years, remains at the 
(■Id homestead in Lodi. 

There were in the Blevins family twelve children, all of whom attained 
maturity and seven are now living, Mrs. Coolbaugh having been the fifth in 
order of birth. In childhood she attended the public schools and later was 
graduated from the Stockton Young Ladies' Seminary. Her marriage took 
place at Lockeford, San Joaquin county, and united her with David H. Cool- 
baugh, who was born in Bradford county. Pa., came via Panama to Cali- 
fornia in 1860 and engaged in general contracting and in stock-raising near 
Stockton. During the spring of 1881 he canie to Kern county and settled six 
miles south of Bakersfield, where he had charge of thirty-three hundred 
acres of land for G. M. Fisher. Six hundred and forty acres of the tract, 
known as the Berkshire farm, were improved through his personal labors, 
After nine years on the ranch he came to Bakersfield and here engaged in 
general teaming and contracting until his death, which occurred April 
30, 1898. Fraternally he belonged to the Ancient Order of United Workmen, 
while in religious matters both he and his wife from early years were earnest 
supporters of the Methodist doctrines. 

Since the death of Mr. Coolbaugh his widow has remained at their home 
in Bakersfield and has had charge of the interests left her, representing the 
savings of their years of economy and wise management. A woman of 
large charities and deep sympathies, she always has been a worker for the 
needy and sufifering. It always has been her aim to help the poor to help 
themselves, but no one is quicker than she to realize that there are occa- 
sions when they must have help or all is lost. Upon the organization of the 
Associated Charities she was chosen the first registrar and continued to fill 
that oflfice until 1912, when she resigned. With Mrs. Yancey she organized 
the Juvenile court committee for Kern county, having been chosen for the 
work by Judge Bennett; the court has for its object the mental and moral 
upbuilding of waifs of humanity whose early path in life has turned tow-ard 
evil. About the beginning of the twentieth century, with Mrs. Yancey and 
E. J. Emmons, she started the Kern County Rescue Society for the preven- 
tion of cruelty to children. October 19, 1906, there came to Bakersfield a 
woman with three half-fed, half-clothed children, with only a few crackers 
between them and starvation. These children were taken temporarily by 
Mrs. C. P. Larsen. Upon investigati( n Mrs. Coolbaugh and Mrs. Yancey 
found they could not provide a home for the children anywhere in the state 
without the mother relincpiishing her right. There was need of a home 
where helpless children could be left until the father or mother was able to 
support them. November 12, 1906, these courageous women rented a cot- 
tage of six rooms at No. 1408 Eleventh street. They had not a cent of money 
to pay the rent nor a piece of furniture to put in the house, but they did 
have the promise of Mrs. M. E. Stephenson to work free of charge for six 
months. Donations had been made for the victims of the San Francisco 
disaster and some of these supplies, not being needed there, were available 
for use and gave a start in bedding, groceries and other supplies. Rev. 
Angus Mathewson donated new matting for two rooms, window shades, 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 867 

bedstead and kitchen furniture. Others responded gladly. In six months 
after the house had been secured the way opened for the Kern County 
Children's Shelter to be incorporated as a state institution, April 16, 1907. 
At that time thirteen children were being supported. May 24, 1907, the 
first officers were elected, also an advisory board of seven gentlemen. Dur- 
ing 1908 twenty-one children were supported in the Home under the care 
of Mrs. M. E. Stephenson, who was retained at a fair salary. In September 
of 1910 the institution was moved to its present quarters, No. 920 Twen- 
tieth street. On the first tag day, which was celebrated in Bakersfield in 
190^^ nearly $6,000 was raised to pay for this building, the site for which 
was donated by Mrs. Ellen M. Tracy. Generous men of Bakersfield donated 
the furniture. In all of this work Mrs. Coolbaugh bore her share and as 
superintendent she now de\'otes all of her time to the worthy philanthropy, 
finding a constant pleasure in the thought of helping these little ones in their 
unequal struggle against adverse circumstances. The Shelter has accommo- 
dations for forty-six children in single beds. The furnishings are simple but 
substantial and the arrangement of the house conduces to convenience. Per- 
haps no part of the^ building is a source of greater pride to the superin- 
tendent than the Sunshine room, a bright, sunny, pleasant room, where 
the sick ones are cared for and nursed to recovery, and where, when not 
needed for hospital purposes, the children enjoy many a pleasant hour of 
recreation and play. In their health and in their preparation for future 
usefulness through instruction in simple tasks suited to their years, the 
children have the sympathetic oversight of the superintendent and the other 
philanthropic women whose names are indissolubly associated with this 
worthy enterprise. 

ERNEST L. BLANCK. — A life of varied activities, during the course 
of which he has been familiar with conditions in three dififerent parts of 
the world, has given to Mr. Blanck a cosmopolitan knowledge of men and 
afTairs. The first eight years of his life were passed in New Zealand, where 
he was born May 17, 1878. Reared in Seattle and educated in its public 
schools, he was on the threshold of maturity when in 1897 gold was dis- 
covered in the Klondike. With eager hopefulness he started for the north. 
The long overland journey to Dawson was safely consummated and he 
then began to prospect in the gold fields, where he met with the usual round 
of success and failure, prosperity and adversity. Taken altogether, how- 
ever, the returns were satisfactory and when finally he returned to Cali- 
fornia to establish a home he still left interests in the north so important 
and valuable that he returns each summer to superintend their development. 

With the first starting of a village on the site of Fellows Mr. Blanck 
came to the new place in January of 1910 and on the 7th of February 
formed a partnership with H. J. Lawton in the general mercantile business, 
buying a location and putting up a suitable building which the firm still 
occupies. Accompanying him to the town were his wife and only child, 
Lois, and the family are comfortably established in a home of their own. 
Mrs. Blanck, prior to her marriage in 1902, was Miss F. E. Boynton and 
lived in Berkeley, this state. Since coming to this county Mr. Blanck has 
joined the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks in Bakersfield. During 
his sojourn in Alaska he was associated with the Arctic Brotherhood and 
Camp No. 7S, Fraternal Order of Eagles, at Nome. 

The store of Lawton & Blanck, Inc., contains the Fellows postoffice. 
for Mr. Lawton was chosen the first postmaster May 26, 1910, and in July, 
1912, Mr. Blanck was appointed postmaster, succeeding his said partner, 
whose interests in the large mercantile store he bought out at the same time. 
As dealers in general merchandise Lawton & Blanck, Inc., gained a wide 
reputation. The line of goods is the best of its kind. Mr. Blanck acts as 



868 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

exclusive agent fc;r the canned goods of Sussnian & \\'ormser, also for 
Carson gloves, Hannan shoes and Selz Blue shoes. Not only does he main- 
tain a large trade in Fellows, but he has customers in the entire district 
surrounding the town. His two delivery autos are used for the convenience 
of customers in a radius of six miles of town. 

ALEXANDER BERGES.— Born in France March 19, 1862, Alexander 
Berges at the age of fifteen years bade farewell to friends and native land 
and crossed the ocean to the new world, where at first he se- 
cured employment in San Francisco. In 1880, three years after his 
arrival in California, he came to Kern county and with this section of 
the state his subsequent interests were intimately identified. During 1889 
at Bakersfield occurred his marriage to Miss Margaret Rouquette, a native 
of San Luis Obispo county, Cal., and a daughter of Peter and Dora (Cer- 
vantes) Rouquette, both now deceased. As a girl from the age of eight 
years Miss Rouquette lived on Palata ranch, a large stock farm, of which 
her father served as foreman for a number (f years. Later the parents 
removed to Bakersfield and here she met and married Mr. Berges, their 
union resulting in the birth of six children, namely : Alexander, Jr., Leopold, 
Grace, Henrietta, Armand and Eugene. 

At his death, which occurred on Christmas eve of 1910, Mr. Berges 
left to his family a valuable estate, including the Quitol ranch of one hundred 
and sixty acres in Ventura county, the Sunset ranch of six hundred and 
forty acres and the home place of eighty acres on Union avenue six miles 
south of Bakersfield. It was as a stockman that Mr. Berges made his greatest 
success and the raising of sheep was his specialty, his prominence in the 
occupation proving a special adaptation for the work. Since his death Mrs. 
Berges has remained at the elegant country residence and has managed her 
landed and stock interests with the assistance of her oldest son, a young- 
man of worth, of character and energy of temperament, well adapted to take 
up the father's work with every hope of future success. The family hold 
membership with the Roman Catholic Church of Bakersfield and are gen- 
erous in their contrilnitions to its maintenance as well as to general philan- 
thropic projects. 

On May 10, 1912, occurred an accident which caused added sorrow to 
the Berges family. While at work on the Sunset ranch, near Maricopa, the 
horse which young Leopdld Berges was riding fell down on him and broke 
his left leg above the knee. As a result of this injury he died July 14, 1912. 
He was an exceptionally bright and able young man. iVlthough less than 
twenty-one he was of great assistance to the mother in operating the ranches. 

WITTEN W. HARRIS, A.B.— The ranks of labor have no champion 
more sincere in purpose, more l)rilliant in mind or more helpful in counsel 
than Witten W. Harris, who as an editor of the Union Labor Journal has 
cast in his fortunes with those of the great army of workmen toiling cour- 
aget usly for their daily bread. The Kern County Labor Council, recogniz- 
ing the imperative necessity of a sheet devoted to their ov/n interests, estab- 
lished the Union Labor Journal during 1904 as a weekly and its pages have 
since been used for the advancement of the labor organizations of this local- 
ity, at the same time posting all readers concerning the great field of social- 
ism the world over. The Journal is a six-column quarto, pungent in denun- 
ciation of the evils of the age, acute in criticism, penetrating in its analysis 
of national problems and characterized by an editorial poiicy as effective 
as it is forcible. 

In lineage Mr. Harris represents two families, thi se of Harris and 
Witten. that have been identified with American history since the colonial 
period and that had representation in the patriot armv' during the Revolu- 
tion. His parents. \\\ M. and Marv (Witten) Harris, were born in Ken- 




c^^-^i^^ ^^i 




HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 871 

tucky and Virginia respectively and now make their home in Bakersfield, 
but for years engaged in farming near Albany, Gentry county, Mo., where 
the father held the office of county assessor for several terms. The original 
home of the Harris family in America was upon the eastern shore of Mary- 
land, but the tide of migration afterward took them to Kentucky and Mis- 
souri. There were eight children in the parental family and all arc^now 
living, the third being Witten W., who was born near Albany, Gentry 
county, Mo., August 17, 1872, and received his early education in the public 
schools, afterward taking the complete course of study in Christian College 
at Albany. During the spring of 1897 he was graduated with the degree of 
A.B., after having paid all the expenses of his college course by means of 
teaching and preaching. Ordained to the ministry of the Christian Church, 
he held a pastorate at Princeton, Mo., prior to his graduation and afterward 
he was elected by the state board of the denomination as evangelist for the 
district south of the Missouri river in the state of Missouri. For two years 
he engaged actively in evangelistic work through all of Southern Missouri 
under the auspices of the society. Meanwhile he had been a deep student 
of theology. The result of his studies caused him to espouse the cause of 
the higher critical school of Biblical interpretation. His views therefore took 
him away from the teachings of the church to which he belonged. Being too 
liberal for sympathetic and harmonious relations with the church, he 
resigned his position and retired from the ministry. 

A brief connection with the Cabool Democrat at Cabool, Texas county, 
Mo., gave Mr. Harris an experience in the work of editor and publisher and 
after he had sold that paper he held similar positions with other journals. 
From 1905 until 1909 he served as editor of the Union Labor Journal in 
Bakersfield, but retired to remove to Oakland and establish the Harris print 
shop. At the expiration of two years he left Oakland on account of the ill 
health of his wife. Hoping she might be benefited by the climate of New 
Mexico he established a home near Albuquerque, but the change proved of 
no avail and she passed avvay in June of 1912, leaving four children, Gerald, 
Robert, George and Witten. She bore the maiden name of Louise Murphy 
and was born in Dekalb county, Mo., but her marriage was solemnized in 
Springfield, Greene county, that state. After her demise Mr. Harris returned 
to Bakersfield and again took up the editing of the Union Labor Journal, 
which owes much to his wise editorial policy and devotion to the labor 
movement. During 1909 he served as a member of the state board of con- 
trol of the Socialist party. 

WILLIAM G. TALBOT.— The Western Pipe and Steel Company of 
California, which has engaged the services of Mr. Talbot as manager of its 
Taft branch, is a well-known corporation organized under the laws of the 
state and dealing in steel and galvanized tanks, steel well casing, riveted 
steel water pipe and irrigation supplies. In the oil fields of Kern county 
the trade of the company has mostly to do with oil and water storage tanks 
of every size and description, from the small galvanized iron tank to the 
largest steel tank. Stove-pipe casing also is manufactured by the concern 
in large quantities, while the Taft shop further engages in riveted steel work. 
A large business is carried on in the irrigated sections of the county in the 
way of water-well casing and water pipe for surface irrigation, so that the 
company in its various departments controls an extensive and valuable trade. 
Besides the shop and office at Taft, there are offices at San Francisco, Los 
Angeles and Fresrto, also factories at Los Angeles and Richmond, so that 
access is easy and shipments prompt to every portion of the state. 

The first fourteen years in the life of William G. Talbot were passed 
in l)Ourbon county, Ky., where he was born November 7, 1882, and whence 
in 1896 he came to California in company with his fatlier. Dudley Talbot. 



872 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Tlie family settled in Los Angeles county and the youth grew to manhood 
there, working for a time upon the orange grove of his father, but after 
sixteen years of age employed in business houses and principally retained in 
a clerical capacity in railway offices. About 1910 he became connected 
with the Western Pipe and Steel Company of California, founders of the 
second supply house at Taft. where a building was erected in 1908 and T. H., 
brother of \\\ G. Talbot, put in charge as manager. Until William G. suc- 
ceeded to the management of this shop he was employed at Richmond and 
Los Angeles by the same company and meanwhile gained a thorough knowl- 
edge of every phase of the work. With his wife, who was formerly Miss 
Lucy Craig, of Kansas City, he has established his home in Taft, where he 
is a prominent member of the Petroleum Club and popular among the men 
of the West Side oil field. 

R. T. BAKER. — More than one-half century of progress has marked the 
history cif California since R. T. Baker came hither with a small expedition 
of emigrants, who to the number of about thirty, including men, women and 
children, crossed the plains during the summer of 1857 and early in the 
autumn landed safely at Sacramento, he then being about twenty years old. 

Clark county in Illinois was the native place of R. T. Baker and there 
his father, James, died at the age of seventy, many years after he had 
removed thither from his native Kentucky. The mother, who bore the 
maiden name of INIalinda Fry and was born in South Carolina, came to 
California after the death of her husband and made her home with her son. 
R. T.. in Los Angeles county, where she passed away at the age of sixty- 
seven years. L^pon his arrival in California Mr. Baker had proceeded from 
Sacramento to Solano county and had engaged in farming near Dixon, where 
he made his home from 1857 until 1895 and then for seven years engaged in 
farming in Los Angeles county. Meanwhile he had married Miss Mary A. 
Bailey, who at the age of four years, in 1849, had been brought across the 
plains from Illinois by her father, Peter Bailey, a pioneer of Solano county, 
where she was reared to womanhood. Born of tlieir marriage were three 
children. The eldest, Vina, is the widow of John A. Johnson and lives in 
Kern county. The only son, Frank C, is engaged in the oil business in 
Kern county, near Maricopa, and the youngest. Louisa. Mrs. McGar. died 
in Yolo county, leaving six children. 

Liax'ing purchased in 1902 a tract of land in Kern county Mr. P)aker 
brought his family to this place and since then has devoted his attention to 
the improvement of his property, which comprises twenty acres on section 
19, about twelve miles south of Bakersfield. Quietly following the duties 
of his chosen occupation and caring little for outside activities, he never- 
theless maintains a warm interest in all movements for the general upbuild- 
ing of Kern county. Ever since he cast his first presidential ballot for 
Abraham Lincoln he has continued a stanch advocate of Republican prin- 
ciples and a voter for measures promulgated by the leaders of that party. 
Various fraternal organizations have had the benefit of his active co-opera- 
tion, most important of these having been the blue lodge of Masons, the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Ancient Order of United Workmen. 

EDWARD C. KELLERMEYER.— The Independent \Ye\\ Supply Com- 
pany, (if which Mr. Kellermeyer is treasurer and in the promotion of which 
he has maintained a warm interest, was incorporated under the laws of Cali- 
fornia April 6, 1912, with a capital stock of $500,000. Practically a closed 
corporation, its stock has not been placed upon the market and its stock- 
holders have been fully satisfied with the management of Lheir interests on 
the part of the directors of the concern. The main office of the company is 
located in the Bank of Bakersfield building at Bakersfield and the officers 
are as follows: William H. I^'enneman. of Coalinga. president; William H. 



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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 875 

Landme3^er, of Los Ang-eles. vice-president ; Clarence Wilson, of Bakersfield, 
secretary; and E. C. Kellermeyer, treasurer, also manager of the Taft branch. 

Identified with the Taft branch of the concern since June of 1912 and 
a resident of California since 1901, Mr. Kellermeyer came west equipped for 
practical work l)y thorough training as a machinist and by superior mechan- 
ical skill that already had made him an expert in the building and repair- 
ing of bicycles and in similar tasks. He is a native of the city of Indian- 
apolis, Ind., and was born January 13, 1876, being a son of A. F. \V. and 
Minnie (Teckenbrock) Kellermeyer. The latter, a native of Germany, was 
brought to America in infancy and grew^ to womanhood in Indianapolis, 
where her parents were pioneers. The former, a mechanic by trade, still 
follows his chosen occupation in Indianapolis, and in the same city the 
paternal grandfather, a native of Germany, now eighty-seven years of age, 
had a long and active career as a railroad mechanic and inspector. The 
parental family included five children, named as follows : Harry, a machinist 
employed at his trade in Indianapolis ; Edward C, the only member of the 
family to leave his native city; Walter, who is connected with the Indianap- 
olis fire department ; Charles, an employe of the Indiana Trust Company in 
Indianapolis; and Clara, who is employed by a large business corporation 
of Indianapolis. 

Having completed the studies of the grammar school. Edward C. Keller- 
meyer served an apprenticeship of four years to the trade of machinist with 
Sinker & Davis and meanwhile acquired a thorough knowledge of the occu- 
pation. The bent of his mind was toward such w^ork and he has shown 
unusual aptitude in the care and repairing of machinery. At the expiration 
of his apprenticeship he engaged with the Standard bicycle works in Indian- 
apolis for two years and for a similar period he was with the Waverly 
Bicycle Company, after which he held a trusted position as machinist with 
the Central bicycle works, also in Indianapolis. After a year with the last- 
named concern he went to Logansport, Ind., and secured employment in 
the shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Coming to California 
in 1901. he secured work as a roustabout with the \\\ T. AIcFie Supply 
Ctmipany of Los Angeles. From the delivery force he worked his w^ay up 
to be a city salesman. June 29, 1902, he arrived in Bakersfield, from which 
point he proceeded to the Kern river oil fields and for nine months remained 
there as a field solicitor. Returning to Los Angeles he remained for a year, 
then came back to the Kern river field and entered the service of the 33 
Oil Company as a lease foreman. A year later he resigned the position, 
returned to Los Angeles and resumed work for the W. T. McFie Supply 
Company, whose supply department he superintended for nine months. As 
an employe of the Oil Well Supply Company he arrived in Maricopa May 
1, 1907. Four months later he was sent over to McKittrick to take charge 
of the branch at that point. After a year as manager of that branch he was 
transferred to Moron (now Taft), where he built the Oil Well Supply Com- 
pany's store. On the completion of the store he became its manager and 
continued to fill the position with the greatest efficiency until he resigned, 
April 1, 1912, for the purpose of organizing the Independent Well Supply 
Company. Since coming to Taft he has been interested in various local 
(organizations and enterprises, particularly the Taft Petroleum Club, of 
which he is a charter member. His marriage took place in Coalinga and 
united him with Miss Florence J. Williams, daughter of B. C. \\'illiams, 
who is engaged in the real-estate business at that place. 

JOHN E. HUBBARD.— The Buckeye state gave to California in the 
first and second generations many citizens of thrift, enterprise and high 
moral character, who have taken a manful part in the work of development 
which has made the state one of the greatest in the Union. John E. Hub- 



876 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

bard of Delano, Kern county, was born in Butle county, Cal., December 8, 
1872, a son of William and Nancy (McBride) Hubbard. The father was 
born near Ottawa, Putnam county, Ohio, July 9, 1849, and the mother was 
born in Hancock county, that state, June 22, 1850. Of their marriage, which 
occurred near Sacramento, January 1, 1872, six children were born. The elder 
Mr. Hubbard was blessed with only limited educational advantages in the 
east and early in life began to "give his attention to agriculture. In 1864 he 
came to California and settled in Yolo county, where he farmed for a time, 
or until he pre-empted a tract of his own near Oroville, Butte county. After 
remaining there for two years he returned to Yolo county and resumed farm- 
ing. Later he was similarly employed in Stanislaus county until 1884, when 
he located in Fresno. From there in 1886 he came to Kern county and located 
seven miles east of Delano, where he took up a homestead of one hundred 
and sixty acres which has been his home ever since. Besides the homestead 
he also, with his son, is the owner of four hundred and eighty acres which 
is devoted to grain raising. In connection with his agricultural endeavors 
he takes contracts for leveling land for alfalfa and orchard purposes, using 
a large steam roller in the operation. 

The six children comprising the parental family are John Edson, Chaun- 
oey N., Rachel E. (Mrs. Simpson of Munson), Rilla A., Oren F., and Archie 
F. John E., the eldest of the family, was early in life, enrolled in a public 
school, where he continued his studies until 1879. Later he was a student 
for three years in the public school at Oakdale, Stanislaus county. After the 
removal of his parents to Fresno he continued his studies there until 1884. 
Coming to Kern county with his parents in 1886, he busied himself until he 
was nineteen years old in assisting his father on the farm. By the time he 
was twenty-one he was master of the secrets of successful farming and his 
father took him as his partner in a dry farming enterprise which has proved 
a successful undertaking. For three years, from 1905 to 1908, they farmed 
in Tulare Lake basin, but on account of floods during the rainy season their 
efforts did not meet with the results they had anticipated. In connection 
with their farming they operate a steam harvester and leveler, a thoroughly 
up-to-date outfit which has been in wide demand. In April, 1908, John E. 
Hubbard married Miss Alice Harris, who was born in Missouri. 

HARVEY NEWTON McCULLOUGH.— An illustration of the power 
of a determined will in the overcoming of obstacles appears in the life activi- 
ties of Mr. McCullough, who during boyhood encountered many vicissitudes 
and endured countless hardships. The family were of southern birth and 
associations, yet of Union sympathies, hence they suffered from the Civil 
war in an unusual degree and undoubtedly the heaviest loss of all was the 
death of the father while serving with the First Arkansas Infantry in the 
Federal army. This gallant soldier, Marion R. McCullough, was born in 
North Carolina and became a pioneer of Arkansas, where he started to 
improve a tract of raw land. IVFeanwhile he had married Lovenia Robinson, 
a native of North Carolina, who died in February, 1856, and their only child, 
Harvey N., was born August 17, 1853, at the home farm near Harrison, 
Boone county. Ark. After he left home to serve under the flag of the Union 
news was scant and privations many for his son left behind. It was learned 
that he had been captured and held as a prisoner of war and later word came 
of his death from hardships. The community being intensely southern in 
sympathy, the boy was taken to Missouri by the federal troops for protec- 
tion, and found refuge at Springfield, that state, where he remained until it 
was safe for him to return to the old homestead. Going back about 1866, 
he found the stock stolen, the farm despoiled and the old home scarcely fit 
for human habitation, but he undertook its restoration. 

On account of all these privations it had not been possible for the youth 
to attend school. At the age of seventeen he began to feel his deprivations 




^a^.^^ ^ /Tf^cJ/,^^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 879 

so greatly that he determined to attend school and for several years he was 
a pupil in free and pay schools. When finally in 1876 he completed the 
course of study in Crooked creek school district, he was presented with a 
quilt made by thirty-six young" ladies, each of whom had sewed her name 
into a piece of the quilt. Through all the changes of later years this present 
was retained and no diploma ever gave to its recipient greater pleasure than 
the handiwork of these young girls. In 1877 Mr. McCullough traveled with 
ox-teams to the Round valley in Arizona, where he arrived after a trip of 
ninety-five days. The following year he proceeded to Phoenix, Ariz., and 
took up farming, but in the same year he went back to Arkansas. During 
the return trip, which was made with horses, he had an encounter with the 
Apaches and narrowly escaped with his life. Returning to Arkansas and 
resuming agricultural pursuits, he continued there until 1882, after which 
he spent a year at Silver City, N. M. For some years afterward he engaged 
in farming near Phoenix, Ariz,, and from there came to California in 1889, 
settling at Bakersfield. For a year he teamed in the employ of H. A. 
Jastro, and on his return after a brief trip to Phoenix he became interested 
in raising strawberries on the Kern river, where he owned an apiary. Five 
years later he sold out and returned to Bakersfield, where he opened a wood 
yard on the corner of Humboldt and Sacramento streets. Since then he 
has continued at the same location and meantime has built up a large trade 
in groceries, grain, hay, feed and fuel. At this writing he owns two corners 
with two residences and has recently completed a brick store building, 
40x150 feet in dimensions. His family consists of one daughter and two 
sons, namely : Mrs. Mary Sterwalt, of San Diego ; James, who is engaged 
in farming at Phoenix, Ariz. ; and David, who assists his father in the 
grocery, feed and fuel business. In politics Mr. McCullough gives stanch 
support to Republican principles, while fraternally he has been prominently 
connected with the local work of the Knights of Pythias. 

ALBERT HAMILTON CASTRO.— The ancestral home of the family 
was in Mexico, where was born the father of Albert Hamilton Castro, by name 
Domitilo Castro, he in turn being the son of Thomas and Concepcion (Coro- 
nado) Castro, both natives of Mexico. 

It was in 1867 that the grandfather of Mr. Castro brought his family 
to Kern c( unty to embark in the stock-raising business three miles south- 
east of the present town of Bakersfield. Homesteading a half section, he 
later became owner of a stock range in the Breckenridge mountains, having 
at the time a great number of head of stock, and at his death, January 14, 
1900, he left to his nine children a substantial heritage. His wife, who was 
the daughter of Jesus Coronado, a pioneer of California, passed away in 
Bakersfield April 25, 1897. Domitilo Castro was the third in order of birth 
of their children, and with them he received the benefits derived from 
the public schools of the district. Remaining on his father's ranch he fol- 
lowed stock-raising for many years and September 6, 1879. married Miss 
Lucy Cage, who was a native of Napa county, Cal., and the daughter of 
Edward and Macaria (Areneas) Cage, the former born in Mississippi and 
the latter a native of ^lexico. Besides Mr. Castro's home five miles south 
of Bakersfield he owns a hundred and sixty acres at the mouth of Fort 
Tejon canon, and where he ranges his cattle, bearing the brand DC. In 1911 
he left the ranch to move to his residence at No. 1101 Brown street, Bakers- 
field, which he had built. He also owns ether property in Bakersfield. 

The children born to Domitilo Castro and his wife were: Marguerite, 
who is a trained nurse at Oakland; Frank, who is a blacksmith in Coalinga 
and is married to Effie Godley, of Bakersfield; Louis, who is an oil man at 
Mojave; Albert H. and Andrew M., twins, the latter an oil driller at Taft for 
the K. T. & O. Company; Adlai, in the employ of the American Petroleum 
Oil Company; Lucv M., Felix C. and Amelia, at home. Of these Albert 



880 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

HamiltDii (astro was l)()rn in IJakersfield September 29, 1886. After i^jradu- 
ation from the grammar school he attended high school and then took a 
course at the Bakersfield P)Usiness College, from which he was graduated in 
1908. He immediately found employment in the Sunset oil field at Maricopa, 
where he hecame a tool-dresser. In the latter capacity he worked for the 
Western Minerals Oil Compau}- and continued in their employ for fifteen 
months. In 1911 he assumed the management of his father's ranch, five miles 
south of Uakersfield, where he raises chiefly alfalfa, hay and barley and is 
making a success of it. His forty acres of alfalfa he cuts five times a year, 
his annual product amounting to two hundred tons of alfalfa, while he also 
raises annually fiftv tons of barley. He has also taken up a one hundred 
and sixty-acre tract in the Breckenridge mountains, twenty-seven miles east 
of I'akersfield. 

Mr. Castro is a trustee of the Fairview school district, and is greatly 
interested in the cause of education. Fraternally 'he is a member of the Red- 
men, Woodmen of the World, and the Knights of Columbus. 

JOSE J. LOPEZ. — The honored old Castilian family of Lopez became 
established in the new world when Claudio Lopez, an ofBcer in the Spanish 
army, crossed the ocean during one of the revolutions that occasionally dis- 
rupted Mexico and gave efficient service in the quelling of the disturbances. 
In recognitioji of his capable assistance the Mexican government appointed 
him an Indian agent for Southern California and he established his home 
at San Gabriel, Los Angeles county, where he continued to reside until 
his death. Next in line of descent was Estavan, a native of San Gabriel and 
a lifelong resident of Los Angeles county, where he died after many years 
of successful identification with the stock industry. The following genera- 
tion was represented by Geronimo Lopez, who was born in Los Angeles and 
is now living in the San Fernando valley, hale and robust notwithstanding 
his eighty-four useful and active years. Until he retired from business cares 
he engaged extensively in the raising of sheep and cattle and ranked among 
the leading stockmen of his locality. His old homestead, situated one and 
one-half miles north of San Fernando, has been purchased by a company 
which intends to build thereon the last dam of the Los Angeles aqueduct. 
During early manhood he was united in marriage with Miss Catherine Lopez 
and thus became allied with a family whose maternal ancestors held rank 
among the prominent pioneers of Southern California. Under the priesthood 
administration her father, Pedro Lopez, a native of Los Angeles, held 
office as administrator of the mission of San Fernando, but his main occu- 
pation in life w^as that of stock-raiser and for many years he followed that 
pursuit with industry and fair success. His daughter, Mrs. Lopez, has reached 
the age of eighty-one years and is physically and mentally vigorc^us for 
one of that advanced age. 

The family of Geronimo and Catherine Lopez comprised sixteen chil- 
dren, of whom eight daughters and two sons are now living. Jose J., the 
eldest of all, was born at the family homestead in Los Angeles October 22, 
1853, and at the age of seven years accompanied the family to the San Fer- 
nando valley. ITntil twenty-one years of age he alternated his time between 
Los Angeles and the ranch, meanwhile attending the public schools and 
also gaining under his father a very comprehensive knowledge of the stock 
business. Coming to Kern county as early as 1874, he embarked in the sheep 
business and made his headquarters at the Tejon for three years. Meanwhile 
his success with his flock attracted the attention of others and led to his 
selection as manager of the sheep industry for General Beale at Rancho el 
Tejon. During the seven years of his incumbency of the position of manager 
he had charge of about sixty thousand head of sheep. At the expiration of 
that time the sheep industry was turned over to J. W. Forbes and Mr. Lopez 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 883 

was transferred to the cattle and horse departments, both of which he super- 
intended fur twenty-one years. In these industries no less than with sheep 
he proved exceptionally resourceful, sai^acious and succesful. Finally, 
twenty-eight years after he had become identified with the ranch, he was 
chosen its manager, at the same time being appointed manager of Rancho 
Costec. la Liebre and Los Alamos, by Truxtun Beale, with whom he can- 
tinued for four years or until 1909, when he retired, after an identification of 
thirty-two years with the Beale interests, and removed to Bakersfield, erecting 
a residence at No. 1203 Chester avenue. On May 1, 1912, the Tejon Ranch 
Company that purchased all of the interest in the estate of the late Gen. E. F. 
Beale, comprising the four above-named ranches with stock and improve- 
ments, induced Mr. Lopez to accept the management of the four ranches, 
and he is once more actively engaged in the management of large affairs 
with which he has been so closely identified in Kern county. On his large 
ranch of eight hundred acres near Gorham station he keeps fine droves of 
cattle, using not only the brand of L with a cross, but also L with an Indian 
arrow, which brand was used by his father for sixty-three years. 

The marriage of Jose J. Lopez was solemnized in Bakersfield May 27, 
1885, uniting him with Miss Mary Winter, who was born at La Providencia 
rancho, near Burbank, Los Angeles county, the daughter of James P. and 
Jennie (Christie) Winter, natives of Aberdeen, Scotland. .Mr. and Mrs. Lopez 
have one daughter, Margaret Pearl. Upon coming to the United States Mr. 
and Mrs. Winter crossed the plains to California, locating in the southern 
part of the state. They now make their home in Kern county, near the 
Tejon ranch. 

HUGH A. BLODGET.— The records of the family show that Arba 
Blodget, a native of Massachusetts and a soldier of the war of 1812, migrated 
to New York state, and took up land from the Holland Land Company. An ac- 
cident caused his death while yet he was in the prime of usefulness. The farm 
which he had purchased in Chautauqua county, N. Y., and which extended 
over the state line into Pennsylvania, was the birthplace of his son, Wil- 
liam O., and grandson, Hugh A., but the former, having little taste for 
agriculture, gave up farming for merchandising. Upon the outbreak of the 
Civil war he" ofifered his services to the Union and aided in raising a com- 
pany, of which he was chosen lieutenant. While a member of Reynolds 
division, fighting in front of the historic stone wall at Gettysburg, he was 
slightly wounded, and his death, which occurred in 1865, when he was forty-one 
years old, was the result of exposure and arduous campaign duty. Three 
days before his death his wife passed away, leaving three orphan children. 
Prior to her marriage she bore the maiden name of Esther A. Spencer. Born 
in Warren county. Pa., she was a member of an old established family of 
that section. 

Hugh A. Blodget was born October 23. 1855, and was about ten years of 
age at the time he was doubly orphaned. During the next seven years he 
made his home with his maternal grandmother and meanwhile took a course 
in the Jamestown Collegiate Institute. Quite early in life he became self- 
supporting and destiny turned his steps toward the west. During Decem- 
ber of 1872 he arrived at Windsor, Sonoma county, poor in purse, but rich 
in hope. For two years he clerked in a store during the winters and worked 
on a ranch in the summer. After coming to Kern county he worked on a 
ranch for about two months, after which for two years he served as clerk 
in the office of the county recorder. Next he became bookkeeper in the 
Kern Valley Bank. During 1884 he was chosen cashier of the bank and in 
1902 was made its president, but the following year, owing to the pressure of 
outside business, he retired from the bank, since which he has devoted his 
energies largely to oil development and refining business. 



884 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

One of tlie first promoters of the oil industry in the Sunset region, dur- 
ing 1890 Mr. Blodget, associated with Solomon Jewett and Charles Barnard, 
put down the first wells drilled in that district, but the project did not 
prove a success and Mr. Barnard withdrew from the field. Although Messrs. 
Blodget and Jewett continued further experiments with undiminished energy, 
it was not until 1897 that they met with any results. Mr. Blodget organized 
the Phoenix Refining and Manufacturing Company in 1907 with Arthur 
Webster as its manager and himself as president, since wdiich time the com- 
pany has built up a large refining plant. The enterprise then started has 
developed into one of much importance to Bakersfield and Kern county and 
is the largest manufacturing concern in the city and county. This corpora- 
tion on its own account and that of its allied companies maintains a monthly 
pay roll of approximately $.^000, which supports mau}^ families and which is 
distributed among the various merchants of Bakersfield. It uses exclusively 
in the manufacture of its various products, oils, distillates and greases, Kern 
county crude oils and Kern county fullers earth. Through the medium of its 
superior and economic gas engine distillates and lubricating oils, which are 
sold at prices which represent only a reasonable profit on the cost of manu- 
facture, this corporation will be instrumental to a large degree in rapidly 
developing this awd adjoining counties through pump irrigation. Mr. 
Blodget expresses himself as feeling a pardonable pride in this achievement 
as he has been a resident of Kern county for more than thirty-nine years. 
Those competent to judge assert that no one has done more than Mr. 
Blodget to encourage and develop the oil business in Kern county. His 
ample facilities for ascertaining facts and his clear judgment have been given 
to the industry from the first, while his reputation for reliability has counted 
for much in the business. In addition to aiding in the development of the 
oil producing and oil refining business he has been a leading factor in local 
enterprises of permanent benefit. The first sewer system of the town, a 
private enterprise, received his financial aid. Railroad and street transporta- 
tion have been promoted by his foresight ; also the gas and electric light 
svstems. As a director of the Bakersfield Board of Trade he has encouraged 
all measures for the upbuilding of the city. That he has a firm faith in his 
chosen town appears from his many investments in real estate and in the 
building of an elegant residence, where he and his wife, formerly Miss A. L. 
Park, dispense a gracious hospitality. Mrs. Blodget, who was born in 
Wisconsin and came to California during 1878, is the mother of three chil- 
dren, Haselton P., Ruth and Anna L. 

Fraternallv connected with the Masons. Knights of Pythias and Benev- 
olent Protective Order of Elks, Mr. Blodget has been a local leader in 
each order. In politics he always has supported Republican principles. Into 
whatever line of activity he has entered his fine mental endowments have 
proved helpful to the work in question. Particularly has this been the 
case in educational afifairs. A firm believer in the public schools, he has 
given freely of his time, means and intelligence to promote the educational 
system of Bakersfield and it would be difficult to name any citizen whose 
contribution to this line of public welfare has been of more value than his 
own. Appointed on the school board May 24. 1898, he was regularly chosen 
to the office at the ensuing election. Ever since that time he has served as 
president of the board. I'nder his incumbency the schools have increased 
in enrollment four fold, wdiile in efficiency they have reached a point abreast 
of the best schools of the state. The natural energy and wise zeal charac- 
terizing Mr. Blodget in all of his other dealings has been carried into this 
department and the result has been highly gratifying to all patrons of the 
citv schools. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 887 

WILLIAM J. DOHERTY.— A son of William M. and Alice (Keville) 
Doherty, he was born at Derby, Orleans county, Vt., in 1848. Der])y lies near 
the line of Quebec and a little further to the north in that province, at Sher- 
brooke, the father owned and operated a large farm for years, also engaged in 
lumbering there and in Vermont, shipping ship timbers to Portland and con- 
tinuing in the lumber industry as long as he lived. In this way the son 
gained a thorough knowledge of such work and later he was sent to Lowell, 
Mass., (the native place of his mother) to serve an apprenticeship to the trade 
of a carpenter. Upon the completion of his apprenticeship he worked as a 
journeyman for three years at Fall River and for a similar period at Worcester, 
Mass., after which in 1876 he came to California and followed his trade in San 
Francisco and Oakland. Thence he went to Arizona and devoted three years 
to contracting and building at Tucson. Upon his return to California he 
helped to build up Tulare, after a disastrous fire had almost destroyed the 
town. Meanwhile in 1875 his brother, George C, had established himself in 
the building business at Bakersfield and also had engaged in the management 
of an apiary, continuing both lines of work until his death in 1894. He served 
for one term as supervisor of Kern county and filled other positions of local 
trust. 

A visit to this brother gave Mr. Doherty an opportunity to bid on the 
construction of the Southern hotel. The contract was given him and in 1889 
he erected the hotel, but sixty days after he had turned it over to the owners 
it was destroyed by fire. Meanwhile he had joined with his brother in the 
bee business. In dilTerent parts of the county he had from twelve hundred 
to fifteen hundred colonies, but these he sold upon engaging in the lumber 
business. While he has built many houses in Bakersfield, including his own 
residence at No- 2504 Nineteenth street, and has also had contracts for 
important public buildings, including that for the Roman Catholic Church in 
1905, his leading business associations have been with the lumber industry. 
After he completed the Southern hotel he was absent from the city for a year 
and upon his return in 1890 he became interested in the lumber business. A 
company of men had been organized to take over five thousand acres of timber 
land on Mount Breckenridge and under the title of the Kern County Lumber 
Company they built a saw mill. A road was built to the mill on the east slope 
of the mountain, about thirty-five miles from Bakersfield. 

From the first the Fresno Flume Company made a determined efifort to 
put the new concern out of business. The easiest way to accomplish their 
purpose was to drop the price of lumber. This they did, so that the organ- 
ization at Bakersfield, after operating the mill for two years at a great loss, 
abandoned all effort to continue their enterprise. Their troubles were 
enhanced by the sudden death of their manager, Mr. Lincoln, and the stock 
of the company was almost worthless. About that time Mr. Doherty nego- 
tiated with a Bakersfield lumber firm to buy their business and take over 
their yard. Having almost closed the deal, he ordered a large consignment 
of lumber from Oregon. Meantime the Fresno company bought the yard after 
secret negotiations. It was necessary for him to find a place to unload his 
lumber, shipped from Oregon, so he secured the corner of Eighteenth street 
and Chester avenue and started in business. His next step was to go to Fresno 
and endeavor to buy mountain pine from the company there, but they refused 
to sell. Immediately he secured an option to lease the property of the Kern 
County Lumber Company on Mount Breckenridge and when he had taken 
over the mill and lumber he incorporated the Union Lumber Company, with 
himself as president, manager and sole owner. Heavy teams were utilized 
to haul the pine lumber to the Bakersfield yard. A need for more space caused 
him in 1902 to buy another yard on the corner of Truxtun and Chester avenue, 
where now stand the new Hall of Records and the Catholic Church. A year 



888 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

after he had established a yard at that point he was burned out, whereupon 
he bought one and one-half blocks on I and Fifteenth streets, along the Santa 
Fe Railroad, where he established a new lumber yard and built and operated 
a planing mill and box factory in connection. In the fall of 1905 he sold the 
business to J. H. Mallett of San Francisco, who still operates the Union 
Lumber Company at the same location. 

Having purchased in 1911 the entire tract and holdings of the old Kern 
County Lumber Company, consisting of forty-seven hundred and sixty acres 
with a large area of timber, approximating forty million feet, Mr. Doherty 
immediately prepared to resume the manufacture of lumber and put the roads 
in shape so that gasoline trucks could haul heavy loads from the mill to 
Bakersfield. His long experience and thorough knowledge of timber con- 
ditions in this part of the state give promise of continued success in the lumber 
business. While carrying on extensive business afifairs he has nut withheld 
his support from civic enterprises, but has been a liberal contributor to move- 
ments for the advancement of Bakersfield along every line of endeavor. His 
first marriage united him with Miss Theresa Leeper, by whom he had one 
son, Earl L., now engaged in the real estate business at Larkspur, Marin 
county. Fie married (second) Gertrude Borgwardt of Bakersfield and has 
two children, Keville and William Henry. His present wife, whom he married 
in Bakersfield in the year 1904, was Miss Lillie C. McClaskey, a native of 
Marysville, Cal. Aside from taking part in numerous social and literary 
organizations she is identified with the Rebekahs and Mr. Doherty also 
belongs to that lodge, besides being a member of the Bakersfield Lodge and 
Encampment, I. O. O. F., and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. The 
father of Mrs. Doherty, Hon. Calvin McClaskey, crossed the plains with a 
large expedition during the summer of 1851 and settled in Yuba county. An 
attorney by profession, he turned his attention to law practice after having 
endeavored in vain to find a fortune in the mines. During 1872 he established 
an office at Susanville and for years he was a prominent citizen of Lassen 
county. Through his service as county judge he received the title of Judge 
McClaskey, by which he was known among his acquaintances. W'hile still 
a resident of Yuba county he was elected to the state assembly and served 
during the sessions of 1869-70, while during 1883 and 1884 he served as 
assemblyman representing Plumas, Lassen and Sierra counties. His marriage 
at Virginia City, Nev., in 1865, united him with Miss Anna J. Slavin, who two 
years before had come from the east by way of Panama. As a legislator he 
achieved considerable prominence. 

GEORGE A. McLEAN. — Possession to a marked degree of unusual 
business ability and well-grounded information of his particular line has been 
evidenced in the responsible position held by George A. McLean, who, after 
entering the employ of the Kern County Land Company, so proved his 
valuable services that he was promoted to the superintendency of the North 
Side Canals with headquarters at what is known as the Calloway headquar- 
ters in the company. A Canadian by birth, he is of Scotch extraction, his 
father, Archie McLean, being a native of Scotland. When a young man the 
father had come to Ontario to follow his trade of mason, but instead he em- 
barked in contracting and building. In about 1888 he came to Riverside, 
Cal., where he followed contracting mason work, later removing to Colton. 
While at Riverside he was engaged in constructing the Gage canal for the 
Riverside Water Company. He still makes his home at Colton, having fol- 
lowed contracting in different parts of California. His wife, before her mar- 
riage, Phoebe Harris, was born in Ontario, and she is making her home in 
Colton, in the enjoyment, with her husband, of a beautiful afternoon of life. 
Of their -family of four children three survive. 

The second eldest child of his parents, George A. McLean was born in 




jf. (^^ ^U^ec^U^ /toU^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 891 

Cathcart, Ontario, May 3. 1884, and a few vears later was brought to Cali- 
fornia by his parents, who gave him splendid opportunities for an education. 
After graduating from the local high school at Colton he entered the San 
Bernarchno TUisiness College and was graduated, being thortmghly equipped 
to enter the business world. For the subsequent year he was in the employ 
of the Colton Cement Company as storekeeper, and then entered the sur- 
veying department of the Bay Cities Water Company, spending most of the 
time in Santa Clara county. His next employment was with the Union Con- 
struction Company at Calaveras and Tuolumne counties in the engineering 
department on the construction of power plants, and then was with the 
Pacific Improvement Company on a topographical survey of the peninsula. 
In 1Q08 he came to Bakersfield to work in the engineering department of the 
Southern Pacific Railroad, continuing in this connection until March, 1910, 
when he started his association with the Kern County Land Company as 
bookkeeper and foreman at the Calloway headquarters. It was not long, 
however, when his qualities and fitness for the special line of work attracted 
his superiors and on January 1, 1911, he was made superintendent of the 
North Side Canals with his headquarters at the above ranch. 

Mr. McLean's marriage occurred in Colton to Miss Cora Lee Sisson, 
who was born in Missouri. Two children bless their union, Edith Lee and 
Virginia Phcebe. 

A. C. JULIUS KIRSTEN.— A native of the kingdom of Prussia the 
subject of this biographical review was born at Nordhausen December 7, 
1859, being a son of Frederick and Emelia (Ferchland) Kirsten, natives of 
Germany and lifelong residents of Prussia. For many years the father offici- 
ated as mayor of Rossla. By trade he was a glazier. The only child in the 
family was Julius, who was educated in the Kelbra gymnasium and served 
an apprenticeship to the trade of confectioner at Nordhausen. On the close 
of his term he went to Russia in 1878 and found work at his trade succes- 
sively in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Odessa. When the time for military 
examination drew near he returned to Germany, but there was exempted 
from service, so he immediately started for New York. After landing Janu- 
ary 29, 1882, he experienced no delay in securing employment in a bakery 
in the metropolis, where during the same year he married Miss Frances 
Pope, who died in October of 1888. Meanwhile he had come to California 
and worked for five months in San Francisco. Later he followed his trade 
for three years in Honolulu. Upon returning to San Francisco he bought 
a bakery, but the business proved unprofitable and he went to Guatemala, 
where for fourteen months he engaged in business. Next we find him in Costa 
Rica. After four years in that and other Central American states and four 
months in New Orleans, during 1896 he returned to San Francisco, where 
he followed his trade at the Clifif House. Later he was similarly engaged 
in Spokane, Colorado Springs and El Paso. From the last-named city he 
traveled into Mexico, then returned to the east on a tour of inspection, later 
finding employment in Denver, Colo. There was much to interest him in 
these various places and sections of the country, nor did he find less inter- 
esting the three years spent in Arizona. Meanwhile a tract of land he had 
owned in Washington was sold and with the money he bought a bakery 
at Florence, Cal., but at the expiration of ten months he sold out, and August 
16, 1908, settled in Mojave, where on J street he erected the building in 
which is housed his present fine bakery and delicatessen. In politics he is 
a Republican. 

HON. MILTON T. FARMER.— The judge of the superior court depart- 
ment No. 3 of Kern county has the distinction of being a native son as 
well as a descendant of a California pioneer of 1850 and a representative of 
old American stock identified with the colonial and Revolutionary eras. 



892 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Tradition associates the Farmer family with many interesting events in the 
Old Dominion, whence some of the name crossed the mountains into Ken- 
tucky. From the Blue Grass state, his native commonwealth. George Farmer 
migrated to Iowa and settled among the pioneer farmers at Riverton, a fron- 
tier community of small population. From that region he went to the front 
with an Iowa regiment during the Civil war. His service was made note- 
worthy by crnspicuous valor and one of the war heroes passed away when 
he met his death from a wound received while campaigning in Tennessee. 
Among the surviving members of his family there was a son, George Thomas 
Farmer, born at Rivcrton. Iowa, and a pioneer of Yolo county, Cal., where 
he married Miss Gertrude Ruggles, a member of a family identified with 
New England during colonial times and represented in the army of patriots 
during the Revolution. Born in ^^'oodland, Cal., Airs. Farmer was a 
daughter of L. D. Ruggles, a native of Illinois and a California pioneer 
of i850. 

After a somewhat prolonged sojourn in Yolo county, during which time 
Milton T. Farmer was born at Woodland December 7, 1883, the Farmer 
family sought a more southerly h cation and during 1884 became residents 
of Tulare county, where the father was a witness of the historic Mussel 
Slough fight. The family comprised eight children, of whom the four 
youngest. Theodore P., Paul, Clarence W. and Lucile B., make their home 
with their parents in Kings county. The eldest daughter, Leta D., is the 
wife of Dr. Lincoln Cothran, of San Jose. The second son, Lyman D., is 
the present sheriff of Kings county, and the second daughter, Ethel R., is the 
Avife of Simon Levy, a banker of Visalia. From his earliest memories Judge 
Farmer was reared on a ranch in Tulare county, where he completed the 
grammar-school course of study in the Excelsior district, one of his earliest 
teachers having been Harry VVeems, now of Wasco. After he had grad- 
uated from the Hanford high school in 1901 he matriculated in the San Jose 
State Normal and continued in that institution until he had completed the 
studies in 1903. As principal of the Grangeville school in Kings ccunty he 
proved to possess a decided bent for the high calling of a teacher and it 
was with universal regret on the part of the patrons of the school that his 
resignation was accepted in January, 1906, in order that he might pursue the 
social science course of study in the L^niversity of California. In addition 
he took up the study of law. During 1909 he received the degree of A.B. 
and two years later t!ie degree of doctor in jurisorudence was tendered to 
him. During the period of his connection with the institution he played on 
the Varsity football team with high honors and for two years engaged as 
manager of athletics. 

A period of connection with the office of Judge Bolton in San Francisco 
and the management of a private office associated with W. J. Hayes of Oak- 
land, gave Judge Farmer considerable experience in the law. In December, 
1911, he was appointed as one of the counsel for the State Banking departnient, 
but resigned the pc sition in 1912, as well as relinquishing his lucrative pri- 
vate practice, in order that he might accept an appointment tendered by 
Governor Johnson .August 14, 1913. as judge of superior court department 3, 
Kern county, in which most responsible post he has justified the wisdom of 
the appointment and proved his wide knowledge of the law. His marriage 
took place .August 21, 1912, and united him with Aliss Helen M. A'oung, of 
Berkeley, a native daughter of Visalia, but reared principally in Seattle, 
Wash., and a graduate of the University of California. The only child of 
the union is Milton, Jr. Aside from his association with the bench and the 
bar Judge Farmer has numerous afifiliations, being a member of Pomeroy 
Capter, Phi Delta Phi, University of California; Phi Beta Kaopa, National 
Scholarship Fraternity; Hanford Parlor No. Z7 , N. S. G. W. ; Durant Lodge 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 895 

No. 268, F. & A. M.. of Berkeley, Los Ang-eles Consistory, and Berkeley 
Locli^e No. 1002, Order of Elks. 

MERCY tiOSPITAL.— The new and elegant Mercy Hospital, which 
occupies a block of ground on Truxtun avenue between B and C streets, is a 
branch of and was built by the Sisters of Mercy, whose Mother House is 
located at West Washington and Concord streets, Los Angeles. The Bakers- 
field institution dates from February 19, 1910, when the St. Clair property, 
near the Santa Fe depot, was secured. It was soon discovered that this loca- 
tion was too noisy for a he spital site and the block on which it now stands 
was bought and the building removed to it and enlarged. The new building, 
which was dedicated by Bishop Conaty November 9, 1913, is on the Spanish 
renaissance order, constructed of concrete below the ground, while above it 
is brick plastered with white Medusa cement and inlaid tapestry brick. 
It is 108x48 feet in dimensions and is three stories high, with a high base- 
ment besides. A complete steel frame forms the center of the building and the 
roof is of Spanish tile. Thirty-six private rooms, the greater number of them 
with private baths, constitute this hospital and there is on each floor a well- 
equipped diet kitchen. In the center of the building is an electric automatic 
passenger elevator, which was the first of its kind in the city. The stair- 
ways are located one at each end of the building. Two glass sun parlors and 
a large veranda for the patients are located on the ground floor, and the 
operating department, which is said to be without exception the finest 
equipped in the state, having every facility with which to obtain the best 
possible results, is on the third floor. A great many special features have been 
provided for the lighting of the operating department as well as the entire 
building, an electric light signal system is installed, the entire lighting 
arrangement being a decidedly fine addition. 

The interior of the building is finished in white enamel, all the doors 
being finished in mahogany. A vacuum steam heating plant, which is also a 
source of supply for the sterilizers and the diet kitchens, provides the heating. 
Separate kitchen and laundry room are located at the rear of the hospital 
building and the old hospital of two stories is connected with the new by 
means of a steel bridge. In connection with the hospital the Sisters manage 
a large parochial school, under the St. Francis' church, the pastor of which is 
Father Hclden, who is given further mention elsewhere. 

CHARLES HENRY McCOY.— Even prior to the discovery of gold in 
California a considerable amount of emigration had been turned toward the 
west and as early as 1848 the McCoy family joined a party of home-seekers 
whose course of travel took them across plains, deserts and mountains, and 
through Nevada near the present site of Winnemucca. Toward the end of 
the tedious journey the Indians became more and more annoying. Finally, 
in fear of their lives, the McCoy family deflected their path from the destina- 
tion originally planned and turned north into Modoc county, where they 
became the very first white settlers in Surprise valley. Taking up land, they 
embarked in the cattle industry. Abimdance of water and pasturage enabled 
them to prosper, but for years the}- continued to find the red men troublesome. 
An old log house on Eagle creek was fortified for use whenever the Pitt River 
or Modoc Indians went on the war-path. John Henry McCoy, who was a 
native of Arkansas, had not attained man's estate at the time of the migration 
to the west and all of his active life was passed in Modoc county, where he 
was prominent, honored and influential. While serving as sherifif. which 
office he filled with energy and courage, he was shot down in cold blood by a 
Mexican. The white settlers, aroused by the death of a pioneer of such 
splendid qualities of manhood, lynched the murderer. Surviving Mr. McCo}^ 
were his young wife and two sons. The elder. Charles Henry, is a resident 
of Kern countv, and the x'ounger. lames, who went to Oregon, is now an 



896 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

extensive rancher of Lake count3^ The wife and mother. EHzabeth (Moulton) 
McCoy, was brought across the plains in infancy by her parents, who became 
pioneers of Surprise valley. After the death of her husband 'she continued 
in the cattle business and is still living- at Bear ranch, the old homestead. 

On the Modoc county ranch Charles Henry McCoy was born January 31, 
1870, and there he was reared to manhood. In 1877 his father was murdered. 
At that time and even later Indians frequently made raids into the valley and 
stole the cattle, so it was necessary to maintain an unceasing vigilance. From 
his earliest recollections he was familiar with horses and accustomed to the 
saddle. While yet a small child he began to ride the range and round up the 
cattle. As soon as he was old enough to manage the stock, his mother turned 
the supervision of the property over to him, but the failure of his health 
forced him to seek a different climate. Acting upon the advice of physicians 
he went to Arizona in 1895. Some time was spent in that territory and in 
New Mexico and Colorado, where he was interested in the cattle business. 
During 1899 he was one of five men appointed by the United States govern- 
ment to serve as "broncho busters" in the Philippines. After his arrival at 
the seat of war he engaged in breaking and training wild horses. At the out- 
break of the Boxer disturbance he was sent to China with the American 
troops, remaining at Pekin until quiet had been restored, when he was ordered 
to return to the Philippines. Having completed the work of training horses, 
he was placed in charge of pack trains in different parts of the islands. More 
than once he was forced into skirmishes with the natives, but in each instance 
he came off victorious. 

Returning to California in 1906, Mr. McCoy came to Kern county the 
following year and secured employment in riding after cattle on the range. 
During 1909 he entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company 
and became a stationary engineer at Caliente, where now he has charge of 
the pumping plant. Besides a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Honey 
Lake valley he owns sixty acres of fertile land in the Weed Patch. His 
marriage was solemnized in Lassen county and united him with A^Iiss Katherine 
Bond, a native of that county and a daughter of Jeremiah Bond, now living 
retired on his large ranch in the Honey Lake valley. Three sons, Marvin, 
Bernard and Lester, comprise the family of Mr. and Mrs. McCoy. In addi- 
tion to caring for her husband and sons with exemplary diligence and house- 
wifely skill, Mrs. McCoy has been an earnest worker in the Methodist Church, 
an official member of the Native Daughters of the Golden W^est, and a leading 
member of the Rebekahs and the Order of the Eastern Star. 

IRA B. DAVIS.— Since 1911 Ira B. Davis has been a resident of 
Caliente. where as a clerk under John Ripley, postmaster, he became familiar 
with the management of the office, winning recognition as a capable man in 
such responsibilities and rendering possible his own appointment as post- 
master in June, 1913. In filling the office he has for a deputy his wife, who 
also engages as operator of the Caliente long distance telephone. 

Springhill, Champaign county, Ohio, is the native place of Ira B. Davis 
and January 27, 1851, the date of his birth, his parents being Benjamin and 
Sarah (Patton) Davis, natives respectively of Kentucky and Virginia, but 
during their married life residents of Ohio. The father died on the home 
farm in 1873, having survived his wife for many years. Of their fourteen 
children all but one attained years of maturity and three of the sons were 
soldiers^ in the Union army during the Civil war. Two events impressed 
themselves vividly noon the youthful years of Mr. Davis, one of these being 
the departure of his older brothers for the war and the other being the death 
of his mother. With these exceptions his early life was uneventful. He 
attended the country schools and the St. Paris high school and in vacations 
assisted his father on the home farm. Upon leaving school he learned the 
butcher's trade at West Liberty, but did not like the occupation and turned 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 897 

to other pursuits. For a time he clerked in a general store. Following the 
drift of emigration toward the west, he took up land in Kansas during 1880 
and developed a farm near Burlingame, Osage county. 

The marriage of Mr. Davis was solemnized at Emporia, Kan., March 
25, 1881, and united him with Miss Belle Beckes, who was born in Indianapolis, 
Ind., and received an excellent education culminating in a course of study in 
the Emporia Normal. For a time prior to her marriage she engaged in teach- 
ing school in Kansas. Her parents, Caleb and Mary (Graham) Beckes, were 
natives of Indiana. After the death of Mrs. Beckes in that state the father 
removed to Kansas in 1859 and took up a claim in Osage county, where he 
engaged in agricultural pursuits. The last days of his life were passed in 
Emporia. After his marriage Mr. Davis remained in Kansas and continued 
in farming until 1893, when he removed to Salem, Fulton county, Ark. Later 
he spent some time in Missouri, but removed from there in 1900, after which 
he spent four years with the Sandoval Manufacturing Company in Sandoval, 
111. For a time he later engaged as a foreman with a manufacturing concern 
at Galesburg, that state. Upon resigning his position in 1911 he came to 
Caliente, since which time he has been connected with the postofifice. Both 
he and his wife are stanch believers in Republican principles, but partisanship 
has not entered into their service in the ofifice, which has come to them through 
meritorious service rather than political prestige. Mrs. Davis has been iden- 
tified with the Presbyterian denomination since girlhood. In fraternal rela- 
tions Mr. Davis is a member of the Court of Honor. Their only daughter, 
Mrs. Mary E. Schaubert, is living in Colorado, her home being at Cripple 
Creek. 

JAMES LINDSAY BRUCE. — During the nineteenth century represen- 
tatives of the Bruce family came from the Highlands of Scotland to the shores 
of America and established themselves in Canada, where for many years 
George Bruce, a son of the original immigrant, engaged in the drilling of oil 
wells and the operating of oil leases at Petrolea, County Lambton, Ontario, 
near the river St. Clair. Since his demise, which occurred in his home town, 
his widow, who bore the maiden name of Mary Lindsay and was born in 
Ontario, has removed to California and is now living in Bakersfield. Of their 
seven children there now survive four daughters and one son, James Lindsay, 
who was next to the oldest among the children and was born at Petrolea, 
Canada, August 2, 1876. As a boy he became familiar with that narrow strip 
of country lying between Lakes Huron and St. Clair. The family home was 
only fifteen miles from the river that joins these two lakes and he was there- 
fore very near to the United States. While yet a small boy he began to 
assist his father in such work as was possible for him to do in the oil business. 
At the age of sixteen he became a tool dresser. Two years later he became 
a driller, running a string of tools. When about twenty years of age he 
ceased to w-ork for his father and began in the employ of other oil operators. 

Coming to California in 1901 and seeking the oil regions of Kern county, 
Mr. Bruce drilled on 25-Hill one of the first wells sunk there. In 1902 he 
became an employe of the Associated Oil Company. At first he filled a very 
humble position. Gradually he worked up from one position to another, each 
more important than the former, and at the expiration of four years he was 
made general superintendent of the company's affairs in the Kern river field. 

After having been connected with the company for ten years Mr. Bruce 
resigned August 1, 1912, in order to devote his entire time to the automobile 
business and to his personal interests. The Southern garage, of which he is 
now the proprietor, stands at the corner of Twenty-fifth street and Chester 
avenue and in construction represents the mission type of architecture. Brick 
and cement used in the building render it practically fireproof. The storage 
capacity is sufficient for fifty cars. Reliable work is done at reasonable prices. 
Repairing is done promptly and satisfactorily. He has the agency for the 



898 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Bnick automobile for Kern county and the garage is also the headquarters 
for the Packard, Chalmers and other cars. Every facility is to be found in 
the garage in the way of modern machinery and improved tools. The vul- 
canizing shop is complete and expert service is guaranteed. Although the 
present proprietor has been connected with the business for a short time only, 
he has gained great popularity among owners of automobiles and has won his 
share of repair work as well as orders for new cars. In addition to his inter- 
ests in Bakersfield he owns property in Los Angeles and also has forty acres 
of fine orange land in the Porterville district. In politics he is stanchly 
Republican, while socially he holds membership with the Bakersfield Club. 
After coming to California he married in Bakersfield Miss Maude Lingwood, 
who was born in Missouri. They have two daughters, Velma and Silva. 

B, H. SILL, — Long before the American occupancy of California had 
bec( me an historic fact Daniel Sill had identified his destiny with that of 
the then unknown West, where with his own hands and the aid of such few 
carpenters' tools as he could secure he put up the fifth house ever built in 
San Francisco. (This was the Sill blacksmith shop marked 35 on picture 
of San Francisco 1846-7.) His first trip to this country occurred as early as 
1832, when the Spanish and the Indian inhabitants had as yet been undisturbed 
in their dreamy, contented existence by the arrival of throngs of eager, 
enterprising settlers of ether races. It was as an employe of the Hudson Bay 
Fur Company that the young man had come to the West from Michigan, 
where he left his wife and children to await his return. The fascination of 
the West impelled him to remain, and in 1830 his family joined him, among 
them being a son, Daniel. Jr., who came overland from Dowagiac, Mich. 
Meanwhile the energetic pioneer had followed various occupations besides 
working for the fur company. His trade of blacksmith earned him a livelihood 
at various places. For a time he engaged in the stock business at Monterey 
and after gold was discovered he spent some time at the placer mines, later 
engaging in the building business. Daniel. Jr., spent his mature years prin- 
cipally in the Santa Clara and Sacramento valleys, where he engaged in 
farm pursuits. Both he and his wife, who bure the maiden name of Sarah 
Mayhew, are now deceased. 

The next to the youngest among eight children, six of whom are still 
living, B. H. Sill was born in Santa Clara County, Cal.. June 7, 1869. and 
grew to manhood upon a farm in the Sacramento Valley. W^hile still a 
very small child he was bereaved by the death of his mother. At the age of 
fifteen he became an apprentice in a carriage factory at Marysville, this state, 
where he served for six years, meanwhile gaining a thorough knowledge of 
carriage-making. The occupation, however, did not interest him and when 
his apprenticeshio had been terminated he began to work on a farm owned 
by Hon. Leland Stanford in Tehama County, this state, where he helped to 
plant five thousand acres in a vineyard of choice grapes. Later he aided in 
the establishing of a winery and distillery on the ranch. During the five years 
of his employnient with Governor Stanford he attended school at Vina. 

As early as 1890 Mr. Sill made a trip to Bakersfield, but it was not until 
1898 that he became a permanent resident. Meanwhile he had been employed 
at Seattle and Spokane as well as in other western cities. Shortly after his 
arrival in this city he assisted in the organization of the Fred Gunther 
ConiDany. capitalized at $1.3.000, of which he is the president. In politics 
he has voted with the Democratic party ever since he became of the age 
required for the exercise of the franchise. Fraternally be is connected 
with the Elks. By his first wife. Catherine Collins, he has one son. Daniel, 
now a student in the Harvard INIilitary school in Los Angeles. After the 
death of his first wife he was united in marriage with Miss Catherine Bresna- 
ham. a native of Grand Rapids, Mich., and one son. Benjamin N;. blesses 







^ fi'* f ^ } 







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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 901 

their union. Aside from other interests Mr. Sill since coming to Kern Ccnnty 
has bought oil lands and acquired part ownership in oil wells. 

BERNARD BIMAT.— Since 1906 he has owned and worked forty acres 
under the east side canal eight miles southeast of Rakersfield, where alfalfa 
is raised profitably by the aid of abundant irrigation and where he also has 
given profitable attention to the raising of Percheron horses and sheep. His 
judgment concerning horses is seldom at fault. At a glance he seems able 
to detect defects and appraise values, this being the result of natural intuition 
and early experience in the business. From boyhood he was trained to under- 
stand equine flesh and he also learned to ride trotters and runners in the 
races, but as he grew tow^ard manhood his increasing weight prevented a 
continuance of riding in races. His love of horses comes perhaps as an 
inheritance from his father, Edward Bimat, who made a specialty of raising 
standards and thoroughbreds on his farm and who was considered one of the 
best judges of horses in the entire locality. The mother, who was Mary 
Mirasson-Casteigt, member of a very ancient family of Basses-Pyrenees, is 
still living at the old home in the French valley lying beneath the shadow of 
the mountains. 

The youngest of five children, all stilf living. Bernard Bimat was born at 
Precilhon, Basses-Pyrenees, France, and received his education in local schools, 
the high school at Oloron (of which he is a graduate) and the Normal School 
at Lescard. For a year he was employed in the revenue department of the 
government. A brother and sister having gone from the old home to Cali- 
fornia, in 1885 he joined them in Kern county, where the brother, Leon, was 
engaged in the sheep industry. For two years he w^as employed as a herder, 
after which he bought six hundred ewes from his brother and began to range 
his flock m the mountains of Kern, Inyo and Mono counties during summer 
months, bringing them down to the valleys for the winter. From 1891 to 

1893 he engaged in partnership with his brother. The free trade measures 
of the Cleveland administration caused the ruin of his sheep business and in 

1894 he turned to teaming and ranching. Taking a homestead on section 
26. 32-30, he proved up on the land, built barns and house, and engaged in 
raising grain, cattle and horses. Later he bought one hundred and sixty 
acres in the Cummings valley, moving to the place in order that his children 
might have educational advantages. Meanwhile he ran his cattle on the 
range between Tejon and Cummings valley, using for a brand a triangle wnth 
the base down, beneath which were two connecting bars. At a later date 
he brought the cattle to the Long Tom country, but eventually sold the entire 
herd to John Bidart. Since then he has resumed the raising of sheeo and has 
sold his mountain ranches. In East Bakersfield he married Miss Mary Ros- 
tain, who was born in TTautes Alpes, France, near the village of Mans, and 
died in Kern county in 1911, leaving five children, namely: Marie, now Mrs. 
Vidailliet, of San Pedro; Leon, Edward and Bernard, Jr., who remain with 
their father on the home ranch; and Felix, who died in 1913 at the age of 
four years. Mr. Bimat is a member of the Druids and politically votes with 
the Republican party. 

JEAN MOYNIER. — A native of Canton Ogier, Hautes Alpes, France, 
born xAugust 4, 1864, he was a son of Jean and Marie Rosalie (Gugler) Moy- 
nier, the former a stockman in Ogier, and later the owner of a farm at St. 
Bonnet. Since his death the wndow has continued to reside on the old 
homestead at that place. There were six children in the family and four of 
these are now living. The eldest. Jean, was reared on the farm at St. Bonnet, 
received his education in local schools and learned the sheep business under 
the wise supervision of his father. At the age of seventeen in 1881 he came 
to America, arriving in Los Angeles in April. After a month with an uncle, 
Francois Gugler, in that city, in May he came to Kern county, where he 
found employment in the care of sheep. So frugal was he in expenditures 



902 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

that in fourteen months he had saved $500, which he invested in a small flock 
of sheep. From that he built up a profitable business. Just at the time when 
the future seemed most promising the free-trade movement of 1894 resulted 
in a panic that depreciated prices and he was left penniless. 

Forced to begin anew, Mr. Moynier entered the employ of others and 
saved his earnings with such care that in a few years he was able to buy 
another flock of sheep. From that time to the present he has continued 
steadily in the business. The sheep are now ranged in two separate bands. 
For many years he has engaged in buying and shipping sheep, or in shipping 
flocks for growers, and at times he has shipped out for growers as many as 
fifteen hundred carloads in one year, which means that he is kept very busily 
engaged in that line of the work. Meanwhile he also manages his ten-acre 
ranch just east of East Bakersfield, where he and his family make their home. 
For a time he served as sheep inspector for Kern county under the state 
inspector. Movements for the benefit of the sheep industry in this section 
receive his stanch support. He is a progressive and public-spirited citizen, 
alive to the welfare of his adopted country. In national politics he votes the 
Republican ticket. During 1884 at East Bakersfield he married Miss Marie 
Lorette, who was born in Oloron, Basses-Pyrenees, and in 1881 came to Cali- 
fornia, settling in Kern county. They are the parents of ten children, viz. : 
Mrs. Pauline Chevell'icr, of East Bakersfield; Louis, of San Francisco; Mrs. 
Jennie Geraud and Mrs. Marie Martin, both of East Bakersfield ; Leon, an 
assistant of his father in the sheep business and in the care of the home farm ; 
Sidonie, Mrs. Ricon, of East Bakersfield; Harry, also assisting his father; 
Henriette, Emily and Jean. 

WILLIAM L. KIZZIAR.— The genealogy of the southern family of 
Kizziar is traced to England, where the records of the ancestry are lost 
in the maze of tradition. In that country th.e family name was Kizziah 
and the change to the present form was made about the time of the immi- 
gration to America. It is known that James Kizziar and his father were 
Englishmen by birth, while a grandson of James, Thomas J. Kizziar, was a 
native of Alabama, the identification of the family with the new world hav- 
ing occurred between these generations. From Alabama the family migrated 
westward to Arkansas and William L., son of Thomas J., was born in Pike 
county, Ark., in 1847, there passed the years of childhood and owing to the 
poverty of the family and the' scarcity of schools had the most meager edu- 
cational advantages. Guerrilla warfare imperiled the lives of the Arkansas 
people in his boyhood and the outbreak of the Civil war precipitated grave 
dangers. Although he was only fourteen and one-half years of age he thought 
it a matter of safety to enlist in the Confederate army. Accordingly he 
became a private in Company I, Thirty-third Arkansas Infantry, which went 
into service with one hundred and eleven men and finally was reduced to 
but four men. Their service was peculiarly dangerous. In the thickest of 
the most sanguinary battles these gallant young southerners were always 
to be found, fighting with valor for the cause which they had espoused. 
After the surrender of Vicksburg he escaped and found his way back to the 
old Arkansas home, where he again enlisted at the re-organization of Com- 
pany I and later was sent down to Louisiana under General Price. At the 
close of the Red river campaign his command was dispatched to Tyler, Tex., 
and he finally was mustered out at Marshall, that state, at the expiration 
of three years of service, during which he took part in some of the most 
terrific fighting of the whole war. 

About five weeks after being mustered out Mr. Kizziar took the oath 
of allegiance to the government at Washington, Hempstead county, Ark., 
and then engaged as' a teamster in the employ of the federal government. 
Soon he gave u]) the work and returned to the old homestead, where he 
assisted his father in putting in a crop. After the same had been harvested 



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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 905 

he secured employment in railroading". In this occupation he had his share 
of danger and difficulty and rose to a position of trust solely as a result 
of his own perseverance, industry and sobriety. At first he worked as a 
brakeman on the Little Rock & Memphis railroad, now a part of the Iron 
Mountain railrt ad. Next he was made a fireman and then a freight engineer, 
from which he soon was promoted to be a passenger engineer, making daily 
trips between Little Rock and Memphis. His identification of four years 
with the same company was gratifying to himself and satisfactory to his 
superiors, whose confidence he won by his dependable character. However, 
it had been his ambition to engage in farming and accordingly he resio-ned 
his position, went to Texas and took a homestead of one hundred and sixty 
acres twelve miles west of Waxahachie, Ellis county, and took up the stren- 
uous existence of a rancher. For almost fourteen years he remained on 
the farm, but 'eventually the lure of railroading drew him back to his old 
occupation and he became car inspector at Cleburne, Tex., in the employ of 
the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe railroad. While filling that position a most 
unfortunate accident occurred and he was almost crushed to death between 
two passenger coaches. The injury was so serious that it was fully six 
years before he had recovered his health and even to this day he suffers 
from the effects of the accident. It being impossible for him to do heavy work 
he returned to farming, his children being old enough to relieve him of the 
greater part of the work. After two years on a Texas farm he moved to 
Oklahoma and settled on an unimproved tract near Mangum, Greer county, 
where he remained for three years. 

Upon coming to California in 1903 Mr. Kizziar secured employment 
as stationary engineer in the Kern river oil fields. For three years he re- 
mained in the employ of the Associated Oil Company. Since then he has 
superintended his ranch and also has engaged in the buying, improvino- and 
selling of real estate in Bakersfield, where he makes his home. For years 
he has been a devoted, zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
South. At this writing he acts as a member of the official board besides filling 
the office of Sunday-school superintendent. Fraternally he is identified with 
the Masons. In politics he has voted with the Democratic party ever since 
he attained his majority. In Texas in 1868 he was united in marriage with 
Miss Neta E. Burks, of Ellis county, that state. They are the parents of 
ten children and also have thirty-five grandchildren and two great-o-rand- 
children, of whom they are very proud. The eldest daughter, Frances A., 
now Mrs. J. K. Blair, of Texas, has nine children. Amanda I., Mrs. J. A. 
Austin, who lives on a farm north of Bakersfield, has three children. Mary 
Jane is the wife of R. L. Ralph and lives three miles north of Bakersfield ; 
they have a family of three children. William L., a farmer livino- at Kern, 
this county, married Miss Ollie Hargett and has six children. Elizabeth 
is the wife of F. H. Newton, a dairyman living nine miles north of Bakers- 
field. John J. married Lillie Hargett. James S., a farmer west of Bakers- 
field, married Odessa Lindsey and has one child. Oda, Mrs. G. W. Taylor, 
has three children and lives on a farm in Oklahoma. Alvin M., a farmer 
four miles west of Bakersfield, married Pearl Stancliffe and has two children. 
Lulu married T. D. Goodpasture, of Bakersfield, and they have one child. 

The mother of this family was before her marriage Neta E. Burks, and 
was born in Ellis county, Texas, the daughter of John Wesley and Louisa 
(Martin) Burks, the former a native of Alabama and the latter of Tennessee. 
The Burks family is an old Southern English one. The parents were mar- 
ried in Tennessee, where the father was a farmer and drover. In 1848 they 
moved to Texas and in 1850 settled in what is now Ellis county, where they 
ever after remained, the mother passing away at the age of eighty-two, while 
the father was eighty-six years at the time of his death which occurred 



906 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Easter Sunday in 1910. His wife survived him but four months. Fifteen 
children had been born to them and the parents lived to see twelve of these 
grow to maturity; at the time of their death their family, including their 
children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and their wives and hus- 
bands, as the case might be. numbered five hundred and thirty-six. 

CHARLES HENRY FREEAR.— A son of Henry T. Freear, mention 
of whom is made elsewhere Charles H. was born in Lincoln, Neb., June 2, 1872, 
and in 1874 was brought to California by his parents. Reared on the Kern 
county ranch of the family, he attended the common schools in the 
winter months and during the summer vacations learned the rudiments 
of agriculture as an assistant to his father. After he had completed the course 
of instruction in the public schools he entered the. Stockton Business College 
and remained there until he was graduated in 1882, after wh4ch he returned 
to the home ranch. In a short time he started out independently as a farmer. 
The first investment he made consisted of twenty acres of raw land. This 
he leveled and placed under cultivation to alfalfa. Although he had been 
obliged to go heavily in debt on the purchase, it was not long until he had 
the property clear of incumbrance. Then he bought an adjacent tract and 
this, too, paid for itself through the raising and sale of alfalfa. After a time 
he became interested in the stock business and fed the hay principally to the 
st( ck. When finally he had acquired one hundred acres forming a valuable 
alfalfa ranch, he specialized in the dairy business and maintained on the 
ranch a fine herd of Jersey cows. 

At Old River, Kern county, November 28, 1893, occurred the marriage 
of Charles H. Freear and Miss Cleoria A. B. Crabtree, a native of Santa 
Maria, Santa Barbara county, Cal. The young couple spent the early years 
of their wedded life in Alexico, where Air. Freear had been engaged as an 
assistant to an uncle. John W. Garlick, in the management of a sugar plan- 
tation at Tapachula in the state of Chiapas near the border of Guatemala. For 
three years they lived on the sugar plantation and during that period their 
eldest child, Cleoria Luella, was born. The two younger children, Laura 
Lorena and Charles Elmo, are natives of Kern county. Mrs. Freear was 
the voungest of four children, the others being as follows : Mrs. Cora Hobbs, 
of Old River; Mrs. Carrie Gale, of San Francisco; and Clyde, of Klamath 
county. Ore. The parents of this family, Ephraim Jasper and Laura (Foster) 
Crabtree. were natives respectively of Texas and Boston, Mass. About 1851, 
when nine years of age. Air. Crabtree crossed the plains with his parents, 
following the southern route from Texas. For a long period he lived in the 
vicinity of Porterville. where he married Miss Foster and where he conducted 
a stock ranch. Later he engaged in the stock industry near Santa Alaria. 
where he was bereaved by the death of his wife. Ui)on retiring from active 
cares he came to Kern county to make his home with his daughter, Mrs. 
Charles Freear, and here in 1908 his useful life came to an end. 

Selling out his dairy farm in the fall of 1911, Mr. Freear came to Bakers- 
field and built three cottages on the corner of Chester avenue and Eleventh 
street. The corner residence he has since maintained for his family home and 
here he and his wife extend a gracious hospitality to friends from every part 
of the county. Much of his attention is given to the buying and selling of 
city property and farm lands and he is considered exceptionally well posted 
as to the merits of Kern ctunty property. In politics he supports Republican 
princinles. Fraternally he holds membership with the Woodmen of the 
World, while his wife and two daughters are leading workers in the Order 
of W^omen of W^oodcraft. 

CASWELL AND SIDNEY WALSER.— Coming into Walker's Basin 
from Caliente by way of Piute one arrives at the ranch of the AA'alser broth- 
ers, with its herds of cattle and green meadows, a scene of beauty that lends 
pleasure and delight to the eye. Their father, Daniel Wagner Walser, a 






t 




HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 909 

pioneer of Kern county, was born in Jefferson City. ]\Io., February 9, 1834. 
The grandfather was reared on the Yadkin river in North Carolina, where the 
ancestors resided during the Revolutionary war, taking part in the strug'de 
for freedom, as well as seeing active service in tlie war of 1812. 

In 1852 Daniel W'alser crossed the plains with ox-teams, locating in 
Eldorado county, where he followed placer-mining with its ups and downs. 
In 1856 he came to Tulare county and there he engaged in buying cattle 
and selling them in the mines in California and Nevada until 1864, when he 
came to Walker's Basin, Kern county. He located a ranch at the lower 
end of Walker's Basin, which he afterwards sold to Walker Rankin, and 
then purchased a ranch at the head of the Basin from Williams and Wyatt. 
and continued the cattle business, buying adjoining land until he had three 
thousand acres. On his retirement to Santa R^-sa, he sold the cattle interests 
to his sons, who continue the business. In 1866 he was ap'iointed one of four 
commissioners to organize Kern county from parts of Tulare and Los An- 
geles counties, and in July of that year the board met at Havilah and ap- 
pointed the first officers to hold an election and divided the county into 
voting precincts. He has been prominent in different enterprises in the 
county. He was one of the organizers of the Bank of Bakersfield. and with 
others he set out the Wible orchard, one of the largest fruit farms in the 
county. He married Mary Lightner, a sister of A. T. Lightner of Bakers- 
field, and of the union were born seven children : Charles and William, de- 
ceased ; J. Caswell and Sidney Johnston (the Walser Bros.); Frank and 
]\Iaria, deceased ; and Daisy, Mrs. Wallace of Santa Rosa. 

J. Caswell and Sidney J. Walser were born in Walker's Basin in 1869 
and 1871, respectively, receiving their education in the public schools, while 
Sidney also attended business college in Los Angeles. The brothers learned 
the raising and care of cattle from boyhood and became proficient in all 
tne details of the business. When gold was discovered at Dawson in 1898, 
Caswell started for the Eldorado, going over Chilcoot Pass. On the way he 
was taken ill at White Horse, and after nine days arrived at Dawson. There 
for sixty days he remained in the hospital; after recovering he located and 
bought claims. In 1899 Sidney Walser made the trip to Dawson by the same 
route, and being ice-bound he walked the remaining eighty miles to his 
destination. They both followed mining. Caswell returned to Kern county 
in 1901, and Sidney in 1903. They then began the cattle business, leasing 
their father's place, and later on purchased the cattle. Of the three thousand 
acre ranch, about six hundred and forty acres are in meadow and under the 
plow. The ranch is well watered by streams and springs from which water is 
obtained for irrigation, and it is the consensus of opinion that it is one of the 
finest stock ranches in the county. They are not only large growers and 
feeders of cattle, but extensive shippers to the Los Angeles and San Fran- 
cisco markets, and both are members of the National Live Stock Association, 
and the Stockmen's Association of Kern county. 

Caswell Walser was married in San Francisco to Blanche Dunlap, who 
was born in Glenville, the daughter of Calvin Dunlap, a native son of Cali- 
fornia. Mr. and Mrs. Caswell Walser have one child, Wanda. Sidney A\'alser 
married Josephine Dunlap, also a daughter of Calvin Dunlap. 

THOMAS E. KLIPSTEIN.— The Klipstein family is of colonial con- 
nections and ^descends from Dr. Philip Klipstein, a native of Hesse-Darm- 
stadt, Germany, and a physician of remarkable talent, who served as a 
surgeon in the Revolution and afterward engaged in the practice of medicine 
at Winchester, Va. In the second generation from his is Henry W. Klip- 
stein, a well-known cattleman of Kern county, represented alsewhere in this 
volume ; and in the third generation is Thomas E., son of Henry W., and a 
native of the vicinity of Warrenton. Fauquier county, Va., born February 14, 



910 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

1877, but reared in the neighborhood of Bakersfield from the" age of about 
eleven years. As a youth he attended the Kern county high school and 
Woodbury Business College at Los x*\ngeles, from which latter institution 
he was graduated in 1902. After a year with his father on the home ranch he 
became connected with the Kern County Alistract Company, of which he was 
elected secretary. Meanwhile he became interested in oil lands. With 
others in 1909 he incorporated the Eight Oil Company, of which he since 
has been secretary and wdiich from the start has met with success in the 
locating of oil lands. Among the holdings of the company is an oil-producing 
property near Fellows, comprising one hundred and sixty acres in the North 
Midway field. 

An important possession t.f the company includes several sections in 
the Elks hills, where valuable ledges of fuller's earth have been developed 
and where they have erected a mill for its manufacture. In thickness the 
ledges nni from one foot to ten feet, thus making a most valuable deposit. 
With the development of this property and the management of oil lands, 
Mr. Klipstein found his time so occupied that he resigned his secretaryship 
with the abstract firm and now devotes himself to oil and real-estate inter- 
ests. An addition to his responsibilities is found in the handling of farm and 
city holdings on his own account. Quite recently he completed a modern, 
substantial bungalow on D street, and there he has established a comfortable 
home, graciously presided over by Mrs. Klipstein, a cultured woman and 
accomplished musician. She was Miss Louise Wilson, a native of Virginia 
and a daughter of T. A. Wilson, one of the old employes of the Santa Fe 
Railroad. Reared in California, she is a graduate of the Los Angeles State 
Normal and has a large circle of warm friends in Los Angeles, where she 
resided prior to her marriage, September 21, 1912, and where her family still 
make their home. In politics decidedly Democratic, Mr. Klipstein has re- 
cently been indi rsed by the state and county central committee, as well as 
Congressman Church for the position 'of postmaster at Bakersfield. On the 
organization of the Bakersfield Club he became a charter member and still 
takes part in the work of the organization, besides being allied with Bakers- 
field Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E. 

FRED J. MARSH. — Alany i)roperty holders around the city of Bakers- 
field have benefited materially in the development and growth of that city, 
ihe value of their holdings constantly increasing with the tide of advance- 
ment, making those fortunate owners well-to-do and prosperous. That por- 
tion of land owned by Fred J. Marsh, whose thirty-acre ranch is situated 
on Union avenue, two miles south of Bakersfield proper, has materially in- 
creased in value during the past few years, and as Mr. Marsh has ably 
improved it and cultiva'ted the entire expanse to most profitable results, it 
has proved a most judicious investment on his part. 

The son of a farmer, born May 18, 1869, in Beatrice, Nebr., Mr. ^larsh 
there grew to manhood, receiving his training in the common schools and 
assisting his parents on the home farm. In 1891 he married Mrs. Rosetta 
Bull, and with her came to California in 1896, his desire to make his home 
here' finally being fulfilled. He immediately purchased his present place near 
Bakersfield and "has here spent his labors to his great satisfaction. Besides 
these holdings he has eighty acres below Panama, which has proved a wise 
purchase and bids fair to become very valuable in the near future. 

Mr. Marsh is a Woodman of the World, in which he holds a deservedly 
estimable place, and in politics he votes with the Democratic party. He 
holds a prominent place among the citizens of Bakersfield, and has taken 
more than a passing interest in all its affairs. 

JAMES M. STEVENS.— The proprietor of the Old Panama blacksmith 
shop is popular among the ranchers of his district and has acquired a large 



1 




HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 913 

business due to his ability to accomplish the tasks brought to him to the 
entire satisfaction of his customers. After coming to California he selected 
Kern county for the field of his labor and he has found it so remunerative 
and encountered such splendid opportunities that he has decided to stay 
here, and pronounces it to be by far the place of best chances for young 
men that he has ever seen- 

James M. Stevens was born in Chesterfield, Macoupin county, 111., on 
March 5. 1885, the son of Lewis M. and Sarah J. (VVatkins) Stevens, na- 
tives of Bufifalo. N. Y., and Medora, 111., respectively, and worthy farmers, 
now living at Chesterfield, 111. Of their six children James, the oldest, 
passed his boyh( od on the farm, receiving his education in the public and 
high schools of his native place. In 1902 he started west and at Pecos City, 
Tex., learned the blacksmith and horseshoers' trade. In 1904 we find him at 
Carlsbad, N. Mex., following the same business. In 1911 he came to Kern 
county, Cal., and soon afterward bought out E. D. Harrison's blacksmith 
business at Old Panama, continuing the business. He and his helpers are 
kept busy all the time, having a successful and profitable trade. 

He holds membership in the Woodmen of the World, the Modern Wood- 
men of America and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In religious 
belief he is a Presbyterian, and politically is a Democrat. 

JOSEPH WERINGER.— Born in Vienna, Austria, February 3, 1855, 
Joseph Weringer came to the United States in 1876 and spent several years 
in travel through dififerent states, stopping at intervals in Michigan, Colorado, 
New Mexico and Arizona. The course of his extensive journeyings brought 
him a: last to the Pacific coast and he was so favorably impressed with 
conditions that he determined to remain, and since the fall of 1881 he has lived 
in Kern county. For a time he was proprietor of the City brewery, also was 
interested in a wholesale liquor and ice business for ten years. 

Having been familiar with and interested in the copper mines in Michigan, 
Mr. Weringer was in a position to examine appreciatively specimens of ore 
brought from the vicinity of Woody. His faith in the copper was so great 
that in 1891 he removed to Woody in order to develop the mines. Since then 
he has done a large amount of development on the Greenback mine. Shaft 
No. 1 paid for itself from the grass roots down and its vein shows one hundred 
and fifteen feet wide. Shaft No. 2 is a vein showing three hundred to four 
hundred feet in width and at a depth of one hundred feet was found native 
copper and other very high grade copper ores. The first ore that he shipoed 
brought no profits on account of the high freight rate and exorbitant smelting 
charges. The discovery that the mine was on patented land changed his line 
of operation and resulted in the purchase of the property by him, since which 
time he has secured better freight rates and has shipped over $40,000 worth 
of ore as shown by government reports and smelter receipts. In carload lots 
the smelter reports show more than thirty-one per cent copper. Through the 
purchase of adjacent lands he has become the owner of nearly three thousand 
acres, nearly all copper-bearing, and he is now the sole owner of the Greenback 
mine. It is his present plan to erect at an early date a concentrating plant, 
after which he will ship the concentrates. Eventually he hopes to erect a 
smelting plant in the oil fields, centrally located for all the mining interests of 
Kern county. In addition to being one of the best-showing copper properties 
in California, the tract possesses valuable deposits of iron ore as yet unde- 
veloped, also contains wolfromite, the highest gr^^Je tungsten ore. 

Surrounding the mine at Camp Weringdale, which is located about one- 
quarter mile above the old Woody store, Mr. Weringer has platted a town 
site, has erected a modern garage and blacksmith shop where a specialty is 
made of auto supplies and repair work, and also maintains a general mercantile 
store. One of the principal attractions of the tract is a large hotel for the 



914 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

accommodation of the public, near which may be seen a large fig orchard 
with trees forty-four years old and still bearing. The grounds have been 
improved for the pleasure and convenience of guests. In addition Mr. 
Weringer has an orange grove, on which in 1908 he raised the largest oranges 
produced at that time in California. Some of these weighed two pounds and 
measured eighteen and one-third inches in circumference. The ranch beyond 
the mine is utilized for the pasturage of cattle, horses and' mules. For the 
accommodation of the stockmen of the district he has erected corrals and 
. installed a large Fairbanks and Morse stock scale, vv'hich is arranged so as to 
weigh stock on hoof, or in wagons and trucks. 

In shaft No. 2, at the second or water level, they have now struck high- 
grade copper ore. Ten men are employed at present and ore will soon be 
shipped to the smelters. 

The first marriage of Mr. Weringer was solemnized in Bakersfield and 
united him with Mrs. Lucy Miller, who was born in Baden, Germany, and 
died in Bakersfield, leaving two children. Afterward Mr. Weringer married 
Miss Rosa Haberstroh, a native of Baden, Germany. No children were born 
of that union. His only son, Franz Joseph, born in Bakersfield December 
14 1886, is a graduate of Heald's Business College in San Francisco and 
Van der Nailen's School of Mines, Berkeley. He is a chemist of ability and 
is now assisting his father in the management of their large interests. The 
only daughter, Frances J., is the wife of Elmer H. Woody, a cattle man of 
Wot (ly. In national principles Mr. AA'eringer is a Democrat. 

EDWARD MAURICE TRUESDELL. — For twenty years a resident of 
California and for nine years associated with the material development of 
Kern county, Mr. Truesdell is familiar with the remarkable growth of the 
past two decades and has been a personal contributor to the general progress 
by his own efficient labors. Although a native of Illinois, he is a member of a 
Kentucky family and spent much of his early life in the Blue Grass state, 
where his father, Harmon B., was a native and lifelong resident of Campbell 
county. The mother, who bore the maiden name of Ann Nicholson, was 
born at Lima, Adams county. 111., of Pennsylvania parentage, and passed 
away in Kentucky. Of the thirteen children comprising the parental family 
all attained mature years, but only six are now living, Edward Maurice being 
the eldest of the entire number. Boni at Lima, 111., April 6, 1861, he attended 
the public schools of Campbell county, Ky., and at the age of sixteen left the 
home farm to take up the burden of self-support. For three years he was 
employed as a night watchman on cotton boats on the Washita river. Going 
from there to Ohio he was engaged for six years as general foreman of the 
Addyston ])ipe works at Cincinnati. Next he went to Virginia, where for 
eighteen months he held a position as general foreman with the Radford 
Pipe & Steel Company at New^ Radford, on the New river. 

Returning to Cincinnati and holding positions with dififerent firms until 
New Year's of 18'^'4. Mr. Truesdell then made preparations to remove to the 
west and February found him in California, where his first work was on the 
Horseshoe ranch near Los Angeles. Next he engaged as sujierintendent of 
orange groves at Glendora. I-'or seven years he wa^rked in the Santa Fe oil 
fields, where he acquired proficiency as a driller. Coming to Kern county in 
1905 he took up a homestead one mile from Lerdo, where he put down a 
twelve-inch well by his own labor, built a house and proved up on the property. 
Meanwhile he secured a standard rig and engaged in drilling water wells. 
For several years he made a specialty of that laborious work, but eventually 
disposed of the rig. Renting his Lerdo ranch of one hundred and sixty acres 
he took up a desert claim of a quarter section near Mojave, where he put 
down tw^o wells and built a neat bungalow\ After living there about a year 
he sold the place and since then has made his home in East Bakersfield. 
The first wife of Mr. Truesdell. who bore the maiden name of Addie Hutch- 




\Xi 




(77 




^^ /i^CU^<x£y ^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 917 

inson, was born in Cam|)bell county, Ky.. and died there at Newport. Two 
sons were bc^rn of that union, but the older, William E., died at the age of 
three months. The other. James Blanchard, is now a resident of Los Angeles. 
At Visalia, November 7. 1910, Mr. Truesdell married Mrs. Milford (Gooch) 
Warner, by whom he has two sons, Ralph and Leo. ]Mrs. Truesdell. a woman 
of strong character and attractive personality, was born at Eubank, Pulaski 
county, Ky., and is a daughter of William Milford and Malcie (Masterson) 
Gooch natives respectively of Eubank, Ky., and Ripley, Ohio. Pier father, a 
teacher during young manhood, eventually became a prosperous country 
merchant and continued at Eubank until his death, since which time Mrs. 
Gooch has lived in Cincinnati. Their daughter was educated in the high 
school of Covington, Ky., and there married H. L. Warner, of that city. Two 
children, Maxine and Evelyn, were born of the union. During 1907 the 
family came to Bakersfield, where Mr. Warner engaged as a chemist with 
the Standard Oil Company until his death. Both Mr. and Mrs. Truesdell are 
earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and have been generous 
contributors to religious movements. In politics he is a Democrat. 

FRANK CROMWELL TIBBETTS.— The genealogy of the Tibbetts 
laniily indicates their English extraction and proves their close relation- 
ship to the Cromwells, whose most distinguished representative, Oliver 
Cromwell, holds a prominent place in the history of the seventeenth century 
and achieved a worldwide renown. It is known that the early colonization 
of America found members of the Tibbetts family engaged in the arduous 
task of earning scanty livelihoods through the cultivation of the rocky soil 
of New England, where they endured the privations and faced the dangers 
incident to life in that location and period of our national history. Patriot- 
ism characterized them from the first establishment of their name in the 
new world. During the Revolution Ichabod Tibbetts, who was born 
December 17, 1748, served the cause of liberty with devotion and self- 
sacrifice. It was his privilege to witness the growth of the cause to which 
he had given of his youthful strength and when he died. May 23. 1841, the 
country had become a nation great in the galaxy of the world. Among his 
children was a son. Benjamin, born on Sunday, November 20, 1786, and 

married April 23, 1809, to Sarah A , who was born September 5, 

1790, and died April 21, 1843. Of the union there were twelve children, 
namelv : Samuel, born November 3, 1810; lulian, August 17, 1812; Cyrus, 
August 26, 1814; Stinscn, April 3, 1816; Benjamin R., August 9, 1818; Sarah. 
February 10, 1821; Martha J., March 3, 1823; Ann S.. October 7, 1825; 
Edmund V., February 7. 1828; Roswell Goodsneed, who was born in Maine 
near the city of Augusta May 29, 1830, and died at Bakersfield, Cal., June 
1, 1910; Jane, who was born June 29, 1833; and Emeline, August 13, 183.S. 
The greater number of the family are now numbered with the dead. Ben- 
jamin, at the age of ninety-four, is a helpless invalid and lives with a son 
in Maine; Emeline has been blind for years and is cared for by her husband 
and daughter. Emma, at the family home near Palermo, Me. Jane, ]\Irs. 
Hussey, is a widow and lives with her son, Joseph, at the old Hussey home- 
stead near Houlton, Me., while near her live her son, Benjamin, and her 
daughter, Sadie, the former the father of nine children and the latter the 
mother of two sons and two daughters. 

Several generations of the Tibbetts family in Maine earned their live- 
lihood either from tilling the soil or from following the sea and Roswell Good- 
speed Tibbetts while very young chose the life of a sailor for his occuoation. In 
this way it happened that he came to California as second mate on a vessel 
that rounded Cape Horn and cast anchor at San Francisco in 1850 six 
months after the commencement of the voyage. Unlike manv sailors of 
that time, tempted by the lure of gold, he did not desert his ship or leave 



918 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

his employment until the term of his service had expired. For a time he 
engaged in placer mining on the Feather river. Later he worked in and 
helped to develop the celebrated Comstock mine of Nevada. Still later he 
engaged in mining at Truckee and in the Sierra valley. During 1874 he 
brought his family to Kern county and for many years conducted the 
American Eagle hotel at Kernville, the hostelry enjoying great popularity 
under his sagacious and genial oversight. Among the old settlers he had 
wide acquaintance and a host of friends. Indeed, the circle of his friends 
was as large as that of his acquaintance and among his most intimate friends 
was Judge Sumner, there existing between the two a remarkable sympathy 
of thought and tenderness of affection. Soon after he came to the west 
he married at San Francisco in 1850 Mrs. Helen Zeruah (Branch) Nor- 
cross, who at the advanced age of eighty-three makes her home at No. 1028 
Fifty-fourth avenue, East Oakland. The family to which she belongs was 
identified with the pioneer history of California and possessed character- 
istics most admirable. With them, as with the Tibbetts family, longevity 
was noticeable, the paternal grandfather of Mrs. Tibbetts having lived to 
be one hundred and three years of age, while her maternal grandmother was 
ninety-seven at the time of her death. 

There w^ere three sons in the family of Roswell Goodspeed Tibbetts 
and wife, namely : Frederick, who died in the Bullfrog mining district in 
December of 1C06; William E., who makes his home at Kernville; and Frank 
Cromwell, who was born September 2, 1869, in the Sierra valley of Cali- 
fornia during the pericd that his father engaged in gold mining in that sec- 
tion. Brought to Kern county in 1874, he received his education in the public 
schools of Kernville and as he grew toward manhood he became intimately 
connected with the interests of his father. At first he worked in mines, 
later he engaged in general farming and in the raising of stock. While 
never a partner in the hotel business, he operated a store and a butcher 
shop with his father and became one of the leading business men of Kern- 
ville. During the year 1900 he came to Bakersfield, where now he has 
a residence at No. 910 K street and where he prosperously conducts a 
.^tore at No. 1905 Fifteenth street. About 1898 he was united in marriage 
with Miss Lizzie Cross, a member of a pioneer family of Kern county. 
Of this union there are two children, Marion Wallace and Maybelle E. 
In political views he adheres to Republican principles, while fraternally 
he holds membership with the Loyal Order of Moose and the Ancient Order 
of United Workmen. 

JOHN P. CHINETTE.— A decided acquisition to the French-American 
population of Kern county as well as one of its pioneer sheepmen, John P. 
Chinette has been a factor in the agricultural development of this section of 
the state and is considered an authority in all matters pertaining to the care 
and range of sheep. From boyhood he was familiar with the sheep industry 
as pursued in the mountains separating France and Spain, and it was there- 
fore not difficult for him to understand the business from an American stand- 
point. With the quick comprehension native to his mind he grasped the 
details of the work, learned the best places to range the flocks and the best 
modes of feeding them in the winter months, so that his practical experience 
is most valuable indeed. . A native of Ogier, Basses-Pyrenees, France, born 
January 4, 1861, he was reared on the home farm, and had such educational 
advantages as the local schools afforded. During 1878 he came to California. 
In the vicinity of Los Angeles he remained for nearly one year, working for a 
sheep-grower. Next he drove a flock of sheep into Inyo county. Coming to 
the Tehachapi region of Kern county in 1879, he became a herder here and 
in 1883 invested in a small flock of sheep, which he ranged in Kern and Inyo 
counties. 








^ 






HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 921 

About seven years were devoted to the personal management of his own 
flock of sheep, which he then sold, and since 1890 he has varied his time 
between farming and caring for flocks of other growers. At this writing he 
owns ten acres eight miles southeast of Bakersfield imder the east side canal. 
This he has improved, placing it under profitable cultivation to alfalfa. He 
makes his home on the small farm and devotes much of his time to its per- 
sonal oversight. Meanwhile he has been deeply interested in the develop- 
ment of Kern county, has supported movements for its material upbuilding 
and in politics has given allegiance to the principles of the Republican party. 

JOSEPH EYRAUD. — A resident of Kern county for the most part since 
1887, Joseph Eyraud was born at Ancel, Hau:es-Alpes, France. June 22, 1868, 
and is a son of Franc and Victoria (Ledge) Eyraud, lifelong farmers in 
France. In a family of eight children, all but two of whom still survive, 
Joseph was the youngest and he was quite small when his brothers. Yrene 
and Franc, left the home farm to establish themselves in the new world. 
Sending back favorable reports from their destination in Kern county, the 
youngest brother was induced to join them in California November 27. 1887. 
when he arrived at Sumner (now East Bakersfield). Without delay he found 
employment with sheenmen in the county. His beginnings in the sheep 
industry date from 1888, when he bought a few head. The flock increased 
rapidly and when he sold in 1909 there were thirteen thousand head alto- 
gether. They had been raised both for the mutton and the wool. For years 
the flocks were ranged in Tulare, Fresno. Kern and Inyo counties, their 
owner thus gaining a most thorough knowledge of this section of the state. 
He is, indeed, particularly well posted concerning the country, knows the 
character of the difi^erent soils, the prospects for water, the varying climates 
in mountains and foothills and the opportunities for successful work as a 
stockman or rancher. After selling his large flock he spent two years in 
San Francisco and then established a home on his ranch of forty acres, 
eleven miles south of Bakersfield, between Union avenue and Kern Island, 
where by means of water from the Kern Island canal he is specializing in 
alfalfa and graih. His marriage was solemnized in San Francisco and united 
him with Miss Augustine Bertrand. who was born in Chorges, Hautes-Alpes, 
and by whom he has a daughter, Augustine. Ever since becoming a voting 
citizen he has cast his ballot for Republican men and measures at general 
elections. Besides the fine farm upon which he lives and to the improvement 
of which his attention is given largely, he owns thirty acres of alfalfa one 
mile distant, also under the Kern Island canal; this is cared for by a ten- 
ant. In addition he owns a number of lots on Humboldt street. East Bakers- 
field. these being improved with cottages that he rents. When it is remem- 
bered that he came to the county without any means and worked for some 
time as a sheep herder for day wages, his present financial independence 
indicates energy and industry on his part, and at the same time proves that 
Kern offers opportunities unsurpassed by any other agricultural county in 
the state. 

LOUIS ALLEN. — The proprietor of the St. Francis cafe at Bakers- 
field was born April 16. 1880. at Patras, Greece, and received an excellent 
education in a private college of his native city. Pharmacy was made a 
special study during his collegiate course and by clerking in a drugstore he 
supplemented the theoretical knowledge of books with actual experience. 
Upon coming to the United States in 1903 he became a student in St. Anna's 
Academy. New York city. From there he went to St. Louis and there en- 
gaged in the restaurant business during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. 
Afterward he spent some time in Oklahoma and Texas. During April of 1905 
he came to the Pacific coast and managed a restaurant at the Lewis & Clark 
exposition grounds. On the close of the exposition he went to San Fran- 
cisco and readily found a position in Tait's cafe, but the great fire of the fol- 



922 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

lowing year temporarily closed out the business. Later he served as a 
steward of Tait's cafe and continued in the same place until he had worked 
up to be the head waiter. Experience had qualified him for a business of 
his own and he decided to embark in similar work for himself. In search of a 
location he came to Bakersfield. The city and its favorable prospects at- 
tracted his attention and he decided to locate here. During March of 1911 
he leased the place which he still occupies and which he has transformed 
into an attractive and elegantly appointed cafe, with service first-class in 
every respect. The entire aspect of the cafe proves that the manager is the 
possessor of original ideas and wise business judgment. Through his expe- 
rience in the leading place of its kind in San Francisco he is enabled to give 
to his customers and guests the finest service that modern art can suo-o-est. 

CHARLES WILLIAM JOHNSON.— Of English nativity, belong- 
ing to an old and illustrious family of .his native land, he was born in the 
city of Leeds in 1849, being a son of Thomas Varley and Mary Johnson. 
When he was only three years of age and his sister, Evalina, an infant they 
were bereaved by the death of their mother. Afterward the father gave 
them the most devoted personal care and attention, endeavoring so far as pos- 
sible to take the place of the lost mother. The daughter became the wife 
of Dr. J. Murray Matthews and died in San Francisco, leaving five sons. 

A grandson of the celebrated Dr. Samuel Johnson of England and an 
own ct usin of Sir Jonathan Johnson Courte, Thomas Varley Johnson was 
born at Bentham, Yorkshire, England, August 11, 1822, and at the age of 
about sixteen was an eager spectator at the coronation of Queen Victoria. 
Although always very proud of the land of his birth, he became an exem- 
plary American citizen and exhibited the utmost patriotism. His first trip 
to the new world occurred when his son was a youth of nine and the two 
settled at Lowell, Mass., where the father became foreman of the wool sort- 
ing department for the carpet corporation of the city of Lowell. Two years 
later, when the son was eleven, he was apprenticed to the firm of Aldrich & 
Richards, n, manufacturing jewelers, of Providence, R. I. At the expiration 
of two years, the apprenticeshio being completed, the son suggested that 
they leave for California and with father and sister sailed from New York 
to Aspinwall and there crossed the isthmus, thence taking passage on the 
old Sacramento to San Francisco, where they arrived during October of 
1868. 

Immediately after his arrival in the west the senior Johnson settled in 
Santa Cruz and bought the Ocean View house, which site and hotel forms a 
])art of the present Sea Beach hotel. At his death Mr. Johnson was sur- 
\ived by his second wife (whom he had married in California) his son 
and a niece. Mrs. Lottie Thompson, of Santa Cruz. The daughter had died 
a short time before his own demise. 

Leaving home to make his own way in the world, Charles William 
Johnson found employment as a vaquero in the southern part of Monterev 
county and from that time he was interested in the cattle industrv until 
1885, when an injury resulting in the dislocation of his neck obliged him 
to seek other means of livelihood. A brief and unsuccessful experience in 
business in San Luis Obispo county was followed by removal to Arizona, 
where he engaged in the dairy business near Prescott for three years. Next 
he lived for a short time in Phoenix and then returned to California in 1892, 
settling in Bakersfield. and ever since then he has been identified \vith the 
oil business in Kern county. During 1877 he married Miss Mary A. Mc- 
Cutchen. member of a very prominent and influential family of Kern county. 
They are the parents of five children now living, George W., Rosalind, Eve- 
lyn. Laura and Florence. The son is sunerintendent of the ^^'alker & Hick 
Oil Com]\-iny in the Kern river field. R( salind married W. T. Tavlor, of 




i'S^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 925 

Maricopa. Evelyn is Mrs. Marion Nidever, of Carpenteria. Laura is the wife 
of Elmer Fox, of Kern county. The youngest of the daughters is the only 
member of the fanul}- stiil remaining at liic home. 

JOSEPH F. PFOST.— Several generations of the Pfost family engaged 
in farming in the vicinity of the Ohio river. The founder of the name in 
America, Al)raham Pfost. a German by birth and education, migrated to 
the new world and took up a tract of wild land in what is now West 
X'irginia. his first and only home in this country being situated near Ripley, 
Jackson county, a slu rt distance from the Ohio river. On that same farm 
his son, Abraham, li\ed and labored for many years. Among the children 
of the younger Abraham was a son, George W., born and reared on the 
old Virginian plantation and ultimately the heir to a portion of the estate. 
In young manhood he removed to Mason county, W. Va.., and there mar- 
ried Angeline Rickard, a native of that county, where, at Point Pleasant 
at the junction of the Great Kanawha and the Ohio river their son, Joseph F., 
was born on the 4th of July, 1855. During the Civil war the father served 
in the Confederate army on an Ohio river gunboat. Leaving Alason county 
in 1870, he spent four years in Missouri, and then returned and established 
his home at Springhill on the Great Kanawha. Impoverished by the Civil 
war, he endured many pri\'ations and hardships in endeavoring to provide 
for his large family and it was wholly impossible to give them any advantages. 
Of the eleven children only five are now living. The eldest of the eleven. 
Joseph F., to an unusual degree shared in the anxieties of his parents and 
assisted them in the maintenance of the younger children, for this reason 
being almost wholly without any opportunities for education or advancement. 

L'pon reaching the age of twenty-one a desire to attend school caused 
Mr. Pfost to leave home and work for his board with a family and he 
attended the district school during the winter months. To such splendid 
advantage did he utilize these months that at the age of twenty-two he 
obtained a first-grade certificate and began to teach in P)Oone county. W. Va., 
his wages being ^3? ])er month. In a short time he left for Missouri, where 
for six months he attended school at Montrose. Henry county. From I\Tis- 
souri he traveled overland with team and wagon, following the usual route 
through Nebraska, Colorado. W^yoming. Utah and Idaho into Oregon, where 
he parted from the expedition of which he had been a member. .After a 
brief sojourn at Pendleton. Ore., he returned to Idaho and engaged in 
ranching and teaming near P)oise City. At the time of the Sitting P)ull 
Indian campaign in 1878 he hauled supplies to the troops of General Howard 
and met with many thrilling experiences, not a few of them exceedingly 
dangerous. From Idaho in 1880 he went to Nebraska and found employ- 
ment with the Lakotah Cattle Company at the 33 ranch. With two others 
in 1886 he was appointed by Governor Thayer of Nebraska to serve on a 
special commissi(Mi for the organization of Sioux countv. That task com- 
pleted, he was chosen the first sheriff at the first election and so well did 
he discharge every duty that he was re-elected every tw^o years up to 
1893, serving three terms altogether, and resigning at the time of his 
removal from the state. From 1893 until 1898 he engaged as superintendent 
for a comnany opening up lands on the Cheyenne river in South Dakota, 
but unfortunatelv the venture failed, the companv lost everything and to 
add to his difficulties the bank in which his savings had been deposited closed 
its doors. 

Forced to beein anew. Mr. Pfost investigated conditions in Montana, 
then returned to Nebraska, but shortly proceeded to Oklahoma, and .August 
6, 1899. arrived at Bakersfield. Cal.. where on the l5th of the same month 
he secured employment in the well-boring department of the Kern County 



926 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Land Company. In October of the same year he was engaged as foreman 
of the Panama ranch for Miller & Lux, but in January, 1900, he re-entered 
the employ of the Kern County Land Company, with which he has con- 
tinued ever since. For eighteen months he served in the Goose Lake country 
as camp foreman under Charles W. Jacksc n, who then sent him to the 
Rosedale ranch to act as foreman. At that time the Rosedale was a part 
of the Poso ranch. After two years or more the two tracts were separated 
and he was made foreman of the Poso under Mr. Jackson. After nearly 
four years he was transferred to the Rosedale ranch, of which he has been 
superintendent since December 2, 1905. From early life he has been inter- 
ested in political questions and has supported Democratic principles. Fra- 
ternally he holds membership with the Modern Woodmen of America in 
Bakersfield. His family consists of his wife (whom he married at Pawnee 
City, Neb., in 1885 and who was formerly Miss Emma Hitchcock, of Bloom- 
ington, 111.) and their five daughters, namely: May, Clara, Edna, Lizzie 
and Lillian, all now living in Kern county with the exception of Clara, Mrs. 
Knowles, who remains in Nebraska, making her home at Bookwalter, that 
state. 

LESLIE DAVID COOMBS.— Born July 22, 1857, in Hermon, Me., 
L. D. Coombs was the son of Nathaniel D. Coombs, who was also a 
native of that state and followed the vocations of hotel proprietor and 
farmer. He erected and became proprietor of the Bangor hotel, later selling 
it in order to spend all his time ( n his farm at Browns Corner Farm, where 
he died. Flis wife, Jane (Creamer) Coombs, also a native of Maine, passed 
away there. The father was twice married, becoming the father of five 
children by his first marriage, of whom Hon. Nathaniel D. Coombs became a 
member of the Assembly of California from Butte county, and passed away 
during his second term of office ab( ut twenty years ago. 

The only child of his father's second marriage, Leslie Coombs was 
reared in the little village of China, Me., and then for a time at Browns 
Corner Farm on his father's place, attending the public school at Vassal- 
boro. Later he became a student at the Oak Grove Seminary at East Vas- 
salboro, supnlementing this with a course at Hrllowell Academy. In 1873 
he came to California where his brother Nathaniel D. was in the stock and 
farming business at Honcut, Butte county. Immediately entering the latter's 
employ he worked bv the month for about four years and became foreman 
of his ranch ; at the end of this time he engaged in the sheep business for 
himself on the plains and mountains, meeting with such success that he 
C( ntinued along these lines for about fourteen years. During this time 
he ran a flock of sheep into Oregon and sold them at Prineville, and then 
he bought the Olive Hill Colony ranch of a thousand acres near Honcut, 
Butte county, and continued in the sheep business and farming. In 1892 he 
sold out his ranch stock and came to Bakersfield. Purchasing a ranch at 
Angeola, he resumed the sheep business. This farm he found it necessary to 
improve and fence, and he raised grain and sheep, in connection with which 
he conducted the Angeola hotel, but later he sold these interests and re- 
turned to Bakersfield, where he l^ecame associated with the Quimby Bros., 
contracting to drill oil wells m the Kern river field. They put down the 
fourth well in that field an.d later the Oriental well was under their contract. 
With others he leased lands and put down oil wells of his own, becoming 
well informed en the details of the work. He then became manager for the 
Livestock Oil Cotupany, operating in the Midway field, the name of this 
company being later changed to the Tannihill Oil Company, in which he is 
still a large stockholder. This company now has twelve producing wells and 
has a flourishing business. He has also been engaged for nearly twenty years 
in teaming: and the leasing of horses and mules and has an extensive business 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 927 

ill that line. Mr. lOoinhs imrcliased lots un K and Twenty-eighth streets, the 
lots ruimino; thr<iu£^h from K to L streets, and here he built his residence 
and has his headquarters ; he also owns lots in various parts of Bakersfield. 

In 1910 Mr. Coombs built the Colonial Hotel at Nineteenth and R 
streets, a two-story concrete building", and he also owns other residence prop- 
erty in the vicinity. He owns several ranches near Lemoore, Kings county, 
under the Kings river ditch, all of which is farmed under his own supervision 
and is highly productive. He has a hundred and ten acres at Shafter, on 
which he has a pumping plant and is raising alfalfa and stock. He is very 
optimistic over the business outlook of Bakersfield and with ^Ir. Snively 
owns the Southern Barber Shop which has just been refurnished and is one 
of the most elegantly appointed tonsorial parlors in the state. His informa- 
tion on projierty values has led him to purchase property in Los Angeles, 
Hollywood and Naples. 

Mr. Coombs married Mrs. Rosalie (Shay) Coombs, who like her hus- 
band was a native of Maine, having been born in Pittston, and who proved 
a true helpmeet to him in his every interest. Her death occurred January 1, 
1914, mourned by all who knew her. Mr. Coombs embraces the principles of 
the Republican party in his political views, and fraternally he unites with 
the ^^'oodmen of the World. 

DAVE COFFEE.— The son of Absalom Cofifee, a planter of Alabama, 
Dave Coffee was born October 3, 1853, in Jackson county, that state, and 
passed the first twelve years on the old home plantation, meanwhile at- 
tending subscription schools. Going to Texas in 1868, he settled at 
JeiTerson, Marion county, and began an apprenticeship to the trade of car- 
penter and builder with a construction company engaged in the building 
of the Texas Pacific Railroad. For some years he remained with the same 
concern, resigning at the time of his rernoval to California. During the fall 
of 1874 he worked at Truckee with the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. 
The summer of 1875 found him in Kern county, where immediately he found 
employment with H. P- Livermore in the construction of buildings on the 
property now known as the Greenfield ranch. A year later Haggin & Carr 
acquired the Livermore interests and he continued as a carpenter with the 
new owners, who in time were superseded by the Kern County Land 
Company. As foreman of carpenters he had charge of putting in the head- 
gates and weirs in the river reservoirs and canals, including Beardsley, Kern 
Island, Calloway, James, Buena Vista, Pioneer, Stine. East Side, etc., and 
when the task of construction was completed he remained as superintendent 
of the entire system in all canal carpentering, as well as all building con- 
struction for the comipany. 

During the long years of his heavy responsibilities with the Kern 
County Land Company as an employe on its canal system Mr. Coffee re- 
mained undisturbed by any idea of establishing a home of his own until 
finally he succumbed to the charms of a most estimable woman, Mrs. Mary 
(GoiT) Magoon, whom he married in Hanford and who lends comfort to his 
home at No. 1825 Orange street. Bakersfield, aiding him in dispensing its 
hospitalities to his man}' friends. She was born in Jafifrey, N. H., the 
daughter of Thomas and Annie (Magoon) Gofif, natives of New Hampshire 
and Vermont, respectively. Her ancestors, on both maternal and paternal 
sides, served in the Colonial and Revolutionary wars, and settled in Jafl^rey, 
N. H., after the war. B}^ her former marriage she has two children, Ruth 
Esther and Dorris A. P^ormerly Mr. Cofifee owned property on Twentieth 
and G streets and he has held other equities at dififerent times. A year after 
coming to Kern county he was initiated into the Bakersfield Lodge of Odd 
Feljows, with which he has been continuously connected since 1876 and to 
whose philanthropies he has been a generous contributor. In addition both 



928 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

he and his wife are identified with the Order of Rebekahs. Mrs. Coffee has 
always been interested in religion and in advancing its influence for moral 
uplift, and she holds membership with the First AI. E. Church in Bakersfield. 

CHARLES WESLEY ROWLEE.— Grandfather James Rowlee left the 
Fatherland in early \outh and settled in New York state. The son of this 
immigrant was LaFayette Rowlee, a native of the Empire state and a 
w^agon-maker by trade. It was in 1857 that he set out from Tioga county 
for the west, first settling in Rockford, Winnebago county, 111. He made 
his home there on land which he had purchased from the government, and 
later located in Rock Grove City, Floyd county, Iowa. After coming to the 
middle west, farming had formed his chief occupation, first in Illinois and 
then in Iowa, and it was while making his home in Linn county in the 
latter state that he passed away at the comparatively early age of forty- 
nine years. In maidenhood his wife was Mary Ring, a native of Vermont 
and the descendant of old New England ancestors, her father, Levi Ring, 
being a participant in the war of 1812. Though born in Vermont, she was 
reared chiefly in Tioga county, N. Y., where in young womanhood she 
followed teaching. She is now living in Pasadena, Cal., at the venerable 
age of ninety-two years. In her youth there were neither matches nor 
stoves, and fires had to be started with flint or from the banking of coals. 
The parental family comprised eight children, as follows: Charles W. ; 
Martha, now Mrs. Deeble of San Francisco ; Eugene, who resides near 
Sacramento: Emma, now Airs. John C. Martin of Marion, Iowa; Jessie, Mrs. 
Smith of Sacramento; Mariette, who lives in Pasadena; Minnie, who died 
in Oakdale, Cal. ; and William, who resides in Oregon. 

Charles Wesley Rowlee was born in Pennsylvania, just over the 
Mew York state line, near Owego, Tioga county. He was a lad of nine 
years when the immigration westward took the family to Illinois. He 
attended the public schools in that state and completed his education in 
the Upper Iowa University at T'ayette. When nineteen years old he began 
teaching in Linn, that state, and so successfully did he prosecute the duties 
of that work that he continued at it for seven years, during which time 
he was married in Cedar Rapids December 24, 1869, to Miss Martha A. 
Martin. She was a native of Marion, Linn county, Iowa, daughter of John 
T. Martin, who was born in Westchester, Pa. In 1876 Mr. and Mrs. 
Rowlee came to Stockton, Cal., and he soon became engaged in grain farm- 
mg near Lockeford, but in 1884 they decided to come to Kern county, and 
here they saw the first artesian well bored in the county, the operation 
taking place on the Hoskin's place near Semi-Tropic, section 24, town- 
ship 27, range 23. Locating on the Goose Lake Channel, he pre-empted 
one hundred and sixty acres, sunk an artesian well to the depth of five 
hundred and sixty feet which flows two hundred and sixty-six miners' inches, 
and also constructed a reservoir for irrigating his crops. He has since added 
to his tract and now has six hundred acres in one body, two hundred and 
sixty acres of this devoted to growing alfalfa, the remainder being used for 
grazing. He also engaged in cattle-raising, establishing as his brand the 
half circle over a V, and raised many valuable horses as well. He is still 
engaged in general farming and stock-raising. In 1913 he moved into 
Bakersfield, having built a beautiful residence on Chester Lane, and he is 
now enjoying the fruits of his hard labors, and a well-earned rest. Mr. and 
ATrs. Rowlee were the parents of six children : Nellie May, who married 
George Tilton, passed away in Bakersfield. Dollie, a graduate of the 
San Diego Normal class of 1902, has been engaged in educational work, 
being principal of the Standard district school ; she is the wife of George E. 
Taylor, a merchant in Bakersfield. Clifton died in infancy. Fannie C also 



f® 




HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 931 

a graduate of the San Diego Normal class of 1902, followed teaching, and 
is now the wife of William Tracy, of Button Willow. Gilbert b'. is a 
farmer un Goose Lake Channel, idazel Irene is a manufacturer of home- 
grown ostrich plumes from the Tracy Ostrich farm. Mr. Rowlee is a 
member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias. 
[n politics he is a Socialist and adheres closely to principles pertaining to 
the i)arty. 

The heaviest disaster which has befallen Air. Rowlee in his labors as a 
farmer was the total loss of his crops in 1906 through the flooding of the 
land, when the Kern river broke through and came down the Goose Lake 
channel. Like all practical and sensible farmers, he at once began to 
formulate plans to prevent the recurrence of such a disaster and by the end 
of the year 1908 he had erected a substantial levee, which in the future will 
protect the home place from disastrous floods. As a pioneer and progres- 
sive farmer, he is held in the highest respect by acquaintances. His thrift 
has been of the highest value as an example to other agriculturists of the 
community. Every portion of his large acreage is kept in first-class con- 
dition and is made a source of revenue to this far-sighted, capable and 
resourceful farmer. Mrs. Rowlee's father was a cousin of Thaddeus Stevens, 
and her great-grandfather Stevens was the author of Steven's Arithmetic. 
John T. Martin migrated from Pennsylvania to Indiana, whence he joined 
the early settlers of Linn county, Iowa. He was an architect and builder. 
Later he removed to Anderson county, Kans., and there passed away. His 
Avife, who before her marriage was Miss Lydia T. ]\Ioore, was born in 
Whitewater, Ind.. a daughter of David Moore of an old Quaker family. 
She died in Marion, Iowa, in 1911, when she was eighty-nine years of age. 
She always remained a member of the Society of Friends in which she was 
reared. Four of their children grew to maturity: D. W. Martin resides 
in Buckley, Wash. ; John C. Martin passed away in Marion, Iowa ; Martha A. 
became Mrs. Rowlee ; and Benjamin L. Martin is an apple-grower in Chelan, 
Wash. The Martin family are originally from England, the first settler in 
America locating at Philadelphia, soon after the settlement by ^^' illiam Penn. 
the family being members of the Societv of Friends. 

DAVID CARTER.— The adventures that filled the early years of David 
Carter would have been possible at no period of our national history save 
that of evolution and material upbuilding. His first exnerience on the vast 
unsettled plains came when he was scarcely thirteen years of age. at which 
time, in 1852, he accompanied his parents as far west as Salt Lake City. 
Prior to that journey he had lived in Illinois, wdiere his birth had occurred in 
Adams county in 1839. In removing to the west the family had honed to 
enjoy greater advantages in the cultivation of land than the state of Illinois 
then afiforded. The lad, being cjuick to learn, soon acquired an excellent 
knowledge of the Indian language and was on terms of the greatest friend- 
liness with such of the original Americans as remained on the plains and in 
the mountain reservations. For this reason he encountered no dangers of 
Indian attacks when he engaged in teaming and hauling all through the west. 
On one occasion in 1857, while freighting, he had overtaken a large train of 
emigrants bound for California. \\'hile camping with them a band of savages 
approached. Mr. Carter overheard them plotting in their own language to 
massacre every meml^er of the expedition. Finally one Indian wdio knew him 
came up to him and entered into conversation. In behalf of the emigrants 
he made an urgent appeal to spare their lives, promising for them that they 
would start early in the morning and proceed without delay toward their 
destination and also ])romising that they would molest no member of the 
Indian race whom they might chance to meet. Through the intervention of 



932 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

this Indian chief who knew him, he was able to save the lives of the entire 
group of emigrants. So terrified were they by their narrow escape that they 
forced him to accom])any them for man}' days as guide and protector. 

AAHien twenty years of age Mr. Carter came to California in 1859 and 
settled at San P)ernardino. where he resumed teaming, the occupation to 
which throughout all of his life he has given his time and attention. Coming 
to Kern county in 1865 and selecting land on Kern Island, he began to till 
the soil. On that place he built a willow shanty, to which in 1856 he brought 
his bride, who was Miss Sarah Ann Carter, a native of Spencer county, Ind., 
and a friend of his boyhood. During 1852 she had crossed the plains with 
her parents and had settled in Salt Lake City, wdience in 1859 she had accom- 
panied them to San Bernardino county, Cal., where she remained until her 
marriage. Two' daughters blessed their union. Arminda, Mrs. C. C. Blanch, 
died in Bakersfield. leaving three children, William, May, Mrs. W. E. Piatt, 
of Taft, and Minnie. AVilliam and Minnie reside wdth Mr. and Mrs. Carter 
and are a source of pride and afifectionate joy to their grandparents. The 
other daughter. Myrtle, is the wife of Otto P. Lindgren, of Bakersfield, and 
they have one child, Otto Frederick. After he had spent a short time on the 
farm and had then engaged in teaming at Kernville for two years, David 
Carter removed to Los Angeles and gave his attention to hauling and teaming 
in that city. Returning to Bakersfield in 1889, he since has kept a number of 
teams and has earned a comfortable livelihood from hauling, freighting and 
teaming. Throughout all of his adult existence he has supported the Demo- 
cratic party. Fraternally he has been connected with the Ancient Order 
of United Workmen for many years. As he reviews the transformation 
wrought in Kern county since first he came to this region in 1865, it is 
difficult to realize how much has been accomplished in less than one-half 
century. Tall buildings stand where once he hunted the wild hogs on the 
streets of Bakersfield. An expert marksman, he often shot deer and elk 
in these then unpopulated regions and always there was an abundance of 
wild game in the family larder. The wealth that has been taken out of the 
earth by means of the oil wells was then undreamed of, except by a few 
enthusiasts regarded by others as visionary. 

WARREN RODGERS.— The late city clerk and present postmaster of 
McKittrick, a pioneer of 1884 in Pasadena and of 18<''9 in his present locality, 
claims Iowa as his native commonwealth and was born at Sigourney, Keokuk 
county. September 16, 1870, being a son of Samuel and Ellen (Payton) 
Rodgers, natives respectively of Ireland and Illinois. Ancient Celtic blood 
flows in the veins of the Rodgers representatives in the new world. Accom- 
panying his parents to the eastern part of Ohio from his native land, Samuel 
Rodgers grew to manhood in the Buckeye state, whence he settled in Iowa 
during tlie pioneer period of agricultural development in Keokuk county. 
On a farm near Sigourney, he and his wife, who was descended from an old 
German family, labored with the most painstaking industry in order to care for 
their children and i^rovide a livelihood for the large family. Eventually the 
interests in Iowa were sold and removal was made to California. During 
April of 1884 a place was bought in the old Indiana colony (now Pasadena) 
on Cypress avenue, and there he continued to make his home until he passed 
out of the earth life. Since then his widow has remained at the homestead 
in Pasadena. Of their ten children seven are still living. Warren, who was 
less than fourteen at the time of the removal to the west, completed the 
grammar-school studies in Pasadena, after which he began to earn his live- 
lihocd by work in a nursery. Later he learned the trade of a butcher and 
upon coming to the present site of McKittrick in the spring of 1899 it was 
with the intention of opening a meat market in this oil field, where drilling 
had (inl\- recently begun. However, during the first six months liere he 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 935 

engaged on a surveying corps, and then, in the spring of 1900, put into effect 
his plans for opening the first meat market of the place. While continuing in 
the business for some years, before the railroad had l)een built, he ran a meat 
wagon into Taft. 

Associated with another gentleman in 1912 Mr. Rodgers organized the 
McKittrick Brick Company, of which he has acted as manager and which 
is engaged in the handling of lime, cement, fire clay and explosives. The 
need of such an enterprise was manifest from the first and the company has 
been fortunate in building up an excellent trade in the line of their specialties. 
Ever since coming to this county Mr. Rodgers has been a leader in Demo- 
cratic party affairs and at this writing he serves as a member of the county 
central committee. Deeply interested in the advancement of McKittrick, he 
has contributed to local enterprises by co-operation, influence and practical 
assistance. The appointment as the first city clerk of McKittrick came to 
him in 1911 and during the spring of the following year he was elected to the 
office without any opposition. Besides filling the position he served as ex- 
officio city assessor. August 19, 1913, he was appointed postmaster at Mc- 
Kittrick, and it is safe to say that the office will have a very first-class service. 

While making Pasadena his home Mr. Rodgers married in that city Miss 
Bonnie M. Jones, a native of Marshalltown, Iowa. In that city also he took 
an active part in fraternal affairs. On the organization of Pasadena Camp 
No. 253, Woodmen of the World, he became a charter member, and later he 
entered Bakersfield Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E., as an active member, besides 
which he is an influential member of the McKittrick Tribe, I. O. R. M., in 
which he has been honored with the office of sachem. 

NICHOLAS JAMES WILLIAMS.— A successful cattle man of Walk- 
er's Basin, Mr. Williams is a native of Kern county, born at Havilah, May 25, 
1866, and was one of the first white children in the county. His father, Thomas 
Williams, was born in Cornwall, England, where he was married to Mary 
Andrews. Coming to California around the Horn in a sailing vessel, he arrived 
in San Francisco in 1853. Following mining in various camps, he drifted into 
Kern county in 1855, where with his brother he built a mill at Keyesville, which 
they ran until the freshet of 1862 carried it away. He then began farming in 
Walker's Basin, continuing there until his death in 1906 at the age of eighty- 
two years. His wife died in 1909, aged eighty-five years. 

The only child of his parents, Nicholas James Williams spent his child- 
hood on the ranch in Walker's Basin, receiving his education in the public 
schools. In 1873 his father gave him a line-back heifer calf, which was his 
beginning in the cattle business. While continuing to help his father, he 
watched his own herd, which was continually growing larger. From the 
age of eleven he rode the range and he has been interested in cattle raising 
ever since, his brand being the well-known Mule Shoe L. Many years ago 
he purchased the Joe W^elch homestead in Walker's Basin which has since 
been his residence and headquarters. He also owns three other ranches in 
Walker's Basin, one of which, adjoining his father's old place, he home- 
steaded. The latter has seven hot springs on one flat, not only mineral water, 
but suitable for irrigating his lands, as he built reservoirs for that purpose. 
For his summer range he owns a stock ranch at the foot of Piute Mountain, 
a valuable acquisition to his stock business. His investments are not alone 
confined to Kern county, for he owns four hundred and eighty acres of apple 
land in Mariposa county, which is rapidly growing into value. 

Mr. Williams was first married in Kernville to Miss Alice Yates, who 
was born in Kernville, the daughter of William and Anna Yates, pioneers 
of the county. Mrs. Alice Williams died in 1899, leaving four children : Mary 
Alice, who is a graduate of the Stockton Normal and who is engaged in 



936 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

teaching; X'irg^inia A., who is a graduate of the Crocker Street Hospital, Los 
Angeles, and is now a nurse; Lyman E., and I>eatrix, who are remaining at 
home. At Havilah in 1901 Mr. Williams was married a second time, being 
united with j\Irs. May (Palmer) McClure, who was born in Merced, Cal 
Her father. Frank C. Palmer, was for many years prior to his death super- 
visor of Mariposa county. Mrs. \A'illiams was a graudate of the Mariposa 
schools. Her first marriage was to George ?\IcClure, who died in Mariposa 
county, and of the uni^n there was one child, Georgia, a graduate of the 
Dinuba high school, and now a teacher. Of the present union there are five 
children : Elva, Helen. Clara. Violet and Hazel. Mr. Williams has always 
been a Democrat. I-'or many years lie has been clerk of the lioard of Trus- 
tees of the ^^'alker"s Basin school district, and is greatly interested in main- 
taining a high standard for the district schools. He is also one of the state 
fire wardens in the Kern Natii nal Poorest Reserve. 

ALBERT M. TAYLOR.— The manager of the Fellows branch of the 

Ass( ciated Supply Com])any has been a resident of California since the latter 
part of 1906 and in various capacities, each rising above its predecessor in 
point of importance, he has been connected with the same firm since August 
of 1908, having first been retained as clerk in different departments, then 
promoted to be assistant storekeeper, and finally, in November, 1912, trans- 
ferred to the Fellows branch as manager, which responsible Dosition he fills 
with efficiency. Although a native of Iowa, born near Brandon, Greene 
County, May 17, 4880, but little of his life has been passed in that state, for 
he was only four years of age when the family removed to Missouri and 
settled in Gentry County. His parents, Levi W. and Margaret B. (Albert) 
Taylor, were natives of Ohio. At the time of the discovery of gold in Cali- 
fornia the father, who was then a young man without domestic ties, crossed 
the plains with a party of emigrants and tried his luck in the gold fields 
without any great success. Upon returning east of the mountains he settled 
in Iowa and took up farm pursuits. During 1884 he removed to Missouri and 
eventually became a resident of Oklahoma, where he died at Anadarko. Later 
his widow came to California, where she now makes her home in Bakersfield. 

In a family of six children that grew to maturity and are now all living, 
Albert M. Taylor was the fourth child. After he had finished the grammar 
grade in Gentry County, Mo., he took up the study of telegraphy and soon 
became an assistant on the Q system, rising to be an operator and agent on 
that line. Frcm Missouri he went to Colorado. At the time of the Boxer 
rebellion in China he enlisted in the regular army. In June of 1900 his name 
was enrolled as a private in Comnany K, Eighth United States Infantry. 
With his command he set sail from San Francisco on the 31st of August and 
proceeded across the ocean on a transport. The original destination was 
Nagasaki, Japan, but later orders changed the course of the vessels to Manila 
where in December of the same year he was transferred to the signal 
corps. After having served on different parts of the various islands of the 
Philippines and particularly on the Negros, Cebu and Panay islands, where 
his skill as an operator proved of value to the command, he was houi rably 
discharged in March, 1903, by special order of William H. Taft, then secretary 
of war. Next he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the telegra:)hic 
division under the jurisdiction of the Philippine constabulary and from that 
rank he rose to be first lieutenant. During the fall of 1905 the telegraphic 
division was removed from constabulary jurisdiction and placed under the 
postoffice department, Mr. Taylor thereupon being appointed a district post- 
office inspector. Upon his resignation from that position in November. 1906, 
he returned to San Francisco and from there went south to Long Beach, 
where for two years he served as a deputv in the office of the city assessor. 
In that city he married Miss Bessie B. Boettcher, who was born in South 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 939 

Dakota and by whom he has two sons, Albert M., Jr., and Eugene E. Since 
leaving Long Beach he has been connected with the Associated Supply Com- 
pany, with whose officials he has a high standing for integrity, intelHcrence 
and business acumen. Since his return from the Philippines he has held mem- 
bership with the Spanish-American War Veterans, and during the period 
of his residence in Long Beach he was a prominent member of Company L, 
Seventh Regiment, California National Guard. 

ROGER WHELAN. — The country of Ireland has presented to the 
United States some of its ablest citizens who have figured prominently in 
both political and commercial fields, as well as in all the fields of labor 
found in this country requiring tact, keen perceptive ability and industry. 
Roger Whelan is one of her sons who came to the United States in 1862 
to build up his fortune and make it his home. Settling first in the state of 
Connecticut, he engaged in the general work of farming, which he followed 
for some years, in 1870 coming to California, which had attracted him by 
its exceptional crops and unusually fine climate. 

Upon his arrival in California Mr. Whelan first Icjcated in Yolo county, 
where he engaged in ranching, coming from there, in 1873, to Kern county. 
It was at this time that Air. Whelan became interested in sheep raising, 
realizing the profits attained thereby, and accordingly he bought six hun- 
dred and forty acres of land in the Tehachapi valley and began farming 
and stock raising, which became his chief occupation. He raised high grade 
cattle, hogs and sheep which increased in number so that he w^as obliged 
to add to his holdings until he owned a thousand acres. When he entered 
into the stockraising business Air. Whelan moved onto his ranch before the 
town of Tehachapi was in existence, and he has seen it expand and grow 
into a thriving, prosperous place, taking an active part himself in its de- 
velopment. In 1913 he sold his ranch and stock and located in Wilmington, 
where he purchased and also built several houses, and the same enterprise 
exhibited in building up the Tehachapi country is shown in Wilmington. 

THOMAS S. SMITH.— Son of an old pioneer, T. S. Smith was born 
at Visalia, Tulare county, Cal., October 25, 1861, his parents being 
Thomas H. and Sophia AI. (Whittock) Smith, who have further mention in 
another part of this publication. A long line of Anglo-Saxon forbears have 
contributed to Air. Smith's inheritance, his father being a native of Bristol, 
England, born in 1824, and throughout his life and the rearing of his 
family he has exhibited marked traits of that excellent race. 

In 1862 Air. Smith was brought by his parents into Kern county where 
the business interests of the father increased rapidly and brought with 
them a degree of success which has always prevailed. Before the end of 
the year 1863 they were making their home on the south fork of the Kern 
river and a few years later he was sent to school in Havilah, which was then 
the county seat. Later he pursued his studies in Kernville until he was nine- 
teen, at which time he took up the activities of a business life and entered 
the cattle business. This line of enterprise was naturally the one to which 
he would turn, as his father had become well known throughout the vicinity 
as a large and successful cattle grower. Attentive, alert and strictly honest 
in his every dealing he soon acquired an enviable position in the cattle 
business world. He has added to his holdings from time to time as his success 
has become more assured until he is now the owner of about a thousand acres 
of land and six hundred head of well-kept, fine cattle. 

Always interested in the progress and general advancement of his 
native country. Air. Smith has never been found wanting when his help was 
needed, especially in the local work of his party, his political principles 
being Republican. For his wife he chose a native of San Francisco, Aliss 



940 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Ella P. Alerriain, who has proved a helijniate in the true sense of the word, 
by her quiet influence and unfailing co-operation being invaluable to her 
husband in his many enterprises. Three children have been born to this 
union, Hattie M., Stanley L. and Helen. The family home is on the South 
Fork near Onyx, Cal. 

DANIEL WAGGONER WALSER.— Born near Jefferson City, Mo., 
February 9, 1834, D. W. Walser is the son of Squire P. and Elizabeth (Wag- 
goner) Walser. The former was born on the Yadkin river, North Carolina, 
and on both sides descended from old Southern families of German descent. 
On the maternal side his grandfather Laup served in the Revolutionary war 
as a commissioned officer under Gen. George Washington. 

Squire Walser, a farmer in Tennessee, was there married, his wife being 
a native of that state. They removed to near Jefferson City, Mo., where they 
spent their last days. Of the five children Daniel was the youngest and is 
the only one living. His childhood was spent on the Missouri farm, and he 
received a common school education. In 1852 he crossed the plains with ox- 
teams, being en route four months and seventeen days. The first four years 
were spent in placer mining, after which he came to Visalia, arriving in 
November, 18.56, and engaged in the cattle business. He bought cattle in 
Los Angeles, then only a small adobe town of about four thousand, and drove 
them by way of Ft. Tejon and Placerville to Nevada, selling them in the 
mines, and generally making two trips in a season. In the fall of 1863 he 
went with a party overland to Arizona, but not being satisfied with the outlook 
he returned to Los Angeles, and there, in December, 1863, met the lady who 
afterwards became his wife. Her father, A. T. Lightner, Sr., was then living in 
Walkers Basin. Mr. Walser arrived there in January, 1864, and on March 24, 
1864, he married Miss Mary F. Lightner, born in Lexington, Mo., January 6, 
1845. (For more facts relative to the Lightner family, refer to biography 
of Mrs. Walser's brother, A. T. Lightner, Jr.) 

Mrs. Walser was only five years of age at the time of crossing the plains 
and her education w^as obtained principally in San Jose, coming to Kern 
county in 1857. 

After their marriage Mr. Walser bought a claim in the lower part of 
Walkers Basin, where he resided for two years, when he sold and purchased 
a part of his present place at the head of Walkers Basin on which he imme- 
diately located. After clearing the meadow of willows, grubbing and break- 
ing the soil, he erected suitable buildings. A part of the place is a natural 
meadow and is well watered with large springs and a creek that is called 
Walser's creek. He purchased land adjoining until it contains twenty-seven 
hundred acres and is considered one of the finest stock ranches in Kern county. 
All these years he was engaged in the cattle business. At first his brand was a 
7 with a bar ; this he sold and afterwards established as his brand the quarter 
circle L which his sons still use. He first raised thoroughbred Shorthorn and 
afterward Herefords. His business was not limited to Walkers basin, for in 
1867 we find him driving a flock of five thousand head of sheep from Oregon 
to San Francisco, where they were sold, and he also at one time owned ranches 
in Tulare county, where for some time he engaged in wholesale and retail 
butcher business in Visalia. 

With J. J. Mack and S. W. Wible he set out the first commercial prune 
orchards in the county; was one of the organizers of the Bank of Bakersfield 
and a director of the bank for nine years, when he retired. Of late years he has 
been retired from active business, having turned the business over to his two 
sons, and he divides his time between his old home in Kern county and Santa 
Rosa. 

Mr. and Mrs. Walser had seven children, of whom three are living: John 
Caswell and Sidney J., who are operating the ranch and are extensive cattle 




/yyhy\-aJ^ 



^-'^^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 943 

men in Walkers Basin, and Daisy, Mrs. Morgan Wallace of Santa Rosa. In 
July, 1866, Daniel Walser was one of four commissioners appointed by an 
act of legislature to organize Kern county. The other members of the com- 
mission were Col. Thomas Baker, J. M. Brite and Michael Erskine, all de- 
ceased but Mr. Walser. They met at old Havilah and there laid the county out 
into voting precincts and called the first county election and arranged for the 
survey of the county line. One year later Mr. Walser became a candidate and 
was elected supervisor and served as chairman of the board for one term. 
During all these early years he gave of his time and means to upbuilding and 
furthering the interests of the county. Always interested in the cause of edu- 
cation he was a member of the first board of school trustees of Walkers 
Basin district and aided in building the first school house. Mr. and Mrs. 
Walser are both members of the Baptist church in Bakersfield. Mr. Walser 
is a Democrat and a leader in the councils of his party in Kern county. 

JEREMIAH McCarthy.— Born on a farm in County Cork, Ireland, 
April 13, 1843, Jeremiah McCarthy was reared on the farm and educated 
in the national schools. In 1862 he came to Boston, Mass., and for two years 
he worked at farming ; then was an employe of the weighers and gangers. 
Having heard many encouraging reports from California he became inter- 
ested and in 1867 came out west to see the land of gold and sunshine. He 
arrived in San Francisco, February 7, 1867, coming on the Moses Taylor 
from San Juan del Sur, he having made the journey to the Pacific coast via 
the Nicaragua route from New York city. He was employed by the Spring 
Valley Water Company until 1868, when he entered the employ of the Cen- 
tral Pacific Railroad at Palisades, Nev., where he worked on repairs, swing- 
ing a hammer and using the shovel. In 1870 we find him working on the 
construction of the railroad at Lathrop. In 1871 he became a foreman on 
construction for the Northern Pacific in Washington, where he remained 
until 1873, then returning to California to become foreman for the Southern 
Pacific at Borden and other places along the road to Tehachapi, where he was 
extra foreman. In 1881 he again took a position as foreman on construction 
of the Northern Pacific, working in Washington, Idaho and Montana, and 
while there was promoted to general foreman. On his return to California 
in 1883 he became foreman on the hill, as it is called by railroad men, and 
after two years at Tehachapi he was eight years at Keene. In November, 
1893, he became foreman at Bealeville and continued in that capacity until 
1907 when he resigned and retired from railroading to engage in farming 
and stock-raising. He owns six hundred and forty acres at Bealeville where 
he has made the necessary improvements for carrying on the raising of hay 
and cattle, his two brands being the quarter-circle under the figure 3 and a 
double J with bar underneath. 

Mr. McCarthy was first married in Tehachapi to Hattie Walsh, who 
was born in County Sligo, Ireland, and died in Dixon, Cal. His second 
marriage, June 15, 1898, was with Mrs. Mary (Heskin) Davron, a native of 
County Mayo, Ireland, the ceremony being performed in Tehachapi by Rev. 
John Reynolds. Of this union are three children : Jeremiah Michael, Thomas 
Patrick and Eugene. By her former marriage Mrs. McCarthy has one living 
child, Mortimer. Having been reared in the faith of the Roman Catholic 
church, Mr. and Mrs. McCarthy are members of that church. 

JOHN G. STAHL. — As president of the Kern Live Stock Association, 
and as a director of the California Jersey Breeders Association, Mr. Stahl 
holds a position in the state which evidences his extensive knowledge of the 
many fine points of the cattle business, as well as an executive ability which 
is capable of a vast amount of labor. He has made a scientific study of the 
business, and has put forth his utmost effort to bring about the finest and 
best results. 



944 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Mr. Stahl came to Kern county in 1887. His early life was spent in 
Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was born January 16, 1864, and where he at- 
tended school up to the age of twelve years. He was obliged to look after 
himself at an early day, owing to the death of his father, and until he was 
seventeen worked on farms through Ohio. Going to Nebraska he worked 
there for about a year, in the fall of 1882 coming to California and procur- 
ing work on the Nadeau ranch in Los Angeles county. In 1887 he came 
to Kern county and engaged in the hauling of borax from Death Valley to 
Mojave, driving the twenty-mule team for about two years. He then took 
up a homestead and timber claim adjoining the Tejon ranch, on which he 
carried on dry farming. Besides serving as school trustee there he also 
gave public service as justice of the peace and his fulfillment of the duties 
of these offices proved highly satisfactory to the community he represented. 
Some time later he sold out and came to Bakersfield and for two years 
engaged in hauling oil from the oil fields to town. In 1902 he leased one 
hundred and sixty acres of land for five years on what is called the Island, 
and on this property he engaged in farming and' dairying. In the year 1906 
he purchased eighty acres of land, but did not come into possession of it 
until 1907. This land he developed and improved, and in April, 1910, he 
sold it and came to his present place. Associating himself with H. R. Pea- 
cock, he went east with him in 1911 and assisted in the purchase of cattle 
for Mr. Peacock's ranch, of which he was the manager for three years. 

JEAN EDWARD BERTRAND.— A native of France, Jean Edward 
Bertrand was born in Basses-Alpes, January 25, 1870, the son of Jacques 
and Josephine (Bernard) Bertrand, farmers and stockraisers in that country. 
Jean was brought up on the farm in France and educated in the local schools. 
Having heard reports of splendid opportunities in California, when twenty 
years of age he determined to come hither and start for himself. He arrived 
in San Francisco June 10, 1890, and in September of the same year came to 
Delano, Kern county. He immediately entered the employ of a sheepman 
and three years later bought a flock of sheep and ranged them in Kern, Inyo 
and Tulare counties, meeting with great success. In 1899 he sold his sheep 
and purchased ten acres on Brundage Lane, adjoining Bakersfield, and there 
he began farming. 

Mr. Bertrand was married in East Bakersfield in July, 1899, being 
united with Lola Bauer, a native of Bakersfield and the daughter of Fred and 
Belle (Kilbreth)) Bauer, born in Germany and San Francisco, respectively. 
Her parents were stock raisers in Kern county. The father died in 1902, 
while the mother makes her home in Bakersfield, where the daughter was 
reared and educated. With the aid of his wife Mr. Bertrand engaged in 
farming and stock raising, in which they have been very successful. In 
1913 tliey sold their place on Brundage Lane and purchased forty acres 
ten miles southwest of Bakersfield in the old river district under the Stine 
canal, where they are raising alfalfa and grain. He also owns a one hundred 
and sixty acre ranch two miles above Granite Station which he uses for 
cattle range in the summer, his brand being J. B., and he is meeting with 
merited success. Mr. and Mrs. Bertrand are the parents of four children, 
as follows: Jean Edward. Josephine Martha, Frederick and Dorothy. 

MIGUEL ECHENIQUE.— The sheep business, which has proved a 
source of most gratifying results to many who have come to the Golden 
State to try their fortunes, has become the successful vocation of Miguel 
Echenique, who made his way hither from his native country of Spain to 
follow his brother, Tomas, who had settled in California and become inter- 
ested in the sheep raising industry. These sturdy sons of Spain were the 
children of Jose Maria and Petra (Dendarieta) Echenique, the former a 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 947 

farmer and stockman in Navarre and the father of seven children. Of these 
Miguel was the fifth and was born in Navarre January 4, 1874. 

The local school of his native place afforded Mr. Echenique his educa- 
tional training and he completed his course of studies in the Spanish lan- 
guage. The year 1899 brought him to Kern county, Cal., where his brother 
Tomas had settled, and he immediately began work for a sheep grower 
herding sheep. By industry and economy he soon found himself in the pos- 
session of means and in 1905 he purchased a flock of sheep and began for 
himself a business that he has continued to the present time. His increasing 
flock he ranges on the plains and" in the mountains of Kern, Inyo and Mono 
counties, and his stock has an enviable reputation in the market for its 
special quality and fine condition generally. 

With his wife, whose maiden name was Marie Louisa Etcheverry and 
whose birthplace was Aldudes, Basses-Pyrenees, France, he makes his home 
in a comfortable residence at No. 801 Quincy street, East Bakersfield. Mrs. 
Echenicjue was the daughter of John and Catherine (Laxague) Etcheverry, 
who still reside on their farm in the lofty Pyrenees. One child was born to 
the union of Mr. and Mrs. Echenique, which took place in East Bakersfield 
in 1911, and they have named him Tomas to perpetuate the name of Mr. 
Echenique's brother. 

HENRY DIBBLE WEST.— When the tide of pioneer travel to Cali- 
fornia was yet at its height there came across the plains during the summer 
of 1853 Dr. Charles N. and Martha (Dibble) West, natives respectively of New 
Hampshire and Connecticut. The young couple settled in Stanislaus county, 
where occurred the birth of their eldest child, Henry Dibble, April 23, 1854. 
Later the family removed to Santa Cruz county, where the mother died ; and 
at this writing the father, active and mentally alert notwithstanding his 
ninety-one busy years, is living in San Francisco. The eldest child received 
public-school advantages supplemented by attendance at the University of the 
Pacific, San Jose. A clerkship in the store of an uncle, Elisha Giddings, at 
Turlock gave him his early knowledge of mercantile pursuits. Later he was 
employed in the store of Simon Jacobs at Plainsburg, Merced county, still 
later conducting a mercantile establishment at that place on his own account. 
In 1881 he moved the business to Hanford, two years later selling out to be- 
come manager of the store of Manassa & Jacobs at Traver. During his resi- 
dence at Traver he served for several years as justice of the peace and also 
acquired farming interests. Upon his arrival in Kern county in 1889 he lo- 
cated a homestead in the Weed Patch. After proving up on the property he 
sold it and bought three hundred and twenty acres of school land three miles 
south of what is now Edison. On that place he engaged in raising grain and 
stock. During 1900 he bought twenty acres in the Fairfax district, three miles 
from East Bakersfield, where he engaged in raising alfalfa. Forty acres have 
been added to the original twenty, and both being under the east side canal, 
he has an excellent alfalfa ranch. Besides operating the land he sold hay to the 
oil companies iii the Kern river field and continued in the hay business from 
1904 until his death, which ( ccurred January 20, 1911, on the home ranch. 
Politically a Democrat, a citizen of progressive views and splendid public 
spirit, he had served as deputy county assessor and for seven years had been 
clerk of the school boards in both Mountain View and Fairfax districts. An 
organizer of the First Presbyterian Church of Bakersfield, to which his wife 
and all the members of her family still belong, he served as a trustee and elder 
and aided largely in the erection of the house of worship on O street. 

The marriage of Henry Dibble West and Rebecca E. Lauder was 
solemnized at Plainsburg, Merced county, February 20, 1881. Miss Lauder 
was a native of Rockburn, Huntingdon county, province of Quebec, Canada, 
and was the eldest daughter in a family of eleven children, six of whom now 



948 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

survive. The father, Andrew Lauder, a native of Montreal of Scotch descent 
and a wheelwright and carpenter by trade, married Eliza Waller, a native of 
Ireland. Leaving his family in Canada he came on to California in 1868 in 
search of a suitable location. The mother died in 1869 and it was not until 
1875 that the children joined their father in California, settling at Plainsburg, 
where he had engaged in carpentering and also served as justice of the peace. 
His last days were passed at Merced. During the last twelve months of his 
life he was an invalid as a result of a stroke of paralysis. It fell to the lot 
of the eldest daughter in this large family to act as housekeeper after the 
death of her mother and hence she had not the opportunity for a collegiate 
education, yet she is the possessor of unusual business ability and always 
has been, not only a home-maker, but a practical assistant in the business 
affairs of the family. One year after the death of her husband she left the 
farm and settled at No. 2020 E street, Bakersfield. Aside from the home 
ranch she owns fifty acres of citrus land near Edison, on which there is a deep 
well and a pumping plant sufficient to irrigate the land for alfalfa and fruit. 
The family also has one hundred and sixty acres on Cedar creek near Poso 
Flat, where a specialty is made of the raising of draft horses. Her eldest sons, 
Henry D., Andrew L. and Albert, are in charge of the farming operations of 
the estate. Mrs. Martha Treadway lives on a farm near Bakersfield; Mrs. 
Emily Kiger makes her home in East Bakersfield; Mrs. Laura Parker is a 
resident of Bakersfield. The three youngest children. Ruby, Francis S. and 
Charles W., remain with their mother in the Bakersfield home. 

THOMAS J. CORNISH.— Whatever of success Mr. Cornish has achieved 
(and it has been noteworthy) it must be attributed to his own persistence in 
the midst of the discouraging experiences of his early years. He was born in 
Cornwall, England, August 8, 1870, being the only son of John and Elizabeth 
(Ball) Cornish, honest and well-to-do farmers of that shire. At the age of 
six months his father was taken from him by death, after which he and his 
niother went to live with his grandfather, George Ball, a farmer of Cornwall. 
The boy was sent to the St. Columb schools and thus acquired a knowledge of 
the three R's. At the age of seventeen he left Cornwall for Canada and in 
Toronto served an apprenticeship to the trade of a baker under his uncle. Mr. 
Tonkyn, who did all in his power to give the lad a correct knowledge of the 
principles of the bakery business. Upon the completion of his time he came 
to the States and followed his occunation at Buffalo, N. Y., and Austin, Pa., 
after which in 1903 he came to California. The failure of his health prevented 
him from devoting his attention to his trade and therefore, having invented 
and patented an oil burner for bake-ovens, he engaged in the manufacture and 
sale of this article. While able to earn a livelihood he made no financial 
progress and at the time of his arrival in Bakersfield during June of 1908 he 
had little capital except his restored health and a thorough knowledge of the 
baking business. 

Having no acquaintance with business men and no financial standing, 
he worked for one year on a salary and then began baking on a very small 
scale. In his subsequent success his wife has been of the greatest assistance. 
Indeed, to her intelligent co-operation he attributes in large part the splendid 
f-tanding he now enjoys as a business man and skilled baker. Prior to their 
marriage in Niagara Falls, N. Y., she was Miss Bessie Mcintosh, a resident 
of Buffalo, N. Y., having been born at Springville, Erie county. Possessing 
ability of an high order, she has been able to promote the success of the busi- 
ness in which her interest has been as great as his own. 

For a time after opening his bakery Mr. Cornish did all of the baking 
without help and during the first two weeks his boy delivered the goods with 
a basket. That soon proved inadequate and he rented a horse and wagon. 
As soon as he had saved sufficient money he bought a horse and wagon, but 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 951 

still used the rented vehicle. The bakery goods proved popular with critical 
housekeepers. The demand increased from time to time and now he uses five 
wagons besides one automobile for delivery purposes. Bakers are kept steadily 
at work and five thousand loaves of bread are baked every day, besides pies, 
cakes, cookies, and other bakery goods in like proportions. His payroll amounts 
to $2500.00 per month and about $30,000.00 per annum. Three modern ovens 
of large capacity are in constant service. The bakery, which is by far the 
largest in Kern county, is located at No. 1127 Nineteenth street, with a large 
branch store at No. 1610 Nineteenth street. Plans are made for a new factory 
for the manufacture of bread and bakery goods on a larger scale and a much 
greater variety. This factory will be installed with latest and most modern 
machinery for bakery goods. The capacity will be increased ten times in all 
the different lines. 

J. KELLY RUSSELL.— The cashier of the National Bank of Bakers- 
field traces his genealogy to several old and honored colonial families, among 
them being not only the Russells, but also the Duncans, Kellys and Rays. 
His father, George C. Russell, a native of Bardstown, Ky., and an extensive 
stock-raiser, made a specialty of breeding the thoroughbred and standard 
horses for which the blue grass region has been famous for more than a 
century. The farm which he owned and operated stood in the heart of that 
noted region, six miles from the city of Lebanon, and from it were sent out 
a number of rare specimens of equine perfection. One of these animals 
made a record of 2:11 in Cleveland more than twenty years ago. In judg- 
ment of horses he was regarded as an expert and in their training he ac- 
quired a local reputation. By his marriage to Annie Kelly, who like himself 
remained a lifelong resident of Kentucky, there was an only child, J. Kelly, 
born at Lebanon, Marion county, Ky., December 26, 1873, reared at the old 
homestead, educated in public schools and a graduate of a local high school. 

Regarding the ancestry of the mother of George C. Russell (who was 
a member of the Duncan family) it may be stated that during the eighteenth 
century three brothers left their native Scotland and crossed the ocean to the 
new world, where they became separated. Concerning the fate of two of 
these brothers nothing is known with accuracy. The third, Henry Duncan, 
who was born September 3, 1710, in Scotland, and who became a pioneer of 
Virginia, married Rebecca Briggs, who was born January 7, 1710. By their 
union seven sons and three daughters were born and six of these became 
pioneers of Kentucky, namely: Coleman, Charles, George, Henry, Fanny 
and Rebecca. The first-named, Coleman, married Mary Lyne, and they be- 
came the parents of seven sons and three daughters. Among the sons was 
George, born August 11, 1750. and married to Nancy Connelly, member of a 
colonial Virginian family. The family of George and Nancy Duncan com- 
prised six sons and three daughters. Of these there still survived as late as 
1897 two, the eldest and the youngest, viz. : John S., eighty-two years of 
age, and Jennie, who was at that time past sixty. 

The mother of J. Kelly Russell was a daughter of John J. and Susan 
Jane (Ray) Kelly and a granddaughter of Richard W. and Mary (Knott) 
Ray, of whom the late ex-Governor J. Proctor Knott was also a lineal de- 
scendant ; and also a granddaughter of George P. and Ann (Kelly) Kelly. 
George P., a son of John and Jane (Payne) Kelly, was born April 6, 1793, 
and died April 27, 1847. Ann, the wife of George P. Kelly and a daughter 
of James and Nancy Kelly, was born February 21, 1796, and died in Obion 
county, Tenn., September 27. 1830. John J., son of George P. and Ann 
Kelly, was born November 23, 1818, and died July 12, 1861, while his wife, 
Susan Jane, daughter of Richard W. and Mary (Knott) Ray, was born April 
28, 1824, and died December 19, 1895. The Ray family was prominent and 
active in the early colonization of Kentucky. About the year 1774 three 
brothers, John, James and William Ray, removed from Maryland to Ken- 



952 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

tucky and settled near the present site of Harrodsburg, Mercer county, where 
William was soon killed by the Indians. John and James represented the 
very highest type of physical manhood, being over six feet tall, muscular, 
broad-shouldered, fearless and brave, endowed with remarkable powers of 
endurance and with every requisite of the typical pioneer, Indian fighter and 
woodsman. During their first years in Kentucky they made extensive ex- 
jylorations of the surrounding wilderness. In one of these trips they visited 
the wild lands of Kentucky county (now Marion county) and there they 
entered large tracts of land in the western part of the county near the present 
site of Raywick. 

During the year 1794 a number of families (including the Rays, Beards 
and Knotts) from near the present site of Ellicott Mills in Maryland re- 
moved to the wilderness of Kentucky and settled on the lands of John and 
James Ray, including the present site of Raywick and the surrounding 
country. Even before the migration of that colony as early as 1792, Thomas 
P. and Frances (Ray) Knott, had left Maryland for Kentucky and had taken 
passage on a flat-boat at Pittsburg, whence they sailed down the Ohio river 
to the Falls near the present site of the city of Louisville. Leaving the boat 
at that point, they traveled by wagon to the new colony near Raywick and 
in the primeval wilderness established a frontier home. Their family in- 
cluded the following-named children: Nancy, who married Anthony Bick- 
ett; Joseph P., who married Maria I. McElroy; Mary, wife of Richard Ray; 
Thomas P., who married Frances Payne; Frances, Mrs. Stephen Bristow; 
Jane Hart, who died unmarried at the age of twenty-five ; Samuel, who mar- 
ried Elizabeth Ray; Lloyd, who married Martha Allen; and Ellen, who died 
at the age of sixteen. Included in the Ray family were the following 
brothers and sisters: John S., who married Kitty Beard; Samuel, who mar- 
ried Rosa Everhart ; Frances, Mrs. Thomas P. Knott ; Deborah, Mrs. Lloyd 
Thurman ; Mrs. John Barbee. whose husband was the son of a noted general ; 
Lloyd, who married Nancy Wicklifife, a sister of Governor Charles A. Wick- 
lifife and Robert Wicklifife, the most famous lawyers of their day in Ken- 
tucky; and William (known as Col. Billy Ray), who married his cousin, 
Sarah Ray. 

In life, character and attainments J. Kelly Russell has added prestige to 
the honored name which he bears. After leaving school he became a mes- 
senger in the Marion National Bank in Lebanon, Ky., and later was pro- 
moted to be bookkeeper. Upon resigning that position he came to Califor- 
nia, where for eight years he was connected with the Edison Electric Light 
and Power Company of San Francisco. After a period of service as assistant 
cashier he was placed in charge of a branch office in San Francisco and be- 
came office manager of the Western Light & Power Company, in which also 
he was secretary and a director. When he resigned that responsible position 
he became credit man and confidential secretary for Swabacker Bros., a firm 
of wholesale conunission merchants, with whom he continued until the busi- 
ness was sold and the partners retired. During January of 1911 he came to 
Bakersfield as assistant cashier of the Bank of Bakersfield and a year later 
was promoted to be cashier, remaining in that capacity until the bank was 
discontinued at its old location November 1, 1912, having been consolidated 
during the previous month with the Security Trust Company. However, in 
the meantime he had become convinced of the great possibilities of Bakers- 
field. Entertaining the most optimistic opinion of the city's future develop- 
ment, he was anxious to continue in the banking business at this point. Ac- 
cordingly through his own efiforts. supplementing the enterprise of other pro- 
gressive citizens, a new bank was organized March 6, 1913, and on the 15th 
of April the National Bank of Bakersfield, with a paid-in capital of $100,- 
0(X).00. began in business. The success of the institution has surpassed the 
most sanguine hopes of its projectors. Conservative loans and judicious in- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 955 

vestments govern the policy of the managers, who make their motto, "Not 
the largest business, but a safe business at all times." The officers are as 
follows: C. L. Claflin, president; F. H. Hall and W. A. Bonynge, vice- 
presidents; J. K. Russell, cashier; F. J. Galtes, assistant cashier. The fol- 
lowing are the directors : C. L. Claflin, F. H. Hall, W. A. Bonynge, J. O. 
Michelle, J. K. Russell, Joseph Redlick, George Haberfelde, A. P. Eyraud, 
W. W. Kelly, L. P. Keester, J. B. Batz, E. D. Burge and E. M. Brown. 

Since coming to this city Mr. Russell has allied himself with the Bakers- 
field Club and Bakersfield Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E. During the period 
of his residence in San Francisco he met and married Miss Aimee Rogers, a 
native of Los Angeles and a graduate of the San Jose high school, her father, 
William J. Rogers, having been a well-known citizen of San Jose. 

LEWIS ROGER BUCHANAN.— Of western birth and formerly a resi- 
dent of various parts of the west, Mr. Buchanan was born at Coal Creek near 
Pueblo, Colo., November 7, 1882, and is a son of John L. and Mary Ann (Buck- 
bee) Buchanan, the former a laboring man for years employed as a well-digger 
by the Santa Fe Railroad Company. There were three children in the family, 
namely : Lewis Roger, of Taft ; Ora P., a partner of his older brother 
in the pool hall at Taft ; and Eva May, who married J. W. Skaggs. an employe 
at McKittrick of the great corporation of Miller & Lux. When the eldest 
child was a mere infant the family removed from Colorado to the Indian 
Territory, where the father was employed in digging wells for the Santa Fe. 
About 1885 another move was made to Oregon, where the father first engaged 
in construction work at Cascade Falls. The mother died at Roseburg. that 
state, when Lewis R. was a lad of ten years and afterward he left the schools 
of Roseburg, finishing the grammar-school studies at Myrtle Point, Coos 
county. During 1900 he came to California and settled at Hanford, where 
his father still resides. 

After having been variously employed until 1906 Air. Buchanan then 
spent a short time in Los Angeles at the carpenter's trade. During the 
winter of 1906-07 he worked as a carpenter at Coalinga. In a short time he 
was made head rig-builder for the Imperial Oil Company and for two years 
he filled the position with efficiency. Shortly after the great fire at Taft he 
came to the town and began to work in the rebuilding of stores and houses. 
Much of his work was done for the J. F. Lucey Company, the Union Tool Com- 
pany and the McCutchens. Besides putting up shops, stores and houses in 
town he engaged in building houses on the leases in the Midway field and in 
1911 he had charge of the erection of the Fellows hotel. Forming a partner- 
ship with his brother, he started the pool and billiard hall which has been 
conducted by them up to the present time. About November of 1912 he 
received the appointment of chief of the Taft fire department. After coming 
to Taft in April, 1910, he organized and became manager of the baseball nine 
of the town. 

In various fraternities Mr. Buchanan has been influential. While making 
his headquarters at Coalinga he was made a Mason in Coalinga Lodge No. 
387, F. & A. M. Upon the organization of the Improved Order of Red Men, 
Tribe No. 233, at Taft. he became a charter member and was chosen the first 
presiding officer. In addition he has been prominent in Taft Lodge No. 426, 
I. O. O. F., and at this writing is a member of the building committee having 
charge of the erection of the new hall on Center street. The corner stone was 
laid June 21, 1913, and the building completed in the fall of the same year. 

FRANK TEMPLETON WILLIS.— Mr. Willis is one who has had much 
experience as a stationary engineer and has taken a three years' course in 
engineering with the International Correspondence School. He now holds 
the position of foreman in charge of the pumping plant of the Chanslor-Can- 
field Midway Oil Company located six miles west of McKittrick in the Little 



956 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Santa Maria Valley. The plant supplies water for the company's oil opera- 
tions in the North Midway at Fellows. It comprises a system of deep wells 
and the water is pumped over the hills and delivered at a distance of fourteen 
miles to the Fellows Camp and has a capacity of about fourteen hundred 
barrels per day. 

Frank Templeton Willis was born in Mt. Vernon, Posey county, Ind.. 
October 29, 1876, and is the son of Joshua and Hannah (Templeton) Willis, 
natives of Mt. Vernon, Ind., and White county, 111., respectively. They were 
farmers at Mt. Vernon, but now reside in Wickenburg, Ariz. Of their three 
children Frank is the oldest; he was brought up in Lakin, Kans., where he 
was educated in the public and high schools, graduating in 1893. when he 
began to learn engineering in Victor, Colo., and in time became a stationary 
engineer. Later he held positions with mining companies in different parts 
of Colorado, Montana, Oregon and Arizona, and during this time learned min- 
ing in all its details and held positions as foreman and superintendent of 
mines. He was for five years foreman of the water service department of the 
Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railroad at Prescott, Ariz., a position which 
he resigned in September, 1910, to accept his present position as foreman 
of the Chanslor-Canfield Midway Oil Company's water plant, since which 
time he. has remodeled the plant to its present efficient service and capacity. 

Mr. Willis was married in Phoenix, Ariz., to Miss Anna Wilson, who 
was born in Oakland, Cal., and to the union have been born three children : 
Dorothy, Frances and Charles. Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of 
Pythias and with his wife is a member of the Women of Woodcraft. Mrs. 
Willis is a member of the Presbyterian Church. For many years Mr. Willis 
was a member of the Stationary Engineers Union and is a Democrat. 

HARRY MILO ELWOOD, M.D.— A thorough preparation for the 
practice of medicine and surgery qualifies Dr. Elwood for successful work 
in his chosen calling. As the surgeon at Mojave for the Atchison, Topeka & 
Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific Railroads, and as a private practitioner 
with a large list of families to whom he acts as physician, he stands at the 
head of the men of his profession in his community. 

The older of two children. Dr. Elwood was born at Nunda, Livingston 
county, N. Y., May 9, 1880, and is a son of Homer C. and D. Estelle (Gif- 
ford) Elwood, natives res])ectively of Nunda and Gainesville, N. Y., the 
father for sixteen years a manager in the postoffice department of the govern- 
ment service, but more recently and at present a partner in a wholesale hard- 
ware business in the city of Buffak>. After he had completed the studies of 
the grammar and high schools of Nunda and had enjoyed the excellent ad- 
vantages of being a Normal post graduate, H. M. Elwood matriculated in 
the medical department of the University of Buffalo, where he completed 
the regular course and was graduated in 1905 with the degree of M.D. Spe- 
cial opportunities for the study of nervous diseases came to him during a 
service of one year as interne in the New York state hospital and later he 
engaged in private practice in Buffalo, from which city in January of 1909 he 
came to Los Angeles and since then he has engaged in professional work in 
California. 

Not long after his arrival in the west the young Doctor received an 
offer to take up surgical work for the Los Angeles aqueduct project. By the 
nature of the work there were frequent accidents among the workmen and 
the company desired to secure the services of a physician of ability, surgical 
skill and thorough medical knowledge. In their selection of Dr. Elwood they 
were peculiarly fortunate, for he was by temperament and education qual- 
ified for the difficult task of establishing and maintaining hospitals in the 
different fields of labor extending from Saugus as far north as Haiwee. Dur- 
ing the period of aqueduct construction work he started and conducted hos- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 957 

pitals at Cinco, San Canon, Le Brun and Monolith, meanwhile establishing 
headquarters at Mojave, where ever since he has made his home. His wife, 
formerly Elizabeth Gray, was born at Tombstone, Ariz., and is a daughter 
of John Gray, who served as a division engineer of the aqueduct. After 
severing his coimection with the aqueduct Mr. Gray was engaged by the 
Pierson Engineering Company to put through a four-track subway power 
and light tunnel in Barcelona, Spain, which was successfully accomplished 
by him, after the failure of foreign engineers. Politically the Doctor votes 
with the Republican party. In religion he is of the Baptist faith. Made a 
Mason in York state in Nunda Lodge No. 682, A. F. & A. M., after coming 
west he became identified with Los Angeles Consistory No. 3, Scottish Rite 
of Los Angeles. In addition he is associated with the Royal Arcanum, also 
the Alpha Chapter of the Alpha Omega Delta. 

C. A. FOX. — The town of Taft has doubtless no more' energetic and 
])opular citizen than the proprietor of the Mariposa Hotel and cigar business, 
who is now busying himself in the erection of the forty thousand dollar 
hotel building, a three-story brick structure which promises to be the most 
sightly building in the town. Mr. Fox has been in Taft since November, 
1909, and since then he has evidenced his sincerity in making it his adopted 
home by broadening his interests and taking an active part in the com- 
munity Avelfare. 

A native of Cass City, Tuscola county, Mich., his birth having oc- 
curred September 20, 1870, he was but six years of age when brought by 
his parents westward to Texas. His boyhood was spent at Honey Grove, 
that state, where he attended the public and high schools, and his first busi- 
ness interest was running a cotton gin at Monkstown when he was eighteen 
years of age. He learned the trade of jeweler, serving an apprenticeship, 
and conducted a successful jewelry business in connection with the cotton 
gin at Monkstown. He next went on the road, and for a time made Port- 
land, Ore., his home, going later to San Francisco and then to Mariposa 
county, at the latter place becoming proprietor of the general store known as 
the Horseshoe. At the inauguration of activities in Taft he came to this town 
and invested in property, which has so increased in value that he has become 
a wealthy man. His place of business is strictly up-to-date, having every line 
of equipment necessary to make a place of recreation complete, a barber shop, 
club room and news depot being maintained in connection with the billiard 
and pool room. 

The marriage of Mr. Fox took place in Minnesota, uniting him with 
Miss Maude M. Roney, who has surrounded herself with a host of friends. 

CONRAD RITZMAN. — Not a few representatives of the Swiss nation- 
ality have found their way to California and almost invariably they have 
proved to be thrifty, industrious and persevering people, a splendid acces- 
sion to the population of the west. Of the late Mr. Ritzman it may be said 
that he displayed the traits of his countrymen and during the long period 
of his identification with our state he proved himself to be a capable work- 
man and honest citizen. He was a member of an agricultural family of 
Switzerland and was brought up on a farm in Canton Zurich, but had no 
desire to enter the occupation as a means of livelihood, therefore he was 
apprenticed in boyhood to the trade of stone-dresser, later serving his time 
at the miller's trade, in which he became very proficient. During young 
manhood he married Miss Susanna Beck, who was born and reared in 
Zurich. They established a home in Canton Zurich, where were born their 
two children, Carl and x-Mice. The latter, however, was taken from the home 
by death at the early age of five years. 

Crossing the ocean from the old country and proceeding to California, 
during 1882 Conrad Ritzman entered the employ of the Starr mills as a 



958 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

stone-dresser. Later he bought and operated a mill at Roseville, Placer 
county. The destruction of the plant by fire entailed upon him a heavy 
loss and forced him to begin anew. Coming to Bakersfield he found work 
as a stone-dresser in the Kern river mills and the excellent character of 
his services led to his promotion to be head miller, in which capacity he 
continued for many years. In the meantime he had been very economical 
and thrifty, so that he had accumulated a neat sum for investment. Upon 
resigning from the mill he bought the northwest corner of Humboldt and 
Baker streets and erected a frame building, in which he engaged in the 
liquor business. When the frame structure was destroyed by fire he erected 
the Ritzman building, a brick structure, 76 x 100 feet in dimensions, con- 
structed with a view to use as retail stores. For a time he engaged in 
business, but on his retirement he rented the room to other parties. His 
death occurred October 4, 1910, at his home in Bakersfield. 

The only son of the late Conrad Ritzman and the sole survivor of the 
family is Carl Ritzman, who was born at Flaach, Canton Zurich, Switzerland, 
in 1870, and came to the United States in 1882, after which he attended 
public schools and acquired a knowledge of the English language. For 
some years he was employed on farms in Minnesota, but upon his return 
to California he learned the trade of car-repairer in the Southern Pacific 
shops at East Bakersfield and is still a member of the Car Repairers' Union, 
although since the death of his father he has not followed the trade, but 
has given his attention to looking after his interests. Politically he votes 
for the men and measures promoted and sustained by the Republican party. 

HARRY SYLVESTER KNIGHT.— Three different commonwealths 
have formed the environment for distinct periods in the life of Mr. Knight, 
who passed the first twelve years of his useful existence in Iowa and spent 
the ten ensuing years in Nebraska, but since 1888 has been a resident of Cali- 
fornia, identifying himself with the development of the west and proving 
a trustworthy citizen and capable farmer. Jasper county, Iowa, is his native 
place, and March 13, 1866, the date of his birth. When only five years of 
age he was sent to the country school near the home farm. There were 
very few children in the district and in order to secure the number absolutely 
necessary before a teacher would be furnished for the school, every available 
child was sent as a pupil, hence his early initiation into the tasks of the 
schoolroom. The same little primitive country building remained the center 
of his educational activities and his daily pleasures for the next seven years 
and then he bade farewell to boyhood friends and accompanied his parents 
to Valley Junction, Douglas county. Neb., where they took up land and gave 
close attention to the cultivation of a prairie farm. Until attaining his ma- 
jority he worked for his father, after which without means or friends he came 
to California to take up the battle of life alone and single-handed. After 
his arrival in Pasadena in 1888 he began to team and to haul freight. 

Identified with Kern county since 1890, Mr. Knight first settled in the 
Weed Patch district and spent three years on a tract of one hundred and 
sixty acres included in the claims of "Lucky" Baldwin. Although he lived 
there only those few years he placed the land under cultivation and greatly 
enhanced its possible returns. Next he removed to the vicinity of the Tejon 
ranch and engaged in dry farming for eight years. Discouraged by lack of 
success, he finally left the ranch and removed to Bakersfield. where he took 
contracts for the grading of streets. In addition he teamed to and from 
Oil City. The Standard Oil Company's interests kept him in the oil fields 
for four years and meanwhile he also built oil tanks on contract. During 
1904 he leased one hundred and forty acres sixteen miles west of Bakersfield 
for a term of five years, with the privilege of purchase at the expiration of 
the term of rental. From the first he was pleased with the land and convinced 




RESIDENCE OF HARRY SYLVESTER KNIGHT, RIO BRAVO, CAL. 




PUMPING PLANT ON THE KNIGHT RANCH AT RIO BRAVO, THROWING A 
350 MINER'S INCH STREAM 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 961 

of its possibilities for general farming. Therefore, instead of awaiting the 
end of his lease, he took up negotiations with the owner in three years and 
the year 1907 found him with the title vested in his own name. In addi- 
tion he has since bought three hundred and twenty acres on section 4, this 
being wholly unimproved. Altogether he now owns an entire section of 
land, the home place having one hundred acres under cultivation to alfalfa 
and grain. One of his specialties is the raising of horses, cattle and hogs 
and he now has two hundred head on the farm. It is said that he has here 
the best water well in the entire county, the supply being abundant and of 
superior quality. The pumping plant, which was the first brought into the 
locality, comprises a forty horse-power engine manufactured by the Besse- 
mer Gas Engine Company and operated at a cost of seven cents per hour. 
It is a twelve-inch well, in which is placed a No. 8 centripetal pump, bring- 
ing a stream of water flowing at the rate of about three thousand and eighty- 
five gallons each minute, or three hundred and fifty inches of water. It 
has the best record of any single well in the county. 

After coming to California Mr. Knight formed the acquaintance of Miss 
Clara Day, who was born in Contra Costa county, this state, August 28, 1872, 
and is a daughter of John Day, a hunter and a farmer in Contra Costa county. 
They were united in marriage on New Year's day in 1892 and are now the 
parents of seven children, namely: Errol, Lydia, Loma, Doris, Virginia, 
Hal and Alta. 

G. H. GALBRAITH. — The era of early American occupancy of Cali- 
fornia witnessed the arrival in San Francisco of John Galbraith, an advent- 
urous youth of Irish birth and ancestry, who sailed around Cape Horn and 
at the end of a tedious voyage landed in San Francisco. Although he landed 
here almost penniless and friendless, his own energy enabled him to sur- 
mount obstacles and achieve success. The Celtic wit carried him through 
many a trying situation and gave him friends in every circle. To the 
crude conditions of the nascent west he adapted himself with ready ease 
and such was his popularity that at one time he was elected by a large 
majority to represent his district of San Francisco in the state senate. 
With the exception of some years spent in Virginia City, Nev., during the 
period of the great mining excitement in that region, he remained in San 
Francisco until his death and during much of the time he was proprietor 
of a grocery establishment in that city. 

By the marriage of Hon. John Galbraith and Ellen McCary, who came 
via Panama to San Francisco at an early age and who is now living in 
Bakersfield, there were four children, the only son and youngest child being 
G. H., whose birth occurred in San Francisco February 22. 1875. The 
schools of his native city gave him fair advantages. After he had been 
graduated from the San Francisco high school in 1890 he secured a clerical 
position with a mercantile agency and continued in the same place until 
1897. During that year he entered the employ of the Southern Pacific 
Railroad Company as a clerk in the San Francisco warehouse. Later he 
was transferred to the freight house in the same city and there continued until 
1907. Meanwhile the ordeal of the earthquake and fire had placed him 
under a great strain. The work of the department became greatly involved. 
Under the pressure of his responsibilities his health became impaired and 
he found it necessary to resign. In order to recuperate he followed ranch- 
ing for nine months in the Santa Cruz mountains eight miles from Santa 
Cruz. 

Upon coming to Bakersfield in September of 1908 Mr. Galbraith entered 
upon his duties as chief clerk of the freight office. For two years he filled 
the position with ability and tact. In recognition of faithful service he was 
promoted in September, 1910, to be freight agent at Bakersfield and con- 



962 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

tinued in the position until May of 1912. But he had determined to embark 
in business for himself and became proprietor of the Bakersfield Truck 
Company, which he now owns and operates. Under his active supervision 
the business has been made successful. In addition to the use of teams 
and wagons he owns two auto trucks and these are kept in almost constant 
use. Some time since he acquired by purchase a block of land on the Santa 
Fe Railroad and on Fifteenth and S streets. On this site he has erected 
large stables, garage and storeroom as a headquarters for rigs. The main 
office is at No. 2016 Chester avenue. 

In politics Air. Galbraith votes with the Republican party. Fraternally 
he is connected with Bakersfield Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E. His family 
consists of two sons, Howard and Donald, and his wife, formerly May Helen 
Lowney, who is a native daughter of San Francisco and a graduate of the 
Polytechnic high school of that city. Thoroughly educated in the schools 
and naturally talented, she has been of the greatest assistance to her hus- 
band, for she is not only a wise mother but a capable home-maker. She 
represents the third generation of the Lowney family in California. Her 
father, Thomas, was brought to this state when only a year old by her 
grandfather, Timothy Lowney, who had been a shipbuilder in Massa- 
chusetts and crossed the plains in 1849, and who for some years served as a 
foreman in the Mare Island navy yard, afterwards was proprietor of a car- 
riage repository in San Francisco. Eventually he became very prominent 
in the public life of San Francisco and filled a number of important offices, 
among them that of superintendent of streets of that city. Thomas Lowney 
was a graduate of San Francisco Boys' high school and St. Mary's College, 
and continued the business established by his father. 

KENT S. KNOWLTON.— In an era when horticulture to an ever in- 
creasing extent is attracting the attention and commanding the highest talents 
of the people of California the office of county horticultural commissioner 
imposes great responsibilities upon its incumbent, who necessarily must be 
an authority upon the subject, a man of wide information and wise judgment, 
and one regarding a public office as a public trust. After having engaged 
for one year as deputy to Dave Hirshfield, then the horticultural commis- 
sioner of Kern county, Kent S. Knowlton was commissioned to the office 
April 1, 1912, by the board of supervisors, who selected him after thoughtful 
consideration of the matter, and with a realization that the office, in a county 
as large as Kern and one just entering upon a great horticultural develop- 
ment, demands more than ordinary ability on the part of its incumbent. 
Already it has been proved that no mistake was made in the selection of Mr. 
Knowlton, who is a man of progressive tendencies, a warm admirer of Bur- 
bank, and an influential member of the State Association of County Horticul- 
tural Commissioners. One of his first steps after entering upon official duties 
was the preparation of a county map outlining the lands suitable for suc- 
cessful orange-growing. On the completion of the map and after having 
made a most careful study of the subject, he gave it as his opinion that there 
are at least two hundred and fifty thousand acres of mesa land in the county, 
upon which the growing of oranges can be made a commercial success. 

Although from his earliest recollections a resident of California, Mr. 
Knowlton is a native of Nebraska and a member of an old Pennsylvania 
family. His father, O. V.. was born at Spottsylvania, Pa., but accompanied 
his parents to Illinois in early life and settled near Marengo. When only 
fifteen years of age he enlisted in the Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry and served 
during the three last years of the Civil war, returning home with a record 
which, considering his extreme youth, was not only meritorious, but almost 
remarkable. About 1885, accompanied by his wife, Julia (Huntington) 
Knowlton. and their children, he came to California and settled at Fullerton, 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 965 

where his wife died in 1902. Ever since coming to the west he has been 
interested in the orange business. Meanwhile he has been prominent as a 
citizen and influential as a worker in the Grand Army of the Republic. Dur- 
ing the summer of 1913 he was elected commander of the Southern Cali- 
fornia Association at the Huntington Beach encampment, an honor richly 
merited by his long connection with the Army. Of his five children the eldest, 
Charles S., of Fullerton, is an expert in the budding and grafting of oranges; 
the second, Avis S., resides at home; Hollis is an employe of the Lord Motor 
Company in Los Angeles and Ruth C. is a student in the Fullerton high 
school. 

In this family of five the second son and third child, Kent S., was born 
July 23, 1883, in Nuckolls county, Neb., near the village of Davenport. The 
scenes of his early recollections are in Orange county, this state, where as 
a boy he attended public school and learned to bud, graft and plant oranges. 
When sixteen years of age he became an employe of C. C. Chapman, who 
had purchased the Leffingwell ranch near Fullerton and who since has devel- 
oped the largest orange ranch in the state. After fourteen months on that 
place he went to Riverside to work in a packing house. Later he spent a 
year under a contractor, A. A. Polhemus, engaged in the construction of a 
breakwater at San Luis Obispo. Next he took the full course of three years 
in the California Polytechnic at San Luis Obispo, where he specialized in 
dairying and horticulture. Upon completing the course and finding no imme- 
diate opening in the line of his special preparation, he went to the mining 
districts of Nevada and engaged as an engineer and freighter, also for a time 
carried on a feed business. Returning to California, he worked in the Santa 
Maria and Coalinga oil fields, thence came to the west side fields of Kern 
county, where, finding an available opening in the line of his preferred occu- 
pation, he turned his attention to horticulture and is now county commis- 
sioner, with office in the court-house. Aside from the duties of the office, 
he finds leisure to participate in the work of the Woodmen of the World at 
Bakersfield and since 1911 has been a member of Troop A First Squadron of 
Cavalry, National Guard California, in which he ranks as sergeant. 

PIERRE DUHART. — An intimate association of some twenty-five years 
with the sheep and farming industries of California has enabled Mr. Duhart 
to conduct his farming operations along the most successful lines, and his 
active citizenship and untiring efiforts toward the benefit of his community 
have been deeply appreciated by all who have come to know him. He is a 
native of the Cantcn of Hasparren, Basses-Pyrenees, France, his birth having 
occurred there in 1857. His father, Jean Duhart, was a farmer and stockman 
in that vicinity and he reared his son in that environment, imparting to 
him the rudiments of that occupation and thus preparing him for his life's 
work. His educational opportunities were naturally limited, as at that time 
there was no demand for public schools as now, and the young bt»y grew 
to young manhood learning the lessons necessary for his development more 
by observation than by teaching. In 1888 he came to Los Angeles, and 
later followed farming and sheep raising in Orange county for a period of 
five years. Then purchasing a flock of sheep he ranged them in Orange 
and San Bernardino counties. In 1894 he came to Kern county with his 
flock and ranged them in this vicinity, becoming so pleased with the country 
that he brought his family and settled in Tehachapi, where he built a 
comfortable residence which he still owns. He sold his sheep in 1905 
and then purchased a forty-acre tract of land, located three and a half miles 
southwest of Bakersfield, which he immediately set to work to improve. 
Leveling it, he sowed it to alfalfa and corn, and the place is irrigated by 
the Stine canal. 

Mr. Duhart was married in Los Angeles to Miss Elizabeth Borda, a 



966 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

native of Cambo, the beautiful watering place of France, in Basses-Pyrenees. 
An only child has come to them, Lida, who is a graduate of the Kern county 
high school, class of 1912. The family worship at St. Francis Catholic 
Church. Politically he is a Republican. 

HENRY E. SMITH.— From early life identified with the oil industry 
and employed in the eastern oil fields at an age when the majority of boys 
are receiving educational advantages, Mr. Smith correctly stands among the 
most experienced men in the oil fields centering around Taft. Born in 
Pennsylvania April 8, 1862, he passed the days of childhood in Venango and 
Crawford counties and had meager opportunities to gain an education. While 
in text-books he advanced no further than a knowledge of the three R's, by 
reading and observation he has become a man of broad culture and wide 
information, with a reputation for being particularly well informed in the 
oil industry. By working in various departments and in several capacities 
he acquired a versatile familiarity with the business. During 1890 he became 
an employe of the Standard Oil Company at Franklin, Pa., and remained 
with them there for three years, after which he bought an oil lease and 
devoted two years to its improvement. Next he represented the Standard 
Oil Company at Gibsonburg, Sandusky County, Ohio, for a number of years 
and then was transferred to their interests at Marion, Ind., where he remained 
for eight years. 

On the 6th of March, 1909, iVIr. Smith and his family arrived at Bakers- 
field after a quick trip from their former eastern home. On the 8th of the 
same month they came to what is now Taft, and here he engaged as store- 
keeper for the Standard Oil Company, having charge of their warehouse. 
On the present townsite of Taft he erected the first rooming house in the 
new town, it being the first building erected for business purposes, and was 
completed two weeks before the disastrous fire which wiped out all the busi- 
ness houses which were then located on Sidetrack No. 2. Since then he 
and his wife have continued to operate the rooming business and meanwhile 
have established a regular patronage among people whose business interests 
often bring them to this district. Upon the organization of a company to 
operate an electric light plant Mr. Smith was chosen vice president and a 
director of the new concern, which later became a branch of the San Joaquin 
Light & Power Company. When the Chamber of Commerce was established 
he was chosen its first vice president and gave of his time and influence to 
place the new venture upon a substantial basis to aid in the material upbuild- 
ing of the town. His marriage took place at Olean, N. Y., in March of 1886 
and united him with Miss Mary Fitzpatrick, a native of Canada. One son, 
George, blessed their union. 

in all his life's work Mr. Smith has had the most hearty co-operation of 
his excellent wife. She has not only carefully managed many of the business 
afifairs connected with their household and rooming house, but has taken a 
decided stand for the civic betterment and the social and moral upliftment of 
Taft. She bears the distinction of having been the first woman to vote 
at a general municipal election at Taft. She is treasurer of the Woman's 
Improvement Club of Taft, and is a very active spirit in the St. Mary's 
Catholic Church of said city. She was elected the first president of the 
Altar Society of the Taft church, a position which she still fills with ability 
and fidelity. In company with Mrs. Fred O'Brien and Mrs. J. McEnany of 
Taft she started out with a subscription list and raised $1600 for the building 
of St. Mary's church the first week, thus insuring the splendid concrete 
church edifice at the corner of Kern and Second streets, which is under the 
pastorate of Father Prendiville and belongs to the East Bakersfield district. 

In fraternal relations Mr. Smith has allied himself with the Loyal Order 
of Moose since coming to his present place of residence and his interest in 
the organization has promoted its numerical growth in substantial measure. 




M-^- 




^JU^ y^a^LM' >l" ^rnn^iX^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 969 

With a number of other prominent men of the town he was instrumental 
in securing the incorporation of Taft, the vote for which was taken November 
7, 1910, resulting in the town being made a city of the sixth class. At the 
regular election, April 8, 1912, he was elected a member of the board of 
trustees, receiving forty votes more than even the most successful of the 
other nominees. Upon the organization of the board at its first meeting 
he was chosen president, a deserved tribute to his intelligence and one which 
received the warm approval of the general public. 

REV. EDGAR R. FULLER, A.M.. B.D.— The life which this narrative 
depicts began August 15, 1864, in New York state, on a farm near Gouver- 
neur in St. Lawrence county a short distance from the river of that name. 
The home was one of unostentatious comfort, in which high thinking and 
lofty principles of honor were made the chief objects of character develop- 
ment. Sturdy and patriotic New England ancestry was represented in the 
pedigree. The parents, Charles Thatcher and Ora Frutilla (Manley) Fuller, 
were natives of northern New York. The family lineage traces directly to the 
illustrious Dr. Samuel Fuller, who was a passenger on the Mayflower, phy- 
sician of the colony and deacon of Pilgrim Church, Plymouth, Mass. There 
were six children in the immediate family and two of these, together with 
the parents, have passed from earth. Of the four survivors, and fourth in 
order of birth, was Edgar Roselle Fuller, now pastor of the First Congrega- 
tional Church of Bakersfield and one of the leading men of the denomina- 
tion in Southern California. 

Whatever of ministerial success has come into the life of Rev. Mr. 
Fuller, whatever of culture he has achieved, whatever of good he has accom- 
plished, may be attributed to his own indomitable determination, coupled 
with an inheritance of splendid moral and mental qualifications and the 
religious zeal that led his ancestors in centuries agone to seek freedom from 
persecution in the new world. The substantial position of his parents came 
from character rather than wealth. There was little to aid him in his edu- 
cational aspirations, yet with characteristic determination he started out to 
secure first-class advantages. To accomplish this result it was necessary not 
only to earn a livelihood, but to lay aside a considerable amount for college 
expenses. Self-reliance was thus developed. The struggle that he expe- 
rienced in trying to gain an education lent him strength for the subsequent 
struggle to establish a church in the midst of a discouraging environment. 
After having completed the course in the Gouverneur Wesleyan Seminary 
he studied for one year (1882) in the Dansville Seminary and in September 
of 1883 matriculated in the Hiram (Ohio) College, from which he was 
graduated in 1890 with the degree of A.B. Meanwhile in the fall of 1885 he 
had married in Hiram, Ohio, Mrs. Julia (Buckingham) Mowbray, a descend- 
ant of the Buckinghams of New England and the Mastersons of Virginia, 
who was then a widow, with one child, Henry B. Mowbray. After his mar- 
riage he took his wife to Florida and engaged in ministerial work until 1888, 
meanwhile being ordained as a preacher of the Gospel. He returned to Ohio 
and completed the classical course at Hiram. In 1893 his alma mater con- 
ferred upon him for literary work the degree of AM. As a high school 
teacher and minister he earned an amount sufficient to defray his college 
expenses and complete the classical course in Oberlin Theological Seminary 
at Oberlin, Ohio, where in 1896 he received the degree of B.D. at graduation. 

A successful pastorate of one year at Imlay City, Mich., was terminated 
because the failing health of IMrs. Fuller rendered imperative a radical 
change in climate. From among several opportunities he chose the call to the 
First Congregational Church of Bakersfield. This was accepted with the 
hope that the California climate would prove beneficial to his wife and in 
that hope he was gratified by her steady improvement. Church conditions 



970 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

at Bakersfield then were discouraging to an unusual degree. Had he been a 
man of less determination he would have given up the charge as hopeless. 
There were not more than twenty-five church members that could be found 
and their house of worship was a small frame building on Fifteenth street 
facing a large open irrigation ditch and the Santa Fe Railroad tracks, then 
being built. The church had been organized in 1892 by Rev. A. K. Johnson, 
D.D., who ministered to the charge for a time, followed by Rev. J. W. Phil- 
lips. The pulpit was then vacant for six months, after which Rev. Mr. Fuller 
was called. Most of the members favored disbanding. However, the home 
missionary superintendent, Dr. James T. Ford, importuned the new pastor 
to make a last desperate effort to maintain the church, assuring him that 
it would be no discredit to him if he failed in such an apparently hopeless 
undertaking, while if he succeeded it would prove his own ability and the 
zeal of his few parishioners. Studying the problem with prayerful earnest- 
ness, he decided to accept the call, provided a change of location was secured 
as the first step. Accordingly a lot was purchased on Seventeenth street near 
G and thither the old box building was removed, then enlarged and remod- 
eled to better suit the needs of the work. In 1898 a parsonage was erected. 
Later the corner lot was bought, giving them an area of 132x116 feet and ren- 
dering possible such an adequately equipped plant as a working church in a 
growing city requires. 

So prosperous has been the work under the present pastorate that the 
membership, now numbering more than two hundred and twenty-five per- 
sons, plans to erect a more suitable building in the not distant future, it 
being the intention to erect a building, in the mission style of architecture, 
that covers the entire lot, plans for which are now in hand and the progress 
of the building fund foreshadows early realization. Fifteen years ago few 
would have predicted that the church could have reached its present size, 
zeal and prosperity. Nor has the work of the congregation been limited to 
the spiritual and material needs of the local parish, for with missionary en- 
thusiasm they have planted a mission for the Alexicans and another for the 
Chinese and the former receives regular pastoral supervision. In addition 
they organized the Pilgrim Congregational Church in East Bakersfield and 
have generously supplied funds to maintain and equip the work. Aggressive 
and laborious as has been his local work, it has not represented the limit 
of his activities. Elected a member of the board of directors for the South- 
ern California Home Missionary Society in 1904, and later of the State Con- 
ference, he has helped mould the work of his own denomination. Requested 
to take the supervision of congregational work throughout his own county, 
which then had, besides the church at Bakersfield, another at Rosedale and a 
schoolhouse appointment at Wasco, he has seen seven Congregational 
churches organized and four of these come to self-support and acquire good 
properties. These are East Bakersfield, Oil Center, Panama, Greenfield, ]\Ic- 
Kittrick, Mountain View and Maricopa. When the total number had 
reached five a Congregational Association was formed in the county and 
this has been a source of great help in the work of religious upbuilding. 
The steady growth of the cause in Kern county is largely due to the tact, 
ability and sagacity of Mr. Fuller, whose keen intelligence may be seen 
in every forward movement, as his consecrated spirit is seen in the devo- 
tion to the work evinced by the majority of the members. 

It is a source of gratification to Rev. and Mrs. Fuller that her son, Rev. 
Henry B. Mowbray, now filling the important position of associate pastor of 
Pilgrim Presbyterian Church at Cleveland, Ohio, is a recognized specialist 
in Bible school and all lines of institutional church work, and they also 
maintain a just pride in the only child of their union, Clarence Mark Fuller, 
a young man of exceptional ability, now a trusted official of the National 




/^&^V^AixM fi. "^.tyiAMy^i^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 973 

Petroleum Company, also president and manager of the C. M. Fuller Com- 
pany, Incorporated, dealers in oils, asphalt and real estate. 

MARSHALL R, COWAN. — At the beginning of the nineteenth century 
the tide of emigration brought members of the Cowan family into Ten- 
nessee and it is authoritatively stated that Ross Cowan, a native Virginian, 
was the lirst white man to establish a home in the wilds of middle Ten- 
nessee, where he built his cabin as early as 1800. His son and namesake 
lived and died in Tennessee, where he followed the occupation of a planter. 
Among the children of the second Ross Cowan there was a son, James 
Wilson Cowan, who married Jennie Williams and settled upon a farm in 
Tennessee, of which state both he and his wife were natives. After their 
children were grown they gave up their Tennessee home and came west to 
California, settling in Kern county, where the father since has become a 
prominent and influential farmer. All of their children also live in Kern 
county with the exception of their eldest son, Frank, who resides in Mem- 
phis, Tenn., and follows the trade of a cement contractor. The only daughter, 
Mamie, is the wife of Arthur M. Cravath, employed as a tool dresser for 
the Associated Oil Company in the Kern river field. The youngest son, 
Manney G., engages in general farming south of Bakersfield. 

The second son and third child, Marshall R., was born at Winchester, 
Tenn., December 1, 1880, and received such limited advantages as the means 
of the family rendered possible. As a boy he helped with the work on the 
plantation. Industry and energy aided him to secure a foothold and also 
to pay his expenses for two terms in the Tyrrell Normal College at Deckard, 
Tenn. At the age of twenty-one years he came to California in 1901 and 
settled temporarily at Bakersfield. Two years later his parents, brother and 
sister joined him in this county. For one year he was employed in the coop- 
erage department of the Vulcan refinery in the Kern river fields. Next 
he entered the employ of the Central Point Oil Company of the Associated, 
where he acted as gang-pusher of the well pullers, continuing with the 
same organization for eighteen months. The two following years were spent 
in the employ of the Peerless and afterward he lived for nine months in 
San Francisco, where he was engaged as fireman with the Geary Street 
Railroad Company. While employed in San Francisco he married Miss 
Ida T. Carlson, daughter of the late John Carlson, at one time a well-known 
mine contractor living at Bakersfield. There is one child of the union, James 
\A'ilson Cowan, Jr. 

Upon returning from San Francisco to the Kern river fields Mr. Cowan 
secured a position without difficulty, for his former record was in his 
favor and he was known as a young man of industry and energy. During 
1907 he was made foreman under George A. Betts, superintendent, of the 
Yellowstone, Seaboard and Section 6 Oil Companies, and since then he and 
his family have made their home in a comfortable cottage on the section 
6 lease. There are ten acres in each of the leasee. The Yellowstone produces 
forty-five hundred, the Seaboard three thousand and Section 6 about eighteen 
hundred barrels per month. February 1, 1913, he was made superintendent 
of the Yellowstone Oil Company, which necessitated relinquishing the fore- 
manship of the Seaboard and Section 6, and he is now giving his entire time 
and attention to the Yellowstone. Fraternally he belongs to the Woodmen 
of the W^orld at Bakersfield and politically he is a Democrat. 

ABRAHAM JACOBY.— The genealogy of the Jacoby family shows an 
unbroken line of thrifty merchants and prosperous business men identified 
with various sections of Germany, but particularly with West Prussia, where 
Marcus Jacoby, for years a leading merchant at Loebau and a man of 
the utmost integrity and the highest character, died at the age of ninety- 
seven years. In the same Prussian town occurred the death of his wife, 



974 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Henrietta, daughter of Israel Lowenstein, a volunteer in the arm}' of the 
illustrious Napoleon and a participant in the march to and the retreat from 
Moscow, being one of the fortunate few who was able to eventually reach 
his home in safety. The family of Marcus and Henrietta Jacoby comprised 
eight sons, one of whom,, Solomon, is a retired merchant and former coun- 
cilman of Magdeburg. Germany. Another son, Herman, now of Los Angeles, 
gave the most devoted service to the Union army in the Civil war, going to 
the front with the Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania Infantry. Among the numer- 
ous engagements in which he bore arms was that of Gettysburg, where he 
was wounded. For many years he has been a leader in Grand Army work 
in his home city, as well as an unusually prominent merchant and progressive 
citizen. 

It is concerning another son of this family, Abraham, that these lines 
are written. Born at Loebau, West Prussia, June 30, 1852, he received an 
excellent German education in local schools and the gymnasium. During 
]\Iay of 1868, when almost sixteen years of age, he left home to join his older 
brothers in Los Angeles, then a sleepy town with only five thousand inhabi- 
tants. The brothers, who had established themselves in the place as early 
as 1861, already had built up a mercantile business, the nucleus of the 
great mercantile house of Jacoby Bros., now well known throughout South- 
ern California. From the first Abraham Jacoby was interested in the new 
location and in the environment so different from anything common to 
earlier experiences. With an eager desire to secure an English education 
he entered the College of Southern Methodists near Downey, where he 
worked his way by dint of unceasing industry and forceful application. 
Next he secured a clerkship in Los Angeles with I. W. Hellman, merchant 
and banker, being employed in both places of business, and later engaged in 
business in San Bernardino. With the inauguration of the present firm of 
Jacoby Bros., in 1879, he became one of the active partners and not a little 
of the remarkable success enjoyed by the business may be attributed to his 
intelligent devotion and wise sunervision in the early years of struggle. 

As owners of a growing retail business on Main street and an important 
wholesale establishment on Los Angeles street, Jacoby Bros, witnessed 
and contributed to the commercial development of their home city. When 
the interests of their large trade demanded consolidation of the retail and 
wholesale departments, removal was made to Spring street, whence later 
they transferred their store to the central location now occupied on Broad- 
way. Patrons of their store came not only from the city, but also from all 
parts of Southern California. From the first up to the present time they 
have sustained an enviable reputation for exclusiveness of styles, variety of 
merchandise and reasonableness of price, and these characteristics have 
made their great department store popular and profitable. As the financial 
manager of the firm, Abraham Jacoby not only guarded their vast mercantile 
interests, but also developed their real-estate holdings to enormous propor- 
tions and in 1888 he laid out a sub-division and opened Los Angeles street 
between Eighth and Ninth. In 1889 he established the first public market 
in the city at Los Angeles and Ninth streets, and this market was the nucleus 
of the present large market in Los Angeles that is second to none in the 
United States. His idea was the full market basket, dealing direct from 
consumer to producer. For a time he served as president of the Los 
Angeles Chamber of Commerce, both of which organizations profited by his 
keen insight into details, his optimistic citizenshi]:) and his wise discrimina- 
tion. 

The first investments made by Mr. Jacoby in Kern county included 
five sections of unimproved land in the Weed Patch and one and one-half 
sections at Bakersfield, all purchased as early as 1887. During 1893 he 





'UrUX^ ^IccAyOCOy^^C^ ^ 




'/^^.^^^Z^ 




HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 977 

acquired the title to ei.s^hty acres in the city of Bakersfield, which he still 
owns. At other times he bought other holdings. Finding that the climate 
here agreed with his health more than that of the country south of the 
Tehachapi range and believing that Bakersfield has a great future before 
it, he located in this city in order to develop his property and also to engage 
in business as a sub-division specialist. Already his efforts in the latter 
line have added millions to the value of Kern county property. Much of 
his success in sub-division work is due to wise advertising. Just now he is 
enthusiastically promoting a plan fur a park of eighty acres and also for a 
free market in Bakersfield. It is his belief that Bakersfield, having cheap 
fuel for factories at its very door, is destined to become a great manu- 
facturing city. The presence of oil and gas combine to make it an ideal 
location for factories and he can see nothing ahead but steady growth and 
ultimate greatness. Such views make him a booster for Kern county. At 
his ofiice on Nineteenth street near Chester avenue he spends much of his 
time in plans for property development and there he often is sought by 
citizens desiring advice on realty problems, for his long and successful 
experience gives weight to his counsel. Having lived in Southern California 
since 1868 and having owned property in Kern county for more than a 
quarter of a century, he is thoroughly posted concerning the advantages of 
this locality in comparison with those of other sections of the west and no 
trivial depression or discouragement detracts from his faith in city and 
county. 

Since coming to the west Mr. Jacoby has been identified prominently 
with various organizations for benevolence and philanthropy, also has been 
associated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and was made a 
Mason in the West Gate Lodge No. 335, F. & A. M., of Los Angeles, while 
in political views he has been a stanch adherent of the Republican party 
ever since he became a voter. Some years after coming to Southern Cali- 
fornia he was married in Los Angeles to Miss Louise Lazard, a native of 
Los Angeles and the daughter of Solomon Lazard, a pioneer and influential 
merchant of that western metropolis, also one of the founders and for a 
time the president of the Los Angeles Water Company. Mr. and Mrs. 
Jacoby are the parents of two daughters, Carolyn and Rosalie. 

CHARLES RECHNAGEL.— The foreman of the Knob Hill Oil Com- 
pany in the Kern river fields is a sturdy, efficient and enterprising Danish- 
American, who has made his own way in the world from the age of seven 
years and in spite of hardships innumerable, with the most meager educa- 
tional opportunities, has learned to read English, German and Danish liter- 
ature, at the same time speaking the language of the Danes with extreme 
ease and fluency besides mastering the English tongue in ordinary conver- 
sation. That a man could attain such linguistic skill and at the same time 
forge ahead to business prominence argues much for his mental alertness 
and keen intelligence of temperament. It was his good fortune, during 
a visit back to Denmark in 1910. to win for his wife an educated young lady 
of that country. Miss Marie Rosendahl, who although not yet familiar 
with the English language received an excellent education in her native 
land and is furthermore well trained in the domestic arts. 

Bo'rn in Schleswig-Holstein. Germany, September 8. 1866, Charles 
Rechnagel is a member of an old Danish family and at the age of seven- 
teen crossed the line into Denmark in order that he might become a citizen 
of that country. When seven years of age he was employed to herd cow^s. 
Later he was given more diflficult work. The pav was small, but sufficient 
to meet his simple needs. After he went to Denmark he received two 
hundred marks a year, the mark being a German coin equivalent to about 



978 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

twenty-four cents of our money. Believing that he could do better in the 
new world he left Denmark in March of 1900 and crossed the ocean to New 
York, thence traveled to. Nebraska, where for two months he worked as a 
section hand on the railroad in Kimball county. The work did not suit 
him and he determined to come further west. Accordingly he journeyed 
to Fresno county, this state, where he secured an unimportant job with 
Lowry & Ferguson, extensive farmers of the locality. When Gus Ferguson 
became superintendent of the Knob Hill Oil Company he suggested that 
Mr. Rechnagel leave the Fresno county farm and come to the Kern river 
fields to work as a teamster. The suggestion was carried out and he has 
lived here since October of 1901, meanwhile holding different positions 
until about 1908, when he was promoted to be foreman. A man of excep- 
tional worth, he has proved faithful and industrious in the highest degree. 
Aside from voting the Democratic ticket he takes no part whatever in the 
politics of his adopted country, but gives his undivided attention to the fore- 
manship of the company holdings. Out of thirty-six wells thirty-three are 
producers and twenty-eight of these are pumped from one jack, the net pro- 
duction averaging twelve thousand barrels per month. 

AUGUST KRATZMER.— The Kratzmer family is of Danish origin. 
The capital city of the kingdom was the birthplace of Christian and Caro- 
line (Keck) Kratzmer and in Copenhagen also their last days were passed, 
the former throughout active life having earned a livelihood through his 
ability as a musician and through his services as bandmaster of the King's 
orchestra, a position of great honor and dignity. The parental family consisted 
of seven children and all but two of these attained mature years, but the only 
one to locate in the United States was August, the next to the youngest 
and a native of Copenhagen, born August 5, 1852. Primarily educated in a 
private school, later he was sent to a college in Copenhagen and on the 
completion of the course in 1864 he continued his studies at a military 
school until 1866. Starting out to make his own way in the world, he 
crossed the ocean to America and settled in Chicago, where he served an 
apprenticeship to the trade of wheelwright. On the completion of his 
time he engaged in business for himself, opening a carriage shop on Thirty- 
ninth street in Hyde Park, Chicago. 

Having sold the business, in 1877 Mr. Kratzmer came to Bakersfield 
and, being favorably impressed, he decided to remain. As foreman of the 
wagon shop at Bellevue he engaged with the Kern County Land Company, 
but resigned in 1884 in order to embark in business for himself. On H 
and Nineteenth streets, Bakersfield, he bought a lot and built a shop, where 
he engaged in blacksmithing and carriage-making. In 1891 he sold the 
place and leased from the Kern County Land Company a place on H and 
Twentieth streets. During 1898 he sold his tools and supplies to the com- 
pany and bought a lot on Twenty-first and I streets, where he built a 
foundry, the first of its kind in Bakersfield. At the expiration of four years 
he sold out to Webster & Co., after which he engaged in ranching for one 
year. Returning to his former line of work, for four years he carried on 
a blacksmith and carriage shop on I street between Eighteenth and Nine- 
teenth streets. Meanwhile he had purchased one hundred and sixty acres 
of raw land thirteen and one-half miles northwest of Bakersfield. On 
relinquishing business enterprises he moved to the farm, which is under 
the Calloway canal, in the Rosedale district. Abundance of irrigation adapts 
the place to alfalfa, which in turn renders possible the raising of cattle, horses 
and poultry. To provide summer range for the cattle, a mountain ranch 
at Granite is leased. In addition to his farm Mr. Kratzmer owns a resi- 
dence lot on I street near Twentieth, which being close-in property has 
rapidly advanced in value. In politics he is independent. The co-operation 




aU^ -gLe;t 



,^-mM. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 981 

and advice of his capable wife has been invaluable to him in his work. 
Mrs. Kratzmer, who is a sister of R. A. Edmonds, the present postmaster 
at Bakersfield, was born in Lane county, Ore., and at the time of her mar- 
riage to Mr. Kratzmer in Bakersfield she was Mrs. Lavina Brown, the 
mother of a son, Frank A. Brown, now living in San Francisco. Of her 
second marriage there was one child, Lotus Jule, a resident of Bakersfield. 

JABEZ RIGHT GIST.— A long period of identification with the Southern 
Pacific Railroad Company has proved the value of the services of Mr. 
Gist and the importance of the position which he has filled with marked 
efficiency for many years. As early as 1891, when the shops were moved 
from Tulare to Kern, he came to the new plant in the capacity of store- 
keeper. Considerations of health led him later to seek a change of location, 
although this did not bring a severance of his relations with the railroad. 
When he returned to Kern in April of 1896 he was made engine inspector. 
Eventually he was promoted to be stationary engineer, which position he 
fills with such intelligence, neatness and orderliness that in 1911 he received 
a medal from the inspector of power plants for the Southern Pacific system 
and the following year he was awarded an additional bar on the medal in 
recognition of his efficiency as engineer. 

The lineage of the Gist family is traced back to Christopher Gist, the 
companion and friend of George Washington. From that Revolutionary 
hero descended J. C. Gist, a native of Jackson county, Tenn., and for years .i 
farmer near Tompkinsville, Monroe county, Ky.. where also he served as a 
justice of the peace. In that county he married Kittie M. Marrs, who was 
born there, of Scotch descent, and whose death occurred in Tulare, Cal, 
at the age of seventy-three years. The family removed from Kentucky to 
California in 1875 and settled in Yolo county, afterward acquiring farm land 
in the vicinity of Madison, that county. Removal was made to Tulare 
county in 1881 and a ranch was acquired. In addition to cultivating the land 
Mr. Gist served from 1884 to 1898 as justice of the peace. When seventy- 
seven years of age he died in Tulare. 

The parental family comprised ten children and all but three of these 
attained maturity, five being alive at the present time. The next to the 
3'^oungest, Jabez Right, was born in Jackson county, Tenn., September 13, 
1860, and as a boy attended country schools in Monroe county, Ky. At the 
age of fifteen he accompanied the family to California, where he immediately 
began to assist his father in the cultivation of a farm. During 1881 he removed 
with his parents to Tulare county arid resumed agricultural operations at that 
point. At Tulare in 1885 he married Miss Sarah Abbie Boone, a native of 
Jones county, Iowa, and a daughter of George W. and Sarah Ann (McCuI- 
louch) Boone, the latter a native of Ohio, the former a direct descendant of 
Kentucky's famous pioneer, Daniel Boone. The Boone family came from 
Iowa to California in 1876 and Mrs. Gist attended the public schools of Tulare 
until she had completed the regular course of study. By her marriage there 
are two children. The son, Mervil Ward, is employed by the Southern Pacific 
Railroad Company in Los Angeles. The daughter. Ruby Grace, is the wife of 
T. B. Kunselman, of Los Angeles. 

Entering the Tulare shops of the Southern Pacific Company in the fall 
of 1887, Jabez Right Gist has continued with the same corporation up to the 
present time. After his first three years in railroading he was transferred to 
the clerical department of the Tulare shops. In 1891 he came to Kern (East 
Bakersfield) as store-keeper. Two years later he was transferred to Los 
Angeles, where he worked in the car department as air inspector. Returning to 
Kern in April of 1896, he has since been with the same plant, first as engine 
inspector and later as stationary engineer. Since coming to East Bakersfield 
he has acquired property, including two houses on Kentucky street. For two 



982 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

terms he served as trustee of the city library. As a member of the board of 
education in East Bakersfield he gave long and satisfactory service. The 
erection of the Beale avenue school and the enlargement of the Baker street 
school were largely the result of his energetic efforts. During his entire term 
of office he gave practical evidence of the genuine interest felt in school affairs 
by making an official visit to each school two or three times a year, suffering 
the loss of his wages for every day thus given to educational interests. 

Since the age of eighteen years Air. Gist has been a member of the Chris- 
tian Church. For years he was a member of the board of trustees and during 
part of that time he served as president of the board. The interest which he 
maintains in the church is also felt by his wife. Both likewise are interested 
in the work of the Eastern Star. After coming to this city he was made a 
Alason in Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M., and as master of the lodge 
he participated in the exercises connected with the laying of the corner stone 
of the new Kern county courthouse in December, 1910. Besides being a 
prominent Mason he is connected with the Independent Order of Foresters and 
while living at Tulare was an active lodge worker in the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows. From the time of casting his first presidential ballot for 
James G. Blaine he has supported Republican nominees at every election 
and has maintained a warm interest in public affairs. 

ARTHUR E. RAINE. — Several generations of the Raine family were 
identified with Kentucky, where Albert E. and his father, James B., were 
born in the vicinity of Bowling Green and where the latter, a planter by 
occupation, had served with conspicuous bravery for the lost cause. The 
struggle ended and his old home locality disrupted by the sanguinary con- 
flict, he determined to seek a home elsewhere. Accordingly during the sum- 
mer of 1865 he crossed the plains, accompanied by his family, which included 
Albert E., then a lad of about twelve years. Settlement was made at Ana- 
heim, where years afterward the firm of J. B. Raine &. Son became very 
prominent along the line of its chosen specialties. Throughout that section 
of the state they planted orchards and vineyards for absent owners, also 
bought land for themselves, which they set out in horticultural products. 
In addition they engaged in hop culture and farming. Eventually the 
senior member of the firm retired from business pursuits and now, vigorous 
and sturdy notwithstanding his more than eighty years, he is living retired 
at Santa Ana. Meanwhile the business is l)eing continued by Albert E., 
who resides on his valuable walnut orchard near Orange. During young 
manhood he married xA^nna King, who was born in Huntington, W. Va., and 
died at the family residence in 1892, leaving three sons. 

The eldest of the sons, Arthur E., was born at Santa Ana, this state, 
i'^bruary 8, 1880, and attended the grammar and high schools of his native 
city. l""or three years he served an apprenticeship to the trade of machinist 
in the Santa Ana machine shop. At the expiration of his time he entered 
the Orange County Business College in Santa Ana, of which he is a graduate. 
During 1900 he came to Bakersfield for the first time and here he secured 
a position as accountant and private secretary to George Easton of the 
Easton, Eldridge Company, a San Francisco firm, who were pioneers in 
the Sunset oil fields. A year later he became connected with the construc- 
tion department of the Southern Pacific Railroad and had charge of the 
material used in the building of the Kern river branch. Upon the comple- 
tion of the road he was transferred to the Atlantic system of the Southern 
Pacific as private secretary to George W. Boschke. chief engineer in charge 
of the company's docks in Galveston, these being the largest of the kind in 
the world. 

Upon the com]:)letion of the construction w< rk at that point Mr. Raine 
returned to Bakersfield as an accountant and stenographer in the transporta- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 985 

tion department of the Southern Pacific Railroad. During May of 1903 
he resigned an excellent position in order to enter the employ of the 
Bakersfield iron works as bookkeeper and stenographer. At the time he 
was the only clerical help in the office, but the business grew steadily and 
when Henry D. McCoy resigned in 1904 and E. C. Wilson was appointed 
to fill the vacancy as manager, Mr. Raine became chief clerk, continuing 
as such until June of 1909, when upon the resignation of Mr. Wilson he 
was promoted to be manager. He filled this responsible position to the 
satisfaction of the company until February 1, 1913, when he resigned. 
Shortly afterward he associated himself with S. W' right Jewett, and unde/ 
the firm name of Jewett & Raine engaged in buying and sub-dividing Kern 
county lands, and the result is that they are doing more to bring new 
people, not only from different parts of California but from the Middle States 
and Rocky Mountain region, than any other firm in the business. Both 
members are native-born Californians and believe in the great future of the 
state and particularly as ]Mr. Raine ex])resses it, "Kern, the county that made 
California famous." 

The residence of Mr. Raine occupies the corner of Twenty-fourth 
and B streets, Bakersfield, and is graciously presided over by Mrs. Raine, 
formerly Miss Ann MacMurdo, who was born in Bakersfield, Kern county, 
where her father, W. R. MacMurdo served for eighteen years as county 
surveyor and now follows the occupation of a civil engineer. The family 
of Mr. Raine comprises, besides his wife, their two children, Arthvir E., Jr., 
and Kathleen Ruth. Fraternally he holds membership with the Bakersfield 
Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E., and the Native Sons of the Golden West. Upon 
the organization of the Bakersfield Club he became a charter member and 
since then he has served as a member of its board of directors. 

E. B. CAMPBELL. — The superintendent and manager of the Section 
5 Oil Company, the King Refining Company and the Petrophalt Paint 
Company, is further identified with the Kern river fields through being 
successor and owner of the Capital City Oil Company, which is now suc- 
cessfully producing in this district. While having made his home in Cali- 
fornia since 1892, he is a Canadian by birth, having been born in that country 
January 13, 1859, the son of a Baptist minister. In the early history of the 
Kern river field Mr. Campbell became well informed in mat1:ers pertaining to 
oil production, oil refining, the asphalt industry and the manufacture of 
petrophalt paint which one of his subsidiary companies has produced with 
success. He first became identified with the so-called Lincoln Oil Company, 
being jiersuaded to invest largely in the project upon the representations of 
the treasurer of the new concern, who was president of the Oakland Bank. 
Having the utmost confidence in the men at the head of the proposition 
he did not investigate, but invested in this concern. When he came to the 
Kern river field he at once saw that the proposition had been grossly mis- 
represented to him, and that the territory was outside of the real oil field. 
Immediately he severed his connection with the company as a director and 
notified his friends of the frauds he had discovered, being fortunate in saving 
his friends from loss, but unfortunate in losing his own investment. 

Having determined with resolute fortitude to regain what he had 
lost in the place where he had lost it. Mr. Campbell secured a lease on 
twenty acres and organized the Section 5 Oil Company. In this he likewise 
met with personal disap])ointment, as oil declined from ten to fifteen cents 
per barrel to a point below the cost of production, and he sold out to the 
Associated Oil Company, receiving .stocks and bonds for the company's 
rights under the original lease. Soon afterward he converted said stocks 
and bonds into cash and purchased a part of section 9, where he immediately 
began the work of development. His stockholders maintained implicit faith 



986 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

in him and later large profits for them justified that confidence. The Section 
5 Oil Company now owns the holdings on section 9, where it has eight pro- 
ducing wells with a monthly production of several thousand barrels. 

The credit of building the first refinery in the Kern river fields belongs 
to Mr. Campbell, who became interested in the subject through the repre- 
sentations of an enthusiastic employe, formerly connected with a Standard 
oil refinery. After much discussion and study he resolved to put in a small 
refinery and this he built himself. Although built on a small scale it demon- 
strated the feasibility of refining the Kern river oil and the value of the 
by-product and asphalt for street paving. He organized a stock company 
called the King Refining Company, named after the late W. B. King, attor- 
ney-at-law, of San Francisco. The stock was sold to a few of their friends, 
being a close corporation. Only a small proportion of the stock was sold, 
and the industry was built up mainly from the earnings of the corporation. 
The company has surpassed the most sanguine expectations of its stock- 
holders. It erected a refinery which ran the first seven years day and night 
without shutting down, and is still running at a capacity of seven hundred 
tons of asphalt per month. The residuum oils are taken by certain other oil 
manufacturing concerns and largely used in the manufacture of lubricants. 

Still another industry growing out of the refinery business and under 
the management of Mr. Campbell is the manufacture of petrophalt paint, 
now being made on a large scale by a company known as the Petrophalt 
Paint Company and located in the Kern river field. This paint is non-cor- 
rosive and a most excellent preservative, and is extensively used in painting 
oil and gas pipes. Three coats of the paint ordinarily make pipes immune 
to rust and well-nigh everlasting. This company has been doing business 
about five years and has painted several hundred miles of oil lines, this paint 
being considered one of the best preservers of iron when buried in the 
ground or subjected to salt water or alkali. It is also used very largely 
now by all large concerns on the coast, such as the Associated Oil Company, 
the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe Railways in their oil departments, the 
Southern California Edison Company, the Lacey Manufacturing Company 
and the -Llewellyn Iron Works, and is now being handled extensively by 
such concerns as Fairbanks-Morse, J. F. Lucey Company, the Associated 
Supply Company, and by nearly all of the other large supply houses on 
the Pacific coast. The paint is now becoming very popular for the painting 
of steel structures and all metal surfaces either hot or cold, being used 
for heated surfaces such as smoke stacks and boiler fronts, and is also 
being used largely for roof paint on account of its lasting qualities. 

At times it has been thought that the Sunset and Midway fields with 
their gushers were so far superior to the Kern river fields, that comparison 
became absurd. If, however, the steady production of the Kern river fields 
is taken into account it will be seen that the latter field is one of the greatest 
importance. Take for instance well No. 1 of the Section 5 OiJ Company, 
located on the county road in section 9: It was the first one put down by 
Mr. Campbell and has now produced steadily for twelve years. Its pro- 
duction keeps right up to fifty barrels per day and produces as much now 
as ever, 18,250 per year, or 219,000 barrels since it was drilled, at fifty 
cents per barrel. It has produced more than $100,000 in wealth. The 
Kern river field is therefore one of the best paying propositions in existence. 

The oil storage in the Kern river field is the largest of any field in the 
world, the soil being of such a nature as to hold oil in earthen reservoirs 
of enormous capacity, running from four hundred and fifty thousand (450.000^ 
to one million barrels each. The Standard Oil Company is the first in 
capacity, with approximately fifty million barrels, besides about one hundred 
thirty-five-thousand-barrel steel tanks. Then come the Associated Oil Com- 



HISTORY OF K.ERN COUNTY 987 

pany, Petroleum Development Company and Producers' Transportation 
Company, which have many million barrels more storage. 

Here is also located the first oil pipe line pumping plant. The Standard 
Oil Associated Pipe Line Company and Independent Transportation Com- 
pany pump under several hundred pounds pressure three eight-inch streams 
of crude oil across the valley and over the mountain to several seaports 
from San Francisco to Los Angeles and Long Beach harbor. The total cost 
of these enterprises runs well up to twenty millions of dollars, making the 
Kern river field the head and one of the greatest oil centers in the world. 

HENRY B. TRUE.— Born in Androscoggin county, Me., August 28, 
1848, Henry B. True was the son of John True, who died when Henry was 
a babe. Consequently he was reared on the farm by his mother, working at 
farm duties and attending school during the winters. In 1865 he came to 
Windsor, Sonoma county, and in 1867 to Los Angeles county and followed 
farming near Los Nietos. 

On May 26, 1870, Mr. True was married near Porterville to Miss Mary 
Gilliam, a native of Dallas, Ore., and the daughter of Robert and Julia Ann 
(Chance) Gilliam, who were born in North Carolina and Logan county 
Ky., respectively. Crossing the plains in 1846 with ox-teams to Oregon 
Mr. Gilliam took a Donation Land Claim. In 1858 he came to Contra Costa 
county, Cal., and afterward to Stockton. In 1864 he located in Visalia and in 
1865 in Porterville. The father died in Dallas, Ore., while the mother, 
aged eighty-nine years, makes her home with her daughter, Mrs. True. The 
latter is a near relative of Gen. Cornelius Gilliam, a pioneer Indian fighter in 
Oregon, who had command of the soldiers against the Indians and was 
killed by the accidental discharge of a gun. Mrs. True is the third eldest 
of a family of eleven children. 

Coming to Kern county in 1872, Mr. True worked at the blacksmith 
trade in Glennville until 1878, when he started the first blacksmith shop in 
Weldon, continuing in business there for five years. He then purchased his 
present place of one hundred and sixty acres three miles east of Weldon and 
has improved the place so it is under irrigation, and he is engaged in raising 
alfalfa, grain, cattle and hogs and meeting with merited success. 

Mr. and Mrs. True have one child, Lillian D., now Mrs. Diment, of 
Exeter. Mrs. True has aided her husband materially in his efforts to suc- 
cess and is a member of the Presbyterian church. Mr. True was a member 
of the board of school trustees of the Weldon district for eighteen years 
and politically is a Democrat. 

C. C. LITTLE. — Some distance above the point where the waters of 
the Penobscot empty into the ocean and lying on the eastern bank of that 
turbid, restless stream, lies the quiet little city of Bucksport, near which for 
many years J. L. and Fannie (Blood) Little have made their home on a 
farm. At the same old homestead occurred the birth of C. C. Little on the 
26th of April, 1884, and in all probability his life might have been passed in 
the community had not ill health forced him to seek a less rigorous climate. 
His common-school education had been completed and he had carried on the 
studies of the East Maine conference seminary at Bucksport for some time, 
when the failure of his health cut short his seminary course and caused him 
to seek a more genial climate than that of his own state. Arriving in Cali- 
fornia during August of 1904, he entered the Chestnut W^oods Business 
College at Santa Cruz, from which he was graduated in July of 1905. Mean- 
while he had been restored to fair health by the invigorating influence of 
the sunny western climate. 

A brief period of service as bookkeeper in San Francisco to H. H. 
Blood, president of the Gold Peak Mining Company, convinced Mr. Little 
that outdoor occupation would better conserve his health. Accordingly 



988 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

in December, 1905, he was transferred to the company's headquarters in 
the Amelia mining district of Kern county and was given a position as 
assayer and superintendent of the cyanide plant. A course of study in 
a school of mines in San Francisco had qualified him for such work and 
he filled the responsible position with intelligence and adaptability. From 
that district he went to Piute in the fall of 1909 and engaged in the building 
of a mill and concentrating plant for the Little Mining Company, owners 
and operators of the Lulu mine. Since February of 1912 he has acted as 
proprietor of the Caliente hotel, a two-story concrete building, of fireproof 
construction and convenient interior arrangement. Being independent in his 
attitude toward public questions, he has not identified himself with any 
political party, nor is he particularly interested in fraternal affairs, although 
holding membership with the Woodmen of the World in Bakersfield. In the 
supervision of the hotel he has been assisted by his wife, who was Miss 
Nettie Fitch, of Bakersfield, a native of that city and educated in its schools. 
They are the parents of two daughters, Margaret and Mabel. 

FRANK MERRILL WORTHINGTON.— The superintendent of the 
San Joaquin division of the Southern Pacific Railroad is a member of a 
pioneer family of the west and himself claims California as his native com- 
monwealth. The Worthington genealogy goes back to the colonial era of 
American history and the records show that Timothy Worthington mar- 
ried Maria Merrill February 12, 1823, at Hebron, Washington county, N. Y., 
whence they soon removed to the then frontier of Indiana and took up a 
tract of raw land in Elkhart county near the village of York. From them 
the lineage is traced through their son, Samuel Merrill Worthington, a 
native of Hebron, N. Y., but from early life familiar with the vicissitudes 
incident to existence upon the frontier. The discovery of gold in California 
turned his attentic n toward the far west and with several friends he determ- 
ined to seek the mines. The young men boarded a sailing vessel in New 
York City and sailed around the Horn. The voyage was one of great hard- 
ship. For seventy days they were becalmed. Meanwhile the supply of food 
and water ran short. Every heart was filled with joy when finally the 
vessel entered the Golden Gate and discharged its passengers in San Fran- 
cisco, whence naturally a rush was made for the mines. After several years 
as miners the young men decided to go back to the east and return with 
stock and implements to aid in farming. Two young men went back with 
Mr. Worthington and they became brothers-in-law by marrying three sisters. 

The marriage of Samuel Merrill Worthington took place in Granville, 
Licking county, Ohio, ]^larch 4, 1858, and united him with Miss Julia Ann 
ITillyer, a native of that town. The young couple spent a few months in 
Indiana and then joined a party bound for California. Owing to trouble 
with the Indians the government stopped all travel across the plains, which 
forced them to remain at Leavenworth. Kan., for some time. The journey was 
resumed in April of 1859 with a train of thirty wagons, some drawn by 
oxen and others by horses. As Mr. Worthington was then in ill health his 
wife drove their four-horse team and also cared for her small babe, besides 
ministering to the invalid. To those who had taken the trip and knew of 
its roughness she was a heroine. At times it was necessary to chain the 
four wheels of the wagon, on the rear of which all of the men would ride, 
in order to prevent a somersault, as the way was rough and steep. Only 
one wagon could be taken down at a time. About fifty men were in the 
party. They started with a thousand head of cattle, but nianv perished on 
the way because (.f the scarcity of feed and water. 

The trip was full of danger and anxiety. The train ahead of them had 
been attcked by savages and some of the travelers had been massacred. 
The train following them also met with misadxenture and losses from 




/- M. y^f^i-^^^ci^ 




HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 991 

Indians. This party fortunately escaped, although they had several encount- 
ers with the Indians. They always found that kindness won. At one time 
they were forced to sell a pony rather than incur the enmity of their unde- 
sired guests. Two of the white men, while hunting for camp quarters, 
suspected Indians of a theft and determined to bring them back to camp 
for justice. Wiser men realized the mistake, but the two persisted in a spirit 
of fun. Thus they incurred the enmity of the Indians, who vowed to have 
their scalps. Intercessions were made and the Indians were persuaded to 
leave, but they departed in anger. The train had two very anxious days. 
At every moment they feared an attack by the savages in retaliation for 
the trouble. Meanwhile a consultation was held and the party decided, in 
case the two men were demanded, they would be given up, as they alone 
should suffer the consequences of their own deed. The entire party already 
had gone through the experience of viewing a war-dance and bonfire and 
they did not wish to continually encounter Indians during the remainder of 
the trip. Fortunately, however, nothing further was heard concerning the 
matter. 

It was the custom at camping time to form a corral with wagons with 
the men taking turns as guards. On one occasion they camped for several 
days to permit the cattle to rest and the women to do their baking and laun- 
dering (for they had more conveniences than previous trains), Indians sud- 
denly appeared. Spying a tiny babe, the smaller of the two infants in the 
company, they determined to possess the child, and it was with difficulty 
that they were dissuaded from their purpose. In order to refuse them yet 
retain their friendship, various articles were bestowed upon them as peace 
offerings. The train never traveled on Sunday unless for lack of feed and 
water. Toward the last provisions became very scarce and when finally the 
party reached Sacramento in October, 1859, they greatly enjoyed a feast of 
potatoes and salt, the former bought at cost of twenty cents per pound. 

From Sacramento the members of the expedition scattered in various 
directions. Mr. and Mrs. Worthington went to San Lorenzo, Alameda 
county, where a sister of the latter was located, having preceded them to 
California via Panama. Having been reared to farm work, Mr. Worthington 
decided to engage in ranching and he selected a claim in Santa Clara county 
in the foothills between Milpitas and Warm Springs. There he remained 
for some time, but eventually the Nevada mining excitement made him rest- 
less and desirous of a change, so he took his wife and three children over 
the mountains by team to Dayton, Nev., where he was employed in the mills 
as amalgamator. However, the climate of Nevada did not agree with his 
wife and she returned to California, accompanied by the three children. 
The only accident of the trip was caused by meeting a team between sta- 
tions on a steep and narrow grade, which resulted in the loss of a second 
wagon containing freight. On their return to California the family settled at 
Haywards, Alameda county, and about 1870 the father returned from Nevada 
to resume agricultural pursuits. Of a strong religious nature he and his 
wife were charter members of the Haywards Congregational Church and he 
served as an official until his death. Of a gentle, retiring nature, he was 
never so happy as when surrounded by his family or able to aid some one. 
The end came in accord with his life, so quietly that not even the loved 
companion by his side knew of the call until he was gone ; always desirous 
of not becoming a burden, his prayer had been answered. Of his family 
there survive only Frank M. and Cora M. The latter married John Penney 
in October, 1880, and they have an only daughter, California Myrtle Penney, 
who in February, 1911, became the wife of Dr. Robert D. Healey, a very 
successful osteopathic physician. The Penney and Healey families reside 
at Pacific Grove, Monterey county. 



992 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Born near Hay ward, Alameda county, Cal., March 11, 1862, Frank Mer- 
rill Worthington was educated in local schools and Heald's Business College 
in San Francisco (of which he is a graduate), also the University of Cali- 
fornia. During 1880 he became baggageman with the Southern Pacific Rail- 
road Company at Madison, Yolo county, where he learned telegraphy. Next 
he became a brakeman and then was made conductor between Elmira and 
Madison. During September of 1886 he resigned and went to Los Angeles, 
where later he worked under Superintendent Aluir of the Southern Pacific. 
After a short service as brakeman between Los Angeles and Bakersfield in 
1887 he became conductor between Los Angeles and Kern. Upon the 
death of his father he resigned his position in order to settle the estate and 
upon his return in 1894, there having been a change of superintendents, he 
was obliged to begin again as brakeman, but soon he was promoted to be 
a conductc r and after a time he was selected as traveling conductor. From 
1898 to 1900 he served as train master on the San Joaquin division and then 
became assistant superintendent of the Tucson division. In December of 
1906 he was appointed superintendent of the San Joaquin division with his 
headquarters in Bakersfield. At that time the division included the Southern 
Pacific from Los Angeles to Fresno with all of the branch lines, also the 
line between Saugus and Santa Barbara, comprising nine hundred and four 
miles. Since then the line from Saugus to Santa Barbara has been taken 
out of the division, but as many new miles have been added, so that the 
total mileage is practically unchanged. 

Besides filling the many responsible duties connected with his prominent 
position Mr. Worthington acts as a director in the First National Bank of 
Bakersfield and also in the Producers' Savings Bank. Politically he keeps 
posted concerning national problems and' votes with, the Republican party. 
He was made a Mason in Bakersfield No. 224, F. & A. M., member of Kern 
Valley Lodge No. 75, R. A. M., and Bakersfield Commandery, K. T. His 
family have been identified with the Emanuel Presbyterian Church of that 
city. His marriage took place at Hayward, Alameda county, April 23, 1882, 
and united him with Miss Sarah Frances Hampton, a native of Kentucky 
and a daughter of Henry HaniDton, M. D., a pioneer physician of Ventura 
county. Mrs. Hampton died in December, 1912, at ninety years of age. The 
other surviving members of the Hampton family are Mrs. Glenn Wallace and 
Mrs. Worthington, also three grandchildren, Mrs. A. A. Lee, of Los Angeles, 
and Edwin and Frances Wallace, of Venice, Cal. Ethel Marguerite, the only 
child of Mr. and Mrs. Worthington, was married to Arthur Albert Lee in Los 
Angeles April 23, 1906, and has one son, Merrill Worthington Lee. 

ANDRE ANDRE.— Near Gap, Hautes-Alpes, Mr. Andre was born Sep- 
tember 18, 1854, and trained to till the soil, care for growing crops 
and tend the flocks of sheep on the home farm. His parents, Ambroise and 
Marian (Brocheir) Andre, died in France, the latter during 1875 and the 
father in 1897. During the decade from 1875 to 1885 the elder Andre lived 
in California, but a homesick longing for his beloved native land led him 
back to France to spend his last days in the midst of the friends and 
scenes beloved of his youth. 

In a family of ten children, only three of whom are now living, Andre 
Andre was the first-born and for that reason he was perhaps unusually self- 
reliant and industrious. The care of the young children and the necessity 
to work early and late that so many might be supported taught him the 
importance of frugality and industry. As he labored quietly at home he 
heard much concerning California and early resolved to seek a livelihood 
in this portion of the new world. At the age of nineteen he left home for 
New York and thence traveled west. Eighteen days were spent on an 
emigrant train between New York and San Francisco. After saiHng via 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 995 

steamer on the Pacific from San Francisco he landed at the harbor of 
San Pedro, September 24, 1874. Ever since then he has kept more or less 
closely in touch with that city, where for twenty-five years he has owned 
a residence on Pleasant avenue. 

A stockman in Los Angeles county gave the young French lad employ- 
ment as a sheep-herder and he remained for eighteen months with his first 
employer, after which he herded sheep for Eugene Garnie for eighteen months 
and then spent five months in the same work for the San Fernando Company. 
By 1878 he had saved enough to buy a small flock of sheep. These he 
ranged in various parts of Los Angeles county, but in 1881 he drove the 
flock across the Tehachapi mountains, arriving in Kern county on the 3d 
of December. He continued in the sheep business until 1889, when he 
sold the flock and returned to Los Angeles. Returning to France in 1890, 
he spent seven months in the old home neighborhood, and during that 
\'isit, October 28, 1890, he married Miss Inez Nichols, who was born in 
Hautes-Alpes and died in Kern county May 28, 1913. Five children, all at 
home, form the family of Air. Andre, namely: Andre, Louis, Gabriel, Irene 
and Inez. The family are communicants of St. Francis Roman Catholic 
Church. 

From 1890 to 1895 Mr. Andre made his home in Los Angeles, but spent 
much of his time on the range with his sheep. During 1895 he brought this 
flock of sheep over the Tehachapi and settled in Kern county, where he 
devoted his time to the occupation until 1906. At that time he sold the 
sheep in order that he might devote his attention wholly to farm pursuits. 
During January of 1904 he had purchased sixty acres on the Kern Island 
road a few miles south of Bakersfield. This tract he has improved with 
residence and barns and has developed an abundance of irrigation from 
the Kern Island canal, so that grain and alfalfa are raised with profit. Dur- 
ing 1912 he added to his possessions by the purchase of eighty acres on 
Union avenue. This tract also is under irrigation and is in alfalfa. For 
the present the larger farm is operated by a tenant, the care and cultivation 
of the sixty leaving Mr. Andre no time for more than a close supervision 
of the other property. 

EUGENE RICHARD CARLTON.— The manager of Hotel Carlton at 
Caliente has been a resident of California from early childhood, but claims 
South Dakota as his native commonwealth, having been born at Custer, 
Custer county, on the 20th of September, 1884. From the age of four years 
he has lived in California, first in Tulare and then in Kern county. With 
this portion of the state he is familiar by long residence and active busi- 
ness identification. Through his kindly efl:"orts he has been enabled to 
provide a comfortable home for his parents in their declining days, while his 
energy and enterprise have benefited also his own financial and business 
standing. The family of which he is a member comes of old southern 
extraction. His father, A. T., a native of Hickory county. Mo., gave his 
support to the L'nion at the time of the Civil war, entering the army and 
serving as a private until the expiration of his time. After the war he aided 
in quelling a number of Indian outbreaks and meanwhile had several nar- 
row escapes. After his marriage in Missouri to Telutha Minter he removed 
to the Dakotan frontiers and settled on the plains of Custer county, where 
he entered a claim, proved up on the land, developed a stock ranch and 
labored indefatigably, but without the merited returns of prosperity and 
comfort. Hoping to be benefited by a change, in 1888 he brought the family 
to California and settled at Tulare where with his wife he resides on a 
small farm within the city limits of Tulare. Among their nine children, six 
now living, Eugene Richard is the third eldest. 

On leaving the Tulare high school Eugene Richard Carlton secured em- 



996 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

ployment as clerk in a grocery and later conducted the old Exchange gro- 
cery with considerable success. When he sold out in 1901 he devoted the 
proceeds of the business to buying a small place fcr his parents, after which 
he started anew in the world. A brief experience in the teaming business 
in Bakersfield provided him with funds utilized in- the establishment of the 
firm of Carlton & Crockett, which in January of 1913 bought the hotel at 
Caliente. After the building had been remodeled and overhauled, it was 
opened as the Hotel Carlton, with Mr. Carlton as the affable and popular 
landlord. Since then he has devoted himself faithfully and intelligently to 
the management of the hotel, giving little attention to politics aside from 
voting the Democratic ticket, and taking no part in any fraternities aside 
from the Eagles and the Improved Order of Red Men. After coming to 
Kern county he was united in marriage with Miss Effie M. Cootes, of Bakers- 
field, a native of San Diego, and they have one son, Eugene Richard, Jr. 

ROBERT BURTON.— In Des Moines, Iowa, Mr. Burton was born Sep- 
tember 28, 1877. AA'hen only two years of age he lost his father, David 
Burton, an attorney of prominence, whose untimely death cut short 
a most hopeful career and left the family without means of support. 
There was another son, William, two years younger than Robert, and these 
two were taken into the home of their maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. 
Joseph King, of Kansas City, Mo. When Robert was nine years of age he 
was orphaned by the death of his mother and two years later he started out 
to make his own way in the world. From that time forward he was self- 
supporting. Having always been fond of horses and experienced in their man- 
agement, he became a jockey and followed the circuit. For a time he worked 
with Bob Burns. The life was exciting, the experiences thrilling and the 
work interesting, but the boy whose admirable control of horses won many 
a cheer in closely contested races lacked the educational opportunities and 
the refined environment that would have been his if his cultured parents had 
survived. From the race-track he went to the sea and shipped as cabin-boy 
from New York City, afterward sailing from one port to another and visiting 
Japan, China, Africa, South and North America, and the princinal seaports 
of Europe. When he left the sea he returned to jockeying and followed the 
circuit to San Francisco, where later he was variously engaged, then came to 
Kern county in 1903 and settled down to learning the oil business. For a 
time he worked on the San Joaquin division of the Associated and the Peerless 
lease in the Kern river field. 

Going to the Santa Maria field Mr. Burton engaged as gang pusher for 
eighteen months. Meanwhile he assisted in the construction of a pipe line 
for the Pennell Oil Company. Later he worked for the Brookshire and Rice 
Ranch Oil companies. Upon returning to the Kern river field he again took a 
position with the Associated and later was with the Enos Oil Company as 
foreman and superintendent. After a service of five months in the latter office 
he resigned to come to Maricopa, where he joined the force of the J. F. Lucey 
Supnly Company. In the interests of that concern he went to Taft and worked 
in the oil business there. In September of 1911 he was called to the super- 
intendency of the Muscatine Oil Company, a close corporation. In San 
Francisco he married Miss Delia Lewis, a native of Tulare county, this 
state, and by the union there are two daughters, Bernice and Fay. 
Some years ago he purchased two lots at Richland, but with that exceotion 
he has not invested in land. Politically he votes with the Republican party 
and fraternally is associated with the Eagles, but he has little leisure for 
public affairs or fraternal activities, his attention being given closely to the 
production of oil for his companv and his time being spent wholly on the 
forty acre lease, on section 1, 11-24. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 999 

E. M. HAMILTON. — The great improvement wrought at Willow 
Springs, eight miles west of Rosamond, shows what can be done on the 
desert by developing the natural resources of the county. It has become the 
show place of the region. Nine years ago it was barren land covered with 
brush, and today it is improved with fields of alfalfa, orchards and vine- 
yards. Mr. Hamilton studied the country and found that by laying cement 
pipes for sub-irrigation it resulted in producing larger crops and of sweeter 
and finer flavor. The fruits of the orchard and vine have been tested and 
found to contain twenty-two per cent of sugar. The soil in the locality is 
good and being surrounded by water the climatic conditions are most 
excellent. On account of these existing conditions Mr. Hamilton built a 
sanitarium with the idea of furnishing a retreat for those afifiicted with 
pulmonary trouble and kindred ailments. 

E. M. Hamilton was born near Mt. Sterling, Brown county. 111., Feb- 
ruary 22, 1833, his educational advantages being those of the common 
schools of his day. When sixteen years of age he left the home farm and 
began boating on the Mississippi river, and he rose from third cook to first 
steward. In 1853 he discarded his kid gloves and picking up an ox whip, 
drove five yoke of oxen across the plains, arriving in Oregon, and from there 
he worked his way to California. For a time he followed mining in northern 
California and then began 'farming at Shasta City. At one time he owned 
the Caiion ranch on a part of which the city of Redding is now built. In 
1861 he returned east and in 1862 enlisted in Company D, First Minnesota 
Regiment and later, on the reorganization, he was in Company B, First 
Battalion. Among other battles he served in the Wilderness, Cold 
Harbor, Deep Bottom, Ream's Station. Siege of Petersburg and Richmond. 
After taking part in the Grand Review he was mustered out and honorably 
discharged and then returned to Maine where his parents lived. For a time 
he followed farming and afterwards the trade of stone mason. In 1872 he 
followed the Robinson mining excitement to Montana. From 1873 until 1875 
he followed contracting in Minneapolis, and in the year last mentioned he 
located in Los Angeles, Cal., in the same line of business. He also estab- 
lished the first artificial stone works in Los Angeles. In 1896 his health 
became so impaired that he came to Antelope valley and in October, 1896, 
he camped at W^illow Springs. He began prospecting and discovered the 
Alida mine, which he developed, later building a stamp mill, and in -two 
years took out $200,000 of gold from the mine. Some time afterwards he 
sold the mine. 

About 1904 Mr. Hamilton purchased Willow Springs from the Beale 
estate and since that time has made valuable improvements on the desert, 
having groves of willows, cottonwood and mulberries. His experiments with 
raising the silk worm proved a success and showed the adaptability to rais- 
ing silk. In connection with the sanitarium he has a grocery store, garage, 
blacksmith shop, ice and cold storage plant, electric light plant, public hall 
and theater, and telephone. He obtained the postofifice and has since been 
the postmaster. He built the Hamilton house at Rosamond, a two-story 
fireproof building. 

]\Ir. Hamilton has been married three times ; the first time was in Min- 
neapolis to Sarah Landson. who died there, and the three children born to 
them are also deceased. He was married again in Minnesota to Harriett 
Mofifitt, who died in Los Angeles. Of their four children three are living. 
Fred is the manager of Willow Springs ; Lester resides in Los Angeles ; 
Eugene is deceased; and Truman is proprietor of the Hamilton House at 
Rosamond. 

Mr. Hamilton's third marriage was with Mrs. Elsie E. Galloway, a 
native of Canada. While residing in Los Angeles he served three terms as 



1000 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

councilman, being elected on the Independent ticket. He is proud of the 
fact that during his service he voted to have electric lights on the street 
corners. He is of an inventive genius and has made many useful inventions, 
among them asbestine sub-irrigation to apply water below the surface of the 
ground thus keeping the surface dry. He holds membership in Kenesaw 
Post, G. A. R., and the Society of Los Angeles Pioneers. 

JOHN ADOLPHUS FRY.— The Teutonic origin of the Fry family has 
given to its various members the traits of excellent manhood, thrifty habits 
and loyal citizenship evidenced in all branches of the family, many of the 
representatives proving valuable to their chosen country by heroic efifort 
in war, and patriotic helpfulness in time of peace. The founder of this 
branch of the family in America was Col. Philip Fry, who was born in 
Germany and came at an early day to the United States, settling first in 
Virginia, where he founded the well-known southern family, many mem- 
bers being prominently identified with the American Revolution as active 
participants. 

Col. Philip Fry himself served under Gen. Nathaniel Greene and spent 
the memorable winter at Valley Forge with his regiment ; in the Battle 
of Brandywine fought shoulder to shoulder with the famous Lafayette. 
Later his son, William Livingston Fry, was commissioned an officer in the 
Indian service under Zachary Taylor. Gathering up the Indian tribes re- 
maining in the Southern-Atlantic states, he recorded them, and then took 
them to the Cherokee country in Indian Territory, which at that time was 
a vast wilderness. For his valuable work in this direction he was com- 
missioned Colonel. He afterwards removed to Alabama and there reared his 
family of three sons and two daughters, the eldest of the family being 
Johu Adolphus. 

On November 14, 1827, John A. Fry was born in Huntsville, Jackson 
county, Ala., where he grew up and acquired an excellent education, his 
parents affording him more than usual advantages in this direction. His 
first marriage, to Dian Olan, which occurred in Alabama in 1850, was blessed 
with two children, Calvin Columbus and William Harrison, the latter a 
farmer in Kings county. After the death of the mother in Alabama, Mr. 
Fry decided to try his fortunes in the new west, reaching California in 1862 
and. settling at Sonora, Tuolumne county. With his brother Wesley and 
Levi Street, he engaged in the mercantile business for a while, and later 
engaged in mining. Associated with his brother, S. Wesley Fry, James 
Hodges and Captain Turner, he embarked extensively in the mining industry, 
and together they owned the Rawhide with a twenty-stamp quartz mill. This 
mine brought in such splendid returns that they became very wealthy, as 
wealth was counted in those days. This mill and mine were later burned and 
flooded and were finally abandoned. With his brother Mr. Fry also owned 
the Comstock of Sonora, the Calder, the Jackson, the Blue Jacket and the 
Rock Pile mines. 

In 1870 Mr. Fry gave up mining and went to Stockton and engaged 
extensively in agriculture or grain-raising, owning his own headers, threshers 
and stock, as well as everything necessary to extensive farming, and each 
year farmed many hundreds of acres of land. But in spite of close application 
the venture did not prove a success and he disposed of his property and in 
1873 went to Hollister, where he engaged in the hotel business. 

Fatalities seemed to follow Mr. Fry in close succession, for in 1875 the 
Bank of California, in which he had his account, failed and he found himself 
ruined financially. At this time he proved what a dauntless spirit and a 
courageous heart will do to help an individual retrieve his losses. He came 
to Bakersfield in the fall of 1876 and became connected with the early 



HISTORY OF KJtRN COUNTY 1003 

operatiuiis of the Kern County Land Company, then known as the liaggin 
& Carr Company, lie worked under the superintendency of Mr. Carr for 
several years and in 18/9 became superintendent of the Rosedale ranch, 
north of Bakerstield, which consisted of many sections. In 1884 he pur- 
chased a half section of land near Rosedale and began farming for himself. 

Mr. Fry was a consistent Democrat in politics and in fraternal circles 
was a Royal Arch Mason, at the time of his death being the second oldest 
Mason in the state of California. His death occurred in Coalinga April 6, 
1912, and he was buried in Bakersfield with impressive Masonic services. 
He and his wife and family were Presbyterians. Mrs. Fry, who before her 
marriage was Miss Mattie Dorsay, was a native of Arkansas, having been 
born in the Ozarks. She was a member of an English and Scotch family, 
her father having been burn in Maryland, whence at an early day he and his 
family removed to Arkansas. Mrs. Fry came across the plains with her par- 
ents in 1852 and married her husband in Sonora, Cal., February 14, 1865. 
She survived him but ten days. 

Mr. Fry was the father of seven children, two by his first marriage 
and five by his second. Frances M. is now the wife of L. P. Guiberson, 
who has further mention in this publication. John W. is superintendent 
of the William McKittrick ranch, south of Bakersfield. Dessie M. is the 
wife of Plenry Dubbers, a farmer and stockman; Mrs. Dubbers has taught 
school in Kern and Fresno counties for twenty-five years and is one of the 
county's most successful instructors. Helen M. is the wife of Roberts Coats, 
of Bakersfield. William, the brother of the half blood, is a ranchman near 
Lemoore, Cal. Calvin died in Kern county, unmarried, and Charles Adolphus 
in his childhood. The father of these children was at his death one of 
the best known and most loved pioneers in the county. He had occasion 
to lend his aid to many unfortunates among the Rosedale colonists and he 
gave of his stores with a free and generous hand. All in need found in him 
a ready giver and his memory is held dear by many who have been rescued 
from want and hunger through his kindly assistance and forethought. Mr. 
Fry never held any public office, but his life was full of duties well done, 
and he was ever deeply interested in the welfare of his community. 

DANIEL H. BLOOD. — Among the men who cast their lot in Kern 
county and helped to build it up to the best of their ability we find Daniel 
H. Blood, who was born near Ovid, Clinton county, Mich., December 10, 
1849. He is the son of Daniel and Susan (Turner) Blood, natives of New 
York state, who were honored farmers of Clinton county, Mich. Daniel H. 
was educated in the schools of his vicinity and was brought up on the home 
farm. After reaching his majority he engaged in farming, thereafter, 
except for the period that he followed the mercantile business and later ran 
a grist mill. 

Being desirous of locating in California Mr. Blood leased his farm and 
in March, 1891, came with his wife and family to Bakersfield. The first two 
years were spent in farming in the Rio Bravo district and he then pur- 
chased three and one-half acres on Dracena street, Bakersfield. This they 
improved and brought to a high state of cultivation, setting it out to l)erries 
of all kinds which he continued to raise for many years, afterwards following 
carpentering until his death, December 24, 1905. 

Mr. Blood was married in Ovid, Mich., November 12, 1873, when he was 
united with Miss Adelia Jones, who was born in Yates county, N. Y. When 
a mere child she went with her parents, Silas E. and Fannie (Eldred) Jones, 
to Clinton county. New York, where they were farmers. Mrs. Blood was 
reared in Michigan where she also received her education. They were the 
parents of four children : Ella, Mrs. McCloud of Hollywood ; Clifford, de- 



1004 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

ceased; Fred M., of Braly ; and Roscoe, who resides with his mother in 
Bakersfield. 

Since her husband's death Mrs. Blood has continued to reside on 
Dracena street, where she built a new residence and enjoys meeting her 
many friends, who esteem her for her many acts of kindness. 

Fraternally Mr. Blood was a Mason in Laingsburg, Mich., but after 
coming to Bakersfield he afifiliated with Bakersfield Lodge No. 224 
F. & A. M. 

JOSEPH SERAN. — Lockhaven stock farm located five miles southwest 
of Bakersfield, comprises six hundred and forty acres devoted to raising 
alfalfa, Holstein cattle, Percheron horses and Yorkshire hogs. The latter 
were exhibited at the state fair in 1913, taking fourteen blue ribbons and 
four gold medals. The owner of the ranch is Otis Lockhart of Los Angeles, 
while Joseph Seran is the superintendent of the ranch and he is intensely 
interested in having all stock of the purest blood and highest grade. On 
the ranch is a herd of full blooded Holstein cattle, one hundred and forty-two 
of them comprising the dairy. 

Joseph Seran was born in Lenape, Leavenworth county, Kan., January 
26, 1874, the son of Capt. William L. and Amanda (Lashley) Seran, born 
in Aura, N. J. The father enlisted as a private in Company H, Twelfth New 
Jersey Volunteer Infantry. Afterwards he 'was commissioned captain of 
Company H, One Hundred and Twenty-fifth U. S. Colored Troops and after 
the close of the war was ordered to Ft. Bliss, Texas, where he was quarter- 
master's quartermaster. He was mustered out October 31, 1867, then located 
in Lenape, Kan., and engaged in farming. Later he removed to Muskogee, 
I. T., making his home there until he retired, and he now resides with his son. 
The mother died in Oklahoma in 1909. 

Of their family of ten children nine are living, Joseph being the fifth 
• oldest. His boyhood was spent on the farm, securing his education in the 
public schools. He fillowed farming in Indian Territory until 1905, when 
he came to Los Angeles county and became superintendent of the Lockhart 
ranch in Inglewood. In 1911 he came to Kern county to take charge of the 
Lockhaven stock farm at Gosford to which he gives his best efforts. 

In Indian Territory occurred the marriage of Joseph Seran with Cora 
Stackhouse, a native of Missouri and they have one child, Otis. Fraternally 
he was made a Mason in Seminole Lodge No. 106, F. & A. M., but his mem- 
bership is now at Inglewood. He is also a member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America. Politically 
he is a Republican. 

KARL SCHNEIDER. — A native of Germany, Karl Schneider w^as born 
at Laugenbach, Weisbaden, October 19, 1850, the son of Christian and 
Katherina (Schob) Schneider. The father was a contractor and builder in 
Laugenbach, where he and his wife died. Of their seven children Karl was 
the third oldest and received his education in the public schools, after which 
he became a stationary engineer, being employed in the iron mines in 
Herdorf. In 1883 he came to the United States, locating in Marion county, 
Kan., where he followed farming and later also worked as a carpenter and 
afterward as a bricklayer. In 1892 he located on a homestead twenty-two 
miles west of Hennessey, in Kingfisher county, Okla. He made valuable im- 
provements, bought land adjoining and had four hundred and eighty acres 
which he devoted to raising grain and stcxk. 

In 1910 Mr. Schneider brought his family to California and located 
on a farm of one hundred and eighty-two and one-half acres which he 
purchased eight miles northwest of Bakersfield. He has made improve- 
ments, built a residence and barns, sunk a well and installed an engine and 
pumping plant for irrigating alfalfa. He is also raising grain and hay. 





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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1007 

Mr. Schneider was married in Marion county, Kan., to Louise Ortner, 
who was born in Caucasus. Russia, the daughter of Christian and Kathrina 
(Miller) Ortner, who emigrated to Marion county, Kan., and later to Okla- 
homa. To Mr. and Mrs. Schneider were born twelve children, ten of whom 
are living, namely: Carrie, Mrs. Voth, who resides in this county; Samuel, 
a farmer in Blaine county, Okla. ; Amelia, Mrs. Sinner of Shafter, this 
county; Karl, a farmer in Kingfisher county, Okla.; and Hannah, Ezra, 
Isaac, William, Louise, and Herman, who reside at home. Mr. Schneider 
and his family are members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. 

GEORGE M. WILKINS.— The growth and prosperity of a city is 
evidenced by its building operations and in this respect the advance of 
Bakersfield has been more than notable. Much capital has been invested in 
new buildings, the designing and construction of which have called for 
trained ability of a high order. Many architects and builders who would 
have made their marks in much larger cities have found here a worthy field 
for their endeavor, and among the most successful of them is George M. 
Wilkins, who is at the head of the Builders' Exchange as its president. Mr. 
Wilkins was born in Nevada, Mo., May 20, 1873, a son of Alexander and 
Martha J. (Pryor) Wilkins. His father, Alexander Wilkins, Jr., was a son 
of Alexander Wilkins, Sr., a native of Scotland, who became a contractor 
and builder in Vermont and lived out his days there. The younger Alex- 
ander Wilkins was born and reared in Vermont and early learned the builders' 
trade. In the course of events he removed to Wisconsin, from which state 
he went to the Civil war as a member of a Wisconsin regiment which did 
gallant service in that struggle. His brother, A. B. Wilkins, was an officer 
in the same regiment, and another brother, Matthew, also fought under the 
stars and stripes on southern battlefields. Alexander is now a resident of 
Bakersfield, where he lives retired. His wife, Martha J. Pryor, was born on 
Pryor's creek in Vernon county. Mo., a daughter of James P. Pryor, a pioneer 
in that vicinity, and she, too, is living. Of their thirteen children four sur- 
vive, George M. being the eldest of these. When he was six years old he 
was taken by his parents to Barry county. Mo., and he grew up and attended 
public school in that vicinity. His natural inclination led him to a knowl- 
edge of the carpenter's trade and at eighteen he began work as a journeyman 
at Fort Worth, Tex. Later he located at Dublin, Tex. He availed himself 
of an opportunity to take a commercial course meanwhile, and later pursued 
a course in architecture under the system of the International Correspondence 
School at Scranton, Pa. From Dublin he went to Osawatomie, Kans., and 
thence removed to Kansas City, where until 1899 he was employed in con- 
structing refrigerating cars for the Armour Packing Company. After that 
he took up farming in Barry county. Mo., but in 1901 found himself in 
Truckee, Cal., superintendent for the McClellan Construction Company. In 
1903 he established himself as a contractor and builder at Fresno and about 
a year later he went into the real estate business at Long Beach, handling 
property there and in Los Angeles with considerable success, acquiring a 
residence on Hermosa street. In 1907 he took up his residence in Bakers- 
field, opening an office as an architect and builder, and since that time he 
has drawn plans for over four hundred buildinf^s. He was for a time super- 
intendent for James Arp, but resigned in 1909 to accept a local superin- 
tendency of the business of the Lindgren Company of San Francisco. 

At Long Beach Mr. Wilkins married Miss Anna J. O'Hanrahan, a native 
of Dublin, Ireland. Fraternally he affiliates with the Modern Woodmen of 
America. One of the organizers, in 1910, of the Bakersfield Builders' Ex- 
change, he is now president of that body. In all his relations with his fellow 
citizens he is public-spiritedly helpful to all local interests. 

In 1912 he purchased fifteen acres in the Mayflower addition, subdivided 
it into one hundred and fifty, lots, and erected five residences and a store, 



1008 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the last mentioned being- on Brundage lane and Wilkins street. He opened 
up the store with a line of general merchandise and the business is under 
the management of Mrs. Wilkins. A splendid example of Mr. Wilkins' abil- 
ity as an architect and builder may be seen in the fine residence which he 
owns at No. 2700 Chester avenue. 

WILLIAM T. RATLIFF.— The attainment of a considerable degree of 
financial success and commercial prestige may be attributed to the self- 
reliant, energetic labors of Mr. Ratliff and his persistence in the face of 
repeated discouragements that would have brought failure to a man of 
less determination. In addition to the ownership of an important business, 
conducted under the title of the Bakersfield Produce and Implement Com- 
pany, he engaged in the poultry and dairy business and owned and occupied 
a well-improved ranch of fifteen acre^ situated on Jewett lane. It was his 
good fortune to have the assistance of one son in the store and of the other 
son on the ranch and the three, working in harmony, gained the confidence 
of business associates as well as a satisfactory financial return for their 
investment of time and capital. Ill health overtook Mr. Ratliff in the midst 
of his business success, and in the hope of regaining his former strength 
he went to Long Beach, where his death occurred June 5, 1913. 

Noting the history of the Ratliff family we find that Milton Ratliff 
was born in Kentucky and returned to that state to spend his last days after 
many years of active business association with the city of Indianapolis, 
where still lives his widow, Elizabeth (Bracken) Ratliff and where occurred 
the birth of their two children. Of these the only one to attain mature years 
was William T., whose birth occurred December 2, 1863, and whose educa- 
tion was secured in Indiana public schools. For a time during young manhood 
he engaged in farming in Boone county, Ind., but in 1891 he closed out 
his interests in that state and came to Bakersfield. Near this city he became 
interested in general farming, stock-raising and fruit-growing. Afterward 
he engaged in shipping hay and grain. The discovery of oil caused him to 
discontinue the running of a stage to Glenville and take up the freighting 
business to the Kern river field and to the west side field. At first he kept 
only two horses, but the demands of the business caused him to enlarge his 
stable until finally he owned ten teams of fine horses. 

As an employe and as manager of the pit owned by the Union refinery 
Mr. Ratliff held for three years a position involving constant work and 
many responsibilities. During the following two and one-half years he 
engaged as a carpenter in the building of the roofs of the large reservoirs 
owned by the Standard Oil Company. Upon resigning that position he 
embarked in the livery business, buying the Panama stable in Bakersfield 
and later buying the old Diamond stable on Chester avenue. After operating 
both barns for two and one-half years he disposed of them and bought the 
Union stable on K street. For two years he operated that business and 
then sold to E. P. Davis. We next find him connected with the oil industry 
on the west side as an organizer of the Sunset Security Oil Company. Upon 
the incorpc ration of the concern he was made vice-president and manager. 
The company acquired one thousand acres, most of it on section 29, town- 
ship 11, range 23, in the Sunset field. During January of 1910 he resigned 
Viis official position with the company and in September of the ensuing year 
he bought a one-third interest in the Bakersfield Produce and Implement 
Company at No. 1711 Chester avenue. Afterwards he bought out both of 
his partners, maintaining in his establishment a complete line of heavy and 
shelf hardware, agricultural implements, paints and oils, feed and seed, dairy 
and poultry supplies. In 1884, while living in Indiana, he was married in 
Boone county to Miss Rosa Emmert, born in Montgomery county, Ind., 
by whom he had four children, namely: Carrie, Mrs. H. A. Martin of Taft; 



HISTORY OF KFRN COUNTY 1011 

Opal. Mrs. Arthur Bean of San Francisco; Joseph William, who assists in 
the store; and Ora Warren, who manages the little ranch. In politics Mr. 
Ratliff voted with the Democratic party. Fraternally he w^as identified with 
the Elks, Eagles and \\'oodmen of the World, and was also a member of the 
Bakersfield Merchants' Association. Mrs. Ratliff is a member of the Women 
of Woodcraft. 

OTTO HAESE. — The postmaster at IMojave is one of those capable, 
efficient young men who have been attracted to this section of the country 
through the development and construction work connected with the Los 
Angeles aijueduct. While coming hither merely to fill a temporary position 
on the clerical force of a contractor, he saw the opportunities of the country 
and, being an enthusiastic Democrat, he was induced to seek the appointment 
as postmaster. The recommendation of prominent Democrats and his own 
high reputation combined to bring him the position. June 6, 1913, President 
Wilson signed the papers tendering him the appointment and on the 7th of 
July he took charge of the office, at the same time purchasing the stationery 
and magazine business formerly conducted by Mr. Preble, and in addition he 
has charge of the public long distance telephone station. 

From a very early age Otto Haese has been forced to make his own way 
in the world unaided by others. He was born at Manitowoc, Wis., October 
16, 1883, and was only eight years of age when his father, Carl Haese, a 
farmer of Wisconsin, was taken from the family by death. Few opportuni- 
ties came to the orphan lad. Early in life he became self-supporting. For 
five years he engaged as a clerk in a hardware store. During much of that 
time his wages were only $2 per week, but he was gaining a business experi- 
ence of great value to him. While clerking during the day he devoted the 
evenings to the study of telegraphy. At the age of nineteen he was appointed 
assistant agent at Hilbert Junction for the Wisconsin Central Railroad. Six 
months later he was appointed assistant agent at Forest Junction, Calumet 
county, in the emplo}^ of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad. Three 
months later he was transferred to Menominee, Mich., to act as night operator 
and then became day operator and ticket agent for the St. Paul at the same 
place. At the expiration of three years he entered the Gem City Business 
College in Quincy, 111., from which institution he was graduated in 1908. 
Coming to Los Angeles, a stranger on the coast, he secured employment as 
chief clerk for Dr. O. C. McNary at the Soldiers' Home hospital in Sawtelle. 
Three months later, in November, 1908, he came to Mojave to act as stenog- 
rapher and bookkeeper for D. J. Desmond, subsistence contractor on the 
Los Angeles aqueduct. In due time he was promoted to be chief clerk in 
the subsistence department and continued with Mr. Desmond until he was 
appointed postmaster at Mojave, when he relinquished an important clerical 
position in order to associate himself with the permanent interests of the town. 

PAUL C. HILL. — A native of Massachusetts, Paul C. Hill was born 
in Groton August 2, 1886, the son of Capt. Joseph C. Hill, also a native of 
Groton. When the latter was fourteen years of age he went to sea and was 
in Calcutta during the Sepoy rebellion. He enlisted and served in the 
Fifth Bengal Yeoman Cavalry for one year and for his valued services he 
was presented with a medal from Queen Victoria. When he was eighteen 
years old he was the first man on record in the state of Maine to volunteer 
for the Civil war, enlisting in the First Maine Regiment as a private. He 
rose to the rank of lieutenant, was later transferred to the staff of General 
Rosecrans, and still later commissioned captain in the Fifth Kentucky Cav- 
alry. Some years after the war he served as chief of the Indian bureau in 
Washington for five years. Afterwards he entered commercial life and was 
for many years in charge of the western agency of the Scott's Emulsion 
Company in Japan, China and India, until his death in Yokohama. 

The mother was Charlotte Caryl, a daughter of Alexander Hamilton and 



1012 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Elizabeth (Kipp) Caryl, the former being a manufacturer of horseshoe nails 
in Forge Village, Mass. 

Paul C. Hill was reared in the various places where his father was 
located, having the advantages of the public school. When fourteen he 
began working for the Illinois Steel Company in Chicago and at seventeen 
became foreman of the blast furnace. In 1906 he spent six months with the 
Alleghany Ore & Iron Company at Iron Gate, Va., and then was foreman 
of the blast furnace of the Lackawanna Steel Company at Buffalo. In 1908 
he was emploved with Allen & Burke drilling gas wells in western New 
York. 

In 1909 Mr. Hill came to California and was employed by the Standard 
at Coalinga, later with the Coalinga Oil Company, afterwards in the pipe 
line department of the Standard for one year, then a year with the Santa Fe 
Company. In January, 1912, he became foreman for the General Petroleum 
Company at Lost Hills and afterwards was made superintendent of the Lost 
Hills division for the same company. 

HON. BENJAMIN BRUNDAGE.— The genealogical records of the 
Brundage family bear evidence concerning their long and honorable identifica- 
tion with America as well as their Anglo-Saxon extraction, indicating also 
that the name was established in the new world by three brothers from Eng- 
land, one of whom settled in York state, another in New Jersey and the third in 
Pennsylvania. Thomas, a native of New York and a descendant of the orig- 
inal immigrant to that state, followed the tide of migration into Ohio, where 
he took up raw land near McCutchenville, Wyandot county, and improved a 
large farm. In his family there was a son, Benjamin, who became a success- 
ful attorney and honored jurist of Bakersfield, rising to influence through his 
own unaided eft'orts and the development of his splendid mental faculties. 
Working his way to the law through faithful services as a teacher, he was ad- 
mitted to the bar and practiced law at Sandusky, Ohio. At the time of Mor- 
gan's raid he enlisted and served as a private in a regiment of Ohio state 
militia. Immediately after receiving an honorable discharge from the army in 
the spring of 1865 he came to California and for a few months sojourned in 
San Francisco, where he acted as agent for an insurance company. During 
the autumn of 1865 he arrived in Kern county and opened a law office at 
Havilah, then the county-seat. In a short time his ability had won recogni- 
tion. When the question of county-seat removal began to be agitated he was 
engaged by citizens of Bakersfield to appear before the state legislature and 
secure the passage of a bill for the removal, which task he engineered to a suc- 
cessful and satisfactory consummation. Shortly afterward he removed his 
office to the new county-seat and continued his practice from this point. On 
the adoption of the new constitution he was elected the first superior judge 
and filled the position for one term, later returning to his private practice, 
which he conducted with unimpaired ability until six years prior to his demise. 
The close of his useful existence came Januarv 29, 1911, when he had reached 
the age of seventy-seven years. 

Upon coming west Judge Brundage was unmarried and it was in Cali- 
fornia that he first met the young lady who became his wife in the city of Sac- 
ramento, March 27, 1870. Mary B. Lively was born in Yelvington, Daviess 
county, Ky., and is now a resident of Bakersfield. At a very early age she 
was brought to the west by her father. Dr. Joseph Lively, who crossed the 
plains with wagon and oxen during the summer of 1850, and after a short 
sojourn in Nevada county began to practice medicine at Santa Clara in the 
county of that name. Later he removed to Glennville, Kern county, where 
from 1866 until his removal to Irvington, Alameda county, he engaged in 
professional work. For a time he also conducted the Hotel Glennville. His 
demise occurred at Watsonville. At the time of the removal of the family to 




9w. 9^ ' (2^-^>^^^-t.c.^^^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1015 

Kern county the daughter was a young lady, well educated for that day and a 
decided accession to the social and educational circles of the community. 
She was one of the first school teachers in Havilah and there she met Judge 
Brundage, who filled the oflfice of school trustee. Their marriage was blessed 
with three children and two of these, Benjamin L. and George H., are still 
living. Throughout the county where for so many years he made his home 
Judge Brundage was well known and universally honored. 

HERMAN H. SCHUTZ.— Born in St. Gallen, Switzerland, March 17, 
1862, Mr. Schutz was the son of John and Catherine (Leverer) Schutz, farmers 
in St. Gallen, who in 1881 brought the family to Missouri, locating near Spring- 
field, where Mr. Schutz followed farming until his death about 1898. Mrs. 
Schutz came to Bakersfield, where her son Herman had removed and here she 
passed away in 1906. Five of the seven children survive them, Herman H. 
being the eldest ; he was brought up on the home farm and received the usual 
common school training in his native land. Reports of the encouraging out- 
look in America and a great desire to see the new country and try his 
fortune, impelled the family to migrate to the United States. For three years 
he followed farming in Springfield, Mo., after which, in 1884, he came to Cali- 
fornia. Turlock, Stanislaus county, was his first stopping place, and there 
he immediately found employment, starting at well-boring, which has since 
been his occupation. Two weeks later he bought the rig and engaged in 
contracting for the boring of wells in Stanislaus and Merced counties, having 
his headquarters at Turlock. It was in 1887 that he finally located in Bakers- 
field, as he recognized this to be a more central point for his line of work. 
At this time the boring was done by hand power, and later by horse power, 
but Mr. Schutz now has a steam engine rig and also a gas engine rig, which 
do the work more rapidly, and much more effectively. His .work takes him 
all over the county, where he has bored wells from fifty to twelve hundred 
feet in depth, and he has brought in some good flowing wells. For many 
years he has done all the work for the Kern County Land Company. 

In addition to his well-boring business Mr. Schutz is interested in ranch- 
ing at Wasco, his property having been improved from a desert tract. Of his 
three hundred and twenty acres, two hundred acres are already under cul- 
tivation to alfalfa and it is the intention of Mr. Schutz to sow^ the whole half- 
section to alfalfa. The pumping plant is equipped with a thirty-two horse 
power engine. Mr. Schutz has built two sets of buildings and has two tenants 
on the place. Prior to improving the above-mentioned property he improved 
four other ranches in the Rio Bravo country with wells and pumping plants 
for general farming and alfalfa. His home is at No. 2111 Twenty-first street, 
Bakersfield. He belongs to the Independent Order of Foresters and is a 
Republican. 

LOUIS FRANK JOHNDROW.— French-Canadian ancestry is indicated 
by the genealogy of the Johndrow family. The first of the name to establish 
permanent residence in the States was the father of John B., who when the 
latter was a lad of thirteen years removed to York state. The youth was 
even then familiar with the shipping industry and for years he followed the 
lakes, but eventually, wearying of the constant exposure necessary to such 
an existence, he settled down on a farm. Naturally he chose a location not far 
distant from the lakes. The land which he developed was located in Jefferson 
county. N. Y., near lake Ontario, where so much of his previous life had 
been passed as a sailor. From that time until his death at the age of eighty- 
eight he continued on the same property and meanwhile he made a specialty 
of dairying and kindred activities. During young manhood he had married 
Julia Cornaire, a native of France, who died in New York at the age of forty- 
eight. Of their eight children only two survive. 

Of the entire family the next to the youngest was Louis Frank, born 



1016 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

January 7, 1850, at the home farm in Jefferson county, N. Y., near lake 
Ontario. From very early life he made himself useful on the farm. Flis father 
being a dairyman, it was natural that he should be instructed in milking, 
cheese-making and similar work. Efficient, energetic and persevering, his 
assistance was of the "utmost value in the management of the stock and the 
land. It was not until 1876 that he decided to leave the old homestead and 
seek an opening in Mexico. January 1, 1877, he left Watertown, N. Y., on an 
emigrant train bound for San Francisco, where he arrived at the expiration 
of fifteen days of tedious travel. The country was so much to his liking 
that he abandoned all intention of proceeding to Mexico. Fur a time he 
worked in a dairy at Gilroy, Santa Clara county. Next he spent eighteen 
months in Monterey county, where he drove a stage between Soledad (then 
the end of the railroad) and Paraiso Springs. Returning from there to Gilroy, 
he became cheese-maker on the old Bloomfield ranch for E. A. Davidson, who 
manufactured drum cheese averaging about sixty pounds to the cheese. While 
in the employ of Mr. Davidson, aside from cheese-making, he milked a string of 
twenty-two cows or more, so that he was kept busy eighteen hours out of the 
twenty-four. On one occasion he had just finished making the cheese at 1 
p. m., when the cows were brought in. About six milkers had left and help 
was scarce. Sitting down on the stool with his pail, he continued to milk until 
after sundown, at which time he had milked a total of sixty-eight cows for 
the day. 

.The next work that occupied the attention of Mr. Johndrow after leaving 
Gilroy was that of conducting a milk business at No. 1015 Valencia street, 
San Francisco. During 1882 he spent a few days in Bakersfield and received 
a favorable impression concerning this part cif the country. Having closed 
out the business in San Francisco, in 1884 he started for Bakersfield to 
establish a permanent home in the locality. At San Jose he bought one hundred 
and seven head of fine dairy cows. These animals he drove through to Bakers- 
field, where he landed November 22, after twenty-two days of hard travel. The 
cows were not acclimated and in the next summer all but thirty-five died. 
Seven months later he sold the balance for $35 per head. He had paid $50 per 
head for the bunch, besides the expense of $4 each in bringing them to Kern 
county, so that in seven months he had lost $6,0C0. Had he brought his 
money to Bakersfield instead of bringing the cows and had he invested in 
some of the si)lendid land for which this county is noted, he would have been 
prosperous from the start. However, he did not allow the failure to discourage 
him. \A^ith undaunted courage he started anew. His knowledge of the dairy 
business was so thorough that Carr & Haggin engaged him to take charge of 
their dairy of three hundred cows, which were then grazing on a ranch extend- 
ing on both sides of Nineteenth street from the Panama slough west. For 
some time he had charge of the manufacture of cheese and butter and man- 
aged the large dairy acceptably to all concerned. 

Having bought forty-four acres on section 4, township 31, range 27, 
in the Panama district, in 1892 Mr. Johndrow resigned his position with the 
great corporation of land-owners and devoted himself to the improvement 
of the land. It was not then known what products could be raised most 
profitably in the district, hence he experimented with prunes. The results 
were disastrous. In years when prices were high he had no crop and in 
seasons of large yield he could get only a very low price for the fruit, so at the 
expiration of twelve years of struggle he grubbed out the fine large trees 
and sowed the land to alfalfa. Thereafter with alfalfa and hogs on the land 
he was greatly pre spered. Eventually he sold the property and in November, 
1911, came to Bakersfield. where he erected two houses on the corner of 
Eleventh and N streets. In one of these he makes his home; the other is 
rented. While operating his ranch in the Panama district he became inter- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1017 

esterl in the Loveland Produce Company at Bakersfield. Since 1904 he has 
engaged in buying hay and grain for the firm and meanwhile also has had 
charge of the storage of the products in two large warehouses at Wible and 
Gosford. Since coming to Bakersfield he has given all of his time to the 
business of the firm. 

Before leaving the east Mr. Johndrow was made a Mason in Chaumont 
Lodge No. 172, A. F. & A. M., at Chaumont, Jefferson county, N. Y., and his 
name has been enrolled among its list of members ever since 1876. In 
politics he has voted with the Republican party from the time of attaining his 
majority. His family comprises Mrs. Johndrow and their boy, Louis Frank 
Johndrow, a child of nine years. Prior to their marriage at San Jose October 
3 1883, Mrs. Johndrow was Miss Fannie Pyle. Her father, William Pyle, 
crossed the plains to California in 1850. For a time he ran a ferry across the 
Sacramento river. Afterward he engaged in wheat farming in Solano county 
and later in Fresno county. His last days were passed in Santa Ana, this 
state. The wife and mother, Mary Mack, is living at San Jose and at the age 
of eighty- four is hale and hearty. During the residence of the family in 
Solano county the daughter, Fannie, was born, and she accompanied her 
parents in their various removals, receiving her education in the public 
.schools and at the L^niversity of the Pacific at San Jose. 

WILLIAM ARTHUR SPROULE.— The Sproule family was established 
in the United States during the year 1846 by William A. Sproule, Sr., who 
brought his family of eight children across the ocean from Ireland and set- 
tled in Connecticut. Taking up the business of an undertaker, he continued 
to follow that line of work until his death. Prior to his departure from the 
home country he had lost his wife, Letitia (Henderson) Sproule, who was 
born in Ireland and was forty-five years of age at the time of her demise. 
Among their eight children the next to the voungest was William Arthur, 
who was born in Belfast, Ireland, June 25, 1842, and therefore had reached 
only the age of four years at the time of the landing of the family in the 
harbor of New York. As a boy he lived in the Greenwich, Conn., home and 
attended the public schools. When the Civil war began he had completed 
an apprenticeship to the trade of landscape gardener and had followed the 
occupation first in Connecticut and later in Pennsylvania. Enthusiasm for 
the Union cause led him to volunteer his services as a soldier. During 1862 he 
was assigned to Company K, One Hundred and Forty-third Pennsylvania In- 
fantry, which was mustered into service at Wilkesbarre, Luzerne county, and 
sent to the front with the old Fifth Army Corps under General Warren. With 
characteristic courage the young soldier bore his part in the battlefield and on 
the dreary line of march as well as when suffering the deprivations of camp- 
life. Not only did he bear arms in many small battles, but in addition he 
fought in eighteen decisive and bitterly contested engagements, including 
those of Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, Antietam, the Wilderness, second bat- 
tle of Bull Run, Spottsylvania Court-house, Cedar Mountain, Cold Harbor 
and Petersburg. Fortunate was his experience, for at no time was he ser- 
iously wounded, although he had many narrow escapes. When peace had been 
restored he received an honorable discharge in June of 1865 and resumed the 
ordinary vocations of the workaday world. 

For some years subsequent to the Civil war Mr. Sproule was employed 
as a landscape gardener in and near New York City and many of the most 
beautiful grounds along the Hudson river bore evidence to his skill and cul- 
tured taste. After coming to California in 1871 he spent two years as fore- 
man on the Campbell ranch in Kern county and in 1873 established his head- 
quarters in Bakersfield, where shortly afterward he bought sixty-six feet of 
frontage on the corner of I and Twenty-first streets. At that time Bakersfield 
had one store and a very few houses. It would seem as if there was little 



1018 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

need for a landscape gardener in a community so obscure and isolated, but with 
the incoming of people and the building of residences he was given constant 
employment in his chosen occupation. For twenty-two years he followed 
landscape gardening. Meantime he laid out many of the beautiful grounds 
that make Bakersfield a city of beauty and a source of pride to its residents. 
Since retiring from the occupation in 1910 he has devoted his attention to 
the oversight of his private affairs and with his wife, who was Frances Greg- 
ory, a native of Connecticut, he enjoys the esteem and regard of the friends 
won during the long period of residence in the city. Mrs. Sproule was the 
daughter of John and Alary (Osborn) Gregory, natives of Danbury, Conn., 
and Poughkeepsie, N. Y., respectively. Her father was a merchant in South- 
port and there died, while her mother passed away in Bakersfield. In pol- 
itics Mr. Sproule has been stanchly Republican and in religion has adhered 
to the Episcopal faith in which he was reared. Their family numbers two 
sons and a daughter. The eldest, Warren, is now a clerk in a hardware 
store in Los Angeles, and the second, Albert, who is a conductor on the 
Southern Pacific Railroad, makes Watsonville his headquarters, while the 
youngest, Mrs. Jessie Argabrite, is living in San Diego. 

ROWZEE F. SHACKELFORD.— Born in Brite's Valley, near 
Tehachapi, May 17, 1879, Mr. Shackelford is a son of "Dick" Shackelford, 
whose life record appears elsewhere in this volume. During bcyhood he 
lived at the old home farm in Brite's Valley and attended the public schools 
of that locality. In work and in recreation the years of youth passed unevent- 
fully. When he reached the age of twenty years he started out to make 
his own way in the world. The Santa Fe Railroad Company in 1899 gave 
him empl( yment as a fireman out from Needles running east and west, 
but the following year he resigned and returned to the farm to assist in the 
cultivation of the property. Returning to the railroad work in 1903, he again 
became a Santa Fe fireman out from Needles. In 1906 he was promoted to 
be an engineer and was transferred to Bakersfield, where he has since been 
retained by the company and where he has become a well-known and popular 
citizen. 

The marriage of Mr. Shackelford was solemnized in Los Angeles in 
February. 1905, and united him with Miss Lillian Mae Culver, a native of 
North Prairie, Waukesha County, Wis. Their union has been blessed with 
two children, Ray and Marie. The fraternal and occupative associations of 
Mr. Shackelford are important and varied and include membership with 
the Eagles and the Masons. At the time of being made a Mason in Tehachapi 
LodgeNo. 313, F. & A. M., he was raised by his father, a Mason of the 
pioneer period and long a prominent local worker in the order. For some 
years Mr. Shackelford has held membership with the Kern Valley Division 
No. 739, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, at Bakersfield. In addition 
he has been prominently identified with the Brotherhood of Locomotive 
Firemen and Enginemen and at one time was honored with the presidency 
of Kern River Lodge No. 731 in Bakersfield, of which he is now recorder 
and financial secretarv as well as one of the leading workers. 

G. M. BUMGARNER, M.D.— In his native town of Guthrie, Ky., Dr. 
Bumgarner began to read medicine with Dr. Marshall when eighteen. For 
the arduous duties of a physician he had laid well the foundation of a thor- 
ough classical education, having been graduated with the class of 1889 from 
the college at South Carrollton, Muhlenberg county, Ky. This institution 
conferred the degree of A.B. upon him, while the degree of M.D. came to 
him in 1892 from the Beaumont Medical College at St. Louis. It is stated 
that he was not only one of the most gifted and intellectual members of 
the class, but the youngest as well. Upon leaving college he served for one 
year as interne in the Missouri Baptist Sanitarium in St. Louis, a position 
that gave him many valuable opportunities for different practice. After- 




rS-^^Hg-t^ "t^ ^AL«^cXy6Cu^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1021 

ward he practiced his profession for eight years at Martinsburg, Audrain 
county, Mo., and meanwhile in 1893 married Miss Annie, daughter of Dr. 
J. N. Moorman, of South Carrollton, Ky. 

Leaving Missouri to engage in professional work in the west, Dr. Bum- 
garner established his home and office at Escondido, San Diego county, in 
1901, but in 1906 removed to the newly-developed Imperial valley, where 
he engaged in a general practice in the city of Imperial. From there in March 
of 1910 he came to Bakersfield, where he and his wife, with their two chil- 
dren, Polly and Waldo, have a comfortable home at No. 1722 Blanche street. 
At the time of the epidemic of typhoid he was appointed by the board of 
county supervisors to the position of county health officer and since Decem- 
ber of 1910 he has filled the position with devotion, tact and intelligence, 
endeavoring to conquer conditions that give rise to local epidemics and to 
so conserve the health of the community that such disastrous experiences 
may be prevented. The office of Dr. Bumgarner is on the second floor of 
the Brower building, on Nineteenth street. 

ALEXANDER R. M. BLACKHALL.— Alexander Reith McLag- 
gan Blackball was born in the shire of Inverness, Scotland, March 7, 
1882, being a son of Alexander and Agnes (Reith) Blackball, both natives of 
Aberdeen. The father, a man of exceptional powers as a financier, is one of the 
heads of a large banking institution and even now, at the age of sixty-one, he 
wields a large influence in the financial circles of his part of Scotland. Three 
sons and one daughter comprise the family. The second son, John, is connected 
with Lloyd's Bank at Coventry, England, and the third son, Douglas, holds an 
important position with the William Galloway Company at Waterloo, Iowa. 
The youngest member of the family, Miss Agnes Blackball, now residing with 
her parents at Nairn, Scotland, has studied music in Germany and is a fellow 
of the Royal College of Music in London. 

Graduated in the classical course from the Royal Academy at Inverness 
at the age of eighteen years, Mr. Blackball immediately thereafter entered 
the Royal Bank of Scotland as a junior clerk. For two years he continued 
with that institution, in which his father was one of the leading officials. 
Leaving for London in 1902, he entered the English office of the Hong-Kong 
and Shanghai Banking Corporation and for three years held positions of in- 
creasing importance with that great concern. During 1905 he was sent over to 
the New York branch of the said bank, where for two years he engaged as an 
assistant accountant. From there he was transferred to San Francisco in the 
fall of 1907. After a successful identification with the western branch of the 
house he was transferred to Hong-Kong as an assistant official in the great 
original bank, where he remained for more than a year. When returning to 
Great Britain on a year's furlough he stopped at San Francisco to visit 
friends and in that city he met A. M. Kemp, the first vice-president of the South- 
ern California Gas Company, who urged him to come to Taft and accept the 
office of auditor with the Northern Exploration Company. After due consid- 
eration he accepted the ofifer, resigned from the Hong-Kong Bank and estab- 
lished himself in the Midway field, where he is now connected with the Petro- 
leum Club and identified with various organizations for the permanent up- 
building of the district. April 16, 1913, at Berkeley, Cal., he was united in 
marriage with Miss Grace L. Pack, daughter of John Wallace Pack, a 
resident of Berkeley and an employe in the San Francisco mint. 

JAMES A. CLARK. — A native of Tennessee, James A. Clark was born 
in Celina, July 29, 1869, the son of Hayden and Lillie A. (Davis) Clark, the 
former born in Kentucky and the latter in Tennessee. For many years they 
were farmers near Celina, but are now residing at Sulphur W^lls, Ky. Of 
their eight children, seven of whom are living, James was the second oldest 
and was educated in the public schools of Tennessee and Kentucky. At the 
age of fifteen he removed to Greensburg, Ky., where he attended the high 



1022 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

school, after which he took a course at the Glasgow Normal. During these 
years he followed teaching, thus paying his own way during his normal 
course, as well as at Bryant & Stratton's Business College at Louisville, 
where he was graduated. 

For some years Mr. Clark was engaged at teaching and as a bookkeeper 
and then entered the employ of the Louisville & Nashville railroad, working 
up in the transportation department, and in due time became a conductor 
on the road, filling the position until 1900. He then resigned to try to secure 
a quarter section of land in Oklahoma. He remained at Cordell, Okla., but 
in the drawing for a location was unsuccessful, so he came to Kern county, 
Cal., arriving in 1904, and immediately entered the employ of the Kern County 
Land Co., and was soon made a foreman on the Poso ranch, a position which 
he filled for seven years and then served in the same capacity on their Lake- 
side ranch until 1912. At this time he became foreman of the Canfield ranch, 
where he is now devoting his time to the advancement of the company's 
interests. 

Mr. Clark was made a Mason in Beach ville Lodge No. 619, F. & A. M., 
at Sulphur Well, Ky., was demitted, and is now a member of Bakersfield' 
Lodge No. 224. 

MEL P. SMITH.— The president of the California Market Companv 
has risen to an influential position among the business men of Bakersfield 
notwithstanding the fact that in youth he was handicapped by lack of 
means and of educational advantages. From thirteen years of age a 
resident of California and for the same period associated with Bakersfield, 
he was born in Ottawa, Kan., in 1884, being a son of M. P. and Mary (Price) 
Smith, natives respectively of Quincy, 111., and Kentucky, but after 1897 
citizens of the great West. At this writing the father fills the position of 
boiler inspector for Kern County. There were only three children in the 
family and of these the only daughter married W. H. Breene and resides 
at Arkansas City, Kan. The second of the three children, Mel P., began 
to learn the meat business in 1898, when he entered the employ of J. J. 
Anderson, manager of the wholesale and retail meat market handling the 
output of the ranches of the Kern County Land Company. From the most 
humble position the youth rose to employment of greater responsibility and 
when the California Market Company was incorporated April 8, 1909, he was 
selected as president and manager, L. P. Keester being secretary and treasurer. 

The headquarters of the company are at No. 1618 Nineteenth street, 
where every modern convenience has been provided for the efficient conduct 
of the business. The California Market Company handles the product of 
the Kern County Land Company's ranches and averages from $40,000 to 
$50,C00 per month, the products including beef, pork, mutton and poultry. 
Slaughter houses have been provided in a convenient location and to these 
are conveyed the products of the company's ranches, as well as considerable 
stock purchased from the farmers of the county. 

September 15, 1912, the California Market Company began to make 
extensive imnrovements in their retail store at No. 1618 Nineteenth street. 
The entire inside ( f this market has been remodeled at a cost of $11,000; and 
it is now unsurpassed in convenience and elegance by any similar plant 
on the Pacific Coast. The Monroe system recently installed has proven a 
valuable addition to the equipment. Indeed, the entire plant contains every 
modern improvement, creating an efifect that reflects business system, 
artistic ideas and orderly oversight. 

While the work naturally demands much time and constant supervision, 
Mr. Smith still finds leisure to participate in local afifairs of the Democratic 
party and to maintain active relations with the Elks and the Bakersfield Club. 
In his marriage he became united with a Bakersfield family of high standing. 
It was on Christmas day of 1910 that he was united with Miss Maude Day, 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1025 

of this city, a young lady of excellent education and wide acquaintance. They 
are the parents of a son, Melvin Paul, who represents the third generation 
to bear that name. 

VIRGINIA BRAMHAM.— The owner and manager of the \'irginia Pipe 
Line Contracting Company, although still a young man, has reached a high 
degree of success by sheer force of will and by the exercise of constructive 
ability. The concern which he founded and has since operated engages ex- 
tensively in the Midway, Sunset, Lost Hills and Coalinga fields. Any enu- 
meration of its contracts means practically a record of the development of 
pipe-line construction through this part of the state, and in addition he has 
made a specialty of teaming, trucking and heavy hauling throughout the west 
side fields. Recently he had the contract for the laying of the fire system of 
water mains in Taft, affording the city a line that will pruve of untold value 
in case of a fire. Several lines for the General Petroleum have been laid in the 
Midway and one has been constructed to the Lost Hills, besides which he 
has had large contracts with the California Natural Gas Company, has laid 
all the pipes for the Western Water Company in the Midway and at Fellows, 
has laid all the water mains for the August Oil Company and the water lines 
for the California Amalgamated. The main line supplying Fellows with water 
and owned by Fleck Bros., was constructed by his company, also the oil 
mains at Fellows for the Bankline Oil Company and the water mains at Taft 
for the Northern Exploration Company. Recently the company closed a con- 
tract with the General Petroleum for the construction of an eight-inch oil 
pipe line, a loop across the Tejon Pass. This will be the second line con- 
structed by the General Petroleum across the Pass, intersecting the Mojave 
line at Lebec and together with the line previously laid, forming a loop-line 
through the Tejon Pass. 

Descended from honored English forbears and representing an influential 
family of the Old Dominion, Mr. Bramham was born at Charlottesville, Albe- 
marle county, Va., December 22, 1881, and grew to manhood on the old home- 
stead, aiding his father in the mercantile establishment of the latter, as well 
as on the farm where they lived. At the age of sixteen he went to the oil 
fields (if West Virginia, where he began to work in the construction of pipe 
lines. When he left West Virginia at the age of nineteen he had a thorough 
knowledge of every detail connected with such work. The year 1900 found 
him at Spindletop, Tex., and for ten years he was connected with pipe-line 
construction in Texas and Louisiana. Meantime he worked successively for 
the Texas Oil Company, the Gulf Refining Company, the Gulf Pipe Line Com- 
pany and held an imnortant positi( n as superintendent of construction for the 
Evangeline Oil Company of Louisiana. Coming to California from Louisiana 
in September of 1909 he engaged with the Producers' Transportation Company, 
for whom he had previously worked in Louisiana. The filling of an important 
contract took him to McKittrick. Later he came to the Midway field and 
superintended the laying of an eight-inch oil line from the Midway to Santa 
Barbara. After six months with the Producers' Transportation Company he 
entered the service of the Honolulu Oil Company and in four months had 
completed a water system for their entire lease. Next he came to Taft, where 
December 1, 1910, he organized the Virginia Pipe Line Contracting Company 
and since has engaged in business, with headquarters in this city, where a 
sister presides over his comfortable home. 

FREDERICK SMITH.— Among the business men of ability in Kern 
county we find Frederick Smith, who has charge of the store of Miller & 
Lux at Buttonwillow. He was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, 
July 17, 1861, being the son of Dr. Joseph Harker Smith, a graduate of the 
University of Glasgow with the degree of M.D., and a practicing physician 
in Blackburn until his death at the age of forty-nine years. His widow. 



1026 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

who was in maidenhood Jane Sutcliffe, also of Lancashire, died in 1910. 
Frederick, the only child of the union, was educated in the public school of 
Blackburn and at Mintholme Colleg-e, from which he was graduated in 1881. 
He then studied medicine for a while, but not liking it he entered commercial 
pursuits and was a clerk in mercantile establishments until he came to 
Massachusetts in 1886. 

Coming to California the next year, Mr. Smith purchased a small ranch 
at Los Gatos, which he sold a year later, and then engaged in superintend- 
ing ranches in the Cupertino district in Santa Clara county. Becoming well 
versed in the fruit business he built the first fruit dryer at Wawawai, Wash., 
and after starting it he returned to his former work in Santa Clara county. 
Five years later he went to Mendocino county, where he was with the Cot- 
toneve Lumber Co. until he accepted the management of a dry goods store 
in San Rafael. After five years he resigned and started a private messenger 
service in San Francisco, which was continued until 1910, when he entered 
the employ of Miller & Lux as storekeeper at Buttonwillow, Kern county, 
which position he is filling acceptably. 

Fraternally Mr. Smith is a member of the Woodmen of the World and 
of the Eagles, of which latter order he has been secretary. He is a com- 
municant of the Episcopal church and politically adheres to the principles 
of the Republican party. 

FRANK A. FETHER.— In Fulton county, Ohio, Mr. Fether was born 
near Pettisville, January 1, 1868, son of Alexander and Sarah (Gu3^man) 
Fether, natives respectively of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and now residents 
of Bakersfield, Cal. The father, who for years engaged in the milling busi- 
ness in Fulton county, Ohio, drifted from that occupation into the oil in- 
dustry and took contracts for production in that state as well as in Indiana. 
After removing to California and settling at Bakersfield in March, 1900, he 
engaged in drilling oil wells by contract. Now at the age of seventy-three 
years, he is living in retirement from business cares. Of his six children four 
are now living. The second son, Louis C, was killed on New Year's day of 1908 
by a dynamite explosion on a lease in the Kern river field. A daughter, Effie, 
died in Toledo, Ohio. Mrs. Celia Klofenstein is a resident of Los Angeles 
and George is engaged in drilling water wells for the Santa Fe in Arizona. 
The youngest member of the family circle, Harry, born in 1884, began to 
work in the Kern river field in 1901 and is now foreman of production with 
the United Oil Company. 

Upon leaving high school at the age of sixteen years Frank A. Fether 
began to assist his father in his drilling contracts, by which work he soon 
became competent in the care of the tools and as an assistant in drilling. At 
different times he worked in many of the oil fields of Ohio and Indiana. With 
the money earned in the oil business he paid his expenses while attending 
the Wauseon Normal in Fulton county, Ohio. Fortified by a varied experi- 
ence in eastern fields, he came to California in 1900 to take up work in the 
same business. After an experience as driller in the Kern river field with 
different companies, in 1902 he was made superintendent of the Monte Cristo 
Oil Company, which responsible position he filled for more than four years. 
A brief time spent in the Whittier field as superintendent of the Central Oil 
Company was followed by his entrance into the Utah oil fields in 1907 as 
superintendent of a lease in the Virgin river district. Returning to California 
January 1, 1908, he entered upon the duties of superintendent of Section 25 
Oil Company in the Midway. Under his supervision four wells were drilled 
and brought into paying production. Upon resigning that position he be- 
came superintendent of drilling for the Standard Oil Company. Later he 
was promoted to be assistant general superintendent. From the Standard 
he went to the Palmer Oil Company in the Santa Maria field, where he con- 
tinued for two and one-half years, until 1913, when he became superintendent 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1029 

of the United Oil Company in the Midway field. By his marriage to Miss 
McGuire, of Antwerp, Ohio, he has two sons, Donald and Kenneth. While 
living in Ohio he was made a Mason in Bryan Lodge No. 215, A. F. & A. M., 
at Bryan, Williams county, and since coming to the West he has identified 
himself with the Elks in Bakersfield Lodge No. 266. 

DAVID E. MARTIN.— The superintendent of the Oakland Midway Oil 
Company, owners of a lease of thirty acres on section 13, 31-22, was born near 
Lettsville, Louisa county, Iowa, June 1, 1856, and is a son of the late David 
and Mary (Walters) Martin, natives of Pennsylvania. Allured by the rich soil 
of Iowa, the father left Pennsylvania in the hope of bettering his condition in 
the newer state, but poverty retarded his efforts and hampered his success. 
His rented farm was scarcely equal to the task of supporting the family and 
returning a revenue to the owner. There were five small children (David E. 
the eldest) to be cared for and four of these are now living. W^hen a call was 
made for volunteers during the stress of the Civil war, the father left his 
home and family and offered his services to the Union. Accepted as a private 
in the ranks, he was sent into camp to be drilled in military tactics, but he died 
suddenly before the company had been ordered to the front. The mother 
survived him for many years and eventually died about 1908 at Batavia, Iowa, 
at the age of seventy-five years. 

When the father died the task of caring for the children proved too great 
for the widowed mother and she therefore put the eldest child, David E., 
in the care of Jim Thompson, of Louisa county, it being the agreement that 
at the age of twenty-one he should be paid $100 besides a horse, saddle and 
bridle. For some years all went well. The boy worked on the farm in the 
summers and attended the country school in the winter months. However, 
at the age of nineteen he began to grow dissatisfied. The fact that his chum, 
Anson Kelly, had been made an engineer on the Rock Island Railroad turned' 
his thoughts toward railroading and he determined to be a fireman. At first 
Mr. Thompson protested against losing his services, but finally he agreed 
to let him go and gave him $100. Then his mother raised objections, stating 
that if he must leave the farm, she wished him to return to relatives in Penn- 
sylvania. His consent to this measure was secured, a ticket was purchased for 
Scrub Grass, Venango county. Pa., where he duly arrived December 8, 1875. 
Immediately he found that all of his cousins and uncles were engaged in the oil 
industry and a resolve was formed in his own mind to engage in the same 
work. An excellent training was had in the employ of Isaac Dean, a large 
oil operator who gained a national reputation through being the Greenback 
nominee for vice-president in the days of Horace Greeley. After some ex- 
perience as a day laborer with this gentleman, the latter presented him with 
an entire outfit of standard tools and entered into a contract with him to drill 
seven wells at $1.25 per foot. The work was to be done at Bullion, Venango 
county. The job was completed in one year and netted the young contractor 
$2,000. At Crawford's Corners in Venango county, Pa., during the fall of 
1878 he drilled a well for John P. Crawford and struck a strong flow of natural 
gas. Next he drilled a well for William P. Crawford and struck oil. Prior to 
that time wood and coal had been used for steam purposes. After starting the 
oil well Mr. Martin suggested to William P. Crawford that he provide suf- 
ficient two-inch pipe so that his boilers could be connected with the gas well 
on the land of John P. Crawford. The gentleman shook his head in discour- 
agement of such a proposition, stating that gas would not run through a two- 
inch pipe for such a distance (one mile). The insistence of the young driller, 
however, won the day and the two-inch pipe was procured, the main laid, the 
gas fed into the boilers and the experiment proved a success. Thereupon the 
authorities at Hugginsville were encouraged to lav an inch pipe from the same 
gas well to their city during the winter of 1878-79. The pipe was run up 



1030 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

about twelve feet high in the center of the public square, where the gas 
burned day and night. The History of Pennsylvania verifies the statement 
that this was the first experiment in using natural gas for lighting in the state. 
Soon afterward mains were laid and natural gas became available for cooking 
and other domestic purposes. 

Thus it will be seen that David E. Martin played a very important part 
in the utilization of natural gas. Encouraged by his first success, he engaged 
in contract drilling at Bradford from 1879 to 1882. Meanwhile in Venango 
county in 1879 he was united in marriage with Aliss Mary IMatilda Hufifman, 
a daughter of D. Hufifman, a farmer and coal miner living near Mechanicsville. 
'l^hey are the parents of three children, namely: S. H., superintendent of the 
Sterling division of the Associated Oil Company; Mary Elizabeth, wife of 
N. B. Harris, who is connected with the detective service in Los Angeles; 
and Golden Loretta, wife of Russell Vaughn, a driller on the Oakland. 

As drilling contractor for H. B. Porter, of Titusville, Pa., in 1882 Mr. 
Martin drilled the first well in the Clarendon field. After three years in that 
field he went to Titusville, where he engaged in the oil business and also pur- 
chased a home. In the interests of the Union Oil Company and at the request 
of Milton Stewart, of Titusville, he came to California, settling at Santa 
Paula in 1892, after which he drilled in that field for three years. Later he 
engaged in contract drilling in the Los Angeles field, but the work was 
entirely different from similar work in the Pennsylvania fields, consequently 
he did not meet with success. Selling his interest in the drilling outfit, he \vent 
to Whittier in 1897 and engaged as superintendent for Central Oil Company, 
which corporation was greatly prospered by reason of his executive super- 
vision. After five and one-half years on the same lease, in July, 1902, he came 
to the Kern river field and took charge of the Sterling Oil Company. During 
1903 he spent four months at Point Angelus, on the west coast of Mexico, 
where he built two rigs and started the task of developing a large property 
for the Mexican republic under the presidency of General Diaz. However, 
it was soon discovered that the rigs were too far from the seepage and there- 
fore the project had to be abandoned. After a short visit in Mexico City, 
where he received the pay for his services, he returned to the Kern river field 
and resumed work with the Sterling. 

At the expiration of four and one-half years with the Sterline lease Mr. 
Martin went to Utah in October, 1907, and remained there until jMarch, 1908. 
meanwhile engaging in wildcat drilling under the supervision of H. H. Blood. 
Upon his return to California he took charge of the American Petroleum on 
the Niles lease at Sherman Junction, where he remained for three months. 
Next at Maricopa he had charge of the Fulton for one year. From there he 
went to Bvron and Salt creek to open up the Wyoming field for ^^^illiam G. 
Henshaw, of Oakland. The venture proved successful. A fine flowing well 
was secured. After one year in Wyoming he returned to California and 
entered the service of the January Oil Company on 25 Hill, where he remained 
for two vears. March 11, 1912, he became superintendent of the Oakland ]\lid- 
wav Oil Company. Since beginning his duties in this capacity he has built ^11 
the houses on the lease and has transformed the district from sage brush to a 
finelv improved holding, with three wells making an average of six thousand 
barrels each month. A fourth well will soon be brought in, thus increasing 
the production. After coming here he bought forty acres near Edison. 

W. N. THOMPSON. — A Texan, Mr. Thompson was born at Cleburne, 
.August 24, 1885, and is next to the oldest among the four surviving children 
of H. F. Thompson, a farmer in the Lone Star state. The discovery of oil at 
the Spindletop caused him to go to Beaumont when he was only fifteen and 
ever since then he has supported himself through his labors in oil fields. Nat- 
urallv he began as a roustabout. The hardships of the life did not dishearten 



HISTORY OF KF.RX COUXTY 1033 

Iiini. P'rom the first he determined to acquire a thorough knowledge of every 
department of the industry. When only seventeen he was an experienced tool- 
dresser, gang-pusher and driller, his first experience as a driller having been 
gained in the Sour Lake field in Texas. When nineteen years of age he was 
.steadily employed by the Texas Oil Company as a driller in the Saratoga 
field, in which district oil was struck at a depth of about sixteen hundred feet. 
During his service with that concern he brought in some profitable wells, a 
number of them being gushers. For four months he engaged in drilling at 
Evangeline, parish of Arcadia, La., and later he spent eight months drilling in 
West Texas on a wild-cat well. During the period of work in that part of 
the country he was married in New Mexico, August 12, 1910, to iVliss Norena 
Hughes, a native of Texas. From that state he and his wife came to California 
and settled at Coalinga in February, 1911, after which for fourteen months he 
engaged in drilling for the Kern Trading & Oil Company, from them in 
March, 1912, coming to the Standard Oil Company at Taft. With his wife 
and son, Horace W., he has a comfortable home in the residence formerly oc- 
cupied by Cyrus Bell during the period of his service as division sunerintendent 
for the Standard. The now justly celebrated well of the Standard Oil Com- 
pany, known as the McNee No. 10 on Section 36, was drilled by means of 
rotary tools and brought in during July, 1912, under the foremanship of Mr. 
Thompson. Without doubt it is the largest gusher in California today. It 
approaches the celebrated Lakeview- itself. 

GEORGE LEE SNIDER.— The transplanting of the Snider family from 
Germany to Pennsylvania took place in the era of colonial settlement in 
America. Later generations removed from the Keystone state to Ohio and 
A. W. Snider, a native of Montgomery, Hamilton County, Ohio, established 
the famil}^ fortunes still further toward the west, removing first to Illinois 
and later to Missouri, where he engaged in the manufacture of lumber. About 
1877 he became a pioneer of Florida and settled at Ouincy, Gadsden County, 
where he operated a sawmill and made a specialty of the manufacture of 
lumber. Years of active business pursuits were followed by retirement to 
private life and in 1908 he and his wife joined their youngest child in East 
Bakersfield. where he still makes his home. For a number of years before 
the consolidation he served as a trustee of Kern. His wife, who bore the 
maiden name of Ellen Conover, was born in Newark, N. J-, of Scotch and 
Dutch ancestry, and died in East Bakersfield. Five children comprised their 
family and the youngest of these, George Lee, was born near Carthage, Mo., 
November 22, 1875, but was only two years of age at the time of the removal 
to Fl( rida. During boyhood he attended the public schools of Ouincy, where 
later he learned the trade of a machinist and the details of the sawmill business. 

Arriving in Bakersfield on a November day in 1886 with only $16 in 
his possession, George Lee Snider immediately inquired concerning employ- 
ment and was fortunate in securing work at once. The day after his arrival 
he began to work for the Kern County Land Company and for tliree years 
he continued in their warehouse department, meanwhile being promoted to 
the foremanship of the Sumner warehouse. Upon resigning from that 
company he entered the machine department of the Southern Pacific shops, 
where he remained a valued and trustworthy employe until June of 1904, 
resigning at that time in order to engage in business for himself. Ability 
as a mechanic led him to embark in the bicycle business. For a time 
he had a shop in a basement on the corner of Humboldt and Baker streets. 
Soon, however, he outgrew those quarters. From there he removed to No. 985 
Baker street. Next he purchased unimproved property at No. 958 Baker 
street, where he erected a frame business building, 22x90 feet in dimensions, 
equipped with the conveniences desirable for the satisfactory management 
of his affairs. In 1913 he moved the old building and erected a new brick 



1034 HISTom' OF KI^RX CO I' XT Y 

building, 25x60. two stories, with an addition 25x30 feet. He occupies the 
entire building- for his business. 

Resides owning his business builcHng and a residence at No. 1012 
Sacramento street. East Bakersfield, Mr. Snider owns a stock ranch near 
Glennville and is engaged in raising cattle and horses. In Calvary, Ga., he 
married ]\Iiss Lochie L. Herring, a native of that town and a daughter of 
P. H. Herring, who for years has held the office of county ordinary. They 
are the parents of three chiUlren, Leota Ellen, Lloyd Conover and George 
Lee, Jr. The family hold membership with the Chesboro Methodist Episcopal 
church in East Bakersfield. The Bakersfield Motorcycle Club numbers Mr. 
Snider among its most interested members. Politically he votes with the 
Democratic party in general elections. Perhaps no movement of public 
importance interests him in a greater degree than does that of education. The 
public school system has in him a stanch friend. When the consolidation of 
Kern with Bakersfield took place he was serving as a member of the Kern 
board of school trustees. At the first election (special) he was chosen a 
member of the Bakersfield board of education. At the regular election in 
June of 1911 he wa§ re-elected to serve for a term of four years. 

NICKLAS TSCHURR.— A native of Switzerland, Nicklas Tschurr was 
born in Donath, Canton Graubunden, January 9, 1888. His father, Chris 
Tschurr, was a farmer and dairyman at Donath, where he was also a mem- 
ber of the board of village trustees. In this Alpine village Nicklas received 
his education in the public and high school, assisting his father and learn- 
ing the dairy business from the time he was a boy. 

In 1907 Nicklas Tschurr determined to try his fortune in the United 
States, and having heard good reports from Kern county, Cal., came here 
forthwith, arriving in April, 1907. For eighteen months he was employed 
as buttermaker at the Swiss-American Creamery, after which he leased land 
and ranched with such success that three years later, in 1912, he was able 
to purchase one hundred and sixty acres of wild land tw^o miles south of the 
Old River school house. This he has put under the plow and into grain, 
while twenty acres has already been checked and sown to alfalfa. It is his 
intention just as soon as it is possible to have it all in growing alfalfa and 
engage in the dairy industry that he understands so well. The place is all 
under irrigation from the Stine canal. He has put up substantial improve- 
ments, such as a comfortable bungalow and a large barn. Politically he es- 
pouses the cause of the Republican party. 

J. C. McDonald. — -To serve the Combination Midway Oil Company as 
superintendent and to hold rank among the thoroughly reliable operators in 
the west side field does not represent the limit of activities of Mr. McDonald, 
for being a carpenter and builder by trade, he obtained the contract for the 
building of the I. O. O. 1'. hall on Center street, Taft. The summer of 1913 
was largely devoted to the task of building this hall, which is 50x118 feet in 
dimensions, with a cement basement surmounted by two stories, of pressed 
brick construction, with plate-glass front. 

It is natural that Mr. McDonald should show skill in carpentering, for 
he was l)r()ught up to a thorough knowledge of the trade by his father, J. W. 
McDonald, a contractor and builder in Missouri, more recently a resident of 
Lemoore, Kings county, Cal. Born in Centralia, Mo., July 28, 1881, J. C. Mc- 
Donald was orphaned by the death of his mother when he was only two years 
of age and the loss of her afl^ectionate oversight cast a gloom over the days of 
his boyhood. On the day that he was eighteen he left Missouri for California. 
To earn a livelihood he was prepared by a knowledge of carpentering. Imme- 
diately after his arrival in Bakersfield he secured day work with Superintendent 
Canfield on the Central Point. In a short time he had mastered the business 
of ])erforating wells and he continued at that work in the Kern river field 
until 1'>'02, when he went to Los Angeles to take up work as a carpenter and 




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HISTORY OF KF.RX COUNTY 1037 

builder. Four and one-half years were spent in that city and in 1907 he 
returned to Kern county, came to the Midway field and secured a position with 
one of the companies engaged in development work. For a time he was with 
the Amazon and Alpine Oil Companies. For some years he has been asso- 
ciated with Barlow & Hill, the well-known oil operators of Bakersfield, and 
for them he has built rigs in the North Midway field and more recently has 
had charge of the Combination Midway Oil Company on section 2, 31-23. At 
Bakersfield in 1901 he married Miss Lizzie McMahan, of Missouri, and -they 
and their children, Erwin and Irma, occupy a cottage on the lease of the 
Combination Midway, where also he has his office and headquarters. 

CELSUS BROWER. — Descended in direct line from Jacob Brower (or 
Brauer, as originally spelled), who came from Holland to New York during 
the seventeenth century, Celsus Brower was born in New York City July 21, 
1840, and received the advantages of the New York free schools and free 
academy. However, owing to ill health, he left the academy during the 
second year of his attendance, and in October of 1859 came to California, 
where he settled in Sierra county and engaged in the hotel business. The 
floodtide of patriotism sweeping through Sierra county in 1863, he joined a 
company organizing there under promise of incorporation with an expedition 
under General Banks against Texas, which falling through, and failing of 
muster-in under a commission received as second lieutenant in the Sixth 
California Infantry, he served on extra duty in the commissary department in 
San Francisco during the remainder of his term. Upon being mustered out 
as sergeant-major in 1866 he immediately was appointed chief clerk in the 
offices of the mustering and disbursing officer, the acting assistant provost- 
marshal general and superintendent of volunteer recruiting service, under 
Gen. Washington Seawell, an officer noted for system and integrity in the 
performance of his official duties. 

Upon the closing of the military department and the arranging of its 
records for preservation at Washington, the interim between that time and 
coming to Kern county was divided by Mr. Brower betw^een service as 
inspector of customs at San Francisco and a visit in the east. In search of 
health, which had been shaken through pulmonary afifection, he left San 
Francisco in October, 1872, and settled at Bakersfield, where since he has 
made his home. Business activities in Bakersfield began with the keeping of 
books for the firm of Livermore & Chester. In 1873, upon assignment of 
the affairs of the Cotton Growers' Association to J. H. Redington in trust for 
settlement, he was appointed attorney-in-fact for the trustee, with manage- 
ment of the business, which later was absorbed b}^ Horatio P. Livermore 
and continued under the name of the Livermore agency of Kern county. 

The various litigations over water rights resulted finally in the transfer 
of the Livermore property to J. B. Haggin. Mr. Brower was retained as 
secretary in charge of the canal department of Haggin & Carr until the year 
1898, when ill health forced him to resign and seek change through a visit in 
the eastern states. Returning in the fall of that year, when the Haggin & 
Carr lands were about to be offered for colonization, he accepted a position 
with L. C. McAfee in the management of the colony sales under the name of 
the land department of J. B. Haggin, subsequently turned over to S. \\'. 
Ferguson upon a general change in the business of Haggin & Carr to the 
Kern County Land Company, in present existence. Upon the approach of the 
four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America the Kern County 
World's Fair Association was formed for the purpose of gathering and 
installing a Kern county exhibit at the Chicago exposition. Having been 
selected as secretary and manager. Mr. Brower completed the assembling 
and installation of Kern county's products at that exposition. As of more inti- 
mate association with the afifairs of Bakersfield. it mav be stated that Mr. 



1038 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Brower was the first president of the Board of Trade, elected in 1889; first 
president and afterward secretary of the Southern Hotel Association, director 
variously in the Kern Valley Bank and the First National Bank of Bakers- 
field ; secretary of the Bakersfield school department since 1897, a position 
still held, and in which, in association with E. P. Davis, a trustee, and H. A. 
Blodget, subsequently the president of the school board, the school affairs of 
the city were wrested from political influences and placed upon a constantly 
advancing line of progress. At present Mr. Brower is interested in oil and 
real estate, also in the management of his office building recently erected in 
Bakersfield. The Brower building is a four-story brick building on the corner 
of Nineteenth and I streets, in the center of the business district, which was 
erected in 1910-11, is the most up-to-date office building in the city, having 
all the modern conveniences. 

J. H. WHALEY. — It would be impossible to make an extended mention 
of the Honolulu Consolidated Oil Company without considerable reference to 
the popular superintendent, J. H. Whaley, whose association with the great 
corporation has been conducive to the profitable development of its holdings 
in the famous Midway field. Equally impossible would it be to mention either 
the superintendent or the property without extensive reference to the presi- 
dent of the company, Capt. William Matson, of San Francisco, a wealthy and 
influential sea captain, who owns large holdings in that city and is also a 
large stockholder in the steamship line and president of the Matson Navigation 
Company. In the course of his many voyages to the Hawaiian Islands he has 
formed the acquaintance of capitalists in Honolulu and some of these gentle- 
men organized the Honolulu Oil Company, choosing the Captain as presi- 
dent. The majority of the stock is held in the island city. 

The honor of being a native son of California belongs to Mr. Whaley, 
vvho was born in Placer county July 18, 1870, and was one of three sons attain- 
ing to maturity. Of these Edward is now deceased and C. C, a carpenter, is 
living at Santa Maria, this state. The parents, John O. and Margaret E. (Hol- 
land) Whaley, were natives respectively of Missouri and Georgia. As early 
as 1852 the former came across the plains with a train of wagons and ox-teams. 
Arriving in California, he mined in Placer county and later engaged in farm- 
ing. His marriage to Miss Holland was solemnized in Sacramento county. 
For some years he has been living a retired life at Santa Alaria. enjoying in 
his declining days the comforts accumulated during an identification with 
California of more than sixty years. 

From an early age Mr. Whaley was self-sup]iorting and upon his arrival 
in Kern county he secured empkyment as a day laborer for the A. N. Towne 
Company, on the Towne ranch south of Bakersfield. With the opening of the 
Kern river oil field he became interested in the oil industry and ever since 
then he has devoted himself with energy to the business. After seven months in 
the Kern river field he went to the Sunset field and worked with a drilling 
gang. For seven years he was engaged at Coalinga with a number of promi- 
nent companies, but much of his association with the industry has been in 
the Midway field. After a year as superintendent of the Commercial Oil Com- 
pany he came to the Honolulu at the request of Captain Matson, whose ac- 
(|uaintance he had formed while engaged as a driller. For some years he has 
made his home on the company property. After coming to Taft he aided in 
the organization of the blue lodge, became one of its charter members and is 
the present master, besides which he is a Scottish Rite Mason and belongs to 
the Fresno Consistory. 

WALTER PALMER.— One of the native sons of Kern county is Walter 
Palmer, born at Claraville November 21, 1876, the son of Robert Palmer, who 
was a pioneer of California and Kern county and whose biography appears 
elsewhere in this volume. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1041 

Robert Palmer from a boy was reared on the Palmer ranch in Hot 
Springs valley, receiving a good education in the local schools. He was 
actively helpful to his father in the stock business and learned ranching 
and the cattle business. He also tried his hand at mining and began develop- 
ing one of his father's old claims, the Ticknor creek })lacer mine, where he 
has been mining for many seasons. 

In 1910 Mr. Palmer joined with his mother in operating the Palmer 
ranch, where they are engaged in hay and stock-raising. Ninety acres of 
the ranch is devoted to alfalfa and he is making a specialty of raising hogs. 

GREEN BROTHERS.— In 1907 John L. and Bert Green purchased 
eighty acres five and a half miles south of East Bakerslield, upon which an 
excellent system of irrigation was established. Here they engaged in raising 
alfalfa for hay until leasing the property in 1912. 

The brothers are native sons of the state and were born in Santa Barbara 
county, John L., January 12, 1873, and Bert, March 17, 1875, being sons of 
J. W. Green, an honored citizen of Kern county and Californian pioneer, 
having come to the state January 6, 1846, and now acting as road overseer 
under Supervisor J. M. Bush, whose wise judgment in selecting him for the 
responsible position is proved by the excellent work done on the county roads. 
The father being unable to give the sons any financial help, it was necessary 
for them to take up the battle of self-support when still young in years and 
they therefore had only limited educational advantages, although through 
reading and observation both have become well informed. After having spent 
the years of early life in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties they came to 
Kern county in November of 1891 and began to earn their livelihoods as 
teamsters. For some years they made a specialty of hauling freight to "Old 
Sunset". Working early and late and saving their earnings with frugal fore- 
thought, they were able to secure an amount finally that justified them in 
buying land, and thus they have become property owners solely through 
their own unaided and long-continued efTorts. The younger brother is un- 
married. The older brother, John L., in 1900 was united in marriage with 
Miss Margaret T. Wright, a resident of Sacramento and a native daughter 
of the commonwealth, her father, Oren Wright, having been a pioneer of 
California. The brothers have been stanch in their allegiance to the Demo- 
cratic party ever since they became voters, but neither has sought ofificial 
honors or local party leadership. Fraternally they hold membership with the 
Woodmen of the World at Bakersfield. In regard to the future of Kern 
county both are optimistic. Appreciating the possibilities of the land, the 
fertility of the soil and the advantages of the climate for the production of 
many valuable agricultural crops, they discern for their community a future 
of material prosperity and enlarged imoortance, and their^own diligent efiforts 
and unwearied industry are promoting the attainment of this desired result. 
The brothers sold out their stock and dairy interests December 10, 1912, 
and rented their eighty-acre ranch for five years. John L. has assumed 
the superintendency of the H. R. Peacock stock farm, situated nine miles 
south of Bakersfield. wdiile Bert is taking charge of the W. W. Frazier stock 
and hay ranch of four hundred and forty acres, near the Gosford ranch, 
one mile west of Gosford Station. 

ROBERT R. McGUIRE.— A reputation as one of the experienced and 
skilled drillers in the Midway field belongs to "Bob" McGuire, who has had 
an extensive training in many of the oil fields of the United States and who 
is perhaps as favorably known as any west side oil man. It is natural that he 
should be interested in the oil industry, for his father before him. although 
a farmer by occunation, devoted much time to the oil business in the pioneer 
period of its development in the York state fields, and in addition his only 
brother. Harrv H.. now in Olean. Cattaraugus county. N. Y.. has been a 



1042 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

skilled driller for some years and recently had charge of a very important 
drilling contract in the Brazilian fields of South America. Besides these two 
brothers there is a sister, Eva, who is now the wife of R. L. Turner, employed 
in the Fullerton oil fields in California. The father, J. G. McGuire, a native 
of New York, is now deceased ; the mother, who bore the maiden name of 
Elizabeth Gross, is now making her home at Santa Paula, Ventura county. 
The first twelve years in the life of Robert R. McGuire were passed at Olean, 
Cattaraugus county, N. Y., where he was born December 24, 1882. After the 
death of his father the family came to California and settled at Santa Paula, 
where he completed the studies of the grammar schools. He also attended the 
Ventura high schools for two years. At seventeen he began to \vork in the 
Santa Paula oil fields. For a time he was engaged in laying pipe lines for the 
Union Oil Company and later he was with other companies in the same field. 
Coming to Kern county in 1^01 and engaging with Easton. Eldridge & 
Co., in the Sunset field, he remained with that concern for eight months. 
Upon returning to the Santa Paula field he secured employment with Hobson 
& Co., with whom he continued for four months. Coming again to Kern 
county, he went over to the Kern river field and engaged with the California 
Mutual Oil Company. In a short time he left for McKittrick, where he 
dressed tools on the Southern Pacific lease and then for some years engaged 
in drilling under the superintendent, W. E. Ott. An experience with the 
Kansas oil fields began in 1905 and continued for one and one-half years, dur- 
ing which time he drilled successively at Peru, Bolton, Sedan and Cofifeyville. 
Upon his return to California and the resumntion of work with the Union Oil 
Company, he was put to drilling in the Santa Maria field. Eighteen months 
later he went to San Luis Obispo and took charge of the drilling for the 
Southern and Encinal Oil Company. From there he went to Humboldt county 
and drilled for the Petrolia Oil Company, but was not able to find oil in pro- 
ductive quantities. Returning to the Midway field, he took charge of the 
Golden Gate Petroleum Company near Maricopa and again suffered the dis- 
appointment of drilling without success. His next experience as a driller w^as 
on the Sunset Extension. From there he went to the Northern Exploration 
Company as field foreman and six months afterward, in 1913, he entered upon 
his present duties as drilling foreman on the lease of the Honolulu Con- 
solidated Oil Company, situated on section 10, 32-24, in the Midway field. 

JOHN P. JOHNSON. — The Scandinavian countries have given to the 
Ignited States numerous industrious citizens, whose untiring effort, econom- 
ical habits and thrifty manner of living have made them prosperous home- 
makers, bringing their families up to be loyal, patriotic citizens of America. 
In Kern county there are large numbers of these residents, who have brought 
their wf rldly goods here with the intention of settling and making California 
their permanent homes, and almost inevitably they have prospered and be- 
come well-to-do and contented. John P. Johnson, owner and manager of the 
liquor house situated at No. 705 Sumner street. East Bakersfield, was born 
on the island of Oeland, Sweden, September 22, 1882, and his early youth was 
there nassed on the farm of his parents. 

The father. J( hn P. Tohnson. Sr., was a nati\e of Sweden and tliere passed 
his entire life, following agricultural pursuits. He was prosperous and so en- 
abled to give to his children the advantages of a thorough educational training, 
rearing them to become representative men and women. In such an atmos- 
phere John P., Ir., grew to manhood, working on the farm with his father 
during his vacations from school until he reached the age of seventeen years, 
then embarking for the new world to try his fortune among the people of the 
far west. Sailing for America he upon arriving immediately made his way 
to San Francisco, where he arrived in 1900, and after a month came to Bakers- 
field, where he has ever since resided. Until January, 1909, he was employed 




^^^^^ /%^^^^^«i^/' 



HISTORY 01<^ KRKX COUNTY 1045 

by various firms, gaining a foothold in the business world, and at this time 
he purchased an interest in the Leader Hfjuor estal^lishment, which he con- 
ducted with such success that in January. 1912, he accepted an coffer to buy it. 
After selling the business to G. Galli he was persuaded by the new owner to 
remain as manager. His knowledge of the conduct of the place and his 
familiarity with its details made him invaluable in this direction. In June, 
1912. he bought back the Leader and is now its sole owner. 

Mr. Johnson has been thrifty in liis manner of living and keen in invest- 
ing his accumulations, and he owns property in East Bakersfield. including city 
lots and a residence, which have become valuable holdings. He and his charm- 
mg wife, who was Miss Marcelle Phillips before her marriage, reside in their 
well-built home in East Bakersfield, where they give a hearty welcome to their 
many friends. Mrs. Johnson was born in East Bakersfield and is a daughter 
of Jean Phillins, well known in this town. In party afifairs Mr. Johnson in- 
terests himself with the Republican party, though he does not hold political 
ofifice or have any desire for same. He is a member of the Eagles and the 
Order of Mrose. 

GEORGE HASTINGS.—In a family of nine children, four of whom are 
living, George Hastings was third and was born in Newmarket. Highland 
county, Ohio, September 1, 1851. When four years of age he was taken to 
Illinois by his parents, James and Rebecca (Dill) Hastings, natives of Ohio, 
who settled in Chicago. Eventually the father became a pattern-maker in 
a shop in Rock Island, 111., where he remained throughout the balance of 
his life. His wife also died in Illinois. When the family removed to Rock 
Island the son was a boy of nine years and afterward he attended the public 
schools of that city until sixteen years of age. when he was apprenticed to 
the trade of a machinist in the Rock Island shops in Chicago. Upon the 
completion of his time he was given work as a fireman on a Rock Island 
train out of Chicago, and in 1876 he w^as promoted to be an engineer from 
Chicago to Peru, and Peoria, 111., after which he served successively with 
the Illinois Central, the Wabash and the Frisco roads. Coming to the 
Santa Fe road he was retained for a time as machinist in the Albuquerque 
shops and in January of 1882 was given an engine. Five months later he 
was transferred to Arizona and stationed at Winslow as headquarters. 

Beginning in the fall of 1884 Mr. Hastings had a run between Needles 
and Mojave, after which he had charge of an engine from Barstow to Mojave, 
making his headquarters in the latter town. Nor was there any change in 
his location when he was given the helper engine over the Tehachapi moun- 
tains, and he still makes his home in Mojave, where he owns a cottage 
erected by himself. For years he has been interested in the work of the 
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. His marriage took place in Peoria, 
111., and united him with Miss Ida West, who was born in New York state 
and died at Mojave in ^lay of 1909. Five children had blessed their union, 
namely: Mrs. Eva Parton, of Mojave; Howard, who died at the age of 
twenty-two years ; William and Elmer, both employed in Los Angeles ; and 
Bessie, who remains with her father. Always interested in the cause of 
education, he has been active in the upbuilding of the grammar schools of 
Mojave, having been a member of the board of trustees for about thirteen 
years, most of the time serving as clerk of the board. Fraternally Mr. Hast- 
ings holds membership with the Ancient Order of United Workmen and with 
the Masons, having been made a Mason in Tehachapi Lodge No. 313. 
F. & A. M.. and also being connected with Tehachapi Chapter No. 188, Order 
of the Eastern Star. 

ANGUS McLEOD CRITES.— For a period of more than one-half cen- 
tury Mr. Crites was intimately identified with the upbuilding of California, 
and for forty years he made Kern county his home, meanwhile associating 
himself with manv movements for the local advancement. It was his privi- 



1046 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

lege to witness a radical transformation in the conntry. Its crudities gave 
place to refining influences and its primeval aspect became merged into an 
attractive environment of great productive possibilities. Today it boasts of a 
population as refined and cultured as is to be found in the state. Born near 
Massena Springs, St. Lawrence county, New York, on the St. Lawrence river, 
in 1838, Angus McLeod Crites was a youth of seventeen when he followed 
the tide of emigration toward the far west. During 1855 he sailed from New 
York on a ship bound for the Isthmus of Panama. Arriving there, he 
walked the entire distance across to the Pacific coast and then boarded a ship 
bound for San Francisco. On his arrival he secured work on Alcatraz island 
and later helped in the building up of Fort Point. By practical experience 
he gained a thorough knowledge of carpentering and the millwright's trade. 
After he came to Kern county in 1864 he was employed as a millwright at 
Havilah and built several quartz mills, including the mill for the Big Blue 
mine at Whiskey Flat. From there, in 1868, he went to Rio Bravo and built 
the farm buildings for Jewett Brothers. Next he became interested in the 
sheep business, bought a flock and ranged them on the plains and mountains, 
later locating land in Keene district, on what is now the road between Te- 
hachapi and Bakersfield, and building a house at that place. Like many other 
of the early sheep-growers, he left that industry for the cattle business and 
in time he became the owner of a very large herd of stock. In addition to his 
cattle interests he served as deputy county assessor, and at the time that 
the railroad ended at Caliente he was serving as justice of the peace. He was 
married in 1870 to Miss Louesa M. Jewett, whose biography appears else- 
where. His death occurred September 28, 1904, and removed from among his 
family and friends one who ever had been devoted to their welfare, a pro- 
moter of their happiness as also of the general community prosperity. In the 
annals of the county history his name is worthy of a permanent place. 

MRS. LOUESA MARIA CRITES.— The distinction of having been 
the first woman teacher in Kern county belongs to Mrs. Crites, who as Miss 
Jewett began to teach at Tehachapi May 20, 1867, and continued in the same 
position for five months. It is interesting to note how many pupils she had 
in that first school and to what families they belonged. The school was com- 
posed of the following pupils : five of the Dozier children and the same number 
from the Wiggins family; f( ur of the Brites family, one Hossick, two Hart 
children, four of the Cuddeback family, three of the Tyler and one of the Hale 
family, and Nellie Calhoun, later a celebrated actress, who was then seven 
years of age and staying with her grandmother, Airs. James Williams, at Old- 
town. At first the teacher boarded with the Dozier family, but when their 
house was destroyed by fire she was taken into the Wiggins home, from which 
place she rode on horseback to her school. The original agreement provided 
that she should teach for three months, but when the patrons of the school 
found that if she taught for five months they could draw public money for her 
salary the change was made and she remained for a longer term than originally 
stipulated. W'hen she made the trip to Tehachapi she rode horseback, as 
there was only a trail. 

Born at Weybridge, Addison county, Vt., in 1833, Louesa IMaria Jewett 
was a daughter of Solomon Wright Jewett, the most prominent im- 
]'jorter and breeder of merino sheep of his day. Further mention of the family 
appears elsewhere in this volume, in the sketch of her brother, the late Solo- 
mon Jewett. The best educational advantages of the locality were given to 
her during girlhood and of these she availed herself to the utmost. After her 
graduation from the seminary at Middlebury, Addison county, she went south 
to Virginia and taught in a young ladies' boarding school in Mecklenburg 
county. During 1860 she went to Texas to serve as teacher in private schools 
in Gonzales county and continued in that position until 1866, when, after hav- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1047 

ing" spent the summer in Wisconsin, she came in the autumn to CaHfornia by 
way of Panama, arriving in Kern county January 17, 1867. Until her mar- 
riage she made her home with her brothers, Solomon and Philo D., on the 
Kern river. As previously stated, she was the first woman teacher in the 
county. Miss Jackson, who was the second, soon followed her in the work. 
Rev. Mr. Edwards, a Presbyterian clergyman, officiated at the marriage 
of Angus McLeod Crites and Louesa Maria Jewett, which was solemnized 
at Visalia, August 30, 1870. Four children came to bless their union. The 
eldest, Fidelia Belle, died at the age of eleven years and eleven months. There 
are three sons now living, namely : Angus Jewett, who is superintendent of the 
Peerless Oil Company ; Arthur Saxe, cashier of the First Bank of Kern ; and 
George Solcmon, a supervising engineer at Tucson, Ariz. From girlhood Mrs. 
Crites has been an earnest Christian. 

CYRUS FELIX DEMSEY, M.D.— The strong qualities that made 
members of the Demsey family desirable citizens in every locality in which 
they settled were well represented in the make-up of Cyrus F. Demsey, who 
lor over sixty 3'ears was a resident of this state, tvv-enty years of this time 
being passed in Mojave, where as physician during the earlier years and as 
postmaster in later life he rendered conscientious service to his fellow-citizens. 
Ohio was the early home of the Demsey family, and in Portsmouth C. F. 
Demsey was born April 30, 1838. The schools of his birthplace supplied him 
with a good educational foundation and the locality otherwise contributed to 
his well-being until he attained young manhood, when the interest in Califor- 
nia which had then become so general throughout the country attracted him 
to the west. By way of Panama he reached California in the early '50s and 
was interested in mining more or less until the breaking out of the Civil war. 
As a member of what was known as the "California Hundred," he returned 
east and enlisted his services for the defense of the Union, becoming a private 
in Company A, Second Massachusetts Cavalry, and during the three years 
of his enlistment he was twice wounded. It was after his service in the army 
that he turned his attention toward a professional life, having in the mean- 
time determined to become a physician and surgeon. With this idea in view 
he went to Chicago and matriculated in Rush Medical College, from which 
well-known institution he was graduated in due time with the degree of 
M.D. Subsequently he established an office for the practice of his profession 
in Missouri, and later in Macon county, Illinois, but still later he returned to 
California and for a number of years carried on a very successful practice in 
San Francisco. 

The year 1892 marked the advent of Dr. Demsey in Mojave, and here 
as in his previous places of residence his ability received recognition and he 
built up a commendable practice. Mining also engaged his attention to some 
extent, and in April, 1906, he was honored with the appointment of postmaster 
at Mojave under President Roosevelt, and under President Taft he was 
reappointed in 1909. He continued to fill the office with efficiency up to the 
time of his death, which occurred March 27, 1913, when he was seventy-five 
years of age. In Los Angeles, in January, 1902, Dr. Demsey married Miss 
Matilda Kern, a native of BlufTton, Ohio, their marriage resulting in the 
birth of one child, Naomi Kern. Mrs. Demsey, a woman of strong and deep 
personality, was peculiarly fitted to be an able helpmate to her husband. Dur- 
ing the later years of his life she was his valued assistant in the postoffice and 
so well fitted was she to become his successor in office that following his 
death she was appointed to fill the vacancy. Optimistic as to the future of the 
west in general and of California and Mojave in particular. Dr. and Mrs. Dem- 
sey gave proof of their faith by the purchase of real estate from time to time, 
ultimately becoming owners of considerable property. This they improved 
for business purposes, the postoffiice being located in one of their buildings, 



1048 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

and they also erected one of the lari^est and most comfortable residences in the 
city, which is still owned by Mrs. Demsey. 

LLOYD P. KEESTER.— The secretary and treasurer of the California 
Market Company holds a prominent position among the rising young busi- 
ness men of Bakersfield, with whose interests he first became identified as 
a resident in 1901 and as a partner in the present business during 1906. 
The market which has developed even beyond the most sanguine anticipa- 
tions of its projectors occupies a central location on Nineteenth street and, 
remodeled as recently as 1912. is now unsurpassed by any similar plant in 
the entire state. 

In identifying himself with the west Mr. Keester came hither from 
Kahoka, Clark county, Mo., where he was born October 23, 1884, being a 
son of William Keester, a native of Lima, Ohio, and for years a hardware 
merchant of the Missouri town, but now retired from business activities. 
After he had graduated from the Kahoka high school Mr. Keester became a 
student in the business department of the Highland Park College at Des 
Moines, Iowa, where he completed his education. From boyhood he had been 
a frequent assistant in the hardware store of his father and after leaving 
college he clerked for one year with the Wengert-Bishop Hardware Com- 
pany of Kansas City, Mo., returning from that place to Kahoka, where for 
tW'O years he assisted his father in the store. From Missouri he came to 
California during 1901 and settled in Bakersfield, where he learned the 
butcher business as an employe of J. J. Anderson, on the site even at that 
time known as the California market. Being credit man, he also became 
familiar with business conditions in the town and with the financial respon- 
sibility of customers. 

Together with Mel P. Smith, also an employe of the same market, in 
1906 Mr. Keester purchased the business which since has grown to very 
large proportions. The California .Market Company was incorporated in 
1908 with ]\Ir. Smith as president and Mr. Keester as secretary and treasurer. 
In 1911 the firm built and opened a wholesale warehouse and cold storage 
plant, on the west side at Taft, where they maintain a supply of wholesale 
meats, provisions and produce, operating their own refrigerator car line 
between Bakersfield and Taft, and in addition they own and operate the Pa- 
cific market at Taft for the accommodation of the retail trade. The history 
of the business has been one of rapid, but conservative and substantial growth. 
Mr. Keester is a leading member of the Bakersfield Merchants' Association 
and the board of trade, also keeps well posted concerning the policies of 
the Democratic party, to which he adheres with conscientious devotion. Fra- 
ternally he holds membership with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. 
Since coming to Bakersfield he has established domestic ties through his 
marriage to Miss Frances Gagne, a native of Oakdale, this state, and to 
secure a suitable home he erected on the corner of Twenty-second and E 
streets a modern bungalow supplied with every comfort and furnished iu 
a manner reflecting the culture of the family. He is a director in the National 
Bank of Bakersfield, which he helped to organize in the latter part of 1912. 
This institution threw open its doors to business Anril 1, 1913, and will 
be located on the southwest corner of Eighteenth and Chester avenue. 

J. E. GARDNER. — An experience in the lumber woods of Michigan, while 
radically different fri m the work in the oil fields, nevertheless prepared Mr. 
Gardner for such enterprises, for he had to combat with many difficulties of a 
similar nature. There was the same isolation from the great centers of popu- 
lation and the same shadow of aloofness from the world's activities, yet the 
same specialized interest and intense devotion to the work at hand. When he 
gave up the work in Michigan lumber regions and came to California oil dis- 
tricts, arriving at Bakersfield March 13, 1905, he was eager to accept any kind 
of employment. The first that offered w^as as roustabout with the East Puente 



HISTORY OF KI^RX COUNTY 1051 

Oil Company and for a lung time he continued with the organization, rising 
meanwhile to the position of superintendent of the lease. 

Descended from an old eastern family, J. E. Gardner was born in Isabella 
county, Mich., March 30, 1882, being a son of L. C. and Mary (Watson) 
Gardner, the latter deceased. When seven years of age he accompanied other 
members of the family to Huntington, Ind., the change being made for the 
convenience of his father, who was a railroad man for many years. Later, 
however, the latter returned to Michigan and is now living retired from active 
cares in the little village of Rosebush in Isabella county. There were two 
marriages, so that Mr. Gardner has five half-brothers and sisters in addition to 
his own sister, Oleva, wlio is the wife of Olin Walker, a farmer of Isabella 
county. As a schoolboy he lived in Indiana and attended the schools of 
Huntington, completing the grammar grade and taking two years in the high 
school. During 1902 he was graduated from a business college at Ypsilanti, 
Mich., and thereafter worked in the lumber woods until his removal to the 
west. May 18, 1904, he was united in marriage with Miss Lulu Belle Graham, 
of Isabella county, Mich., and they now have two sons, Lyle D. and Thomas L. 

Understanding every department of production, Mr. Gardner became an 
efficient superintendent. Close attention was given to every detail. Having 
simple tastes, he laid aside a portion of his earnings each year and thus was 
enabled to make some advantageous investments in Bakersfield income prop- 
erty. His position with the East Puente Oil Company he resigned April 1, 
1913, after eight years of satisfactory service and received the best of recom- 
mendations. Moving to Bakersfield, where he has valuable' real estate, on the 
28th of April, 1913, he ooened up the Chester avenue meat market at No. 2709 
Chester avenue, where the firm of Gardner & Calkins engages as retail purvey- 
ors of fresh and salt meats, poultry, eggs and game in season. 

PAUL HORNUNG.— The business originally conducted by the C. M. 
Stoll Company and purchased during 1910 by Paul Hornung forms one of the 
most complete of the kind within the limits of Kern county. A central and 
desirable location in the Masonic Temple, originally secured by the earlier 
organization, has been continued by the present proprietor, who from child- 
hood has been skilled in harness-making and also possesses an exj^ert know- 
ledge concerning machinery and vehicles. Besides acting as agent for the 
Henney buggies, Studebaker wagons and Oliver chilled plows, all of which 
have an established reputation and a steady sale in the community, he deals 
in wagons and buggies of other makes, carries implements called for by the 
farmers of the county, has a valuable stock of harness and saddles, and makes 
a specialty also of carriage and automobile trimming, these varied lines of 
business activity enabling him to furnish employment to a large corps of 
workmen and thus become a valuable factor in the industrial life of his city. 
Besides the capital invested in this business, which reaches the large total of 
$18,000, he has about $5,000 invested in a business at Ventura, where he started 
in business in 1905. 

The name Hornung is indicative of Teutonic ancestry. Paul Hornung 
was born in Oberferrenden. Germany, January 6, 1876, and passed the years 
of early childhood at Nuremberg, where his father, Henry Hornung, followed 
the trade of harness-maker. The mother, who bore the maiden name of Mar- 
garet Stoll, and who is still living in Germany, is a sister of George 
Stoll, who during 1884 brought his nephew, a boy of eight years, to 
California. In a family comprising four children Paul was next to the youngest 
and after coming to this country he made his home with the uncle, who 
apprenticed him to the trade of a harness-maker and gave him common-school 
advantages. For four years he served as an apprentice at Red Blufif, this state, 
and then worked as a journeyman at Sacramento for six months Thence, at 
an age of eighteen he came to Bakersfield and engaged as a harness-maker for 



1052 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

his uncle, C. M. Stoll, continuing there for nine years and then 
going to Ventura to embark in business. Skilled in his trade, he 
has met with a success abundantly merited and constantly increasing. 
During 1901 he was united in marriage with Miss Edna Herrington, of 
Fresno, and by this union he has one child, Ventura. It has not been possible 
for him to engage actively in public affairs, because the interests of his large 
business demand his entire time, but he keeps posted concerning national 
issues, voting the Republican ticket at all elections. In Alasonic relations he 
holds membership with the Blue Lodge, Royal Arch, Chapter, Commandery, 
Eastern Star and Amarinth, also is fraternally connected with the Woodmen 
of the W'orld and the Knights of Pythias. A thorough believer in the city of 
Bakersfield and Kern county, he homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres in 
the Weed Patch in Kern county sixteen years ago and has recently (1913) 
bought forty acres at Rio Bravo. In addition he is the possessor of one of the 
best residence lots in the Kruss tract, where he will soon erect a bungalow 
which will be up-to-date in its appointments and suited to the cultured and 
refined tastes of himself and wife. He still owns his original residence at 
Ventura. 

WILLIAM HARMON. — At this writing Mr. Harmon makes his home 
upon a mining claim, comprising the southwest quarter of section 34, township 
29, range 30, in which township and range as early as 1891 he located about 
twelve hundred acres mostly valuable for clays and gypsum, and on this 
property he has continued to keep up the assessment work. Altogether he 
has twelve mining claims, some of which have valuable deposits of fuller's 
earth, pottery and china clay, aluminum and silver, while in a few there are 
indications of gold. 

In the southern part of Illinois, in Randolph county, William Harmon 
was born February 14, 1852, being a son of William and Sarah (Gant) Har- 
mon, the latter deceased in Randolph county during middle age. The father, 
who was born and reared in that county, removed from there to Kansas 
about 1876 and settled in Saline county, where his death occurred some years 
afterward. There were seven children in the family, namely: Lila, Zachariah, 
Eliza, William, Robert, Rosamond and Mattie. The fourth in order of birth, 
AA-'illiam, passed the years of boyhood in Randolph county, where he had 
somewhat meager educational advantages. In the early part of 1871 he left 
home for Kansas and secured emploj^ment in a sawmill in Montgomery coun- 
ty, but in a short time he returned to Illinois. During the autumn of 1872 
he again went to Kansas, this time taking up a pre-emption fourteen miles 
west of Oswego. On that tract he remained until he had proved up on the 
property and brought it under cultivation. Meantime he married and two 
daughters were born of this union. The elder, Leonora, is the wife of John 
A. Slininger, a cigar manufacturer living in Bakersfield. The younger. Vio- 
lante, is the wife of Paul Weichelt, at present engaged as a mechanic for 
the Kern County Land Company and resides at Bakersfield. 

It was on the 17th of March, 1886, that Mr. Harmon arrived in California 
from Kansas and concluded his long railroad journey at Goshen on the main 
line, from which point he proceeded to the vicinity of Kettleman plains and 
took up a homestead. After having proved up on the land in 1893 he came 
to Kern county in the same year and took up a timber claim of one hundred 
and sixty acres in the Weed Patch, choosing as his location the southwest 
quarter of section 12, township 31, range 29. During 1898 he proved up on 
his claim. Later he bought three hundred and twenty acres forminq- the east 
one-half of section 26, township 30, range 29. Both of these tracts he has im- 
proved and placed under cultivation, but he now rents them to other parties 
for farming purposes. Since 1901 he has been interested in mining claims, 
and of late years he has devoted much of his time to their development, 



HISTORY OF KKRX CC^UNTY 1055 

although he also engages in the teaming business to some extent. Ever since 
attaining his majority he lias voted with the Republican party. 

WILLIAM FRANKLIN WHITAKER.— The engineering ability pos- 
sessed by Air. Whitaker has made him a potent factor in the development of 
the San Joaquin valley and enables him to fill with unquestioned success his 
present positions as civil engineer for the Kern County Land Company and 
superintendent of canals for the Kern County Canal & Water Company. 
Descended from an old eastern family, he is himself a native of Indiana and 
was born in Boone county, January 20, 1880. During boyhood he attended the 
public schools of that county and the high school of Lebanon. Upon leaving 
Boone county he came west to California in the latter part of 1898 and for six 
months carried the chain for a surveying party employed by the Kern County 
Land Company. From the first the work interested him and he manifested 
ability for the occupation, therefore he determined to educate himself for 
:-imilar activities. Going to Palo Alto in the fall of 1899 he matriculated in the 
Leland Stanford University, where he took the regular course in civil en- 
gineering and thus became qualified for what has proved to be his life work. 
A subsequent position kept him in Santa Clara county for eighteen months. 
As an employe of the Bay Cities' Water Company he held a responsible po- 
sition in the preliminary work connected with the securing of a large water 
supply. 

Upon returning to Bakersfield in December of 1904 Mr. Whitaker was 
employed in the engineering department of the Kern County Canal Company. 
The following year he was given charge of the canal system and since then, 
in the capacity of superintendent, has had the oversight of the ooeration and 
maintenance of the canals owned by the Kern County Canal & \A''ater Com- 
pany. Giving his attention closely to personal matters and business concerns, 
he has taken no part in elections aside from the voting of the Democratic 
ticket. The Bakersfield Club has received the benefit of his active member- 
ship and he is further allied with the Masons in this city. During 1907 he 
married Miss Gertrude Scribner, by whom he has one daughter, Mary Eliza- 
beth. The religious views of the family bring them into affiliation with the 
Episcopal Church. Mrs. Whitaker is a member of an honored pioneer family 
of Bakersfield, her father, W. H. Scribner, having been an early settler and 
also one of the most progressive men of the community. The Scribner opera 
house is a monument to his enterprise as a builder and he also erected build- 
ings on Chester avenue, besides being one of the builders of the Grand Hotel. 
In his death, which occurred in 1906, the city lost one of its efficient citizens. 

EARL NORTHROP. — It is the younger generation that is materially 
aiding in the development and forging to the front in Kern county, and among 
this class we find Earl Northrop, proprietor of the Wasco-Lost Hills auto 
stage line, who was born in Plover, Pocohontas county, Iowa, in 1891, the son 
of T. D. and Lillie (Conley) Northrop, natives of Batavia, N. Y., and Attica. 
Green county. Wis., respectively. The parents were farmers in Iowa, then 
ranchers at Durango, Colo., and Farmersville, Tulare county, Cal., and still 
own the farm in the latter place, but now reside in Wasco. Of their seven 
children Earl is the second oldest. His early life was spent on the farm in 
Iowa and a cattle ranch near Durango, Colo., where the family had moved in 
1899. While making himself generally useful on the cattle ranch he also 
attended the public school in the vicinity. 

In January, 1910, Mr. Northrop came to Visalia and in May of 1911 to 
Wasco, Kern county, where he entered the employ of Martin & Dudley as a 
chauffeur, afterwards working in the same capacity with the Associated and 
the Universal. Early in 1913 he started the mail stage line between Wasco 
and Lost Hills, a distance of twenty-one miles, and for the purpose he uses 
two automobiles. Aside from the daily trips he makes special trips to ac- 



1036 HISTORY OF KERN. COUNTY 

commodate the public. He is an eiierj^etic young man and b}^ close application 
is making a success of the undertaking. 

PATRICK GILLESPIE.— Before the world had been aroused by the 
remarkable story concerning the discovery of gold in California there had 
come around the Horn as early as 1847 an active young Irishman bearing 
the name of Patrick Gillespie. Being near the early gold mines, it was but 
natural that he should hasten to the scenes of mining activity as soon as 
he heard of the great discoveries at Sutter's camp. For some years he 
and his wife lived at Placerville and there occurred the birth, November 22, 
1849, cf a son to whom was given the name of the father and whose earliest 
recollecions cluster around that strange and bustling town then known by 
the unattractive and suggestive appellation of Hangtown. When he was a 
mere lad he was accustomed to go on horseback to Coloma, Eldorado county, 
twice each week, carrying for a merchant of Placerville a generous amount 
of gold dust in buckskin ])urses hid in the bottom of a flour sack. Although 
prowlers constantly lurked along the highway, seeking to steal the gold dust 
from miners, the small boy was allowed to pass unmolested, for no one 
suspected that gold would be entrusted to his care. 

At the age of seventeen the young miner left the mines to seek other 
avenues of occupation. Teaming presented the most favorable opening and 
he began to haul freight to Virginia City. At first he had a single team, 
but later he became the owner of two twelve-mule teams. The bell arrange- 
ment on the housings of the leaders of the team is well known and was 
adopted by him as a precaution and means of safe travel. On his trucks he 
hauled the first locomotive ever brought into Virginia City. Long after the 
railroad had connected the east and the west and even after branch roads 
had brought interior points into close connection, he continued in the team- 
ing business and found not only a livelihood in the work, but also much 
that was interesting and pleasant. When he sold out in 1880 he became 
a fireman on the Central Pacific railroad and continued as such for five and 
one-half years, when he was promoted to be engineer. When he resigned 
from the Central Pacific in 1888 he came to Sumner (now East Bakerslield) 
and secured a position as engineer with the Southern Pacific Railroad Com- 
|)any. For some years he has been running the switch engine in the East 
Bakersfield yards. He is a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Fire- 
men and Enginemen and ranks as one of the oldest engineers on the Southern 
Pacific road. 

A firm believer in the principle of every man aiding in the upbuilding of 
his town, Mr. Gillespie has not only erected his family residence at 
No. 926 K street, but in addition he has built seven other houses in East 
Bakersfield and six of these he still owns. Fraternally he is connected with 
the Knights of Pythias. In politics he votes wath the Democrats and his wife. 
a warm adrnirer of Speaker Clark, was the first woman in Kern county to 
contribute to the Champ Clark campaign fund in 1912. Mrs. Gillespie bore 
the maiden name of Melissa Adams and was born and educated at Ludlow, 
Windsor county, Vt., being a daughter of Abel and Abigail (Spaulding) 
Adams, natives of Vermont, the former a direct descendant of ex-Presidents 
John O. Adams and John Adams. From 1882 until she came to California 
Mrs. Gillespie was a resident of Nevada, and at Reno, that state, Rev. Mr. 
Lucas performed the ceremony that united her with Mr. Gillesnie. By her 
first marriage she was the mother of two children. The only son, Bert 
Coolidge, died at Sumner, Kern county. The daughter, Katie Coolidge. mar- 
ried T. J. Yeargin and resides in Sacramento. For many years Mrs. Gillespie 
has been an earnest and devoted member of the Presbyterian Church and a 
generous contributor to denominational activities. 

H. D. JOHNSTON.— Until twenty-one years of age Mr. Johnston lived 
in Ontario. He was born near Guelph and reared at Windsor. He is a 




^^^Mui^ 



*■ V 





HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1059 

son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Aloorej Johnston and belongs to an old Cana- 
dian family whose name originally was spelled Johnstone, the final "e" having 
been dropped for the purpose of convenience and brevity. After he had 
completed the studies of the common schools he attended the Windsor Colle- 
giate Institute and during his vacations devoted his time to the study of 
telegraphy, in which he soon became an adept. During 1899 he entered the 
employ of the Great Northern Railroad Company at St. Paul, Minn., where 
he spent seven months as division relief agent. From there he was trans- 
ferred to the Cascade division of the same road at Everett, Wash., where he 
remained for a year. Next he received an appointment as agent at Burlington 
Junction. V\^ash. Coming to California in March of 1901 he entered the employ 
of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and officiated as cashier of the 
freight office at Santa Barbara. From that city in 1909 he was transferred to 
Fresno as clerk in the freight office. In January of 1910 he was promoted to be 
agent at Porterville and there remained until May of 1912, when he was 
transferred to Bakersfield as freight and passenger agent for the Southern 
Pacific road. He maintains a deep interest in every feature of the business 
and is a member of the Pacific Coast Freight Agents' Association. While 
engaged in the freight office at Santa Barbara he formed the acquaintance of 
and was united in marriage with Miss Rosa Beatrice Logan, a native daughter 
of that coast city and a young lady of education and culture, who had been 
given the best educational advantages by her father, Dr. D. D. Logan, a retired 
surgeon in the English army with a splendid record for professional service 
both in India and England. 

S. WRIGHT JEWETT.— The family of Jewett has an honored and 
influential representative in this native son of California, a citizen whose 
prominent association with Bakersfield and whose identification with the 
development, of many of its important projects causes his name to be insep- 
arably connected with the local history. The interests of a lifetime of useful- 
ness endear him to Bakersfield. Here he was born at the family residence on 
Jewett avenue, May 24, 1877. Here he received the advantages ofifered by the 
grammar and high schools. In this vicinity, under the wise training of his 
father, Solomon Jewett, one of the most prominent upbuilders of Kern 
county, he gained a thorough knowledge of the stock industry while yet a 
mere lad. He was taught to discriminate between poorly-bred stock and the 
better grades and soon became an expert judge of cattle and sheep. With a 
natural liking for stock and a decided ability in the direction of their manage- 
ment, it is probable that he would have made a specialty of the business 
throughout life had not other interests intervened, but even with many enter- 
prises to engross his attention he has retained in some degree his association 
with the stock industry. 

When the oil business began to be one of the most promising oppor- 
tunities for young men in Kern county, Mr. Jewett relinquished his activities 
in stock and began to study oil operations. In 1898 he entered the employ 
of Jewett & Blodgett and from a very humble position rose to be a driller, 
meanwhile acquiring a very comprehensive knowledge of every department 
of the work. Notwithstanding the many experts now identified with the 
work in this county he is considered one of the best posted men concerning 
local fields. As a stockholder and director he is connected with the Jewett 
Oil Company, a concern operating in the McKittrick district. During 1901 
he made a trip to the east and to Canada and at Riceberg, province of Quebec, 
was united in marriage with Miss Lucy Eleanor Potter, a native of Montreal, 
a young lady of culture, and an earnest member of the Episcopal Church. 
Two children have blessed their union, Philo Landon and Lois Evelyn. 

From the time of his marriage until the closing of the Kern Yalley Bank 
Mr. Jewett was connected with that institution of Bakersfield, first holding 
a position as bookkeeper, then receiving a promotion to be assistant cashier 



1060 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

and finally becoming vice-president of the concern and member of the board 
of directors. As a financier he possesses exceptional qualifications. His 
judgment of men and of valuations is keen and shrewd. His personal char- 
acteristics are such as to win and retain the friendship of associates. Since 
his retirement from the banking business he has devoted his attention to his 
oil and stock interests and to the oversight of his landed holdings. At this 
writing he owns eighty acres on Kern Island, where the soil and the prox- 
imit}' to Bakersfield make the market-garden business profitable. The irri- 
gation facilities for the tract are adequate and permanent. In addition he 
owns a two hundred and forty acre alfalfa ranch at Rosedale with a sixty 
horsepower pumping plant having a capacity of two hundred and twenty 
inches, and a stock range just east of the Kern river oil field and embracing 
three sections of land. While at no time has he sought political prominence, 
his opinions nevertheless are firm and positive, and bring him into sympathy 
with the Republican party. The Bakersfield Club numbers him among its 
members and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks also has the 
benefit of his capable co-operation in the local lodge. 

FRANK ERWIN BLAIR.— The genealogy of the Blair family extends 
back to a lung line of Scotch ancestors. The first American representative, 
James A. Blair, came from his native Scotland across the waters of the 
Atlantic to the new world and settled in Pennsylvania, where he passed 
the balance of his life in industrial pursuits. In the family of the Scotch- 
American emigrant there was a son, Brice Hugh Blair, whose birth occurred 
at Shadegap, Huntingdon county. Pa., and whose early years were devoted 
to attendance at school and to the learning of the carpenter's trade. At the 
age of twenty-one he sought the larger opportunities of the west and settled 
in Illinois, where he followed the occupation of a cabinet-maker for some 
years. W hen news came concerning the discovery of gold in California he 
immediately sold out his interests in Springfield and invested the proceeds 
in the common fund, started by a party of six, toward the purchase of mule 
teams and wagons. Properly outfitted, the small party joined a larger expe- 
dition and started across the plains in the spring of 1848. During the spring 
of 1849 they landed at Gold Hill. A year later Mr. Blair arrived at Sacra- 
mento. For two years he mined in or near Coulterville, Mariposa county. 
Later he had the contract for hauling brick and sand used in the construction 
of the first insane asylum built at Stockton and on the completion of that task 
he took up agricultural pursuits in Santa Clara county. Three years after- 
ward he outfitted to haul freight between Stockton and Coulterville. 

When the Indians were moved from the reservation at Stockton to 
Fort Tejon a position as guide with the expedition was given to Mr. Blair, 
who later resumed agricultural pursuits in Santa Clara county. Next he 
opened a mercantile store at Santa Clara and at the same time engaged 
as agent for the Wells-Fargo Company at that point. While living in Santa 
Clara he married in 1859 Miss Jane Quinlin, who was born in Ireland, 
but had accompanied her parents to New York at a very early age and in 
1858 came via Panama to California. Immediately after their marriage the 
young couple began housekeeping at Napa, where Mr. Blair engaged as agent 
for a steamship line. During 1863 he secured employment as millwright in the 
old flour mill, but two years later he resigned to remove to Vallejo, where 
he was employed in the Mare Island navy-yard as foreman of the ship- 
joining department. When the yards were closed down in 1874 he removed 
to Oakland and took up carpentering, but in April of 1876 returned to the 
vicinity of Napa and engaged in ranching in the Foss valley. There he re- 
mained until his death, which occurred May 9, 1891. There likewise occurred 
the demise of his wife in 1900. 

Four children comprised the family of Brice Hugh Blair. All are still 
living. The eldest, Frank Erwin, was born in Napa, this state, May 15. 1860, 




Cr^ls2^«l^ C^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1063 

and completed liis education in the high school of Vallejo, after which he aided 
his father in the care and cultivation of the ranch in Foss valley. From 1882 
until 1884 he engaged in ranching near Chico, after which he settled in Los 
Angeles and established a teaming and transfer business at No. 3 Market 
street. The business continued under his management for six years and when 
it was sold he entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company 
as a carpenter and builder. Two years later he resigned the place and entered 
the vSanta Fe employ, being from 1892 until 1898 stationed at Mojave as car 
inspector. Meanwhile he built a cottage in that place. The position at that 
])(:int had been sought by him with the hope that the climate might benefit 
the health of his wife and in this respect the change proved most gratifying. 
During October of 1898 he removed to Napa and engaged in ranching near 
that city, whence during April of 1900 he came to Bakersfield as car inspector 
for the Santa Fe Railroad. 

Transferred to Point Richmond during the spring of 1901, Mr. Blair 
remained with the railroad there until February of 1904, when he entered 
the employ of the Standard Oil Company as car inspector. Later he was 
transferred to Bakersfield to take charge of the Union tank line department 
of the Standard Oil Company, with which concern he has since remained in 
the same capacity and meanwhile he has bought his present home at No. 1217 
Baker street. In politics he has given stanch support to the Republican 
party. For two years prior to the consolidation of the two cities he served 
as trustee of the Sumner school district. Fraternally he is a trustee of the 
Loyal Order of Moose, an active worker in the Woodmen of the World and 
a charter member of Napa Parlor No. 62, N. S. G. W. Since 19C6 he has 
served as a member of the board of library trustees for the city of Bakersfield. 
Mr. Blair's family comprises four children and his wife, the latter hav- 
ing been Lizzie Agnes Hayes, a native of Ottawa, 111., their marriage occur- 
ring in Los Angeles June 18, 1890. Mrs. Blair was the daughter of Michael 
and Honora (O'Brien) Hayes, early settlers of Ottawa, 111. The father served 
in the Civil war in a Massachusetts regiment. The mother spent her last 
years in Lcs Angeles. Mrs. Blair was graduated from the Ottawa high school, 
and in 1884 came to Wilmington, Cal., where lived her uncle, T. B. Hayes, 
then LTnited States marshal for the district. The children born to Air. and 
Mrs. Blair are as follows : Herbert, May, Brice and Frank. 

O. C. BANGSBERG.— The responsible position of superintendent of the 
power plant, canal and lands on the Kern river for the Pacific Light & Power 
Corporation, of Los Angeles, is filled by O. C. Bangsberg, who was born near 
Christiana, Norway, November 27, 1879. His father. Christian Bangsberg, 
was a builder, but in 1882 disposed of his interests and brought his family to 
La Crosse, Wis. There he engaged in contracting and building until 1897 and 
then purchased a large farm in Vernon county. Wis., which he still operates. 

O. C. Bangsberg graduated from the La Crosse high school and Avhen 
eighteen years of age entered the employ of the Central Electric Company, of 
La Crosse, as a fireman. Being greatly interested in the science of electricity 
and desirous of making it his life-work, he took a course in electricity in the 
International Correspondence School of Scranton, Pa., from which he was duly 
graduated. Meantime he had risen to the place of chief engineer with the 
La Crosse Gas & Electric Company, having charge of three electric light plants 
and one gas plant. 

Desiring to come west to seek greater opportunities, Mr. Bangsberg re- 
signed his position in 1910 and came to Cheyenne. Wyo.. where he was con- 
sulting engineer for the Northern Colorado Power Company. In June of 1912 
he accepted the position of electrical operator for the Pacific Light & Power 
Corporation at Redondo Beach, Cal., and in August of the same year he was 
transferred to Borel, Kern county, as power house foreman at the power 
plant, and in May of 1913 he was made superintendent. The power plant is 

42 



1064 HISTORY OF KKRX COUNTY 

the largest in Kern county. The twelve miles of canal gives a fall of two hun- 
dred and sixty feet. The water enters five large pentstocks, to which are con- 
nected five waterwheels, each generating 2500 k. w., and the electricity thus 
generated is transmitted by two three-phase power lines to Los Angeles, a 
distance of one hundred and twenty-five miles, where it is connected with the 
Pacific Light & Power system, furnishing power for operating the cars of the 
Pacific Electric and Los Angeles railways, as well as the suburban lines. 
Superintending this large plant and looking after the company's vast hold- 
ings takes all of his time and he is kept continually busy. During this last 
year four of the five waterwheels have been replaced by the latest type of 
Francis turbines, thus greatly increasing the efficiency of the plant. 

In La Crosse, Wis., Mr. Bangsberg married ]\liss Josephine Tucker, who 
was born near Rufifalo, N. Y., and they have one child, Ralph. Mr. Bangsberg 
was made a Mason in Acacia lodge Xo. 11, F. & A. M., at Cheyenne, Wyo. 
In religious views he is a Methodist. Politically he is a Republican. 

CHARLES D. HITCHCOCK.— The ability as a prtduction man which 
Mr. Hitchcock displays is particularly noteworthy, inasmuch as his identifica- 
tion with the oil industry does not cover any lengthy period of years. As 
superintendent of the Kern Crown Oil Company he manages a lease of one 
hundred and sixty acres, on section 23, township 32, range 23. 

The honor of being a native son belongs to Mr. Hitchcock, who was 
born in San Luis Obispo county, April 7, 1878, and passed his early years 
upt n a ranch. His father, the late Isaac N. Hitchcock, a native of Ohio, 
joined an exuedition of Argonauts bound to California during the eventful 
summer of 1849 and reached Eldorado county at the end of a tedious but 
uneventful journey. Like the majority of early settlers he tried his luck in 
the placer diggings. When he had made his little stake he decided to quit 
the mines and embark in the cattle business. Accordingly he looked up a 
location in San Luis Obispo county, took out a claim to land, developed a 
ranch and ultimately acquired one thousand acres in his home place. Mean- 
while he had married Elizabeth Gibson, a native of Missouri, but a resident 
of Eldorado county after she had crossed the plains with her parents during 
the '50s. Seven children comprised their family, namely: Annie B., Mrs. Gay, 
a resident of Cambria, San Luis Obispo county; Eugene L., who is engaged 
in the creamery business at Santa Barbara ; Etta, wife of C. K. Bright, who 
is engaged in the real-estate business in San Diego ; Alvin, of Cambria, Cal., 
a stock-raiser and proprietor of a meat market ; Charles D., of Kern county ; 
Lillie, who married Henry Pugh, a grain farmer of Monterey county, and 
died at twenty-two years of age; and Thomas F., who is employed as a 
driller in the Lost Hills field. 

At twenty years of age Charles D. Hitchcock left the home ranch and 
went to Tu( lumne county, where he began to work on the Eureka gold mine. 
Later he was employed at the Black Oak mine as a foreman and held a 
similar position with the Liberty quicksilver mine at San Luis Obispo. Ill 
health forced him to relinf|uish work in gold mines during K08 and it was 
then that he directed his attention to the oil business. His first experiences 
in the industry would have discouraged a man less optimistic than he, for 
while operating unsuccessfully in the Arroyo Grande he lost practically all 
of his savings. Forced to begin anew, he came over to the Midway in 
February, 1910, and secured employment as a pumper. Since then he has 
not lost a day from his work and meanwhile he has been promoted so that 
he is now suoerintendent, a fact that bears testimony concerning his ability 
and the intelligence with which he has grasped the difficulties of the industry. 
At no time has he been deeply interested in public affairs, yet he keeps 
posted concerning the issues of the age and in politics votes with the Demo- 
cratic party. With his brother, Alvin, he owns two farms in San Luis 






^"Z.e^UC^ 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1067 

Obispo county, one of these comprising- nine hundred and twenty acres, 
while the other is three hundred and sixty acres in extent. In addition he 
owns a meat market in Cambria with the same brother as a partner, and he 
now devotes his savin^s^s to these large and important interests, which 
eventually will assume a moneyed value commensurate with his most optim- 
istic expectations. His marriage in Alameda united him with Miss Agnes 
Tucker, daughter of Ira N. Tucker, and by this union there are two children. 
Ira and Verna, six and four years of age respectively. 

ANDRE VIEUX.— Writers on the growth and development of California 
have had occasion frequently to refer to the part played by Frenchmen in 
bringing about the wonderful advancement v^hich has given this state world- 
wide fame. Andre Vieux, of Delano, Kern county, was born in Sainte Laurent, 
Hautes-Alpes, France, August 18. 1870, the son of Victor and Madelena (Vol- 
laer) Vieux. He has no personal recollection of his father, for that parent 
died when he was only one year old. Necessity forced him to begin to earn 
his own livelihood at the age of eight years, and three months schooling each 
year was the extent of his advantages for obtaining an education. Until the 
year 1889 he continued to work out on farms, giving his earning therefrom to 
his mother. In the year mentioned, however, he came to the United States, 
landing in Los Angeles May 22, 1889. After working for six months in that 
city he came to Delano, his residence here dating from November 7, 1889. For 
several years he was employed as a sheep herder in this vicinity. Mr. Vieux 
made an unfortunate move in loaning his money to sheepmen, for in the panic 
of 1894 he lost all of it and was compelled to defer his own ambition to man- 
age a business of his own. In 1896, however, he was able to purchase some 
sheep, which he fed among the hills of Inyo and Kern counties. By buying and 
selling stock to the very best advantage whenever opportunity was presented 
he soon won a notable success. Such operations he continued until 1910, when 
he sold his sheep and engaged in cattle raising, importing fine stock from 
Mexico, but he soon sold out and again engaged in the sheep business. Gradu- 
ally he has acquired real estate holdings of considerable value. In October, 
1905. he made an investment in a hardware store at Delano, which he owns and 
is conducting at this time as the Delano Hardware store. In 1904 he bought 
out the general merchandise store of Faure Brothers, continuing the business 
with success, until it is now one of Delano's most dependable concerns. Mr. 
Vieux was also one of the organizers of and a director in the First National 
Bank of Delano. 

As a citizen Mr. Vieux is known for his generous and patriotic public 
spirit, which impells him to aid to the extent of his ability any movement 
which in his good judgment promises to enhance the fortunes or prospects 
ot any considerable number of his fellow citizens. He has consistently demon- 
strated his solicitude for the upbuilding of Delano by taking a prominent part 
in all work conducive thereto. A man of progressive ideas, he favors all 
political measures looking to the improvement of the condition of the people 
at large. Fraternally he affiliates with the Bakersfield organization of the F". 
0. E. He was married in Los Angeles to Airs. Amiee (Yillard) Rostin, born 
in Hautes-Alpes, France. In national principles he is a Republican. 

JOSEPH REDLICK.— Any mention of the large commercial enter- 
prises of Bakersfield would be incomplete without reference to the important 
business founded by the four Redlick brothers, namely: Henry, Samuel B., 
(deceased in 1904). A. L., and Joseph. Such was their enterprise and such 
their keen commercial insight that they not only established and built to 
large proportions the department store in this city, but in addition they owned 
and operated a chain of similar stores at Tulare, Fresno, Stockton, Sacra- 
mento and Jackson, and upon selling out these several establishments they 
became the owners and proprietors of the Redlick-Abrams Company and the 



1068 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Redlick-Newman Company, both of which have established large furniture 
stores in San Francisco and have built up an enormous trade in the line of 
their specialty. Meanwhile the Redlick Mercantile Company at Bakersfield 
has advanced in power and prestige with the constant growth of the city and 
under the able and systematic supervision of its secretary and manager, 
Joseph Redlick, has attained a position unsurpassed by any similar institution 
in the San Joaquin valley. 

Throughout practically all of his life Mr. Redlick has lived in centers 
of the oil or gas industry. A native of the oil district of Pennsylvania and in 
early life a resident of the Indiana gas district, he now claims as his home 
Bakersfield, the commercial center of the oil and natural gas district of Kern 
county and easily a leader among all the districts devoted to the production 
and development of these indispensable factors of a modern civilization. 
Born at Meadville, Pa., May 2, 1860, he is a son of the late Ludwig Redlick, 
member of an old Teutonic family and himself likewise of German birth. The 
mother, who bore the maiden name of Bertha Sheftel, is also a native of Ger- 
many and now makes San Francisco her home. Besides the four sons already 
mentioned as having been the founders of the Redhck Mercantile Company, 
there were four daughters in the family, namely: Mrs. P. E. Newman, of 
San Francisco; Mrs. Henry Latz, of Bakersfield; and Misses Fannie and 
Louisa, both residing in San Francisco. 

Becoming a resident of Indiana at an early age, Joseph Redlick entered 
upon business activities at the age of twenty-one and with his brothers 
conducted a shoe store in Fort Wayne, where he made his first ventures 
into the realm of business and gained his first experiences in merchandising. 
The lessons learned in those days of youthful earnestness proved invaluable 
as aids to a later large success. During 1889 the brothers disposed of their 
interests in Fort Wayne and came west to San Francisco, where they soon 
acquired business interests of growing importance. May 10, 1895, they open- 
ed a small store in the Galtes block in Bakersfield. It was not long before 
they had outgrown those modest quarters. During 1901 they moved into the 
J. B. Berges building, which had been erected and fitted up esoecially for their 
use and occupancy. There they enjoyed continued growth. Toward the 
expiration of their lease of ten years they began to plan for still larger quar- 
ters. With this object in view they acquired a quarter of a block, 115x132 
feet in dimensions, on the corner of Chester avenue and Eighteenth street, 
and on this site they erected a substantial structure at a cost of $100,000. 
January 1. 1911, the Redlick Mercantile Company formally took possession 
of the building and moved into their new quarters. This is said to be the 
finest and most commodious store building in Kern county, while it is also 
architecturally substantial, convenient and attractive. A perfect system of 
ventilation was introduced and the sanitation also is without fault, therefore 
the health of employes has been conserved. Steam heat renders the building 
comfortable during the winter months and electric lights add a desirable fea- 
ture to the interior completeness. The ladies' rest room contains every com- 
fort and there are also lavatories for both sexes, these arrangements being as 
complete in behalf of employes as in the interests of customers. A stranger 
entering the great building is impressed with the healthful, contented appear- 
ance of the employes and with their uniform courtesy of manner, and this 
is explained by the attention given to their welfare by the proprietors and 
also ]:)y the fact that a profit-sharing system has been adopted whereby the 
employes may buy of the cajiital stock of the company according to their 
merit and worth. This was a concession in the interests of the employes, for 
the company was founded as a close corporation, with the members of the 
family owning all of the stock. 

These modern innovations and many other matters not herein mentioned 




iCH^cul^ S / "ULA^ytit^^^^^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1071 

express the views of the secretary and manager concerning lousiness affairs, 
the welfare of his employes and the interests of his customers. Thoroughly 
up-to-date in commercial affairs, he represents the twentieth century merchant 
of the west, brilliant in mind, keen in insight, skilled in the art of salesman- 
ship and original in ideas. In regard to the welfare of Bakersfield and Kern 
county he is optimistic. Their future wealth and prosi:)erity he cannot doubt. 
Judging the future by the past he sees a long era of growth stretching ahead 
of this district, with assured prosperity for the men who have been foremost 
in the work of upbuilding. 

An active spirit in the organization ( f the Bakersfield Board of Trade, 
Mr. Redlick was serving as its president in 1906 and took the initiative in the 
matter of relieving the sufferers of the San Francisco fire and earthquake. 
Immediately upon hearing of the catastrophe he sent a dispatch to the mayor 
of San Francisco inquiring whether money or provisions were most desired. 
The answer came back, "provisions." Through his energy and promptness a 
large consignment of provisions from Bakersfield reached the stricken city and 
did much to meet the material needs of its unfortunate people. For some 
years he has been a leading member of the Bakersfield Club, also has held 
membership with Masonry and the Eastern Star, with the Knights of Pythias, 
the Elks and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 

CHARLES E. KITCHEN.— A man well known for honesty and integ- 
rity of purpose and who had the respect and confidence of his fellow-men 
was the late Charles E. Kitchen, justice of the peace of the fifth judicial 
township of Kern county, and who was also engaged in mercantile business 
in Famoso. 

A native son, Charles E. Kitchen was born in San Jose, Cal., January 7, 
1869, the son of John and Wilhelmina (Henry) Kitchen, natives of England 
and Germany respectively and both pioneers of California. The father was 
a farmer near San Jose, but afterwards engaged in the insurance business 
in San Francisco, which he has fcllowed to the present time. 

Of the family of four children Charles E. was the second oldest and 
received a good education in the schools of Oakland and San Francisco and 
later was employed in a printing office in San Francisco. He became a 
member of Company A, Fifth California National Guard. Coming to Kern 
county in 1890 he pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of land at Semi- 
Tropic and in drilling for water obtained a flowing well. He followed farm- 
ing and fruit-raising there, but later purchased a ranch at Famoso, where 
he raised grain. In 1905 he built a store and put in a stock of general 
merchandise in Famoso which business he conducted successfully until his 
death, which occurred on Christmas day, 1913. He was also postmaster at 
Famoso, but in June, 1912, he resigned the position. Meantime, in 1902, he 
was first elected justice of the peace for the fifth judicial district on the 
Republican ticket and so ably and well did he conduct his court that his 
constituents re-elected him to the office in 1906 and again in 1910 and at 
the time of his death he was serving his twelfth year in the position with a 
fairness and justice of decision that won him the commendation of all who 
knew him. 

In January, 1903, in Famoso occurred the marriage of Mr. Kitchen to 
Miss Mary Lois Smith, who was born near Bloomington, McLean county, 
111., the daughter of Dr. W. F. Smith, now^ of San Francisco, who served 
in an Ohio regiment in the Civil war. Of their union were born four children 
as follows Thomas E., Olga, McKinley and Albert. 

Always a believer in Republican principles Mr. Kitchen aided in the 
hustings of his party and was a prominent and influential man therein. 
Fraternally he was made a Mason in Delano Lodge No. 309, F. & A. M. 
in 1902 and was a member of Bakersfield Aerie No. 93 F. O. E. He was 



1072 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

greatly interested in the welfare of Kern county and very optimistic for its 
future greatness, and being a liberal and enterprising man, was ever ready 
to give of his time and means toward any project that had for its object the 
enhancement of its great natural resources. Mr. Kitchen died December 
25, 1913. and the funeral was heM in Oakland under the auspices of the 
Masons. 

HARRY D. FETHER.— The United Oil Company's production foreman, 
who has been identified with the Midway field almost continuously since April 
of 1901, is a native of Ohio and was born at Archbold, Fulton county, March 
19, 1884, being the youngest son of Alexander and Sarah (Guyman) Fether, 
natives respectively of Pennsylvania and Ohio. F'or a number of years the 
father engaged in the lumber business at Archbold and became the sole owner 
of two sawmills, and at one time was engaged in furnishing hardwood lumber 
to the Studebaker firm at South Bend, Ind., to be used in the manufacture of 
their high-class vehicles. Unfortunately he was induced to dispose of his 
huiiber interests and embark in the oil industry. At first it appeared that his 
prospects were fair. While drilling in the vicinity of Bryan, Williams county, 
Ohio, he struck gas. Indications seemed so favorable that he piped the gas 
into the city of Bryan and sold to consumers there, but in a short time the 
supply was exhausted and he was left a heavy financial loser. Next he turned 
to contract drilling in Ohio and Indiana oil fields. Eventually he came to 
California and at present he and his wife are living in East Bakersfield. 
Their eldest son, Frank, who is also represented in this work, holds a very 
responsible position as superintendent of the United Oil Company. The 
second son, Louis, while drilling for the Nevada Oil Company in the Kern 
river field, was killed January 1, 1908, by a dynamite explosion. Surviving 
him is an only son, Victor, now fifteen years of age and living in Los Angeles 
with an aunt, Celia, wife of John Klofenstein, a tailor. Besides Mrs. Klofen- 
stein there was another daughter, Effie, who died unmarried in 1898. The 
youngest members of the family are George and Harry D., the former engaged 
at present in drilling water wells at Peach Springs, Ariz., for Mrs. A. B. 
Canfield. 

After completing the studies of the grammar grade Harry D. Fether 
attended the high school at Bryan, Ohio, for two years. Meanwhile in ]\Iarch, 
1900, his father and brother, George, had come to California and engaged in 
contracting and drilling at Maricopa. In the fall of 1900 Frank and Louis 
joined the others in the west, whither the youngest son followed in 1901, 
immediately afterward beginning to work as a tool-dresser wnth his father 
at Maricopa. In the same year he went to the Kern river field, where for five 
months he worked with Green & Whittier as a tool-dresser. Next he engaged 
at the Monte Cristo lease as a roustabout and pumper, from which he was 
promoted to be well-puller, tool-dresser and foreman successivel3^ During 
the summer of 1904 he spent three months in the east, returning with his 
mother in the fall and then securing employment as a driller on the Monte 
Cristo in the Kern river field. As a cable tool driller he is considered an 
expert and since the fall of 1904 this has been his special line of work. For 
about one year he drilled on the Sesnon, Piedmont and Lunda Vista leases 
for Sanguinetti and later he continued in the Kern river field as an employe 
of the Kern Trading and Oil Company. When their sixty or more wells 
had been drilled and they had shut down six strings of tools, he went to 
Utah and spent two and one-half months at Virgin City. Upon returning 
to Kern county he spent three years with the Standard in the Midway field 
and then drilled without success on a prospect well at Dolgeville, near Pasa- 
dena. From Bakersfield he next came out to Fellows and engaged with the 
Kern Trading and Oil Company as a driller for a year, resigning in order to 
take a vacation trip back to his old Ohio home. Two months later he came 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1075 

back to Fellows and entered upon liis duties as production foreman with the 
United Oil Coni])any. which position lie now fills with energy and ability. 

CHARLES KERR. — After having passed his childhood days unevent- 
fully near Belfast, county Antrim, Ireland, where he was born in August 
of 1830 and whither his ancestors had emigrated from Scotland, Charles Kerr 
came to the United States when scarcely fifteen years of age and settled in 
Philadelphia, Pa., there learning the trade of a butcher. Upon learning of 
the discovery of gold in California he determined to seek the west and 
during 1850 he traveled via Panama to San Francisco, where he spent a long 
period of commercial activity. Forming a partnership with Hugh O'Neil and 
Barney Horn he opened a meat market and conducted a wholesale and retail 
business, with slaughter house on the wharf. The partners later engaged in 
business at the Presidio and eventually at South San Francisco, but subse- 
quently the partnership was dissolved and each man continued in business 
alone. 

llie identification of Charles Kerr with Bakersfield and Kern county 
began in 1885, when he bought the Jackson farm of several hundred acres 
on Kern Island and engaged in raising alfalfa and stock. Upon selling 
the tract he bought two farms of one hundred and sixty acres each, situated 
five miles south of Bakersfield and well adapted to alfalfa and stock. On 
that place he became extensively engaged in the breeding of thoroughbred 
horses, buying the mares from J. B. Haggin and increasing the drove until 
at the time of his death he had .on the ranch one hundred mares of the 
finest pedigrees, together with two valuable stallions, Apache and Kismit. 
It was his custom to hold an annual sale in San Francisco. Upon these days 
he placed upon sale at auction all of the animals that could be spared from 
his large herd and the quality of the stock was such that great crowds of 
horsemen, not only from all over the coast, but also representative horse- 
men from the east, came to the sales every year. His life was full of activi- 
ties and both as a business man and as a rancher he won a high reputation 
in the state. While he had little leisure for participation in politics and never 
consented to he Id office, he was always depended upon to cast a straight 
Democratic ballot at elections. When almost seventy-seven years of age 
he passed away April 20, 1907, and the body was taken to St. Mary's ceme- 
tery, Oakland, for interment. 

For a time after the death of her husband ]\Irs. Kerr continued to man- 
age the ranch, but eventually the horses were sold and she erected for her 
home a substantial residence in Chester Lane, Bakersfield. Still later, in 
1911, she erected and removed to a modern and attractive residence on I 
street, where in the afternoon of existence she is surrounded by every material 
comfort and enjoys the affectionate regard of her circle of friends. The other 
house and also the alfalfa farm are rented. Mrs. Kerr, who bore the maiden 
name of Jennie Dean, was born at Port Glasgow, Renfrewshire. Scotland, 
and her earliest memories of childhood cluster around that place. Her par- 
ents, James and Agnes (Mackenzie) Dean, were natives respectively of 
INTanchester, England, and Port Glasgow, Scotland, and her father died in 
the latter place, he having settled there as a civil engineer in early manhood. 
Her mother died in San Francisco at the age of eighty-six years. The only 
child in the family, Mrs. Kerr grew to girlhood at the old homestead and 
during 1852 came to California via Panama, settling in San Francisco, where 
August 7. 1866, she became the wife of Charles Kerr. Two children blessed 
the union. AVilliam D. and Jennie K., Mrs. Sylvester, both residents of Bak- 
ersfield. Mrs. Kerr has been a generous contributor to those movements 
of a public nature bearing upon the material prosperity or educational ad- 
vancement of the community. 

P. J. CUNEO, M.D.— The Cuneo family has been located in Kern since 



1076 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

1893, at which time Bartholomew and Adelaide Cuneo brought their children 
to this place, where they have since maintained a home, the former now 
conducting a restaurant at No. 903 Sumner street. They are the parents of 
eight sons and one daughter, namely: Peter J., who was born in San Fran- 
cisco December 22, 1884, and was nine years of age at the time of coming to 
Kern; Charles, who is connected with the general office of the Southern 
Pacific Railroad' Company in San Francisco; Emil, who is associated with an 
oil company at Taft ; Albert, bookkeeper in the First Bank of Kern ; Rose, 
chief deputy in the county recorder's office; Frank, who is employed in the 
office of the superintendent of the Southern Pacific Railroad; Will, an em- 
ploye in the Southern Pacific freight office; Alfred and George, who are 
students in the Bakersfield high school. 

After having completed the studies of the Kern grammar school and 
the Bakersfield high school, from which latter he was graduated in 1904, P. J. 
Cuneo entered the Hastings Law College, an institution affiliated with the 
University of California and located in San Francisco. At the completion of 
the regular course of study he was graduated in 1907 and admitted to the bar 
of the state of California. However, he felt himself less drawn toward the 
law than he had anticipated and in spite of his excellent college record he deter- 
mined to seek another field of work. During 1908 he passed the state exam- 
ination of the pharmacy board and then entered Cooper Aledical College of 
San Francisco, the medical department of Leland Stanford University, and 
there he continued his studies until he received the degree of M.D., u])on his 
graduation in May of 1911. In the following August he was ex? mined by 
the state medical board and received a license to practice medicine and surgery 
in California. Meanwhile he had accepted an appointment as interne at S1. 
Luke's hospital and there he continued throughout the term, the work proving 
of the greatest benefit to him in broadening his professional knowledge and 
giving him valuable experience in surgery. Since his return to East Bakers- 
field, the community where he passed his school days and where he has many 
oldtime boyhood friends, he has devoted himself to the building up of a 
private practice. 

MRS. REBECCA TIBBET.— Among the very first settlers on Kern 
Island and a pioneer of Kern county is Mrs. Rebecca Tibbet, who came 
hither on March 1, 1864, with her husband and four children. Grandma 
Tibbet, as she is called, was born in La Grange county, Ind., July 31, 1835, 
and was the daughter of Nathaniel and Annie (Lawrence) Callahan, natives 
of Delaware and Ohio, respectively. In her native county Rebecca Callahan 
was brought up and received her education in the local schools of the day. 
There she was married April 24, 1853, to Edward Tibbet, a native of Ohio. 

The week after their marriage they started on their honeymoon trip, 
which arrangement included a trip by boat to St. Joe, Mo., and thence they 
crossed the plains by the overland trail with ox teams, being en route from 
May 3 until November 25, when they arrived at San Gabriel mission. They 
located in Arroyo Seco. now Pasadena, then a Spanish grant, where ulr. 
Tibbet was engaged in cutting wood, which he disposed of in Los Angeles. 

In 1864 they located on Kern Island and purchased an eighty acre farm 
from Colonel Baker and later homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres 
adjoining, all of which now adjoins the city on the south. They paid for 
the eighty acres by raising beef, beans and vegetables, and afterward con- 
tinued farming and stockraising. 

Mr. Tibbet died in 1879, at fifty-two years of age. Since her husband's 
death she continues to reside at her old home, making it her residence 
except when she visits her children. She became the mother of twelve 
children, seven of whom grew up as follows: Eliza, Mrs. W. T. Hoke, of Los 
Angeles ; George, deceased, at one time city marshal of Bakersfield ; William, 
who was killed by the desperado McKinney while performing his duty as a 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1077 

deputy sheriff; Alfred, who died at his home near Bakersfield October 26, 
1913; Emma. Mrs. C. P. Larsen, who resides in Bakersfield; Edward, also 
of Bakersfield ; and Burton M., of Taft. 

Mr. and Mrs. Tibbet were pioneer members of the Methodist church 
and assisted in organizing" the First Methodist Episcopal church in Bakers- 
field, in which Mr. Tibbet was trustee and class leader as well as superin- 
tendent of the Sunday school. About twenty years ago, when the Salvation 
Army was organized in this city, Mrs. Tibbet became a member and has 
since been active in the cause. 

SIDNEY POWERS. — When the various countries of Europe were con- 
tributing of their brain and brawn to the colonization of America there were 
not wanting immigrants from the rugged hills of Scotland to aid in the 
herculean task of founding a new nation and among these colonial settlers 
were representatives of the ancient Scotch family of Powers, whose early 
home in the new world was among the gallant cavaliers of Maryland. It 
is said that the Scotch formed an important element in the early history of 
that state, where they were noted for energy of character and success in 
business. Originally planted in that colony, the Powers family became iden- 
tified with Virginia through the removal thither of Richard Powers, a gen- 
tleman of Maryland nativity and education. The next generation was 
represented by Sidney Powers, Sr., a native of Cumberland county, Md., but 
throughout much of his life a planter in Virginia, where he owned a large 
plantation in Stafford county not far from the city of Fredericksburg. A 
quiet, uneventful devotion to farming, that continued imtil his death in 1896, 
was broken only by the advent of the Civil war, which found him enthusi- 
astically advocating the doctrine of states rights and he served throughout 
the war as a private in the Confederate army. During young manhood he 
had married Mar)^ Ann Thompson, a native of Fauquier county, Va., and a 
descendant of an old Scotch-Irish family. Since the death of her husband 
she has continued at the old homestead in Staft'ord county near Fredericks- 
burg, where her sixth child, Sidney, was born March 30. 1880, and where 
also had occurred the birth of her other children. There were eleven in 
the family and all but one of these still survives. 

When attending the country schools in Virginia and working on the 
home farm, Sidney Powers, Jr., was impressed by the lack of opportunities 
in that region. Hearing much concerning the west, he resolved to seek an 
opening somewhere along the Pacific coast. Accordingly as soon as he 
attained his majority and was free to start out for himself, he began to make 
plans for removal to California. December 18, 1901, found him newly arrived 
in Bakersfield, where the following day he secured employment in a livery 
stable owned by R. A. Moncure. A few months later he began to work 
at the butcher's trade under Mr. Graves. Later he assisted in the building 
of the steel tanks of the Standard Oil Company in the Kern river field, fol- 
lowing which he worked in the White Star dairy for nine months. His next 
position was with the Kern County Land Company, for which he continued 
as a collector for almost eight years. Eventually he resigned the position in 
order to embark in business for himself. During June of 1910 he purchased 
the Ideal stables at No. 2221 I street, in Bakersfield, which he since has con- 
ducted with efificiency and success, having since the acquisition of the business 
equipped and improved the property, which now includes two stables, one a 
brick building 80x100 feet in dimensions, and the other 75x80, both substantial 
in construction and convenient in arrangement. While he has not maintained 
an active interest in public affairs, he is decidedly Democratic in his sym- 
pathies and adheres to the political faith in which he was reared. Fraternally 
he belongs to the Woodmen of the World. At the time of his arrival in 
Bakersfield he was a young man without domestic ties and it was not until 
some years afterward that he established a home of his own, his marriage in 



1078 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

Bakersfield uniting- him with Miss Mary W. Wilson, by whom he has one 
son, Thomas Sidney, and who like himself is of Virginian birth and education, 
a native of Isle of Wight county and descended from an old and honored 
family of the southeastern portion of the Old Dominion. 

CHARLES H. HELDMAN.— Nestling in the foothills on the north 
slope of Piute mountain near Bodfish, Kern county, is the ranch of Charles 
H. Heldman, who owns four hundred and forty acres of land on which he 
has a full bearing orchard of apples, pears, cherries, peaches and plums, 
the place having been improved from the wild land, and which bears evidence 
of his energy and enterprise. 

Missouri is the native state of Charles Heldman and Augusta, St. Charles 
county, the place of his birth, where he first saw the light of day August 17, 
1849. His parents were of German nativity, and he was orphaned by his 
father's death when he was three years of age. In Augusta, where he was 
reared, he attended the public schools, and when a lad he began to learn the 
cooper's trade under his stepfather, Eberhart Fuhr. In 1871 he went to 
Colorado and thence to Montana, being engaged at mining. In the fall of 
1871 he made his way to the Pacific coast, following his trade in San Fran- 
cisco until the spring of 1872, when we find him in Utah, remaining there 
until the fall of 1872. In that year he became a miner in Pioche, Nev., and 
in 1873 he started for Panamint, at the time of the excitement in Death 
Valley, where he prospected until the spring of 1874, and then came to Kern 
county. Soon afterward he began mining on the Bodfish, where he built 
an arrastre and operated it for seven years. Next he located and opened 
the Centennial mine on Erskine creek, operating it until he sold it to good 
advantage, when he purchased the present ranch from the railroad com- 
pany and began improving it, and during the past seventeen years has 
wrought a wonderful change in the appearance of the place. He dug a ditch, 
taking water from Bodfish creek for irrigating his alfalfa, while he irrigates 
his orchard from a spring. His orchard is thrifty, and a large producer. 

Mr. Heldman has been a constant reader and having a retentive mem- 
ory, he has accumulated a fund of information which makes him a very inter- 
esting and entertaining conversationalist. He is very broad in his views 
and is a member of the Thomas Payne Historical Association, as well as 
The American Secular Union. 

DAVID W. MADDUX. — Among the native sons who have rendered a 
creditable showing and been instrumental in the development and improving 
of the natural resources of Kern county we find David W. Maddux, born at 
El Monte, Los Angeles county, the oldest child of William and Joanna (Mar- 
ney) Maddux, the date of his birth being March 1, 1856. His father died in 
1858 and in 1859 the family removed to Hillsboro. Ore., where rhey resided 
for about five years, then removing to a place near Salem, Ore., and remaining 
until 1866. They then returned to California and h^cated on a ranch at the 
foot of Mt. Diablo, in Contra Costa county. 

On this ranch David Maddux worked faithfully for a few vears, mean- 
lime attending the i)ul)l!c schools near his home. From a boy in his teens 
he earned his own livelihood by working on ranches. He spent two years 
prospecting near Tombstone, Ariz., during the early excitement of that cele- 
brated frontier mining camp, and then spent two years at Temple Junction. 
Tex., where he engaged in cotton growing. However, neither the business nor 
locality pleased him very much and he resolved to return to his native Cali- 
tornia. In 1884 he located in the Semi-Tropic district in Kern county and with 
(ither members of the family improved the place by boring artesian wells. He 
obtained two excellent flowing wells and set out orchards and sowed fields of 
alfalfa. In 1895 he located on the ranch that now has the Santa Fe wells, six 
miles west of what is now McKittrick. On this place he engaged in farming 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1081 

with his brother, William A., and later he traded his farm in Semi Trcjpic 
for the place on which he now resides, also located in the Little Santa Maria 
valley. He also homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres adjoining, im- 
proving it, building a comfortable residence and suitable barn, and since 
proving up on it has also purchased other lands and now owns about six 
hundred acres on which he is raising hay and stock. On his original farm 
he bored three wells and obtained a large flow of excellent water which he has 
lately sold to the Santa Fe Company. 

Mr. Maddux has also become interested in real estate in Bakersfield, 
owning a residence on Twenty-third and M streets, and with his partner. 
M. S. Platz, built eight bungalows on the corner of Twenty-third and D 
streets. While he has never aspired to public office he is interested in the 
success of the Republican party. 

M. M. LICHTENSTEIN. — An artistic and imposing business establish- 
ment of Bakersfield is the jewelry store situated at No. 1414 Nineteenth street 
and owned by The Lichtenstein Jewelry Company. When Mr. Lichtenstein 
came to this city in 1910 and selected fcr his store the central location he now 
retains, he decided to reproduce in the fixtures a Parisian establishment which 
he had admired during one of his trips abroad. The development of the idea 
proved successful. In all probability there is no other store in America simi- 
larly equipped and finished, and visitors in Bakersfield invariably pause before 
the store in admiration which always finds expression in terms of highest 
praise. The walls are made of French plate mirrors, while the large square 
showcases of French plate glass rest on marble bases, the entire equipment 
representing an expenditure of $8500 and testifying silently as to the elegant 
tastes of the owners. 

The Lichtenstein family comes of German lineage. M. H., .father of 
M. M., was born near Berlin, Germany, and at the age of thirteen came to the 
United States with his parents, settling in St. Louis. After he had grown to 
manhood -he went to New York City and there with his father engaged in the 
millinery business. Tales of the discovery of gold in California lured him to 
the west, for he was of an adventurous disposition, fond of travel and fearless 
in danger. During 1850 he landed at San Francisco after an uneventful vo.yage 
via Panama. For a time he was employed in the express business in San 
Francisco, but in 1852 he started an express and exchange business between 
that city and Sacramento. It was his characteristic love of adventure that led 
him to join the filibustering expedition organized by William W^alker, who 
attempted, with a force of four hundred men, to make himself master of 
Nicaragua. In that brief but disastrous campaign he had even more excite- 
ment and danger than he liked. He narrowly escaped execution with many 
of the other members of the expedition. The fate which others met he for- 
tunately escaped. Without doubt he owed the preservation of his life to the 
fact that he wore his Masonic emblem. As he made his way alone up the 
coast, riding on a burro, he suffered many hardships, went through many 
exciting experiences and often traveled on very short rations. 

When finally the unfortunate adventure had reached a safe termination, 
Mr. Lichtenstein returned to San Francisco, secured employment and re- 
mained until about 1870. Joining the rush to Pioche, Nev., at the time of the 
Raymond-Ely excitement, he met with good luck and made a fortune of $150,- 
000 in the mines. However, being a true Californian of the old school and fond 
of speculating on the Stock Exchange, he soon lost his entire fortune. Nothing 
daunted, he began at the bottom once more and as soon as he had a suf- 
ficient capital he engaged in the jewelry business in San Francisco. In spite 
of his frequent losses on the Stock Exchange, he became well-to-do and con- 
tinued to conduct a large jewelry trade until the time of the fire. After that he 
failed rapidly and April 21. 1907. he passed away. Surviving him and still 



1082 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

living in San Francisco is his widow, Mrs. Toba Lichtenstein, who settled in 
that city in 1865. Of their ten children four sons and one daughter still sur- 
vive. The youngest son, M. M., was born in San Francisco September 5, 1872, 
and received his advanced education in the city high school and Heald's 
Business College. After he had graduated from the latter institution in 1887 
he engaged in the jewelry business with his father on Stockton street, but 
after the fire he opened a store on Market street near Powell, where he con- 
tinued until his removal to Bakersfield. Meanwhile he made his first trip abroad 
in 1894, when he met Miss Mathilda Herzog, a native of Mainz. They later 
married at San Rafael, Cal., where she visited relatives. During 1909 they 
made a long and enjoyable tour of Europe. All public movements receive the 
support of Mr. Lichtenstein when he is convinced of their utility. In politics 
he votes with the Democratic party. Several fraternities have the benefit of 
his cordial co-operation. At this writing he acts as secretary of Bakersfield 
Parlor No. 42, N. S. G. W., and with others is endeavoring to develop and pre- 
serve all of the historical places in Kern county. 

JESSE L. KELLEY.— The ability to judge stock accurately Mr. Kelley 
inherits from his father, the late Thomas Kelley, who was considered a 
successful stockman of his day and locality. Born in Maine, he had set- 
tled in Missouri during young manhood and by gradual development he had 
built up a large stock industry, owning thousands of head of cattle, horses 
and mules. Early in the '50s he had crossed the plains with a party of men 
desirous of inspecting the west. Soon he returned to Missouri, but subse- 
quently he made four other trips to the coast, at times traveling with ox- 
teams and at times with horses. In addition to his homestead of fifteen 
hundred acres near Marysville, Nodaway county. Mo., he acquired large 
tracts of farm lands in Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas. Eventually he sold 
his stock and closed out his extensive interests in Missouri, removing from 
that state to California, where he settled in Humboldt county. There he 
soon became interested in the stock business and on his large ranch near 
Ferndale he always kept a drove of fine horses as well as many head of 
mules and cattle. On that ranch he remained until his death, which occurred 
at the age of eighty-six years. 

While living in Alissouri, Thomas Kelley had met and married Mary 
Lee, who was born in Kentucky and died in Missouri. At an early age 
she left her home in the Blue Grass state in company with her father, Noah 
Lee, a native Kentuckian and a member of a pioneer family of that com- 
monwealth. F"or years Mr. Lee was one of the extensive and prominent 
farmers of his county in Missouri. The twelve children of Thomas and 
Mary (Lee) Kelley are living at the present writing and the youngest of 
the large family, Jesse L., was born at the old homestead near Marysville, 
Nodaway county. Mo., April 2, 1878. Reared on the farm, from boyhood 
he was familiar with the stock industry in every department. As a boy 
he was able to point to the defects in a horse or steer. He also studied their 
diseases' and the best cures for each. When only eleven years of age he was 
trading in horses and while some of his trades were more fortunate for the 
other party than for himself, yet each was a stepping-stone in his training 
and added to his knowledge of animals. As early as 1893 he made his first 
trip to California and at San Francisco followed the riding of race horses. 
In other large cities of the United States he engaged in the same work. 

WHien twenty-one years of age Mr. Kelley began to buy and sell stock 
at Marysville, Mo., where he had a yard of his own and operated with a 
skill that was little short of remarkable in view of his youth. Older dealers 
in stock were amazed at his trained judgment. After some years in the 
same place he decided to remove to California. During 1899 he located in 
San Francisco and engaged in buying and selling horses and mules, fre- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1085 

quently returning to Missouri on business, but always considering Cali- 
fornia his home. Since 1906 he has engaged in business in Bakersfield and 
has become the largest shipper of stock in the entire San Joaquin valley. 
His shipments of horses and mules have been especially large. Growers of 
stock have come to place every confidence in his judgment and have found 
his prices the best that the market justifies. Four miles from Bakersfield 
on the Kern Island road he owns a fine alfalfa ranch of eighty acres and 
finds the care of the property an enjoyable change from his business afifairs 
in the city. While he never has been active in politics nor has sought office 
he keeps posted concerning public affairs, and votes the Republican ticket 
at general elections. By his marriage in Marysville, Mo., November 20, 1900, 
to Miss Mattie McLean, who was born and reared near Marysville, Mo., he is 
the father of two children, Floyd and Clara, now students in the Bakersfield 
schools. 

JAMES ALEXANDER. — Everywhere, in every community, people look 
up to Scotchmen as an example of that which constitutes good citizenship. The 
Scotchman is a worker, an economist, a lover of country and a friend of educa- 
tion and enlightenment. He prospers and, prospering, helps others to prosper. 
The citizen of Weldon, Kern county, Cal., whose name is at the head of this 
brief notice daily impresses upon his neighbors the truth of these reflections. 
Born in Kincardineshire, Scotland, October 22, 1875, a son of David Alexander 
and a descendant of old and honorable Scottish families, he was early placed in 
the public schools of his native place and studied hard until he was twelve years 
old, when he was obliged to lay down his books and help to earn the family 
livelihood. Owing to his father's ill health, the boy had from a very early age 
much responsibility in the conduct of the family affairs. When he was 
eighteen years of age, in 1893, the whole family came to America and, making 
their way to California, settled before the end of that year on what is now 
James Alexander's ranch on the South Fork of the Kern river. He took charge 
of affairs and they leased from the A. Brown Company until 1911, when they 
purchased the place. Mr. Alexander owns two hundred and forty acres, one 
hundred and ninety acres of which is under cultivation. It is under irrigation 
and about one hundred acres is in growing alfalfa. He is also a grower of 
grain and is engaged quite extensively in the breeding of cattle, hogs and 
horses, also cattle and hogs for the market, his brand being a JA joined. 

Fraternally Mr. Alexander is a member of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, affiliating with Kernville Lodge No. 251. He is a member of the 
board of trustees of Weldon School District and is clerk of the board. A suc- 
cessful man, of public spirit, he has been a promoter of many local move- 
ments for the general good. June 27, 1907, he married Miss Grace L. Bishop, 
in Kings county. She was born in Nova Scotia, daughter of William A. 
Bishop, who brought his family to California. Mrs. Alexander was educated 
in Santa Clara county and was graduated from the state normal at San Jose 
in 1900, engaging in educational work until her marriage. Two daughters have 
been born to Mr. and Mrs. Alexander and his wife, Mabel and Alice. The 
mother of Mr. Alexander died in 1906, and his father now lives with him. 

J. W. BATES. — As field superintendent of the Fairfield Oil Company, 
Mr. Bates has charge of one hundred and twenty acres lying on section 13, 
31-22, a similar tract on section 19, 31-22, all of section 11, 31-22 (which is 
undeveloped), and twenty acres on section 19, 30-22, at McKittrick, upon 
which there are seven producing wells. The average production runs from ten 
thousand to twenty thousand barrels, and it is the ambition of the superintend- 
ent to develop the leases to the fullest degree possible, with the hope that the 
returns may be commensurate with justifiable expectations. 

Prior to coming to the west Mr. Bates made his home in New Hamp- 
shire, where he was born January 18, 1889, where he received a common- 



1086 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

school education and where he was trained for the responsibilities of the busi- 
ness world. 7\n interesting experience at Dartmouth College was brought to a 
close with his graduation in 1910. In the course of his study in that institution 
he had been prominent in a number of societies and fraternities. In the fall of 
1910 he left the east and came to California, where a friend in San Francisco 
secured work for him in the McKittrick oil field. The position was not one of 
importance, being that of mule-driver. To work strenuously and laboriously 
did not daunt him in the least. By the quiet discharge of uninteresting duties 
he prcjved that a college graduate was not superior to manual labor and did 
not disdain the humblest duties. Soon he was promoted to be a tool-dresser 
and in May, 1913, he was made manager of the Fairfield Oil Company, which 
has four wells and one now drilling. During 1912 occurred the death of his 
father, F. C. Bates, for years the owner and proprietor of a large boot and 
shoe business at Somersworth, Strafford county, N. H. Surviving him are the 
wife and daughter, still residents of New Hampshire, and the only son, who 
inherited the shoe business. Being pleased with California and the oil busi- 
ness, Air. Bates has given over to his mother the management of the store at 
Somersworth and she in turn has entrusted it largely to an experienced old 
employe long connected with the establishment. 

AUGUST MAUREL.— Gap, Hautes-Alpes, France, was the birthplace 
of August Alaurel, the date being July 11, 1865. His father, Francois Alaurel, 
being a farmer, he was reared to that pursuit, attending school until he reached 
the age of fifteen. In 1882 he made his way to the United States, coming 
directly to the Pacific coast and followed gardening in San Francisco for a 
while, in January of 1883 coming to Sumner. Mr. Maurel found work with 
a sheepman on the plains, being thus occupied for about three years, when 
he purchased a flock of ewes and started out for himself. This he has 
since continued with such marked success that he is designated as one of 
the large sheepmen in the county. His herd at starting consisted of about 
fifteen hundred head, but at times it has reached twelve thousand. For 
the first seven years he ranged his sheep at Poso Bridge, then between Kern 
river and Poso creek, then for about ten years at Granite Station and vicinity, 
and still later in the Weed Patch and Rock Pile country. 

Mr. Maurel owns property near San Bernardino, but he has always made 
his home in Kern county, his place of residence being now at the corner of 
Eureka and Owens streets. East Bakersfield. He has invested in real estate 
in this city and owns five other residences which are valuable pieces of prop- 
ertv. He was married in East Bakersfield July 12, 1893, to Miss Marie 
Robert, who was also a native of Hautes-Aloes, France. They are the par- 
ents of three children, ^•iz. : August G., who is attending Fleald's Business 
Colles^e, San Jose; Alice, attending Bakersfield Business College; and George. 
Mr. Maurel is a member of the Order of Eagles and the Druids, and in 
politic; i''; n stanch Renublican. 

JEREMIAH SHIELDS.— -Among the ancestors of Jeremiah Shields on 
the maternal side his great-great-grandfather McElroy came from Scotland 
and settled in county Londonderry. Ireland, where later generations have been 
identified un to the present time. The Shields familv were distinctly from 
conntv Donen-al, that being the lifelong home of James and Catherine (Mc- 
Elrov) Shields. The earlv associations of their son, Jeremiah, bound him 
clnselv to that county, where he was born on New Year's day of 1843 and 
where he was reared on a farm sixteen miles from the city of Londonderry. 
Mav 4. 1868, he landed in the city of New. York, penniless but hooeful, and 
possessing a robust constitution that enabled him to endure without harm the 
heavy work of later years. After a brief sojourn in New York City and Phila- 
delphia he went to Omaha. Nebr.. and secured employment on the construc- 
tion work of the Union Pacific Railroad. The vast plains were almost wholly 




CpiUyC^-^^^^o&/' 




HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1089 

unsettled and Laramie, the last station on the line, was a hamlet of a few 
tents. The particular task of the young immigrant was that of laying track 
and for over one year he was given steady employment by the contractors. 
When finally the work was completed he came by train to Sacramento in 
January, 1869. He followed farm work until 18/1, and then removed to 
Lodi, where he secured work as foreman of track repairs for the Central Pacific 
Railroad. For five j^ears he filled the position with praiseworthy fidelity and 
efficiency, after which he spent six months in Oakland. 

Coming to Kern county for the first time in September of 1876, Mr. 
Shields became foreman of the vSouthern Pacific Railroad at Tehachapi, being 
the first permanent incumbent of the position. The work entailed many re- 
sponsibilities, yet it was so congenial and acceptable that he refused an offer 
to bec( me roadmaster of the Mojave and Needles branch, preferring to con- 
tinue in the foremanship. In the highest part of the mountain section there 
were six tunnels w-ithin one mile. The dangers of earth slides and winter 
snows were so constant that he kept a vigil night and day. Nothing affords 
him greater gratification than the fact that during the period of his occu- 
pancy of the position, covering almost sixteen years, there occurred no acci- 
dent that could be attributed to carelessness on his part. In the mean- 
time he had taken up land and when in December of 1891 he resigned as fore- 
man it was for the purpose of giving his entire time to farming and stock- 
raising. He now owns two hundred and fifty acres one and a half miles west 
of Tehachapi. While he still owns the ranch, since 1903 he has resided in 
Bakersfield, where he owns a comfortable residence at No. 1612 H street. 

Ever since he became a citizen of our country Mr. Shields has advocated 
Democratic principles. Formerly he served as a member of the county 
Democratic central committee. For years in Tehachapi he held office as school 
trustee, but that position came to him less through his desire for, political 
preferment than through his known interest in educational affairs and his 
intelligent realization of the needs of the schools. The Democrats of his dis- 
trict secured his election as a member of the board of county supervisors 
in 1894, his duties beginning in January of the next year. At the expiration of 
the term in 1898 he was again chosen to fill the position. The end of the term, 
January 1, 1903, was also the beginning of his first term as county treasurer, to 
which responsible post he was elected by the Democratic party of Kern 
county. During 1906 he was re-elected and so satisfactory was his service that 
when the time came for the next election, 1910, he had no opponent, being 
again chosen his own successor, to fill the office until New Year's of 1915. 
The details connected with the office are many and the responsibility great, 
but he has proved equal to every emergency and has vindicated the choice of 
his party. During his busy and successful life he has had little leisure for 
participation in social functions or fraternal activities, and the only organiza- 
tion with which he has been prominently connected is the Order of Knights 
of Columbus, which he serves as a trustee. In his marriage, which occurred at 
Sacramento in 1873, he was united with Miss Catherine Shields, a young Irish 
girl of gentle character and industrious habits, well qualified to assist a poor 
but ambitious man in his efforts to secure success. Six sons and one daughter 
blessed their union, namely: Minnie, deceased in 1874 at six months of age; 
James D., employed as a stationary engineer in Bakersfield ; Henry P., a 
painter in this city; George F., a machinist, who follows his trade in Los An- 
geles; Jeremiah P., now serving as deputy county treasurer; Edward J., who 
holds the position of locomotive engineer for the Santa Fe road out of Bakers- 
field ; and Hugh M., a cartoonist and commercial artist now following his 
chosen occupation with recognized success in San Francisco. 

WILLIAM A. MADDUX.— Among the men who have done much to 
improve land and build up the agricultural resources of Kern county we find 



1090 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

William Maddux, a native son, born in El Monte, Los Angeles county, No- 
vember 6, 1858, the son of William and Joanna (Marney) Maddux. In 1850 
the father crossed the plains with ox teams to Los Angeles, Cal., where he 
met and married Miss blarney, who had also crossed the plains, coming with 
her uncle, Fielding Hathaway, in 1852. Mr. Maddux was one of the early 
merchants of El Monte, but before he had an opportunity to accomplish much 
in his line he passed away late in the fall of 1858. There were two children 
born of this union. The oldest, David W. Maddux, is also a resident of Kern 
county, residing on his farm near McKittrick. The mother, who married 
the second time to J. E. Morgan, is again a widow and resides in San Jose. 

William A. Maddux was reared from the time he was eight years of age 
on the farm in Contra Costa county, the place being located at the foot of 
Mt. Diablo, and he attended the public school at Clayton. As early as thirteen 
he began paddling his own canoe by working on ranches, besides performing 
his duties on the home place. He spent two years farming at Pilot Grove, 
Falls county, Tex., and in 1884 came with the family to Kern county. Here he 
located land at Semi-Tropic and drilled artesian wells and was successful in 
improving the place, sowing alfalfa and setting out orchards and vineyards 
which were irrigated from the flowing wells. Fie still owns one hundred and 
sixty acres in that district. In 1895 he located a homestead of one hundred and 
sixty acres at the foot of Temblor mountain in the little Santa Maria valley, 
six miles west of McKittrick, which he improved and proved up on and has 
also purchased land adjoining until he owns eight hundred acres of land. On 
the homestead he sunk a well and at a depth of one hundred and thirty-eight 
feet he struck an abundant flow of good water, thus richly enhancing the 
value of his place. Fraternally he is a member of Delano Lodge No. 356, I. O. 
O. F., and politically is an independent Republican. 

HYMAN BLOCK WELLS.— This young man has by industry, energy 
and perseverance actjuired a ct)mpetency and has the esteem and confidence 
of his fellow men. Although not a native son he was reared in California, 
coming here with the family when he was two years of age. His birth occurred 
in Ashley, Pike county. Mo., January 26, 1877. The father, James M. Wells, 
was a farmer in Ashley, when he was married to Susie Block, also a native 
of that county. In 1877 James M. Wells came to California, the family joining 
him in 1879. Until 1886 he followed farming at Lemoore, and from there 
removed to Coalinga, where he purchased land from the railroad and from 
individuals as he made the money to buy them out until he acquired about 
five thousand acres in that vicinity. After years of successful farming he 
retired to Visalia, where he and his wife now live, enjoying the fruits of their 
labors. Of their ten children Hyman B. is the second oldest ; he was reared on 
the farm and educated in the public schools of Coalinga and at the San Jose 
Business College. After finishing his schooling he rented his father's farm 
for one year, then entered the employ of the Associated Oil Company at Mc- 
Kittrick and became superintendent of the water department which supplies 
McKittrick and the McKittrick oil fields with water. In 1908 he resigned and 
located his i)resent homestead of one hundred and sixty acres six miles south- 
west of McKittrick, where he has made the improvements and built his 
home. In March, 1913, he proved up and obtained a title to the land from the 
government. He also leases adjoining land from Miller and Lux and is raising 
about four hundred acres of grain hay, in which he has been verv successful. 

In Hanford occurred Mr. Wells' marriage with Miss Eva Merrill, who is 
a native daughter, born near Stockton, and to them have been born three 
children : Susie Marie. Thelma Elizabeth and Kingsley Hyman. Fraternally 
Mr. Wells is a member of the Woodmen of the World and politically is a 
Republican. Mrs. Wells is a member of the Women of W^oodcraft and the 
Order of the Eastern Star. 





OC^ (^^^>i^^^2>i^-l^^^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1093 

MAX NUNEZ.— Among the men of affairs who have left their imprint 
on the growth and upbuilding of 'East Bakersfield is Max Nunez, who was 
born at Old Ahnaden, Santa Clara county, in June, 1859, and there he grew up, 
receiving his education in the local schools. Although the schools offered 
limited opportunities, he being of a studious nature continued his research 
for knowledge and became a well-informed man. His father was a contractor 
at the Almaden mines and Max aided him in packing cinnabar ore from the 
mines to the mill. Next he spent some time in HoUister and in 1882 he came 
to Sumner, now East Bakersfield, and for a time he engaged in the liquor 
business. Subsequently he founded the waterworks, obtained the franchise to 
supply the town of Sumner, as it was called, with water and put down wells, 
laid the mains and started the waterworks, managing it until he sold it to 
the Sumner Water Company. 

After this Mr. Nunez spent many years as roadmaster, building, looking 
after and improving the public roads in his district. Then he built sheep- 
shearing stations where during the season he employed about three hundred 
hands to shear the multitude of sheep of the prosperous flock owners of 
those days. He became the owner of very valuable property in East Bakers- 
field, some of it located on Baker and Grove streets, which have become 
valuable business holdings. 

The death of Mr. Nunez occurred January 8. 1905. He was a very liberal 
and enterprising man and in his death the city lost one of its most generous 
upbuilders. His wife, who survives him, was in maidenhood Rosa Looez. a 
native of Sinaloa, Mexico. She continues to reside in East Bakersfield. 
looking after her real estate interests and building up her property. 

E. E. BALLAGH. — It is conceded among residents of the west side that 
no citizen of Maricopa was more intimately identified with its incorporation 
and subsequent civic upbuildins: than E. E. Ballagh, who. while ens-aging in 
insurance and real-estate activities, handling and selling oil lands, farm lands 
and town property in Kern county as well as lands and city lots in and near 
Porterville, has also been able to give the city most able and intelligent service 
in the canacity of clerk. Upon the incorporation of Maricopa as a city in 
July of 1911 he was chosen the first city clerk and the following year was 
re-elected, to serve until 1914. As a member of the board of trustees he is a 
co-worker with C. W. Beatty (mayor), W. E. Thornton, James Wallace, 
H. C. Doll and C. Z. Irvine, the other city officers being as follows: M. Y. 
White of the First National Bank, citv treasurer; T. W. Brown, city recorder; 
L. R. Godward, city attorney; H. J. Babcock, city marshal; Harry Parke, 
fire chief; Dr. H. N. Taylor, health officer; and L. L. Coleman, city engineer. 
The Maricopa board of health, whose vigorous measures have urged forward 
all enterprises for the promotion of healthful sanitary conditions, comprises 
the following gentlemen under Dr. Taylor as chairman; F. T. Torpey, R. R. 
Lucas, L. T^. Coleman and H. J. Babcock. 

A native Californian and the son of an able and popular Presbyterian 
minister, E. E. Ballagh was born at Red Bluff, Tehama county. By reason 
of the various removals of the family from one Presbyterian parish to an- 
other, he attended public school in different places. After he had finished his 
hish-school studies he matriculated in the Leland Stanford, Jr., University, 
where he was graduated after a thorough course in the department of electri- 
cal engineering. As an engineer he found his first employment at Glennville, 
Cal. From 1904 to 1909 he was a salaried employe of the Consolidated Cop- 
per Company, his field of labor being principally in the mines of Cananea, 
state of Sonora, Mexico. Meanwhile in 1907 he married Miss Minnie L. 
Campbell, daughter of Daniel Campbell, a California pioneer who passed 
away on Christmas day of 1911. Mr. and Mrs. Ballagh have an only son, 
Ernest M. 



1094 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Together with his brother, Dr. H. A. Ballagh, during 1910 Mr. Ballagh 
erected the Ballagh block at a cost of $6*,000. This is a cement building, 
50x40 feet in dimensions, and divided into four offices, one of these being 
occupied by Dr. Ballagh for a dental office. Throughout the period of his 
residence in Maricopa, his work as real-estate agent as well as the office of 
city clerk have given to Mr. Ballagh an excellent opportunity to study condi- 
tions on the west side. \Mnle selling real estate in town Mr. Ballagh also has 
handled oil lands and has watched with unceasing interest the growth of the 
oil industry as new wells and deeper sands are constantly being developed in 
the field tributary to Maricopa. What the extent and wealth of the field will 
be, he states, is only a matter of conjecture, but exaggeration would be diffi- 
cult. The Coronation well on section 4, township 11 north, range 23 west, 
producing about eight hundred barrels per day, has increased the extent of 
the proved oil district by many thousands of acres on which there is still 
practically little development. The Edmunds Midway and Knickerbocker 
Oil Companies, operating northwest of Maricopa, have penetrated a lower 
stratum of oil sand and these remarkable gushers, each producing from five 
thousand to six thousand barrels daily, will in all probability be the cause 
of the redrilling of all of the adjoining sections of land heretofore producing 
from a shallower depth. El Camino Oil and Development Company, oper- 
ating on the flat five miles east of Maricopa and passing through excellent 
showings, is being watched in its work with exceptional interest, for a pro- 
ducing well there will widen and lengthen the area of the field, also will sub- 
stantiate the reports of geologists who maintain the continued trend of the 
main 35 Hill anticline to that point. On the southeast of town. Anaconda 
well No. 14 is in operation. To the northwest and southeast the develop- 
ment is extending gradually, but with substantial success. On the northeast 
the Maricopa Queen has brought in two fifteen hundred barrel-per-day 
gushers within the past year. 

The world of progress moves onward and INIaricopa is no exception to 
other districts in the development of its tributary territory. Mr. Ballagh 
reports companies organizing for development in the mountains and plains 
west of Maricopa, where indications are favorable for new fields. Progress 
is seen not alone in the oil industry. The farmer and stock-raiser are begin- 
ning to take up the adjacent fertile acres, the miner is prospecting in the 
mountain beyond, and the market gardener and fruit-raiser are experimenting 
with intensive cultivation of land. All of these workers are looking forward 
with eager anticipation to the building of the highway from Maricopa to the 
coast. 

It has been the joy and pride of the pioneers of Maricopa to build a sub- 
stantial modern school building, to maintain a hospital with modern equip- 
ment, to put in street lights, erect a fire department house and also a city hall. 
A sewage system is being installed to meet the needs of the town for many 
decades to come. The water supply for the fire system is gravity pressure, 
capable of throwing six streams of water to a height of seventy-five feet. A 
new jail has been completed. Although many improvements have been made, 
there still remain ample funds in the city treasury. 

WILLIAM N. FORKER.— As the holder of the responsible position of 
\\'ater Commissioner in Kern county, Cal., William N. Forker fills a most 
important place in the general working of that department, and as inspector 
of the oil production there he assumes a vast amount of responsibility, for 
there is doubtless no greater producer in any other state in the United States 
than in Kern county. Mr. Forker received his appointment from the Board of 
Supervisors, who showed excellent judgment in their choice of him as he has 
well proved to them, and no man perhans in the oil fields today has a more 
practical idea of that industry and its branches than has he. Born in Clarion 
county. Pa., he worked from boyhood in the oil fields in that vicinity, starting 




^-^. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1097 

from the bottom and working gradually uj) to an important place. In 1900, 
when the discovery of oil in Kern county attracted many to this part of the 
state, Mr. Forker decided to come here. He first engaged in the West Side 
oil fields, since which time he has helped to develop several of the producing 
wells of today. His experience in these fields has enabled him to gain an 
insight into climatic conditions and the general system of working these pro- 
ducers, and he is reputed to be an authority on the oil question. 

Mr. Forker married Miss Soto, who with her talented daughters are active 
workers in St. Francis Catholic Church of Bakersfield. The daughters are 
highly gifted musicians, while the son, William M., a student at the University 
of California, is a baseball pitcher of reputation. They make their home at 
No. 2724 Nineteenth street, Bakersfield. 

ERNEST KARNS.— No production foreman in the North Midway field 
gives to his work more exclusive, more conscientious attention than char- 
acterizes the capable activities of Ernest Karns, who in his identification 
with one of the great organizations in the oil industry has proved markedly 
efficient and thoroughly reliable. 

The next to the youngest among six children, Ernest Karns was born 
near Clarendon. Warren county, Pa., and at an early age was taken to the 
vicinity of Rising Sun, Ohio, by his parents. Pierce and Amanda (Kleinfelter) 
Karns, likewise natives of Pennsylvania. For years the father has been an 
expert driller and has devoted himself to the oil industry, which he now 
follows in the Midway field in Kern county. When a mere lad Ernest Karns 
entered the oil business as a roustabout. Step by step he advanced. In 
each position he proved reliable and diligent. After a time as pumper he 
was trained to be a tool-dresser and from that he rose to be production man, 
which work he was following at the time of his removal from Ohio. Coming 
to California in 1908, he secured employment in the Midway field. His first 
job was that of well-puller on the Oregon Midway, from which he came 
to the service of the C. C. M. O. Co., commcnly known as the Santa Fe, one 
of the greatest producing companies in the state, and since 1912 he has been 
production foreman for this gigantic corporation. Aside from voting the 
Republican ticket he takes no part whatever in politics, nor is he interested 
in fraternities, but prefers to devote his time wholly to the duties connected 
with the C()mpan_Y's production. 

EDWARD STEWART BROWN.— Through a long line of worthy 
American ancestry the genealogy of the Brown family is traced back to Ire- 
land and from that country to Scotland, where all authentic records are lost 
in a maze tf traditional lore. W^orthy of especial note is the long and honor- 
able record of Robert S. Brown as a locomotive engineer, first v/ith the Ill- 
inois Central Railroad and later with the New York Central in charge of the 
North Shore Limited, the fastest train between Syracuse and Buffalo. Dur- 
ing the period of his service on the Illinois Central he witnessed the destruction 
of Chicago by the great fire cf 1871. On resigning from that road he removed 
back to New York state and settled at Rochester, later going on the old home- 
stead ten miles northwest of that city. By his marriage to Jane E. Bascom he 
had three sons, Edward S., Herman Bascom and Archibald R. After a splendid 
record as an engineer he met his death in 1891 in an accident at Rochester 
and nine months later his wife passed away. Their son, Edward S., was born 
in Chicago July 17, 1871, and received his education in the Albion hisfh school 
and the Brockport Normal. The occupations which had interested his fore- 
bears did not attract him. Railroading, in which his father had achieved note- 
worthy distinction, did not fascinate him with its possibilities, and the occupa- 
tion of cabinet-making, which his grandfather, Dennis Patrick Brown, had 
followed through a busy life, in these later years has been taken by the great 
factories out of the hands of the skilled artisans. The modern industry of 



1098 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

oil production gave him an opening of interest for the present and of promise 
for the future. 

Arriving in California May 16, 1897, Mr. Brown at once found em- 
ployment in the Fullerton field. Starting in at the bottom, he continued for 
five and one-half years on the lease of the Puente Oil Company. Meanwhile 
he became an expert driller and when he left the Puente it was to work as 
driller for the Olinda Land Company. From Fullerton he went to Santa Maria, 
where he was associated with the Union Oil Company for nearly three years. 
Afterward he drilled on various leases. For perhaps a year he engaged as 
drilling foreman with the General Oil Company at Santa Maria. Since De- 
cember of 1909 he has been connected with the Pinal Dome Oil Company, 
owners of two tracts of eighty and one hundred and sixty acres respectively, 
all located on section 23, 31-22. As foreman he has charge of the lease and is 
engaged in drilling a new well. Already there are ten active wells, with a 
monthly production of about twenty thousand barrels. 

In addition to managing the interests of the company on the lease Mr. 
Brown maintains a warm interest in national problems and is a reader of 
papers and periodicals, although naturally he finds the publication of oil news 
more interesting than the news of other enterprises or of political questions. 
While in New York state he was made a Mason and later he was raised to the 
Royal Arch Chapter at Santa Maria, where also he and his wife were con- 
nected with the Eastern Star, and he further was connected with the Elks at 
San Luis Obispo- At Greigsville, Livingston county, N. Y., he married JNIiss 
Sarah E. Clement, a capable woman, whose co-operation in her husband's 
work is shown by her willingness to board and care for the men on the lease. 
The two sons also co-operate as much as possible, the elder, Robert S., being 
now a driller on the Pinal Dome lease. The younger, Edward Archibald, who 
is now a student in the California Polytechnic at San Luis Obispo, gives 
his entire vacation season to the task of pumping on the Pinal Dome, it being 
his present plan to embark in the industry upon the completion of his college 
course. 

JOHN P. SAMUELSON.— Few men have traveled more widely or seen 
more of the world than has John P. Samuelson, now the transportation fore- 
man f( r the General Petroleum Company at Taft. As a boy he became familiar 
with the interesting old city of Stockholm, Sweden, where he was born May 12, 
1878, and where his father, David Oscar Samuelson, still conducts one of the 
largest bakeries of the capital. As far back as the records can be traced his 
ancestors were people of worth and intelligence. Caring little for travel, but 
devoted to their own country, they were not tempted to leave Sweden and 
it is thought that all of the living representatives of the name, wath the excep- 
tion of John P., continue to make that land their home. By the marriage of 
David Oscar Samuelson to Anna Louisa Samuelson, now deceased, there were 
three sons, one of whom, named for his father, now owns a meat market and 
other properties in Sweden, while the youngest, Nels A., also a resident of 
Stockholm, is engaged in the automobile livery business. The second son, 
John P., left home at the age of seventeen to become a sailor on the high seas. 
As an employe on Swedish and American sail boats and steamships he visited 
the principal ports of the world. 

After having followed the sea from 1895 to 1899, ]\rr. Samuelson gave 
up the life of a sailor and became a miner in Alaska. There he had many 
adventures. Nome was a very small place when he first arrived in the town 
and he saw much of its development during the following years. Fairbanks 
also was frequently visited by him. His prospecting tours took him to every 
part of the country. Aside from mining he gave attention to no work except 
ditching. From 1899 until 1909 he remained continuously in Alaska with the 
exception of three return trips to the United States for the winter months. 



1 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1101 

In November of 1909 he arrived in Taft, which then presented an uninviting 
aspect owing to the recent fire. Having a financial interest in the Bed Rock 
lease, he began to work there as a production man. From May of 1910 until 
May of 191 i he had charge of the Nome Oil Company in the Elk Plills, from 
which lease he came to the Esperanza Consolidated Oil Company (the nu- 
cleus of the General Petroleum). Transportation rather than production has 
appealed to him. Throughout his connection with the General Petroleum he 
has acted as transportation foreman. To him is given the oversight of all 
freight. He handles the materials used for drilhng and the machinery used in 
connection with production. Under his supervision is all freight for the 
leases and properties of the General Petroleum Oil Company in th.e Central 
Midway, Belle Ridge, Lost Hills, Shale, Maricopa, McKittrick and Fellows 
fields, and on the Globe, Buena Vista. Sibyl, Continental. Nevada, Brunswick. 
Section 22, Oakburn and Carnegie divisions. 

From the first Mr. Samuelson has believed in the future prosperity of 
Taft. Acting on that belief, he acquired three houses and lots in the town. 
In one of these bungalows, erected by himself and occupying a desirable loca- 
tion on the corner of Kern and Fifth streets, he and his wife have a com- 
fortable home, the hospitality of which is known to every friend. After com- 
ing to Kern county Mr. Samuelson was married at Bakersfield, his wife being 
Miss Ethel Fawce'tt, of Chico, a native daughter of California, her father being 
John Fawcett, a prosnerous orchardist living in the vicinity of Chico. While 
living in Alaska Mr. Samuelson became connected with the Eagles in Nome 
and since coming to Kern county he has become a member of the Loyal Order 
of Mocse at Taft. 

ALBERT JAMES McCOMBS.— The success of the well-known citi- 
zen of Kern county whose name is above is the legitimate fruitage of in- 
dustry, enterprise and integrity. These are the foundation stones on which 
he has most ably builded. Albert James McCombs was born in Cedar 
county, Iowa, March 3, 1875, and when he was about a year old was taken 
by his parents to Kansas and a little later to near Sidney, Cheyenne county, 
Nebr., where he lived until after his twentieth birthday and where he at- 
tended public school until he was about seventeen. He began life for himself 
as a farm hand and early acquired a knowledge of ranching and stockraising. 
In 1895 he came to California and settled at Hanford,. Kings county, where 
he worked for a time for wages. Three years later he came to Kern county 
and entered the employ of H. L. Weems, apiarist, with whom he remained 
two years and during the ensuing three years he was foreman of the Palms 
fruit ranch at The Palms, three miles south of Wasco. While there he also 
engaged in the bee business, and at the end of four years he disposed of his 
thirteen hundred stands to good advantage. In 1904 he bought one hundred 
and twenty acres of land two miles east of Wasco, most of which is under 
alfalfa, and in 1908 he acquired eighty acres known as the Golden Gate fruit 
orchard, upon which he grows peaches, grapes and prunes. In Wasco he 
installed a cold storage plant and built a shop with a capacity of two tons. 
Here he engaged in the wdiolesale and retail butcher business, his slaughter- 
house being located two miles east of town on his alfalfa ranch. He now 
has two hundred acres of land under cultivation, and is engaged successfully 
in the breeding of hogs and cattle. 

In politics and in measures for the general good Mr. McCombs has long 
been active and casts his ballot for Republican candidates. He is a Blue 
Lodge Mason, belonging to the lodge at Delano, and affiliates with the 
Woodmen of the World. December 17, 1903, he married Miss May E. 
Bacome, who was born in Cedar county, Iowa, in June, 1885, and they have 
a daughter and son, Edna May and Albert J., Jr. 

A. S. MORTON.— The senior member of the undertaking firn-" of Morton 
& Connellv is a Californian bv birth and unswervinglv loyal to the material 



1102 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

upbuilding- of Bakersfield, with whose business interests he has been asso- 
ciated in an influential degree. Suisun City, Solano county, is his native place 
and October 18, 1859, the date of his birth, his parents having been Thomas H. 
and Sophia (Barnes) Morton, the latter a California pioneer of 1849. The father, 
a New Yorker by birth, made two trips to California in the pioneer days. 
After their marriage in New York City the parents came west and conducted 
the first hotel established at Suisun City, engaging actively in business until 
his death in 1877. The youngest among five children who attained mature 
years and the only son in the family, A. S. Morton was given such advan- 
tages as the common schools afforded. From an early age he was self-support- 
ing. While yet a young man he carried on a hardware and furniture business 
in his native town. Forming the acquaintance of his present partner, VV. B. 
ConnelW, he became interested in undertaking and began to study the art. of 
embalming, in which he soon acquired unusual skill. No expense has been 
spared to gain proficiency in his difficult occupation. Besides having grad- 
uated from the Renaurd school in New York he is a graduate of the Chicago 
College of Embalming. It is said that he and his wife have a technical knowl- 
edge of embalming that is equalled by few members of their craft. Equally 
skilled in the occupation is the partner, Mr. Connelly, manager of the Suisun 
City branch of the business, and a graduate of the New York School of Em- 
balming, also the Carl L. Barnes school in Chicago. 

Many years ago Jacob Niederaur established an undertaking establish- 
ment in Bakersfield, the first business of its kind in the community. Upon his 
death the estate offered the business for sale and it was purchased March 1, 
1901, by Morton & Connelly, who since have added every modern facility for 
the proper care of the dead. At the time Mr. -Morton came to Bakersfield to as- 
sume the management of the business it was supposed that the climate of this 
section was tco warm to permit a body to be kept for any length of time after 
death. Through his skill in embalming he proved the fallacy of this belief. 
Soon after he began in business a Chinaman died and the body was brought 
to the undertaking establishment for embalming. This work accomplished, 
the body was kept in perfect condition for seventy-three days before shipping 
to Hong Kong. Later a letter was received by Mr. Morton stating that the 
body was received at Hong Kong in first-class condition, notwithstanding the 
long period that had elapsed since death. In the possession of Mr. Morton 
there are also many other letters from relatives of deceased persons, testifying 
as to the satisfactory manner in which the remains of the dead were pre- 
pared for distant burial. 

During 1903 the firm of Morton & Connelly purchased and brought to 
Bakersfield the first ambulance ever used in the city. This conveyance, which 
cost about $1400, is equipped with every modern device. The office and parlors 
of the undertaking establishment possess every modern convenience. The 
chapel, with a seating capacity of two hundred and fifty, is offered free to 
patrons. The display room contains caskets and burglar-proof vaults, while 
the store room is in the basement. An embalming room and private laying-out 
rooms are so arranged as to insure entire privacy even though a numl:)er of 
cases should happen to be in charge at one time. Five hearses are utilized, 
suitable for all ages and occasions. 

Outside of the interests of his business Mr. Morton is known as a genial 
gentleman of cultured tastes and progressive spirit. While living at Suisun 
City he became identified with the blue lodge of Masonry and later he asso- 
ciated himself with the Eagles, IMoose and Woodmen, in all of which organ- 
izations he has been interested and liberal. His marriage united him with ^^liss 
Eleanor E. Dunn, by whom he has two children. The son, Raymond A., 
formerly secretary to the Flotaling estate, is now bookkeeper with a San Fran- 
cisco firm and is regarded as a rising young man. The daughter, Mrs. Hazel A. 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1105 

Stephens, resides at No. 511 Chester avenue, Bakersfield. In order that they 
may devote their entire attention to the business Mr. and Mrs. Morton occupy 
apartments in the same building with their undertaking establishment, at No. 
1712 Chester avenue, from which headquarters they respond promptly to all 
calls. Mrs. Morton has proved of the greatest assistance to her husband in 
the business. 

GEORGE J. PETZ.— In Newark, N. J., Mr. Petz was born June 22, 1860, 
son of Charles and Mary (Burghof) Petz. The father was born in Germany, 
and settled in Newark, where he followed landscape gardening, and there he 
died. Mrs. Mary Petz was also a native of Germany, and her death in 1892 
was the result of an accident on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western 
railroad, the end taking place in Newark. Three children had come of their 
marriage, one of whom has passed away. 

George J. Petz was the second of his parents' children. He grew to 
manhood in his native cityj attending the public schools, upon leaving 
which he learned the butcher's trade. For five years, until 1877, he followed 
this trade, and then made his way to Florence, Marion county, Kan., where 
he engaged in general farming and stock-raising until 1886. He then 
removed to Colorado Springs, in the spring of 1888 going to Durango, Colo., 
and in the fall of that year decided to go west. He started with mule-team 
and wagon across the mountains and Death valley, arriving in Kern county, 
Cal., a short time later, and immediately became employed in general team- 
ing for Haggin & Carr in Bakersfield. After the fire in 1889 he bought out 
the American bakery, a small concern situated on the corner of Eighteenth 
and Chester streets, which business he continued to conduct until 1893, 
when he sold out and traveled for a while representing different lines. One 
year was spent at Enid, Okla., and he finally returned to Bakersfield, in 
September, 1897, entering the employ of the Kern County Land Company, 
in the building of their headgates, and he has since been associated with 
them in dift'erent capacities. So efificient and apt did he prove himself that 
in 1901 he was placed in charge of the department of the headgates and 
is today carrying out those duties to the complete satisfaction of his em- 
ployers^ Mr. Petz erected a residence at No. 905 K street, Bakersfield, 
where he and his wife make their home. 

On December 5, 1883, in Florence, Kans., Mr. Petz was married to Miss 
Ida 'M. Howard, who was born in Wisconsin, daughter of George H. and 
Elizabeth (Allen) Howard, the former a native of New York and the latter 
of Pennsylvania. George H. Howard settled in Wisconsin, later going to 
Trenton. ' Iowa, and then to Florence, Kans., where he was engaged in 
agricultural pursuits, moving thence to Leadville, Colo. In 1886 he came 
to Bakersfield, locating on government land in Santiago canyon, which he 
improved, later returning to Iowa, staying for a time at Banning, that 
state, and then to Arkansas, where his death occurred. Mrs. Howard ')assed 
away in Iowa. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Howard, of 
whom Mrs. Petz was the youngest. 

Mr. and Mrs. Petz have no children, but give much of their time and 
attention to social activities. He is a member of the Order of Eagles, is 
past officer of the subordinate lodge of the Encampment. I. O. O. F.. a 
member of the Canton of the same order, a member of the Order of Moose, 
and the Rebekahs. Mrs. Petz is a past noble grand of Rebekah Lodge 
No. 47, I. O. O. F., a member and chief of honor of Valentine Lodge. Degree 
of Honor, and a member of Hurlburt Post, No. 115, W^ R. C. In his political 
views Mr. Petz is a Republican. 

GEORGE W. COFFEE.— For more than thirty years the capable activ- 
ities of George W. Coffee identified him with the stock industry in Kern 



1106 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

county, whither he came in young manhood and to which he gave the remain- 
ing years of a useful existence as rancher, stock-raiser and progressive citizen. 
From childhood he was familiar with the stock business. He could scarcely 
recall the time when he first began to assist in the care of cattle. Little by 
little he came to be an expert judge of stock and understood the best methods 
of caring for them, of treating their ailments and of promoting their prepara- 
tion for the markets. Through this accurate knowledge of the business he 
was chosen superintendent of the stock interests of Carr and Haggin in Kern 
county and from that position he drifted into business for himself. 

Although not a Californian by birth, the conscious existence of Mr. Coffee 
was practically associated with this state, for he was only two years of age 
when his father, Eli, brought the family across the plains with ox-teams and 
wagon. The previous home of the family had been in Jefiferson county, Mo., 
where he was born December 13, 1855, but after 1857 the home was on a 
ranch near Visalia, Tulare county, and there the boy was educated in common- 
school branches and in a knowdedge of farming and stock-raising. Upon 
starting out for himself in 1876 he came to Kern county and entered the employ 
of Carr and Haggin. He remained with them as superintendent of stock and 
resigned only when he had determined to embark in the stock business for 
himself. The small herd which he had at first increased by slow but sure 
degrees and a high order of ability was manifest in his supervision and suc- 
cessful oversight. While owning large tracts of land in the Greenhorn moun- 
tains and ranging his droves there, he maintained his home and headquarters 
on a ranch four and one-half miles from Bakersfield and there, January 19, 
1907, death came to him, terminating his useful activities and depriving the 
community of a citizen of recognized worth. He was a Democrat. 

Surviving Mr. Coffee are his wife, Mrs. Charity F. (Thompson) Coffee 
and their three daughters, Georgia, Mrs. Staley, of San Francisco, Anna, Mrs. 
Smoot, of White River, and Dorothy, who resides with her mother. Prior to 
their marriage, which was solemnized in this city, Mrs. Coffee had engaged in 
teaching for some years and had been successfully identified with educational 
work in K^ern county. The family of which she is a member belongs to pioneer 
Californian associations. Her father, Isaac N. Thompson, who had been born 
in Virginia and reared in Michigan near the city of Niles, came to California 
by way of the Horn in 1849, attracted by the discovery of gold. The mines, 
however, did not long engage his attention, but he was so pleased with the 
west that he located here permanently. After some years in the state he re- 
turned to Michigan, married Miss Anna Smith, a native of that common- 
wealth, and returned to California accompanied by his young wife. After 
a short sojourn in Sacramento he settled near Santa Clara and there Mrs. 
Coffee was born, reared and educated. .There, at the age of ninety years, Mr. 
Thompson still makes his home, continuing the pleasant associations en- 
deared to htm through long residence in the same locality. Many years ago 
he lost his wife, who passed away at the age of forty. Of the seven children 
comprising the family, all but one are still living. Mrs. Coffee having been 
next to the oldest of the numl:)er. Since the death of her husband she has con- 
tinued the stock business established by him and has superintended affairs 
with an energy meriting the most satisfactory results. 

WILLIAM J. BROWNING.— Important as may be the work of the 
specialist if individual ad\ancement is to be considered, it is the man of affairs 
who contributes most largely to the general prosperity. A man may engage 
in one enterprise calling for the investment of moderate capital and the em- 
ployment of only a few assistants and achieve a notable personal success. But 
the man who sets numerous enterprises going must necessarily employ a larger 
capital and many more helpers, thus ctmiing in contact with the public through 
manv axenues. Of the latter class is ^^^illiam I. Browning, of Delano, who 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1107 

as will be seen has worthily conquered success in many fields of endeavor. 
Mr. Browning was born at Phillips Flat, Merced county, June 10, 1854. His 
father, Jacob A. Browning, was born in New York City. He was a pioneer of 
California, coming across the plains with teams in 1851. He ran a trading post 
in Mariposa as early as 1853 and was also engaged in the stock business until 
bis death in 1865. He had married in Mariposa, in 1853, Elizabeth Marr, who 
was born in Scotland and came with her parents in the sailing barque Glou- 
cester around Cape Horn to San Francisco, arriving in the spring of 1849. 
Grandfather John Marr brought with him several houses already framed, 
which he put up in the new town, which had just had its name changed from 
Yerba Buena to San Francisco. The mother is now living with a daughter 
in Kansas City. 

William J. Browning's educational advantages were restricted to those 
of the common school in the summer months, terminating when he was four- 
teen years old. He was only eleven years old when he went to work in the 
Washington mine in Mariposa county where he was employed two years. 
Then, going to Merced county, he found work with a butcher, for whom he 
drove a delivery wagon two years and worked in the meat market one year. 
In 1871 he took up surveying as a member of the force of U. G. Curtis, at 
Modesto. He was engaged on railroad surveys and surveyed the town site 
of Fresno before that town was started. Later he was employed at Hermosa 
and in Merced by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. Then for a time 
he handled printing on commission. In 1874 he began hunting game for 
market and from that time down to a comparatively recent date he has em- 
ployed many hunters and has himself hunted from time to time. At times 
his operations have been on a large scale, giving work to from thirty to forty 
men experienced in hunting, trapping and killing game and preparing it for 
market. In 1885 he received an ofifer of $1030 for one thousand live rabbits 
and engaged actively in rabbit trapping. In 1887 he invented and perfected the 
Browning system for capturing rabbits in large drives and he has for years 
shipped many live rabbits to all parts of the United States, Mexico and Eng- 
land. For seven years he conducted a fishery on Tulare lake, and his expe- 
riences as hunter and trapper formerly took him to all parts of the state. 

In 1884 Mr. Browning took up a homestead on which he moved and which 
he improved, living there until in 1892. By subsequent purchases he in- 
creased his holdings to two thousand acres. In association with Andre Vieux 
he is the owner of eight hundred ticres of fine orange land. He has acquired 
property in Tulare county which is under productive cultivation. For some 
years he has made his home at Delano, where he is the owner of the New 
Central Hotel, and he is active in the handling of real estate. In 1888-89 he in- 
h,talled the first pumping plant in Tulare county. At that time it was small, 
but he has increased its capacity to one hundred horse power and he is exten- 
sively engaged in raising alfalfa, cattle, horses, mules and hogs for the markets. 
He is a member of the board of directors of an important local irrigating sys- 
tem, is a member of the Beard of Trade of Delano, is interested in oil fields in 
Maricopa and is extensively engaged in stockraising and general farming. As 
a citizen he is helpful in a public-spirited way to all important movements. 
He was married in 1884 at Merced, Cal., to Miss Emma Wheating, a native 
of New Orleans, and they have one daughter, Ethel. Fraternally he is a mem- 
ber of the Eagles and the Native Sons of the Golden West. 

V. D. McCUTCHEN.— It is possible that the distinction of being the 
youngest business man in Bakersfield belongs to Van Dixon McCutchen, 
the proprietor and manager of the Chester machine shop located on the 
corner of Chester avenue and Twenty-fourth street. When only seventeen 
vears of age, in November of 1911, he embarked in the automobile business 



1108 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

and opened the garage and repair shop which has continued under his 
successful management ever since. 

Although a native of Arizona (born at Prescott September 13, 1894), 
Van Dixon McCutchen has lived in Kern county from his earliest recollec- 
tions. The third among four children, of whom the others are Preston (at 
Taft), Ollie and Perry, he is a son of J. B. and Margaret (Dixon) Mc- 
Cutchen, natives, respectively, of Iowa and Los Angeles, Cal. The father 
came west in early life and worked for a time at Sacramento, afterward 
taking his wife and family to Prescott, Ariz., whence he came to Kern 
county in 1894 and ever since has engaged in farming and in oil operations. 
With his brothers he became a pioneer in the Maricopa oil field and did 
much to aid in the early development of that district. Further mention of 
his career is made elsewhere in this volume. Reared on the home farm in 
the Old River district, V. D. McCutchen alternated attendance at school 
with work on the home place, but all of the time he studied machinery and 
when yet a mere lad he displayed remarkable mechanical skill, which led 
him to embark in the repair and machine business in Bakersfield. A skilled 
motorcyclist and an expert in the use and repair of that machine, he has 
become a member of the Federation of American Motorcyclists and mam- 
tains a warm interest in the activities of that growing organization. 

HARRY C. RAMBO.— A native of Iowa, Mr. Rambo was born in 
Monroe county. I'^ebruary 4, 1866, and in 1874 was taken to Union county, 
that state, by his j^arents, William and Rebecca (Moffett) Rambo. Edu- 
cated principally in the schools of Union county, he was there fitted for 
the activities of the world and was taught to be self-reliant and industrious. 
From an early age he was self-supporting. Of a persevering, industrious 
nature, he prepared himself for a life of able service in agriculture. Self- 
reliance was his watchword and independence his aim. Upon coming to 
California he alternated between Fresno and Kern counties for the first six 
years. His interests were manifold and included contract freighting, the dig- 
ging of ditches, the buying of land and the raising of grain and fruit. As 
early as 1887 he came to Kern county and at once began improving a ranch 
in the Semi Tropic district. In 1893 he began grain-raising on land of the 
Kern County Land Company, meanwhile learning much concerning the 
soil and its possibilities. During 1899 he established himself in Bakersfield 
and for five years was associated with the Chamberlain Canning Company. 
Later he embarked in the plumbing and tinning business. Other interests 
also engaged his attention, among them being the introduction and instal- 
lation of oil burners and the sale of distillate, and the incorporation of the 
Western Burner and Fuel Company. He was president and manager of the 
business, the office of the company being located at I and Twentieth streets. 

Upon disposing of his business interests in Bakersfield during 1906 Mr. 
Rambo traveled for about two years in Texas in the interest of oil and min- 
ing. With Mr. Wickard and others he was the first to develop the Chelite 
Tungsten mine at Randsburg. After farming for a year on South Union 
avenue he next became interested in farming and the dairy business at Wasco 
and Semi Tropic, having sold his six hundred and forty acres that he and 
his brother had purchased in partnership. The cultivation of the land has 
occupied his attention for several years, the experience enabling him to 
ascertain what products are best adapted to the soil. Meanwhile he has 
put much of the land into grain and alfalfa, having found these two products 
remunerative beyond his most sanguine expectations. Applying his knowl- 
edge and experience he incorporated the Wasco Land and Stock Company. 
the company purchasing nine hundred acres eleven miles .west of AA'^asco. 
and he has since been manager, ^^^ells have been sunk on the property and 
a pumping plant installed with a capacity of one hundred inches. In addi- 




/(jpom"' A)< /^oocc^. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1111 

tion to raising alfalfa and grain the dairy business is followed with splendid 
success. Recent developments show strong indications of oil of a high grav- 
ity, although no satisfactory tests have resulted. 

Mr. Rambo was married in Bakersfield F"ebruary 4, 1908, to Miss 
Bertie Blalock, born in Texas, the daughter of James F. and Nancy (Tank- 
ersley) Blalock. The latter brought their family to California, locating in 
Kern county, where the daughter was reared and educated in the public 
schools. Mr. and Mrs. Rambo are the parents of two children, Ethel and 
Gilbert. In his religious views Mr. Rambo is a member of the Congrega- 
tional Church in Wasco, of which he was one of the founders and a member 
of its first board of trustees. 

C. H. ACKERLEY.— Born in Los Angeles county, May 27, 1885, Mr. Ack- 
erley was reared on his father's ranch and from an early age has been an ex- 
pert telegrapher, filling positions of responsibility at various points in the state. 
June 26, 1911, he was united in marriage with Miss Maude Withers, a native 
of Kansas City, Mo. Since coming to Taft he has erected a number of cot- 
tages and in one of these he resides with his wife and son, C. Harold, Jr. 

When only eighteen years of age Mr. Ackerley was sent to Kern Junc- 
tion to act as telegraph operator for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company 
at that point, previous experience as an assistant having qualified him for 
larger responsibilities. From Kern Junction he was transferred to Hazelton, 
then known as Sunset. April 1, 1909. he came to Moron and took charge as sta- 
tion agent, continuing with the Southern Pacific at this place until December 
], 1911, when the Santa Fe assumed the management here and since then he 
has been retained by the latter company. As early as 1902 the Sunset Railroad 
was built from Bakersfield to Hazelton. A branch was built from Pentland 
Junction to Fellows during 1908 and was opened for business early in 1909, 
and a branch from Fellows to Shale was constructed during 1911. The whole 
system from Kern to Monarch (Maricopa) and from Pentland to Shale is 
now known as the Sunset Railway Company's road. A Southern Pacific box 
car was headquarters for all the freight business at Taft and was utilized for 
a time also as office for the Western Union Telegraph Company and the 
Wells-Fargo Express Company. 

An experience at Hazelton, where the receipts for one month amounted to 
$500,000, qualified Mr. Ackerley for the heavy responsibilities at Taft, which 
in 1910 had the third largest freight business in the state, being surpassed only 
by San Francisco and Los Angeles. The responsibilities of the freight agent 
were heavy. The business was much congested. To add to his difficulties, 
he not only had a very inadequate office, but also an insufficient force. There 
were only six helpers at first. When the company realized the enormity of 
the business, he was allowed an increase and given twenty-two assistants, 
while the telegraph and express offices were removed. The shipments now 
are not as great as in the boom days of 1910, yet the amount is satisfactory 
and the revenues gratifying. Taft is now a day and night office, with three 
telegraph operators and nine clerks and warehousemen, besides the station 
agent himself. A waiting room has been provided for passengers, conve- 
niences have been put in, the accommodations for freight have been enlarged, 
and the agent finds his work far less strenuous than in the early period of 
development. For one year after he took charge he was the only agent be- 
tween Pentland Junction and Fellows and he handled as much as $500,000 
per month for the Southern Pacific in freight and passenger charges. In 
those days about eighty cars of water were brought to Taft everv twenty- 
four hours and from the tanks distributed throughout the oil fields. Shipments 
of oil from the fields were also continuous and unprecedented. Since then 
pipe lines have been built that convey the greater part of the oil cut of the 
west side fields, although two large train loads of tanks are still shipped out 



1112 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

daily and two switch engines attend to hauling freight to and from Pentland 
Junction and Shale and intermediate points. While the Southern Pacific was 
first in charge of the freight business, by contract the management was given 
over to the Santa Fe December 1, 1911, for a period of five years, the Southern 
Pacific to resume control December 1, 1916. Immediately after the Santa Fe 
.came into charge the name Moron was superseded b}- that of Taft, reforms 
were inaugurated, improvements made and a passenger service adopted that 
enables a man to leave San Francisco in the morning and reach the oil field of 
the Midway during the evening of the same day ; or, leaving Los Angeles in 
the evening, any of the west side points will be reached in the morning. 

MRS. AMELIA H. MAY. — One of the pioneer women who have given 
of their best etforts and energies toVvards the development and upbuilding 
of Kern county from a region of unbroken desert to one of broad fields of 
growing crops is Mrs. Amelia H. May, who was born in St. Clair county, 
111., September 18, 1848, the daughter of Charles and Achsah (Smith) Alex- 
ander, natives of St. Clair county, 111., and Wayne county, N. Y. respectively. 
The father was a farmer in St. Clair county until 1852, when he brought his 
family to California by way of Nicaragua route, locating m Sonoma county, 
where he purchased a farm from his uncle, Cyrus Alexander. This had been 
a part of theSotoyome grant and there they followed horticulture and farm- 
ing on the Russian river until they died. The Alexander family trace their 
genealogy to Scotland. The progenitor of the family, Hugh Alexander, came 
to America in 1736, afterwards locating on a tract of land in Sherman's Valley, 
now Perry county, Pa. He was very active during the Revolution in the cause 
of freedom and served as a deputy from Cumberland county on the Com- 
mittee of Safety in Philadelphia, Pa., June 18, 1876. 

Of the family of Charles and Achsah Alexander there' were five children, 
three of v/hom are now living, Amelia H. being the oldest. Hei childhood was 
spent in Alexander Valley, Sonoma county, attending the pubiic schools and 
Alexander Academy in Healdsburg, the latter having been founded by her 
uncle, Cyrus Alexander. After completing the academic course she followed 
teaching in Sonoma county until her marriage October 31, 1867, to Frank P. 
May, who was born in Pittsburg, Pa., October 31, 1845. At the age of seven- 
teen he left school and ofifered his services to the cause of the Union in the 
First \^irginia Cavalry, which formed a part of the famous Light Brigade 
and during his service was wounded in the right leg. At the expiration of his 
term of enlistment he was honorably discharged with the rank of lieutenant. 
After the war he came to Sonoma county, Cal., where as stated he was mar- 
ried. They engaged in farming until April 11, 1872, when they came to Kern 
county and located in the Old River district, where they homesteaded one 
hundred and sixty acres and began making improvements, engaging in general 
farming and stock raising and as rapidly as possible checking the land and 
sowing it to alfalfa. However, his labors were cut short before his ambition 
was accomplished, for he died in 1892. After his death his widow continued 
the improvements; she now owns eighty acres under the Farmers canal 
devoted to raising alfalfa and stock; it is leased, and she makes her home in 
Bakersfield. Her family consisted of six children, four of whom grew up: 
Mary, Mrs. J. W. Herod, of Bakersfield; Chester, who died at thirty-seven 
years of age ; Howard, living in Arizona ; and Cora, Mrs. Bowen, of Maricopa. 

Mr. May served as a member of the board of trustees from the org.iniza- 
tion of the Panama school district until his death. Mrs. May is a devoted 
Christian woman and is an active member of the First Methodist Episcopal 
Church of Bakersfield. 

J. S. WORLEY. — The difficulty in securing water has been one of the 
most serious problems confronting the people of Taft ever since the founding 
of the town. Not only was the cost of water altogether unreasonable and 




Q/\'^^2^^-^^^^^^^. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1115 

exorbitant in the first years of the town's history, but it could be secured 
at any price only after the most self-sacrificing efforts on the part of the 
pioneers. That a more reasonable price is now possible results from the 
sagacious policy adopted by the Consumers Water Company, an organiza- 
tion subsidiary to the Western Water Company, and the successor to the 
Taft Utilities Company, which was incorporated and financed by 
a number of the representative pioneers and public-spirited citi- 
zens of Taft. For two years, 1910-12, the concern placed water 
within the reach of those desiring it for domestic purposes. The water was 
bought at Kern or East Bakersfield and shipped to Taft in tank cars, from 
which it was forced out into two twelve hundred-barrel tanks on the hill, 
thence gravitated down to the residence and business section of Taft. Neces- 
sarily this was done at a high cost, viz. : twenty cents per barrel. The 
Consumers Water Company has completed its connection for domestic 
and mechanical use and now supplies water at a maximum of twelve and 
one-half cents per barrel, with a discount for cash, if paid before the 10th 
of each month, so as to bring the price down to nine cents per barrel to 
the private users. In addition the company provides water for fire pro- 
tection to the municipality of Taft. During June of 1913 the city of Taft 
completed a water system which at its expense had been constructed and 
installed for fire prt-tection. Under the agreement now in force the Con- 
sumers Water Company pumps into a large tank, of fifty-five thousand barrel 
capacity, situated at an altitude of five hundred feet on the crest of 25-Hill, 
enough water to provide adequate fire protection, the same having a pressure 
originally of two hundred and fifty pounds per square inch, which however 
has been reduced by valves to one hundred and twenty-five pounds. 

The Western W^ater Company, to which the Consumers is subsidiary, 
has a reputation for large enterprises. An immense concern, capitalized in 
Kern county, incorporated for $500,OCO under the laws of California, it 
has had the guiding genius of such men as F. H. Hall, C, B. Colby and 
others, and has laid mains to supply with water the oil fields of the west 
side as well as all the towns situated therein. 

A native son of the state, Mr. Worley was born in San Bernardino 
December 20, 1865, and is a son of the late Benjamin and Harriet (Court- 
ney) Worley, pioneers of the west. The parents were married in Ohio and 
shortly afterward joined an expedition bound for California, making the 
journey overland through Colorado and Utah. Although they passed the 
site of the Mountain meadow massacre shortly after that catastrophe they 
were not attacked by Indians nor did they meet with other misfortunes, 
but arrived in health and safety at their journey's end. The family com- 
prised six children and the third of these, J. S., was sent to the San 
Bernardino schools, where he received a good rudimentary education. Long 
before a tie or rail was ever laid he traveled over the route where after- 
ward he carried a chain and helped to survey for the road built by the 
Santa Fe from Needles, Ariz., to San Bernardino, Cal. In such work he 
received his first training as a civil engineer. Later he was connected with 
the construction of the water system for the Bear Valley Water Company 
of Redlands and on the completion of the plant he continued in the employ 
of its oflficials, being, indeed, for eighteen years a trustworthy manager of 
its lines. When he resigned the position, it was for the purpose of entering 
the emoloy of the Edison Power Company as a civil engineer and con- 
struction foreman. Largely due to his efforts was the erection of power 
house No. 1 on the Kern river. To him was given charge of the entire 
system of the Edison Power Company, which for the first time made him a 
resident of Kern county. The completion and management of the aqueduct 
and power house occupied the years from 1907 to 1910 inclusive and in 



1116 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

June of 1911 he entered the employ of the Western Water Company, taking- 
charge of the construction of pumping station No. 1. In addition he super- 
intended the laying of mains and the installing of engines and power plants. 
During February of 1912 he came to Taft, where since he has been in 
charge of the business of the Consumers' Water Company. 

MICHAEL THEODORE KEAN.— A native of Michigan, Michael T. 
Kean was born in Marine City, St. Clair county, May 9, 1853, a grandson 
of John Kean, Sr., who served the American cause gallantly in the war 
of 1812, being present at Hull's surrender. John Kean, Jr., father of Michael 
T., was born at the old home of the Keans in Ireland and settled in Michigan 
at a comparatively early date. A man of business ability, he became a con- 
tractor of government work and had to do with much important construc- 
tion in St. Clair county, including a light house and jobs on St. Clair Flats. 
When not busy with contracting, which was his chief business, he devoted 
himself to farming. He married Mary Moran, a native of Ireland, and they 
both passed away in Michigan. 

Of the five children of the worthy couple just referred to M. T. Kean 
was the first born and three others are living. When he was old enough he 
was put to school in St. Clair county, where he studied until he was fifteen. 
He was then apprenticed to the ship carpenters' trade in his native town, 
working six months without pay, then fcr a time at fifty cents a day and later 
at $1 a day. After com])leting his apprenticeship in 1872 he went to Lincoln, 
Neb., where he found employment as a carpenter and where he soon entered 
the University of Nebraska to take a three years' scientific course. It is 
greatly to his credit that he worked his way at that institution, earning 
money at odd times with which to pay all his expenses. Before his course 
was finished, however, he was obliged to give up his studies because of an 
afifection of his eyes. Entering the employ of the Fitzgerald & Mallory Con- 
struction Company as a carpenter, he was soon advanced to the position of 
general foreman of their work on such lines as the B. Si M., in Nebraska and 
Kansas ; the M. P. in Nebraska and Kansas ; and the Chicago, Burlington & 
Quincy in Wisconsin, ^linnesota and Iowa. W^hen the M. P. Compau}^ built 
its road to Pueblo in 1888 he was its general foreman in bridge and building 
construction. When the work was finished he took up contracting and build- 
ing at Pueblo, with a real estate business on the side, prospered for awhile, 
but in 1893 fell with others under the influence of the panic. Not disheart- 
ened at having been thus "reduced to the ranks," he went back to carpenter 
work. In 1895 he came to San Diego, Cal., and was foreman of carpenter 
work for Spreckels until the fall of 1897, when he resigned and went to 
Arizona for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company as foreman 
of bridge and building construction between Albuquerque and Needles. He 
was thus employed until September. 1901. when he took up his residence 
in Bakersfield, where after working at his trade for a short time he became 
foreman for Burleigh and was put in charge of work on the Producers' Bank 
building, then in course of construction. Later he was similarly employed 
on the Metrooole Hotel building. About 1902 he began contracting at Bak- 
ersfield on his own account, and among the artistic and substantial structures 
which he has since erected are the B. P. O. E. building, the Baer building, the 
Hotel Koesel, the Morgan block, the Moronet building, the Herrington-Cohn 
building, the Hambleton building, the Rainier building, the Blue & Gold 
Bottling works, the Kern Valley garage, the San Joaquin hospital, the Car- 
lock stables, the Manual Arts building, an addition to the Noreiga hotel, 
and many handsome residences in Bakersfield ; much fine work throughout 
Kern county, including the Maricopa school house and the Rio Bravo bridge 
across the Kern river; besides other notable buildings in near-by districts 
of the state, and superintended the building of the Kern County high school. 





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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1119 

In Bakersfield, July 6, 1912, occurred the marriage of Mr. Kean, uniting 
him with Mrs. Victoria (Adams) ]\Iichener, a native of Gonzales, Tex., who 
came to California when a babe, in 1867, with her parents, crossing the plains 
with ox and horse teams. Her father, Thomas Adams, born in Illinois, was 
married in Tennessee to Nancy Taylor. He became a stockman in Gonzales, 
Tex., served in the Mexican war and in 1867 brought his family to Cali- 
fornia and located in San Diego county where he and his wife died. Through- 
out California Mr. Kean is known as the father of organized labor in 
Kern county and he was president of the labor council for two years. 
One of the organizers of the Builders' Exchange of Bakersfield, he was its 
first president and is still president of its board of directors. Fraternally 
he affiliates with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. 

JACK HARDING.— The Harding family is of Anglo-Saxon ancestry. 
Joseph Harding crossed the ocean to the United States at the age of 
eighteen years and enlisted from New York City for service in the Union 
army. In company with his regiment he went to the front and participated 
in a number of serious engagements, in one of which he was wounded 
through the right leg. At the close of the war he came to California and 
entered the machine shops at the Mare Island navy yard, where he com- 
pleted his apDrenticeship and where he has been steadily employed from 
that time to the present, being not only one of the oldest and most experi- 
enced, but also one of the most skilled and capable machinists in the yard. 
After settling in Vallejo he married Miss Mary Lawrence, who was born in 
Canada, but at an early age accompanied her parents to California and 
settled at Vallejo. 

In a family of three children, two still living. Jack Harding was the 
eldest and his birth occurred at Vallejo in 1871, his education was obtained 
in Vallejo schools and his business training came to him in one of the 
mercantile establishments of that town. From the age of fourteen until 
he was twenty-one he worked under S. Dannebaum, a well-known merchant 
of the place, whose experience and ability proved of assistance in the early 
business training of the apprentice. At the age of twenty-one Mr. Harding 
went to San Bernardino, secured a position as a clerk and remained for 
three years. Returning to Vallejo, he retained his former position for a 
short time. Next he embarked in the clothing business with Harry Titcomb 
as a partner in the firm of Harding & Titcomb. Upon disposing of his 
interests in that store in 1905, he removed to Hanford and became manager 
of the clothing department of the Kuttner-Goldstein Company. From Han- 
ford he came to Bakersfield in 1908 as manager of Redlick's clothing depart- 
ment and in this city he became a member of the firm of Harding & Bert- 
rand, clothing merchants, in 1911, but in January of 1913 disposed of his 
interest in that business, since which time he has owned and conducted 
an exclusive tailoring establishment. 

While still living at V'allejo Mr. Harding was made a Mason in Naval 
Lodge, F. & A. M., and later he was initiated into San Pablo Ledge, 
I. O. O. F. Politically he has voted with the Republican party ever since 
he attained his majority. His marriage took place at Colusa, Cal., in 
1899, and united him with Miss Willie May Beville, who was born, reared 
and educated in that city. As a girl she was given exceptional musical 
advantages and became one of the most skilled musicians in her home town, 
where also she was an active worker in the Episcopal Church. The Order 
of the Eastern Star also has received the benefit of her talented co-operation. 
Her parents, William T. and Lutie Beville, were natives respectively of 
Virginia and Missouri. Throughout the period of the Civil war Mr. Beville 
served as a private in a Virginia regiment of the Confederate army and 
afterward he came to California, settling near Colusa, where he eventually 



1120 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

became a prominent farmer and where also he served with fearlessness 
and efficiency as sheriff for a period of two terms. 

WILLIAM WILLARD PENSINGER.— Born December 4, 1868, in 
Grand Rapids, xMich., Air. Pensinger was taken the next year to Nevada, 
where the parents remained for three years, then settled at San Luis Obispo 
for a time. In 1874 they came to Kern county, and here he attended school 
in the New River district until he reached the age of sixteen years. Until 
he was twenty-three he worked for his father on the home place, and then 
rented land and started to farm for himself, also engaging in teaming and 
hauling. He remained on this place for about two and a half years, then 
leasing two hundred and forty acres for the purpose of general farming. 
This he followed for about three years, also engaging to some extent in 
stock-raising, and then gave up the place and entered the employ of Mr. 
Frazier, a general farmer, for whom he worked about eight years. While 
working here, three years before moving on same, he bought a tract of 
twenty acres and later twenty more, and he now has the entire forty 
acres in alfalfa. The property is located four miles southwest of Bakers- 
field and is under the Buena Vista canal. The average cuttings amount to 
about six tons to the acre, which evidences the productive state of his 
land and the careful management of it. In addition to this Mr. Pensinger 
does some stock-raising, but he devotes a large portion of his attention 
to his hundred stands of bees, which he has had on his place for the past 
twelve years. This business has proved highly profitable from a business 
standpoint, and Mr. Pensinger has made a deep study of its conduct, taking 
great pleasure in the work. He is also interested in eighty acres of the 
family estate which he operates, besides renting sixty acres more, and now 
runs a farm of one hundred and eighty acres devoted to alfalfa, grain and 
pasture. He is fond of out-door life, interested in all that is up-to-date, and 
is withal a capable, successful ranchman and politically is a Republican. 

DAVID ALBERT JACKSON.— The genealogy of the Jackson family 
indicates a colonial identification with the new world and a participation 
in the Revolution by William Jackson, whose son, William, Jr., bore a 
valiant part in the war of 1812 under Gen. Andrew Jackson. In one of the 
engagements of that second struggle with England he was wounded so 
seriously as to render necessary the amputation of an arm. After the close 
of the war he returned to Pennsylvania, where his son, Samuel, was born 
and reared in Chester county. He engaged in the iron industry on the 
Octoraro river near Coatesville, Pa. In that state he married Miss Mary A. 
Moore, who was born in county Derry, Ireland, but at the age of nine 
months was brought to America by her parents, who settled in Pennsylvania. 
Eventually Samuel Jackson and wife removed to Iowa and acquired large 
interests in the vicinity of Cedar Rapids, where they continued to reside 
until death. They were the parents of six sons and three daughters. The 
four sons old enough to bear arms enlisted in the Union army during the 
Civil war and gave to their country the patriotic devotion and courageous 
service which had characterized their ancestors in previous wars. 

The youngest member of the family was David Albert Jackson, who 
was born near Coatesville, Chester county. Pa., March 7, 1850. and he 
received his primary education in the schools of that county. His desire 
was to become a mining engineer, and with that aim in view he entered 
the Hebron academy at Cochranville. However, before he could graduate 
his parents arranged to remove to Iowa, and he finished his course under 
private instruction in Montezuma, that state, where he received the degree 
of M. E. Soon thereafter he became chief mining engineer for the North- 
western Fuel Company at their coal mines in What Cheer, Iowa, these 
mines consisting of the properties of the Star Coal Mining Company and 




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HISTORY ()]' KI'.RX COUNTY 1123 

ihe (iranger Coal Company. Later as general sui)erintendent he developed 
these properties and they acquired the largest coal mining interests in the 
state. During 1893 he resigned his position with the company and came 
to Calil\M'nia, where he established his home at Fresno. As an expert in 
examining mines in California and Nevada he soon gained a wide reputa- 
tion. In 1900 he first became interested in the oil industry. After a brief 
period of prospecting at Coalinga he came to McKittrick in February, 1903, 
as superintendent for the San Francisco & McKittrick Oil Company. When 
their oil wells were shut down he returned to Coalinga as superintendent 
for the Fresno St. Paul Company, but at the expiration of two years he 
returned to liis former comiections in McKittrick, where a test well had 
developed oil in paying quantities and where the San Francisco and McKit- 
trick Oil Company now owns one hundred and fifty-five acres with seventeen 
wells, sixteen of these being producers. In addition to superintending the 
large enterprises owned by this concern Mr. Jackson holds office as secre- 
tary and superintendent of the Jackson Oil Company, operating one hun- 
dred and eighty acres of adjacent oil land. 

The marriage of Mr. Jackson was solemnized at Whitewater, Wis., and 
united him with Miss Helen E. Vincent, a graduate of the State Normal 
School and the Conservatory of Music, and a woman of the highest culture 
and refinement. The family, which consists of Mr. and Mrs. Jackson and 
their only child, Jessie Nena, are attendants at the services of the Fresno 
Presbyterian Church, and fraternally Mr. Jackson was formerly active in 
Masonry, having been made a Mason in Montezuma Lodge in Iowa. 

P. E. BOWLES, JR.— As far back as 1903 the organization of the 
Reward Oil Company was promoted by the elder Mr. Bowles, with other 
capitalists. Immediately afterward the property was placed under develop- 
ment. At this writing the company owns one hundred and eighty acres, 
on which they are drilling well No. 40. It is worthy of mention that the 
wells are without exception good producers of fifteen and sixteen gravity 
oil, their splendid development indicating the foresight and executive ability 
of the president, P. E. Bowles, Sr., and the secretary-treasurer, Fred 
McNear, while the large production proves that the manager, P. E. Bowles, 
Jr., understands the difficult art of increasing the output of an already 
profitable enterprise. The comfort of their workmen has been a matter of 
special interest to the company. Their welfare is made a matter of serious 
concern and constant solicitude. A commodious and comfortable clubroom 
has been erected for their pleasure and in it has been provided a large hall 
equipped for moving picture shows, so that the men in their hours of 
leisure have an inviting place for rest and recreation. 

Many years ago when he was but a youth P. E. Bowles, Sr., made a 
trip into Kern county with a friend and investigated the since famous 
Weed Patch. Since then he has never ceased to maintain a warm interest 
in this section of the country. His optimistic faith in its future has led 
him to make large investments here, both mineral and agricultural. In the 
midst of many large enterprises in San Francisco and Oakland, where he is 
president of the American National Bank of San Francisco, the First 
National Bank of Oakland and the First Trust and Savings Bank of Oakland, 
he became interested in the pioneer development of the McKittrick field. 
where he promoted the California Standard Oil Company, later selling 
these interests to the Associated Oil Company. In addition he promoted 
the Reward Oil Company, of which he is still the head and his son the 
manager. The Result Oil Company, of which his son also acts as manager, 
is another enterprise that has had the benefit of his executive leadership. In 
his marriage he became connected with a very influential California family, 
tor his father-in-law, the late George W. McNear, of Oakland, was for years 



1124 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

the most extensive grain sliipper on the Pacific coast, besides being one 
of the pioneer operators in the Kern river and CoaHnga oil fields. Valuable 
lands at Coalinga were located under his personal selection and in that field 
he became one of the largest stockholders in the W^estern Oil Companv and 
the Maine State Oil Company. 

Born and reared in Oakland, this state, a graduate of the high school 
of that city, P. E. r»owles, Jr., was sent from high school to the University 
of California, where he took the course in mechanical engineering until 
the close of the junior year. While at Berkeley he became a member of 
the Iota Chapter of the Zeta Psi. l-'rom California he went east to Columbia 
University in New York City, where he took the scientific course and was 
graduated in 1907 with the degree of B. S. For a short time afterward 
he engaged with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad in charge of 
bridge work on a new line built from Idaho to Seattle. That position he 
resigned in order to act as private secretary to Victor H. Metcalfe, secre- 
tary of the navy, and thereafter he made his headquarters at Washington, 
D. C, until the resignation of the cabinet officer in 1908. Returning to 
Oakland, he took charge of general outside work for E. B. and A. L. Stone, 
a large contracting firm of that city. Upon his resignation in 1909 he came 
to McKittrick as foreman of the Reward Oil Company, of which he is now 
manager, besides being superintendent of the Result Oil Company. Together 
with his father and Mr. McNear he opened territory in the North Midway 
field on section 26, 31-21, where two wells of 19 gravity oil have proved a 
great success. The land thus developed has been absorbed by the Reward 
Oil Com]:)any, which also owns considerable land on section 1, 29-21, 
McKittrick front, having now one producing oil well on that tract, and in 
addition the company owns oil lands on the Bellridge front, so that their 
holdings altogether aggregate an amount surpassed by few of the great 
organizations engaged in the development of the field. 

On July 31, 1913, Mr. Bowles was married to Miss Jessie N. Jackson, 
daughter of D. A. Jackson, superintendent of the San Francisco & McKittrick 
lease. 

ANDREW FERGUSON. — The general traveling production agent for the 
Kern Trading & Oil Company, now in charge of the McKittrick division, has 
been connected with every department of the oil industry and now fills a very 
responsible position with the most noteworthy efficiency. Since he was 
a youth his activities have been in the one line, following in this respect the 
example of his father, John Ferguson, one of the pioneers of the California 
oil fields and a man of unusual information in regard to their development. 
The family is of Scotch lineage. As far back as the genealogy can be 
traced, it shows an identification with the highlands and the historic regions 
around Dundee, where both John and Andrew Ferguson were born, the 
latter on the 24th of May, 1875. The former, a marine engineer by trade, 
traveled much over the high seas and on one of his voyages anchored in 
the port of San Francisco, from which place he made a tour of inspection 
throughout the state. 

An old acquaintance from Scotland, a Mr. Kelsey, had settled in Tulare 
county and had improved a farm near Visalia. Through his representations 
of that part of the country the new settler was induced to locate at Goshen, 
where he opened a blacksmith shop. For three years he met with encour- 
aging results, but the failing health of his wife induced him to seek a new 
and more healthful location. The following three years were spent at 
Salinas as owner of a large blacksmith shop. During that period he first 
became interested in contracting for water wells and from that he drifted into 
the business of drilling oil wells. Assisted by his son, Andrew, he drilled 
one of the first wells in the Coalinga field and he also drilled in the Kern 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1125 

river field for the Trumbull Oil Company, pioneers in that district. Later 
contracts and wild-cat propositions took him to Vacaville, Suisun City, 
Monticello in Napa county and Pleasanton in Alameda county. Now at 
the age of sixty-two, he is living in retirement from business cares and finds 
a pleasant home with his son, Andrew, in the latter's residence at Fresno, 
where also lives the wife and mother, who was Annie Mudie, a native of 
Scotland. The family comprises one daughter and four sons, all living. 
The eldest of the family, Andrew Ferguson, was eleven years of age 
when the family immigrated to California in 1886 and six years later he 
began to assist his father in the oil industry, working for some time in the 
capacity of tool-dresser both in the Coalinga and the Kern river fields. 
With a brother he contracted to drill a well on the Lake county line for 
the Anglo-American Oil Company. After he had incurred a very heavy 
expense in the prosecution of the work the company failed and that precipi- 
tated his own financial collapse. Forced to start anew, he returned to 
Coalinga and found employment. Later he drilled wild-cat wells near Red 
Bluff. Upon going back to Coalinga he secured employment with the Zier 
Oil Company. A year later he was promoted to be superintendent of their 
lease and in that capacity he continued for six years, meanwhile building 
up the production from nothing to fifteen thousand barrels a month. Resign- 
ing that superintendency, he entered the employ of the Kern Trading & Oil 
Company, with which he has filled various positions in the line of suc- 
cessive promotions, being now traveling production agent, a post that neces- 
sitates considerable travel over the different leases. For convenience as 
headquarters, he established his home in Fresno, where he owns property 
at No. 413 Fresno avenue. In politics he votes the Republican ticket. 
Fraternally he holds membership with the Improved Order of Red Men and 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is an honorary member of the 
Rebekahs, with which his wife also is associated. In Los Angeles he married 
Miss Georgia Burkley, a native of Boston, Mass., but from childhood a 
resident of California, her parents settling in Los Angeles, where she com- 
pleted the course of study in the high school. 

WILLIAM J. McCarthy.— A personal connection with the manufac- 
ture of boilers in many of the most extensive boiler works in the country 
qualified Mr. McCarthy for successful independent work when in 1909 
he came to McKittrick, built a plant of suitable dimensions and modern 
equipment, and embarked in the business of making boilers and tanks, 
having for his field of patronage the entire w^est side of Kern county. To 
build and sell boilers and tanks of the highest quality and greatest depend- 
ability does not represent the limit of. his identification with the locality, 
for in addition he has been a homesteader and through personal residence 
on a quarter-section of land fourteen miles west of McKittrick he has 
acquired the title to a ranch, on which grain, vegetables and melons may be 
raised with profit, irrigation being provided by means of a pumping plant of 
sixty inches capacity. 

The business in which ]\Ir. AlcCarthy has been markedly successful 
is one familiar to his earliest recollections, for his father, J. J-, was a 
boiler-maker by trade and for years prior to retirement from business he 
was head of the firm of McCarthy & Sons, boiler-makers, of Indianapolis. 
Both J. J. McCarthy and his wife, who bore the maiden name of Catherine 
Murphy, are still living in Indianapolis, where their second son, Frank, 
is now president of the board of aldermen. There were fourteen children in 
the family and of these eight are now living. The eldest of all, William J., 
was born in Indianapolis, August 3, 1871, and as a boy attended the gram- 
mar and high schools of that city. When sixteen years of age he became an 
apprentice to the trade of boiler-maker with Sinker & Davis. Having 



1126 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

completed the trade, he went to Chicago in 1889 and remained there for 
two years, after which he worked with his father for a time. During the 
financial depression of 1894 he returned to Chicago and resumed work. 
Later he was employed in Alexandria, Ind., and thence went to Kansas City, 
-Mo., where he filled a position as superintendent of the Urie-Snyder iron 
works. After a time as superintendent of the Ducktown Copper & Iron 
Company at Isabella, Tenn., he went to Columbus, Ohio, to engage as 
superintendent of the Borger Brothers boiler shop. Next he held an impor- 
tant position as superintendent of the boiler shop of the Power Mining & 
Machine Company at Milwaukee, Wis., from which place he went to South 
Bend, Ind., to serve as superintendent of a boiler shop owned by the Folsom 
^Manufacturing Company. 

Coming to California after a successful identification with the before- 
named plants, Mr. McCarthy engaged at San Francisco as superintendent 
for T. J. Monahan & Co., and later was with the Pacific boiler works in 
the same city, remaining with them as superintendent until his removal to 
McKittrick in 1909. His citizenship in this place has been helpful to local 
development and is proving profitable to himself. In national politics he 
has voted with the Republican party. Upon the incorporation of McKittrick 
he was chosen a member of the first board of trustees. However, having 
decided to take up a homestead and being thereby obliged to take up resi- 
dence on the claim, he resigned the office of trustee, but after his return to 
McKittrick and at the time of the resignation of Mr. Hubband in 1913 he 
was elected to fill the vacancy, since which time he has been most efficient 
as trustee. Fraternally he is connected with the Loyal Order of Moose 
and is past sachem of the Red Men. His marriage was solemnized in 
Marion, Ind., and united him with Miss Nellie Smith, a native of Delaware 
county, that state, and by the union there is a son, Robert Edwin. 

HARVEY LURANUS ROSS.— Fortified by an extensive experience in 
the production of oil in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, Mr. Ross 
eventually gave up identification with the east in order that he might asso- 
ciate himself with the growing oil industries of the Pacific coast region 
and from July of 1904 until he retired from active business life he had 
his headquarters in the Kern river fields, where he became known as a 
dependable workman and a competent superintendent, also as a true gen- 
tleman, carrying with him not only the culture and refinement characteristic 
of the east, but the breezy good-nature and broad-hearted sympathies more 
especially characteristic of the west. The position to which he was appointed 
July 15, 1912, that of superintendent of the Patricia Oil Company, he resigned 
September 15 of that year. 

Harvey L. Ross is a son of James and Elizabeth (Smith) Ross, life- 
long residents of Venango county. Pa., and farmers there until death ended 
their activities. Six children comprised their famil3% namely: Henderson, 
nnw proprietor of a store at Reno, Venango county; Harvey Luranus, the 
only one to settle in California ; Mary, Mrs. James Manson, of Rockland, 
Venango county; Edward, who prior to his death July 18, 1911, engaged 
successfully in the oil business in Ohio ; Lizzie, Mrs. Charles Gaggin, who 
lives near Pittsburgh, Pa. ; and Carrie, who married Edward Bell and lives 
near Freedom, Beaver county. Pa. The second son was born August 13. 
1855, in the village of Emlenton, \^enango county. Pa., where he attended 
school as often as possible. The l:)road information he now possesses is 
the result of extensive reading rather than attendance at school. At an early 
age he became self-supporting. The first work which he secured in the 
oil business was in the "Scrub" grass field, where he was hired as a pumper. 
Next he worked in the Clarion field and afterward he was employed in the 
McKean county fields for about six years. Leaving Pennsylvania for New 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1129 

York he found employment in tlie ISolivar oil fields, where he continued 
about six years and during much of the time he had charge of production. 
From New York he went to West Virginia and secured work at Sisters- 
ville. Tyler county. ['"or fifteen years he remained at the one place and 
during fourteen years of that long period he was em])loyed by J. T. Jones, 
an extensive and influential oil ()])erator. l^pon leaving West Virginia he 
came to California and thereafter until his retirement he was engaged in 
the Kern river fields, his first position being that of foreman for the Capital 
City Oil Company and later he had charge of the Acme Development Com- 
panv until he became superintendent of the Patricia. 

The marriage of Mr. Ross was solemnized at Oil City, Venango county. 
Pa., and united him with Miss Mary Farren, daughter of James Farren, 
for years a well-known Venango county farmer. The union of Mr. and 
Mrs. Ross was blessed with twelve children, but a deep bereavement came 
to them in the loss of five of the number by death. Seven have attained 
mature years and the four eldest of these have left home to do for them- 
selves in the world, the girls entering homes of their own and the boys 
taking up the oil business in which they are thoroughly trained. Clifford. 
the eldest of the eight, is now a driller in the Kern river fields. Effie, 
Mrs. Lovring, is living in Kern county, and Freda, Mrs. Ellsworth, makes 
her home at Maricopa. Claude, the fourth child, is working in Oklahoma in 
the oil industry. Kahle. Kenneth, and Flossie are still with their parents 
in the famih- home at the corner of Eleventh and Kern streets. East 
Bakersfield. 

ARTHUR W. RENCH.— An important business enterprise of East 
Bakersfield is the Metropole meat market at No. 810 Baker street, which 
established about 1900 on a very small scale, has developed into a large and 
popular concern that receives the patronage of people throughout the entire 
community. Although it has been owned by Mr. Rench for a comparatively 
brief period, he has the advantages of previous experience in the same busi- 
ness and is well qualified to maintain the reputation established under former 
management. In connection with the market he and his partner operate a 
slaughter-house two miles east of town, and from there beef and pork of the 
choicest qualities are brought to the market for sale. 

Much of the life of Arthur W. Rench has been passed in California and 
Bakersfield has been his home since 1894. The youngest of the four children 
of Dan and Emily (Foote) Rench, natives respectively of Maryland and New- 
York state, he was born at Tooele, Utah, June 4, 1877. His father had 
crossed the plains during young manhood and settled in Utah, where he 
served as a deputy sheriff at Salt Lake City and lived for a time at Tooele. 
After his death the mother removed to Kansas with her children, the youngest 
of whom was then four years of age. Eight years later she brought them to 
California and settled in the Antelope valley, where her father, Erastus 
Foote, had moved from Utah in a very early day. For a few years the family 
lived on a ranch in the valley. Meanwhile the son, primarily educated in 
Kansas in the schools of Lawrence and Topeka, had finished his schooling 
and was ready to take up the task of self-support. In search of employment 
he went to Los Angeles and engaged as delivery clerk for various stores. 

Coming to Kern county in 1894 and engaging in horticultural work for 
a year, Mr. Rench then secured work in Odell's market on Nineteenth 
street, where he learned the trade of butcher. A year later the market was 
bought by Graves & Baker and he continued in their employ, but later left 
them in order to run a meat wagon through the country. When he sold the 
wagon he entered Mr. Anderson's employ in the California market, which 
with Mel P. Smith as a partner he bought in 1907. Afterwards Lloyd P. 
Keester became a partner and the business was incorporated with Mr. Rench 



1130 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

as vice-president. During- 1910 he sold his interest and purchased the City 
market on Nineteenth street in partnership with Louis Johnson, but in 1912 
sold that business and in April of the same year he bought from Jean 
Estribou the Metropole market, which he now owns in conjunction with 
Forrest Cassady ; this has now grown to an extensive wholesale business. 
Besides owning one-half interest in the market he owns real estate in Bakers- 
field and an alfalfa ranch of one hundred and twenty acres about four miles 
southeast of the city, while his identification with Bakersfield is rendered 
even more intimate and important through his membership in the board 
of trade and the Merchants' Association. With his wife, who was formerly 
Mrs. Delia (Cox) Laird, and whom he married at San Diego, he has estab- 
lished a comfortable home in East Bakersfield and has a host of friends in 
the town. In politics he always has voted with the Republican party, while 
fraternally he belongs to the Eagles and is a contributor to the philanthropic 
and social interests of the order. 

HARRY B. PHELAN.— The president of the board of trustees of McKit- 
trick was formerly a professional baseball player of more than local fame, and 
recent interests in other directions have not lessened his love for a good game. 
With his old-time skill he has promoted the success of a local club, devoting 
many of his leisure hours to such work and watching the reports from the 
great metropolitan teams with true professional zeal. However, this interest 
does not lessen his energetic oversight of the drug store (the first in McKit- 
trick), which he owns and manages and which has a profitable accessory in 
the form of a modern and well-equipped soda-water fountain. LTpon the in- 
corporation of the city he was elected a member of the first board of trustees 
and has since continued in that office, being at present chairman of the board 
and as such an influential factor in every measure for the local upbuilding. 

On a quarter-section homestead eight miles east of Tecumseh, Johnson 
county, Neb., Harry B. Phelan was born August 1, 1876, being a son of James 
A. and Mary E. (Clotfelter) Phelan, natives of Galesburg, 111. The paternal 
grandfather, Jacob, was also a pioneer of Johnson county, where the father 
shortly after the close of an honorable service in the Civil war as first lieu- 
tenant of a company in the Thirty-second Illinois Infantry, took up a raw 
tract of government land in the midst of an undeveloped region, practically 
bevond the then confines of civilization. The transformation of the raw tract 
into a remunerative farm was no slight task, but he engaged in it with enthus- 
iasm and tireless energy. For years he made a specialty of buying and feed- 
ing cattle, shipments of which he sent to Kansas City in carload lots. The 
Johnson county farm is still his home, but with advancing years his activities 
have narrowed and he has enjoyed a leisure richly merited by industry and 
honesty. 

Among seven children, all but one of whom still survive, Harry B. Phelan 
was fourth in order of birth. After he had completed the studies of local 
schools he was sent to the State Normal School at Peru, but at the close of 
the junior year he left college for the purpose of entering the professional 
baseball field with the Des IMoines team. After a year as catcher he was 
transferred to the Atlanta team in the Southern league, where he was catcher 
for one year. The next two years were spent as catcher with the North- 
western Indian School at Genoa, Neb. With the opening of the Spanish- 
American war he ofifered his services as a soldier. Assigned to Company I, 
Sixteenth United States Infantry, he served as first sergeant in the Philip- 
pines for two years and four months. With his command he was ordered 
back to the United States and honorably discharged from the service. Re- 
turning to the old homestead he aided in the manag-ement of the ranch and 
also carried on a barber shop at Tecumseh, but in 1905 he came to California 
and played with the Bakersfield team. Next he was assigned to the Fresno 
team in the Coast league. After the earthquake he retired from baseball and 




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HISTORY OF K1-:RX COUNTY 1133 

came to Kern county, where he started a barber shop at McKittrick and since 
has engaged in other lines of business. In San Francisco he married Miss 
Elizabeth E. Hock, a native of that city, now sharing with him in the respect 
of acquaintances in Kern county. While at Atlanta, Ga., he was made a 
Mason in East Point Lodge No. 288, F. & A. M. For a time he was actively 
connected, at Peru, Neb., with the Ancient Order of United Workmen. In 
addition he has afifiliated with the Improved Order of Red Men. Politically 
he votes with the Democratic party. 

PETER SALIS. — Born in Arvis, Graubunden, Switzerland, January 26, 
1865, Mr. Salis attended school in his native land. He was the eldest son 
of five children born to Melchior and Agnes Salis. The father died in 1874 
when his son Peter was only nine years of age. Being the eldest of the family 
he had to help his mother look after the property. Completing the grammar 
school when he was fifteen years old, he continued on the home place until 
he came to the United States in 1889. As he had determined on California 
.as his point of destination he set out from home and arrived here December 
28, 1889. On January 1, 1890, he was employed by Wellington Canfield, 
for whom he worked for two years, being the only employer he had after 
reaching the United States. With John Koch and iNIichel Mazolt as part- 
ners he leased two hundred and fifty acres of land on Union avenue from 
J. C. Anderson, and later a six hundred and forty acre section adjoining, upon 
which he engaged in dairying and raising alfalfa, the dairy consisting of sev- 
enty cows. The partners remained here for about five years, but during the 
last year the partnership was dissolved and Mr. Salis continued alone until 
1897. He then purchased land to the amount of a hundred and twenty acres on 
Jerry slough, which was all unimproved land. He cleared it of sage brush and 
sunk a flowing artesian well, with a capacity of ninety-six inches, and con- 
structed a reservoir to irrigate the farm, which was devoted to raising alfalfa 
and the dairy business. In the early days of his experience on the farm the 
coyotes howled at his door, but before he left it was comfortably improved 
with residence and buildings. On account of the flood in 1907. when the waters 
came down Jerry slough, he came to what is now his home place, originally 
a tract of forty acres. To this he later added twenty acres adjoining and now 
has sixty acres planted to alfalfa, besides which he also carries on a small 
dairy business. 

In June, 1870, was born Miss Ursula Stofl:'el, in Arvis, Switzerland, who, 
October 15, 1892, became the wife of Peter Salis, and they have two children : 
Agnes, who graduated from the Kern County high school at Bakersfield in 
1912 and now attending the University of California; and INIelchior, who is 
attending the jiublic school. 

Mrs. Salis was the daughter of Anton and Ursula (Bernhard) Stoffel, of 
an old Graubunden family. She came to Hastings, Nebr.. in April, 1889. and 
to California December 28, 1889. She has been an able helpmate and com- 
fort to her husband and both are deeply interested in giving their children 
the best educational advantages in their power. In 1901 Mr. and Mrs. Salis 
with their two children visited his old home, relatives and friends. After a 
four-months' trip they returned to their home near Button W^illow. Mr. 
Salis is a member of the Woodmen of the World. 

WILLIAM D. JOUGHIN. — Among those men who have given of their 
time and best energy towards the development of Kern county we find 
William D. Joughin, who was born on the family farm, Ballacrebbin, in the 
Parish of Andres, Isle of Man. He was the son of John and Margaret Ann 
(Kaighin) Joughin, who were proprietors of Ballacrebbin and were of old 
families of that Isle, the families having lived there for generations. William 
D. was born November 12, 1870, and received his education in the local 
schools of the parish. At the age of seventeen he was apprenticed as a 



1134 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

grocer in Ramsey. After three years, disliking' the trade, he concluded to 
take up farming instead and he returned to the old farm, and after his father's 
death he continued to live with his mother, until her death, after which he de- 
termined to come to California, where his sister, Mrs. T. A. Connell, resided 
on the south fork of Kern river. On May 1, 1898, he came into Kern county, 
where he remained for one year with Mr. Connell. This was his introduc- 
tion into the cattle business and farming", as it was done in California. In 
1899 he went to Bishop, Inyo county, where he was for eight years employed 
in the cattle business. He then returned to the south fork and with J. Robert 
Stephen rented the Connell ranch, and since then the two have operated it in 
partnership. Aside from the Connell ranch of eight hundred acres they also 
lease the Patterson and Cook ranches on the south fork adjoining, and they 
also lease the Five Dog ranch at Granite station for ranging their cattle. On 
the south fork the ranches are irrigated from the ditches and they are ex- 
tensively engaged in raising alfalfa and grain. The balance is used for pas- 
ture and range. They make a specialty of raising and feeding cattle and 
hogs for the Los Angeles market. The brand is a triangle inverted. 

At the First ^Tethodist Episcopal Church, Los Angeles, June 3, 1912, 
occurred the marriage of Mr. Joughin and Miss Ethel Christian, a native 
daughter of Kern county, and the daughter of Robert Christian, one of the 
old-time merchants of Kernville. 

Mr. Joughin was made a Mason in Winnedumah Lodge No. 287, F. & A. 
M., at Bishop. He is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church 
at Isabella and a believer in protection and Republican principles. 

M. L. WEITZEL. — The name of Weitzel is indicative of Teutonic 
ancestry and we find that the genealogy of the family points back to a long 
identification with Germany. The first representative of the family to seek 
a home in the new world was Frederick Weitzel, who left his native land in 
young manhood, crossed the ocean to America, proceeded from New York 
to Michigan and settled in Detroit, where he followed his trade of a mill- 
wright. After a time he moved to the southern part of Indiana and bought 
a tract of farm land which he developed, while in addition he managed a 
saw and grist mill. The second generation in America was represented by 
Lewis Weitzel, a native of Detroit. Mich., but throughout the greater part 
of his life a resident of Indiana. Like his father, he engaged in farm jnir- 
suits and also conducted a saw and grist mill. A man of ability and intelli- 
gence, he rose to political prominence and for many years served as chair- 
man of the county central Democratic committee in Dearborn county. For 
four years he served as deputy sheriiT of that county and so well did he 
fill the position that he was chosen sherifTf, in which capacity he rendered 
efficient service for another four years. During 1882 he left Dearborn 
county and went further north and west in Indiana, buying a farm in Boone 
county, where he continued to reside until his death. He is survived by 
his widow, Mrs. Margaret Weitzel, a resident of Boone county and a native 
of Germany, whence in early life she was brought to the new world by 
her father, Henry Miller, the family settling in Indiana and taking up land 
in Dearborn county. 

.All of the ten children of Lewis -and Margaret (Miller) Weitzel are 
still living. One of the youngest members of the family was M. L., a nati^■e 
of Dearborn county-, Ind., born June 3. 1872. but from the age of ten years 
until he was twenty a resident of Boone county, where he received a 
public-school education. \\'hen sixteen years of age he became an appren- 
tice in the machine shcps of the Midland Railroad, where he remained until 
he had acquired a comi)lete knowledge of the machinist's trade. Upon 
starting out for himself he came to California in 1892 and settled in Kern 
county, where lie ho])e(l to secure employment in the railroad shops. In 




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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1139 

this hope. hoWever, he was destined to be disappointed, for work was 
slack and no new hands were being- added to the force. P^arm work pre- 
sented itself as a temporary source of livelihood. During January of 1893 
he was employed on Tutman's ranch and the following month he went to 
the Underwood ranch. From there he went to the warehouse and packing 
house July 26. 1893. and on the 10th of October of the same year he became 
an employe on the Lindgren ranch, where he remained for a long period of 
productive activity. It was during 1898 that he first became interested in 
cement work, to which he since has devoted his entire time. After having 
been employed for some years as foreman of cement construction he began 
for himself in 1906 and since then has risen to a position among the leading 
cement contractors in Kern county. Some of the finest work of the kind 
in Bakersfield is the result of his efficient skill. To his credit there are 
also seventeen substantial cement and brick reservoirs in the oil fields. Upon 
the organization of the Builders' Exchange he became a charter member 
and since has maintained an intimate association with affairs in this progres- 
sive body. In 1912 he incorporated the Weitzel-Larsen Contracting Com- 
pany, of which he is general manager, the company being organized for the 
purpose of engaging in general contracting on an extensive scale. Some 
years after coming to Kern county he married Miss Annie Psherer, a native 
of this county, and by the union there are two children, Henry and Gertrude. 
He belongs to the Woodmen of the World, and is a Democrat. 

MICHEL ANSOLABEHERE.— Mr. Ansolabehere in early life made 
himself helpful at the old home farm near Baigorry, Basses Pyrenees, France, 
where he was born March 5, 1871, and where the first twenty years of his 
busy existence were vineventfully passed, in a round of farm duties and 
school work. A desire to see something of the world and to try his fortunes 
in California led him to leave his old home in the foothills of the Pyrenees 
mountains. Crossing the ocean, he arrived in Kern county in December. 
1891, and without difficulty found employment as a herder of sheep. In the 
same year as himself there also came to Kern county his brother, Gratian, 
who was born in France in 1868 and who since 1895 has been intimately 
associated with the younger brother in stock-raising and agricultural activi- 
ties. By his marriage to Clara Aharabide. also a native of France, he has 
three children, Marie, John and Babe. 

After he had worked for different sheepmen about four years, Michel 
Ansolabehere bought a flock of sheep and engaged in business in part- 
nership with his brother, Gratian. since which time the two have co-operated 
in their enterprise. It was their custom to summer their flocks, comprising 
from four to six thousand head, in ]\Iono county, from which place they 
brought them down to Buena Vista lake and other favorable points to feed 
through the winter. During 1909 the two brothers bought in the Rosedale 
district three hundred and twenty acres eight miles northwest of Bakersfield, 
under the Beardsley canal, and since then they have pvit the property under 
cultivation to alfalfa. During 1913 they disposed of their sheep in order 
to give their entire time to the raising of hay for the market. Neat buildings 
have been erected on the half-section and the large tract shows the thrift, 
intelligence and constant care of the owners. In politics both brothers vote 
with the Republican party. The younger brother married in East Bakersfield 
in 1909 Miss Mariana Irulegy, who was born in Aldudes, Basses-Pyrenees. 
I'>ance, and by whom he has two children, Margaret and John 

CORNELIUS DUNNE.— Born in County Cork, Ireland, in 1861, Cor- 
nelius Dunne attended the national schools and learned carpentering. At the 
age of twenty years he left the old home and crossed the ocean to America, 
where for a year he worked in Boston. IVIass., meanwhile being employed 
in the Tremont hotel. At the expiration of the twelve months he came 



1140 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

west and entered the railroad service, his first work of that kind being in 
a roundhouse at Needles. A 3'-ear later the Southern Pacific Company 
built into Needles and he secured a position in the department of bridge- 
building. About 1884 he was transferred to Mojave and here he has smce 
remained. At the time of his arrival very few buildings had been put 
up at this point and he has witnessed the steady growth of the equipment 
here. For two and one-half years he was employed as car-repairer, after 
which he served as inspector of trains for seven years. Next he was 
made foreman of gangs and in 1910 he became car foreman, which position 
has since taken all of his time. 

With judicious economy Mr. Dunne has saved his earnings, investing 
them in California property, so that now he is the owner of two houses in 
Mojave, one hundred and sixty acres of fine farm land in the fertile and 
famous Weed Patch of Kern county and a walnut grove of twenty acres 
near Anaheim, Orange county, these various properties representing his 
own unaided efforts to attain independence. In politics he has been 
staunch in his allegiance to the Republican party. After coming to Kern 
county he was married at Keene to Miss Mary O'Meara, a native of San 
Francisco and a sister of P. J. O'Meara, represented elsewhere in this 
volume. The Dunne family comprises five children, namely : Catherine, 
Dennis, Margaret, Francis and Eugene. The eldest is a graduate of the 
Los Angeles Normal, class of 1913, and the second is a graduate of the 
1913 class in the Fresno high school. Margaret is attending the Sisters' 
School in Los Angeles and Francis is a pupil in the Fresno high school, 
while the youngest son is a pupil in the local schools. 

LEWIS H. LARSON.— The proprietor of the Home Transfer & Stor- 
age Company, who has been a citizen of East Bakersfield since November 
of 1901, claims Missouri as his native commonwealth and was born at St. 
Joseph, Buchanan county, December 19, 1858, being a son of Kittel T. and 
Mary (Kennard) Larson, the latter a native of Louisville, Ky., and the former 
of Norwegian birth and ancestry. After having learned the trade of black- 
smith in his native country the father migrated to the new world at the 
age of twenty years and soon settled on a farm near St. Joseph, Mo., where 
in addition to tilling the soil and raising stock he devoted considerable at- 
tention to his chosen occupation. A building on the farm was utilized as a 
shop and farmers from all directions came there to avail themselves of his 
skill in repair work and in horse-shoeing. Eventually he retired from the 
farm and established a home in St. Joseph, where he died at the age of sev- 
enty-three years, having survived his wife, who was fifty-six at the time 
of her demise. Of their five children the third, Lewis H., was reared on the 
home farm and attended country schools. After he had completed the com- 
mon-school branches of study he devoted his entire time to farm work. 
When the family removed to the city of St. Joe he engaged in the teaming 
business. Three years later he became the proprietor of the Red Tank oil 
line and conducted a retail oil business for four years, after which for five 
years he carried on a retail milk business as proprietor of the Globe dair}- 
in his home town. 

Upon leaving Missouri for California and settling in Kern (now East 
Bakersfield), Mr. Larson secured employment in the boiler-shop of the 
Southern Pacific Railroad Company, with which company he continued for 
three and one-half years. Upon resigning the position he embarked in the 
dairy business. In order to have ample space for the industry he bought 
three blocks of ground and eleven lots on East Nile street, where he operated 
the Kern dairy for five years. At the expiration of that period he sold the 
dairy herd and closed out the business. Next he became interested in the 
transfer business under the title of the Home Transfer Company. Later 



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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1143 

he bought the interests of the Home Transfer & Storage Company, under 
which name the business since has been conducted. Near his residence 
at No. 1600 Nile street he has built a storage warehouse wath ample facilities 
for the storage of furniture consigned to him by patrons. For business 
purposes he keeps three wagons in steady use and at this writing maintains 
his ofifice in his home. Much of the original acreage has been sold, but he 
still retains one block of land and therefore has sufificient room for all the 
demands of the business. 

While living at St. Joe, Mo., Mr. Larson married Miss Vetura L. Moore, 
a native of that city and there deceased. Three children survive of that 
marriage, namely : Mrs. Lulu Lee Boden, of East Bakersfield ; Nora E., 
wife of O. P. Coats, of Fresno ; and George S., who is employed as a driver 
in the transfer business. By his marriage to Miss Christina Olson, who 
died in St. Joe, Mr. Larson is the father of one son, Andrew K. His present 
wife, whom he married at St. Joe in 1898, was formerly Mrs. Debbie (Shaffer) 
Etzweiler, a native of New Buffalo, Perry county, Pa., and a daughter of 
Benjamin and Mary (Radel) Shafifer, also natives of the Keystone state. 
During the Civil w^ar Mr. Shaffer served as a private in a Pennsylvania regi- 
ment and was wounded in an engagement. After having engaged in farm- 
ing in Pennsylvania for some years in 1876 he removed to Kansas and 
settled on a farm, but later followed the trade of shoemaker at Ellsworth. 
From Kansas he came to California and briefly sojourned at East Bakers- 
field, thence went to Long Beach, where he died at eighty-one years of 
age. His wife had died in Pennsylvania, leaving four children, two of whom 
now survive. The youngest child of that union w^as Debbie, who in Kansas 
became the wife of Jacob L Etzweiler, a carpenter and builder by trade. 
Mr. Etzweiler was born at Millersburg, Dauphin county, Pa., and died in 
Texas, leaving the widow and six children. Four of the children survive, 
namely : Mrs. Katherine E. Johnson, of East Bakersfield ; Minnie, a grad- 
uate nurse living at Coffeyville, Montgomery county, Kan. ; Harry, now 
at Maricopa, Cal. ; and Jacob, who is employed at Oil Center. Mrs. Larson 
has been actively identified with the Ladies of the Maccabees, Pythian 
Sisters, Rebekahs and Fraternal i\id, while Mr. Larson holds membership 
with the Knights of Pythias, Fraternal Brotherhood and Pythian Sisters In 
politics he upholds Democratic principles. 

FRED W. CRAIG.— Mr. Craig was born in New York City, June 25, 1826, 
a son of Archibald and Ann (Coffin) Craig, natives of New Jersey and of New 
York state, descendants respectively from Scotch and from English ancestors. 
They both lived out their days and passed away in New York City. The 
father was long cashier of the Chemical Bank of New York. All of their 
seven children are deceased. Fred W. Craig began his education in New- York 
City and when he was twelve years old went to Monmouth county, N. J., to 
live with an uncle. Later he became a clerk in a store and thus gained an 
intimate knowledge of the mercantile business. In 1848 he went to Spring- 
field. 111., where in 1852 he was a salesman in the hardware store of Mr. 
Pease, his uncle. Responding to the lure of gold, he turned his face tow^ard 
California. Sailing from New York on the Ozark, he came around the 
Horn to San Francisco, the vessel putting in at Rio for repairs, and landed 
in July, 1853. From San Francisco he went to Placerville. which town was 
then known by the not euphonious but accurately descriptive name of Hang- 
town. After a short time we find him in Sacramento, where he was a clerk 
in a commission house eighteen months. Next he established himself at 
Indian Diggings, Eldorado county, as a merchant, where for two years he 
sold goods that were hauled into the camp from San Francisco. In 1857 he 
became proprietor of a restaurant at Oroville. which he continued wdth suc- 
cess for two years. In 1861 he made his first trip to Kern county. .After a 



1144 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

short stay there he tarried briefly in Tulare county, then returned to San 
Francisco. Late in that year until deep snow he was a clerk in a store at 
Caribou. Later he was variously employed until 1864, when he took up his 
residence in Kernville, where he was employed in general merchandising 
as a clerk until 1866. In this year he established a store on Kern river, near 
Kernville, which in 1870 he removed to Havilah. Meantime, in 1868, he 
had been elected to serve three years as supervisor. He was re-elected in 
1871 and in 1873 he resigned to take the office of county clerk, which he 
assumed in March, 1874, about a month after the county seat was located at 
Bakersfield. Before the close of the year last mentioned his store was 
burned down. In 1875 and again in 1877 he was re-elected county clerk, 
in which office he served continuously six years. He was for some years 
postmaster of old Kern, but resigned the place to accept the office of justice 
of the peace for the third judicial township, which he ably filled for two 
terms. In 1894 he was recalled to the office of county clerk, by election on 
the Republican ticket, and assumed its duties in January, 1895, and served 
until January, 1899. From then until his death he was engaged in the real 
estate and insurance business, holding a commission as notary public. He had 
been a citizen of East Bakersfield since 1875 and built his fine house there in 
the summer of that year. In politics he was a Republican. Fraternally he 
affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He married, at 
Havilah, Miss Hava M. Crosby, a native of Illinois and also a pioneer of Kern 
county of 1851. Their daughter, Anna M., is librarian at the East Bakersfield 
branch of the Beale Memorial Library. 

JESSE ROY ROGERS.— When the first adventurous emigrants crossed 
the ocean from Great Britain and landing in Virginia planted the English 
flag on a spot which they named Jamestown in honor of their king, there 
was among the number a gallant young Englishman bearing the family name 
of Rogers. From the time of the settlement of Jamestown in 1607 through 
the more than three centuries following, his descendants have been loyal to 
America and brave in the defence of their country in war. During the Revo- 
lutionary struggle several of the name were in the army, among them the 
great grandfather of Isaiah Rogers, whose grandfather was a soldier in the 
war of 1812, while his father went to the front during the Mexican conflict. 
He himself, of Kentuckian birth, nevertheless opposed slavery and felt so 
strongly in favor of the Union cause that he left his native commonwealth 
to take up arms for the north. Relatives were of southern sympathies and 
friends also joined the Confederacy, but he persisted in his course, although 
deeply regretting the estrangement that necessarily followed. Some time 
after the war had come to an end he established his home in Louisville, Ky., 
where his son, Jesse Roy, was born on New Year's day of 1875. Removing 
to Missouri in 1879, he established the family on a farm near St. Louis. 
Eventually he retired from agricultural pursuits and settled in Carthage, Mo., 
where he now^ makes his home. By his marriage with Miss Nancy Davis, 
he became allied with an old southern family early resident in South Caro- 
lina, although her birth had occurred in Alabama. The Davis family traces 
its genealogy back to the Grahams, of well-known Scotch-Irish lineage. 

Among eight children comprising the family of Isaiah Rogers and of 
whom five are still living. Jesse Roy Rogers was third in order of birth, 
and he was six years of age at the time the family removed from Kentucky 
to Missouri. It was in the latter commonwealth therefore that he received 
his education. When fourteen years of age he left school and began to serve 
as an apprentice to Robert (iraham, a plasterer in Kansas City, with whom 
he continued for five years, meanwhile learning every branch of the busi- 
ness. On the conclusion of his apprenticeship he worked as a journeyman in 
Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, Omaha aufl Denver. By persistent effort 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1147 

he became an expert in his occupation. The demand for high-class work- 
men in Los Angeles led him to establish himself in that city during 1900, 
after which he devoted several months to filling contracts in that city. One 
of his most important contracts in that city was the plastering of the Chamber 
of Commerce building. Removing to Long Beach in 1901 he at once took a 
merited position among the leading men in his line. Among his principal 
contracts in that place were those for the Long Beach National Bank, the 
First National Bank of Long Beach, the City National Bank, Carnegie 
Library and Kennebec hotel. A great number of smaller jobs kept him 
busily occupied in the same locality until 1907, when he began to follow his 
trade in and near San Diego. Coming to Bakersfield in March, 1909, he 
entered upon occupative tasks in this city and in Kern county, where he had 
the contracts for the plastering of the Elks building, the New Southern 
Annex, the Brower building, Redlick building. Manly apartments, Koesel 
hotel, A/forgan building, Russ residence. Manual Training school, Morrow 
& Barnett building, and numerous other structures in Bakersfield, besides the 
schoolhouse in Maricopa and other contracts at points near to his home city. 
In 1912 he branched out into general contracting in partnership with Joseph 
E. Yancey, and the firm of Yancey & Rogers have built the Fellows high 
school annex, have plastered the Bakersfield Club building and have remod- 
eled the City Hall. Upon the organization of the Builders' Exchange he 
became a charter member and one of the directorate, besides which he has 
oflficiated as second vice-president. While living in Kansas City he met and 
married Miss Cora Gray, a native of Illinois, and with her and their only 
child, Albert Edisdn, he has established a comfortable home in Bakersfield. 

EMMETT L. HAYES. — The general manager of the large business in 
Bakersfield conducted under the title of Hayes & Murray belongs to an 
old southern family and is himself a native of the south, born at ]\Iurfrees- 
boro, Tenn., August 28, 1882, being a son of the late Thomas and Mar- 
garetta (Burgess) Hayes. The former, born in North Carolina, became a 
resident of Tennessee in early life and identified himself with agricultural 
pursuits there, continuing in the same locality until death. After removing 
to that commonwealth he had married Miss Burgess, a native of Tennessee 
and a lifelong resident of tlie state. They became the parents of ten chil- 
dren who attained maturity, but only five of these are now living and only 
one, Emmett L., the next to the youngest, has established a home in Cali- 
fornia. After he had completed the studies of the country schools he was 
sent for one term to the Baptist University at Murfreesboro and at the 
age of fifteen left school and home to begin the battle of self-support. As 
a clerk with the Mayo Grocery Company at Dresden, Tenn., he gained his 
first experience in business. That his services w^ere satisfactory appears 
in the fact that Mr. Mayo took him to Mayfield, Ky., and upon the estab- 
lishment of the firm of McEllrath. Brooks & Mayo' made him cashier of 
the department store. 

The work was congenial and the returns satisfactory, but Mr. Hayes 
found the constant confinement to the cashier's desk altogether too great 
a strain upon his health and he resigned in 1901, coming to California and 
securing a temporary position with J. J. Owen & Co., in San Bernardino. 
For a brief period he also clerked in a grocery ov^ned by Feetham & McNeill. 
The year 1902 found him in Bakersfield, where for eighteen months he held 
a position with Dinklespeil Brothers, grocers. Next he entered the grocery 
department of Hochheimer & Co. Upon resigning that place he removed 
to Madera and became manager of the grocery department of Rosenthal- 
Kuttner Company, but in a few months came back to Bakersfield to serve as 
manager of the grocery department of Hochheimer & Co. During April 
of 1907 he purchased from Tipton Mathews the first and only grocery 



1148 HISTORY OF KKRX COUNTY 

business in Wasco, where he not only conducted mercantile pursuits, but 
also acted as postmaster. With P. A. Murray as partner, in 1909 he opened 
a grocery in Bakersfield. For a few months he ran the two stores, but in 
the autumn of 1909 he disposed of the store at Wasco, and since then has 
devoted his entire time to the management of the Bakersfield establishment. 
Starting in business with groceries exclusively, the firm later added a com- 
plete line of hardware and now have in stock not only these two lines, but 
also paints and oils, roofing and fencing. The location of the store on 
I street between Nineteenth and Twentieth streets is sufficiently central to 
be easy of access to all its customers and it enjoys the patronage of a large 
number of city people, besides a goodly contingent from the country. 

The Ashton Baking Company, organized in 1912, with the firm of Hayes 
& Alurray as owners of one-half interest, under the management of Mr. 
Hayes has built up a successful patronage, equipped a new shop and ovens 
and turns out an excellent product that finds a ready sale in increasing 
quantities. The supervision of the two separate lines of business keeps 
the manager busily occupied, but he nevertheless finds leisure for active 
participation in the Kern County Board of Trade and served for three years 
as a member of its executive committee. In addition he keeps well posted in 
the policies of the Republican party, which he supports with ballot and 
influence. Made a Mason in Delano Lodge, F. & A. M., he was raised to 
the Royal Arch chapter in Bakersfield, where also he has identified himself 
with the Elks and Woodmen of the World. At Visalia, in April of 1907, 
he married Miss Mamie Murray, a native of Tulare county, this state, and 
a daughter of P. A. and Henrie L. (Hess) Murray, the former a pioneer 
engineer on the Southern Pacific Railroad and also a member of the firm of 
Hayes & Murray. Mr. and Mrs. Hayes are the parents of two children, 
Thelma Vivian and Jack Murray. The family live at No. 317 Eighteenth 
street, in the Kruse tract, Bakersfield, where they own a recently completed 
and attractive residence. He is a director in the Colorado Pacific Land 
Company, the owners, platters and improvers of Kruse tract, one of the 
finest residence portions of the city. 

WILLIAM WALLACE. — Inventive ability of a high order would 
have brought worldly fame and material prosperity to Mr. Wallace had not 
his career been cut short by untimely death when he was forty-one years 
of age. Notwithstanding his passing ere he had reached the zenith of his 
powers he left behind him a reputation for inventive skill based upon inven- 
tions that now are in constant use. As a machinist his skill was so great 
that many considered him a genius. From childhood he had the faculty of 
grasping the intricate details of any piece of mechanism and to him more 
pleasing than the usual sports of youth was the success with which he 
could put together the numerous parts of a machine into working order. 
As is common with men of his type, he had his discouragements and reverses, 
but he never allowed failure to depress him or to retard even momentarily 
his enthusiastic labors upon his patents. Evidence of his ability and of the 
successful business supervision of his widow appears now in the Wallace 
Pump Works, located at No. 718 Twentieth street, Bakersfield, where are 
manufactured some of his most important inventions. 

Born in Pennsylvania in 1869, apprenticed in youth to the trade of a 
machinist near Pittsburg, and removing to California about 1900, Mr. 
Wallace first secured employment as an expert machinist in the Bakersfield 
iron works, and later, as superintendent of the machine department for 
Reed Brothers, engaged in the manufacture of the Parker pump on Chester 
avenue. After a time he went to the Kern river oil field and started a 
machine shop, but the venture had a disastrous termination, and in one 
year he returned to Bakersfield to start anew. Here he opened a machine 



HISTORY OF KF.RX COUNTY 1149 

shop on Twentieth street, where he engaged in reboring oil well pumps. 
During 1905 he obtained a patent for rebrushing oil well pumps and in 
1908 he patented the Wallace interchangeable oil well pump, which now is 
manufactured in large numbers and used with gratifying success by the 
largest companies in the county. At the time of his death, which occurred 
October 9, 1911, he was engaged with a number of other patents, but his 
untimely demise prevented their completion. He belonged to the Maccabees. 

In New York City occurred the marriage of William Wallace and Miss 
Sadie Summers, who was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, being a daughter 
of Christian Summers, a native of London, England, but for many years a 
manufacturer in Copenhagen. From childhood she was trained in the doc- 
trines of the Lutheran denomination and she always has been a generous 
contributor to that church as well as a firm believer in its creed. Possessing 
business ability of a high degree, at the death of Mr. ^^'allace she determined 
to maintain the business and manufacture his patents. The results have 
proved the wisdom of her decision. It has been her good fortune to secure 
the services of Perry McAninch as manager; with his skilled and capable 
co-operation she has engaged in the manufacture of the Wallace Interchange- 
able oil well pump and the AX'allace bushed pump. The plant, of which she 
is sole proprietor, stands on Twentieth near O street and is operated by 
electrical powder. 

WILLIAM J. ROOKS. — The American genealogy of the Rooks family 
extends back to the period of the colonization of the Atlantic seaboard. 
Andrew J- and Jane (Smith) Rooks, now residents of Baldwin's Park, Cal., 
are natives of Georgia and their son, William J., was born November 2, 
1864, in that state, at a small hamlet known as Newton Factory. In early 
life Andrew^ J. Rooks followed the trade of blacksmith at Monroe, Walton 
county, his native Georgian cit}^ from where he served as a sharpshooter 
and scout throughout almost the entire period of the Civil war, being a 
member of Company C, Ninth Georgia Regiment, C. S. A. There were but 
three of his nine children who lived to years of maturity and the eldest of 
these, W^illiam J., has followed the occupation which he learned so thor- 
oughly under the skilled instruction of the father. Beginning to learn the 
trade when sixteen years of age, he served his apprenticeship at Newton 
Factory and then spent two years in a carriage factory in Atlanta, Ga., after 
which he conducted a shop of his own at Snellville, same state, for tw^o 
years. Next we find him in Alabama, engaged in the car-shops of the 
Louisville & Nashville Railroad at Decatur, where for eighteen months he 
specialized in the manufacture of coach and engine springs. After three 
and one-half years in the car-shops he opened a carriage-shop of his own 
in Decatur, where he engaged in the manufacture of carriages and wagons 
with considerable success. 

Upon selling out his interests in the south in 1901 and coming to Cali- 
fornia to make his home, Mr. Rooks was first employed in the Pike carriage- 
shop in Los Angeles, next was in the Tabor shop in the same city, and 
then for two years and three months served as foreman of the blacksmithing 
department in the car-shops of the Pacific Electric Railroad Company at 
Sherman. From Los Angeles he went to Hollywood, where he conducted 
a blacksmith's shop for three years. Meanwhile he bought and sold real 
estate and was able to leave the city with a profit of $10,000. Next he bought 
twenty acres in Azusa and engaged in raising oranges and strawberries. The 
latter crop was particularly profitable and brought him returns beyond his 
most sanguine expectations. 

November of 1909 witnessed the location of Mr. Rooks in Kern county, 
where in 1907 he had purchased one hundred and sixty acres of alfalfa land 
for $12,000. After securing $5,000 in rent from the place he sold it for 



1150 HISTORY nV KERX COUNTY 

?25,000 and had previously purchased a tract of four hundred acres, also 
about the same time purchased four hundred and ten acres of improved 
land under the ditch. On this property he put down a well three hundred 
and fifty feet deep, thus securing an abundance of water for irrigation. 
Eventually he sold the entire acreage and then, in November of 1912, he 
bought a blacksmith's shop at No. 617 Grove street, where he and his son 
have since made a specialty of horse-shoeing, although doing also a general 
lilacksmith and rei:)air business in the line of wagons and carriages, also 
the manufacture of automobile springs and machine forgings. \Vhile living 
in Alabama Mr. Rooks married Miss Theodosia P. Mason, who was born 
near Stone Mountain, Ga., in Gwinnett county. They became the parents 
of twelve children, of whom the following survive: Mrs. Lulu James, of 
Tulare; Mrs. Bessie Ward, of Florida; William J., Jr., member of the firm 
of W. J. Rooks & Son; Murray, now at Taft ; Mrs. Linnie Sutliff, of Escalun, 
San Joaquin county ; Eunice, Cleo, Morence and Lyman, who remain with 
their parents in the Bakersfield home. The family holds membership with 
the Methodist Episcopal Church South. In national principles Mr. Rooks 
is stanchly Democratic and fraternally he is connected with the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows at Bakersfield. 

REGINALD FRANK HAIMES.— Since coming to Bakersfield during 
April of 1895 Mr. Haimes has been identified with the Kern County Land 
Company, first as an employe on the Poso ranch and later as a clerk at the 
Kern island headquarters. Each of these places was made his headquarters 
for a number of years. To the work of both he gave the satisfactory service 
that furnishes abundant reason for promotion. Appointed in September 
of 1907 to the responsible position of payroll clerk in the Bakersfield ofiice, 
he now gives his time and attention closely to the responsibilities of the 
place and discharges every duty with painstaking fidelity. For a consid- 
erable period he devoted his leisure hours to military tactics and for seven 
years he served in the California National Guard, retiring with the rank of 
sergeant. Enlisting in the old Company G of the Sixth Regiment, he 
remained with it after the re-organization into Company L, Second Regi- 
ment. At the time of the great fire in 1906 in San Francisco he was sent 
with other members of the guard to that city. 

The third in a family of six children. Reginald h'rank Haimes was born 
in Liverpool, England, February 22, 1875, and was a son of the late Francis 
and Elizabeth (VVinsborough) Haimes, natives of Devonshire. For many 
years prior to his death the father had engaged as a wholesale tobacconist 
in Liverpool and it w^as there that R. F. Haimes attended school from 1881 
until about 1889. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed on an English 
merchant shi]), Crompton, which sailed to lUirma, Asia, thence returning 
to Dundee. On the voyage he rounded the Cape of Good Hope twice, 
repeating this on a subsequent round trip between Liverpool and Calcutta. 
The next voyage of the Crompton took him from Cardiff, Wales, to Portland, 
Ore., thence back to England, thus rounding Cape Horn twice. When he 
passed the Horn for the third time it was on a voyage to San Francisco. 
Having concluded the apprenticeship he left the vessel at San Francisco in 
the fall of 1894, intending to become a permanent resident of the west.' 

A brief experience in the coasting trade out from San Francisco was 
followed by removal to Napa, where Mr. Haimes secured employment as 
clerk in a hardware store and from there in the spring of 1895 he came to 
Kern county, the location of his sul:)sequent activities. In the city of 
Bakersfield he erected a comfortal)le residence at No. 2729 Twentieth street, 
and here he and his wife, with their only child, Kathleen Greta, have a home 
whose delightful hospitality is often enjoyed bv their wide circle of friends. 




(2*^- J. ^ /^<^i^i^^^^^^-^iicyty " 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1153 

Airs. Hainies was reared and educated in Liverpool, England, and is a woman 
of culture and charm, popular in social functions and an interested partici- 
pant in the work of the Pythian Sisters, to which, as also to the Knights 
of Pythias, Mr. Haimes belongs. Since becoming a citizen of our country 
he has espoused Democratic principles and always gives his vote to the 
men and measures advocated by that party. Although reared in England, 
Mrs. Haimes is of Irish birth and lineage, and was born at Banbridge, county 
Down, which likewise was the birthplace of her parents, Martin and Selina 
(Crawley) Kehoe. The parents removed from Ireland to Liverpool, England, 
where Mr. Kehoe engaged in business as a merchant tailor, remaining in 
the same city throughout the balance of his life. There were fourteen chil- 
dren in the Kehoe family and six of these are still living. The youngest, 
Margarita, was educated in public and private schools in Liverpool and came 
to Bakersfield May 17, 1908, where on June 7, 1908, was solemnized her 
marriage to Mr. Haimes, and since then they have remained residents of 
this city. 

JOHN P. PLAUGHER.— The Plaugher stable at Taft, for which 
Mr. Plaugher paid T. T. Hunter $7,000 and the value of which has been 
increased by subsequent purchases and improvements, does not represent 
the limit of his investments, for outside of his holdings in Taft he owns a 
house and lot at Hueneme, Ventura county, four lots in Del Monte Heights, 
Monterey county, two lots in Oakland and forty acres in unimproved farm 
land situated three and one-half miles northwest of the court-house at 
Fresno, besides which he is a stockholder in the Amber Oil Company. 

A resident of California since the 4th of July, 1896, on which day he 
arrived in Los Angeles, J. P. Plaugher had earned his own livelihood for 
a decade before he came to the west. The family of which he was a 
member comprised ten sons and two daughters, and the old home was in 
Pendleton county, W. Va., one and one-half miles from the state line of 
Virginia. There he was born September 8, 1873, and there he worked early 
and late as a boy, deprived of every educational advantage and in that 
way greatly handicapped for the activities of the business world. When 
scarcely more than sixteen he left home and he has not since been beneath 
the old roof nor has he visited the neighborhood whose only memories are 
of hardship, sacrifice and poverty. Having considerable mechanical ability, 
he found employment in running a traction engine which at different times 
operated a threshing machine, a hay baler and a wood-saw. March 4, 1892, 
he left Harrisonburg, Va., and proceeded to Lima, Ohio, where two older 
brothers were employed in the oil fields. For a year he engaged as teamster 
and roustabout with the Manhattan Oil Company. During the spring of 
1893 he entered the emplov of the Standard Oil Company as a tool-dresser 
on the Marion and Bellefontaine pikes east of Lima. At the exoiration 
of eighteen months the plant was shut down and he then became a boiler- 
maker in the Solar refinery (the largest refinery in the entire worldV After 
eight months he was made foreman of the crew that built the railroad car 
tanks, but a year later he was obliged to give up the work on account of 
threatened deafness. Transferred to the yard as a pipe-fitter, having charge 
of a gang of five men, he continued with the Standard Oil Companv at the 
Solar refinery for eig^ht months, after which he drilled for the same corpora- 
tion at St. Marys, Ohio. 

Resigning from the employ of the Standard June 28. 1896. Mr. Plaueher 
came to California, and on the 7th of July began to work in the Little 
Sespe canyon at Santa Paula for the Union Oil Company, with which he 
continued for five years as a driller. The boom began in the Kern river 
field in 1899 and perhaps a year later he had his first experience in that 



1154 HISTORY OF KKRX COUNTY 

field, where he was employed as a driller on the San Joaquin division of 
the Associated. Later he was with the Imperial and 33 Oil Companies, 
after which he engaged as rig-builder and well-driller for the Rhode Island 
and Connecticut and California Oil Companies. From that work he went 
to section 27 of the Coahnga field, where he brought in the flowing well 
that laid the foundation of the later fortunes of the California Oilfields, Lim- 
ited. August 1, 1901, he married Miss Emma Webb, daughter of E. C. 
Webb, and a native of Bradford, Pa., but at the time of their marriage a 
resident of Santa Paula. One son, Edward W., was born of their union. 
Mrs. Plaugher is a woman of ability and executive force and has been a 
leading worker in the V\ omen's Improvement Club of Taft. 

An experience in drilling a well in San Benito county proved so dis- 
astrous that Mr. Plaugher was not only left penniless, but also with a 
heavy debt that eventually was paid in full. After having worked for 
some time with the California Oilfields, Limited, he resigned on Thanks- 
givmg day of 1908 and returned to Fresno, where he had bought residence 
property. From there he proceeded to section 6 in the Kern river field, 
where he drilled to a depth of twenty-nine hundred and eighty feet, but 
failed to strike oil. With the failure of the Big Indian Oil Company, in 
which he had been a shareholder, he again suffered a heavy loss. In 1909 
he became a driller on the Santa Fe lease, but left that place in September, 
1910, in order to work for Wallace Canfield on the lease of the Kern Trad- 
ing & Oil Company. Having resigned his position with that large concern 
he bought a livery stable in Taft, October 11, 1912, and has since engaged 
in the livery business and in contract teaming. Eleven head of horses 
were in the barn at the time of purchase and since then he has added seven- 
teen, so that he now owns twenty-eight horses besides two mules. The 
equipment has also been enlarged by the purchase of new vehicles. In- 
cluded with the barn and the stock in the purchase were four lots, 100 x 125, 
on Center street, and two lots and houses in block 15, Kern street. Shortly 
after coming to California he was made a Mason in the Santa Paula blue 
lodge in 1896 and is now a member of Los Palmas Lodge No. 366, F. & A. M. 

GEORGE \V. PREMO.— The name of Premo indicates the French 
lineage of the family (the name being originally spelled Primeau, but after- 
ward changed to Premo for convenience) and the records further show that 
from France they became transplanted in Canada upon the soil of the province 
of Quebec. Born near Montreal, Michael Premo came to the United States 
in early life and during the latter part of the Civil war served as a private in 
a Michigan regiment of volunteers. Later in the '60s, while still a young man, 
he came via the Horn to California and settled UDon a tract of rav*' land in 
San Joaquin county. Early in the '80s he removed to Tulare county, secured 
a tract of land, developed a grain farm and for years conducted agricultural 
pursuits upon a large scale. About 1903 he retired from farming and estab- 
lished a home in Los Angeles, but more recently he has come to Bakersfield 
with the expectation of passing the remaining years of his life in this 
growing city. 

The marriage of Michael Premo united him with Miss Maggie Minges, 
who was born in San Joaquin county, this state, and died at Pcrterville. Her 
father, John Minges, a native of Germany, came to the United States with 
his parents in boyhood and in the eventful summer of 1849 crossed the plains 
with oxen to California, where he remained until his death in Stockton. There 
were nine children in his family. A mechanic of exceptional ability, he ranked 
among the successful men of his day and k cality. Inventive ability led him 
to experiment with improvements in farm implements. He invented and 
patented the first combined harvester, but sold the patent to Shippey of 




GEORGE DELEIXO VICTORIA DELFINO 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1157 

Stockton, who in turn sold to Mr. Houser the original model of the com- 
bined harvester of today. In addition he invented and ])crfected a header as 
well as other improvements in machinery. 

There were eight children in the family of Michael and Maggie Premo. 
Seven of these are now living, namely: Walter, who is engaged in the real- 
estate business at Porterville; Fred, a contractor doing business at Tulare; 
George W., of Bakersfield ; Emily, wife of F. L. Tubbs, of Tulare; Charles O., 
who is associated with his eldest brother in the real-estate business at Porter- 
ville; Marguerite, now a student in the University of California at Berkeley; 
and Kenneth, who was educated at Porterville. All of the children but the 
youngest are graduates of the Tulare high school. The third son, George W., 
was born at Stockton, this state, January 18, 1878, and was reared on a 
farm in Tulare county. After he had been graduated from high school in 
1897 he spent two years as a student in the scientific department of the Univer- 
sity of California. Next he entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Rail- 
road Company, in whose interests he came to Bakersfield in 1903. Later 
he devoted one year to the butcher business in Kern as a member of the 
firm of Tubbs & Premo. At the time of the great fire in San Francisco he 
went to that city, where he engaged in the real-estate business for a year. 
Upon his return to Bakersfield he resumed a connection with the Southern 
Pacific road, but at the expiration of two years resigned his position as 
conductor and turned his attention to realty work in Bakersfield. For a 
time employed by Ballagh & Nighbert, in September of 1912 he bought their 
interests and now engages in the real-estate, loan and insurance business at 
No. 1717 Chester avenue. In addition to being an active member of the 
Bakersfield Realty Board, he is still a member of the Brotherhood of Railroad 
Trainmen. Politically he favors Republican principles. In Bakersfield 
occurred his marriage to ]\Iiss Ethel Carlisle, who was born in Stockton and 
completed her education in the Tulare high school. A son, George W., Jr., 
blesses their union. Mrs. Premo is a daughter of J. H. Carlisle, a pioneer 
of Tulare county, now living at Fresno, this state. 

GEORGE DELFINO.— Near Milan, Italy, George Delfino was born, De- 
cember 15, 1872, and there attended school until twelve years old, 
after which he worked for his parents for about eight years. In 1892 he 
decided to come to America, and accordingly arrived in the United States 
that year, coming direct to California and settling in Tulare county, where 
he obtained work. In 1894 he came to Kern county, where he became an 
employe of the Miller & Lux Land Company, remaining with them until 
1898. when he started out for himself. With three others he rented two 
sections of land, which they worked for two years, at the end of which time 
he worked alone, in 1900 purchasing forty acres on Kern Island road, four 
miles south of Bakersfield, and here he lived for six years. He bought his 
present home place of forty acres in 1907, and in 1912 forty acres adjoining 
and he now owns and operates one hundred and twenty acres of land, all 
under irrigation and cultivation to alfalfa. His place is well improved with 
residence and buildings and is located three miles south of Bakersfield. 

Mr. Delfino married in Bakersfield Victoria Blanche, who was born 
in July, 1883, in Italy. She came to Bakersfield with her parents at the age 
of fi ur years. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Delfino occurred July 28, 
1900, and six children have been born to this marriage: Marciano, Willie, 
Joe, Dalsolina L., Frank and James. 

PAUL CORTI. — A son of Louis and ^lary (Ariguni) Corti, farmers 
of Italy, Paul Corti was born in that country near the city of Milan, November 
1, 1838, and was next to the youngest in a family of nine children. Only two 
members of the once large family are now living and none excepting himself 
ever came to the United States. Reared on a farm, he can scarcely recall the 



1158 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

time when he first determined to seek a livelihood elsewhere and to see some- 
thing of the great world. The ambition of boyhood came into realization 
during January of 1860, when he saw for the first time the metropolis of the 
world and began to be familiar with the sights of old England. For three 
years he served an apprenticeship in London to the trade of mirror-making 
and cutting. At the expiration of his time he sailed on the ocean ship, 
Exeter, to South Africa, reaching the Cape of Good Hope after a voyage of 
four months and settling in the town of that name. However, there were 
only a few white people as yet at the cape and he could not secure steady 
employment at his trade, nor did the surroundings cause him to desire a 
permanent residence in South Africa. 

The island of New Zealand next attracted Mr. Corti to its citizenship and 
for a time he lived at Auckland, but later went to Dunedin. During the war 
between the native tribes and the white settlers he helped to guard the city of 
Auckland. At the time of the first mining excitement at Otago he hastened 
to the camp and there prosoected and opened a placer mine which he named 
the Garibaldi. Associated with others, twelve in all, he put in hydraulic mining 
machinery and developed the property, remaining at the mine for four years. 
Meanwhile he married Miss Susan Carroll, who was born at Lancaster, Eng- 
land, and died at Bakersfield, March 15, 1903, leaving five children. During 
the spring of 1869 he disposed of his holdings in New Zealand and accompanied 
by his family went to Melbourne, Australia, thence north to Sydney and 
Newcastle, from there by a sailing vessel to Honolulu. From the Hawaiian 
Islands he and his family came via steamer to San Francisco, where they 
landed May 19, 1870. During the same year he came to Kern county, whose 
county-seat was then still located at Havilah. At first he worked in the 
Morrell sawmill. Next he spent a winter on a farm in Bear Hollow, Linn's 
valley. The following winter was spent at the very top of the Greenhorn 
mountains. 

As early as 1873 Mr. Corti pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres on 
section 18, township 31, range 27, which, together with adjacent land, he still 
owns. During 1874 he assisted in cutting a ditch out of the old river twelve 
miles south of Bakersfield. The following year the little canal, which is known 
as the Stine ditch, was opened and made available for use by settlers. In this 
ditch he owned an interest and from it he secured the water necessary for the 
cultivation of his claim. During 1876 he began to develop his farm and to make 
the necessary improvements. In 1878 he sowed fifteen acres of the ranch to 
alfalfa. It has been cut for hay, or pastured by stock, or cut for seed every suc- 
ceeding year, a period of thirty-five years, and is still a good stand. At diflfer- 
ent times he bought adjoining tracts, so that now he owns the whole of section 
18. As early as 1875 he bought two cows and started in the dairy business. 
By gradual increase he became the owner of a herd of seventy milch cows, 
besides having a large number of stock cattle. From 1882 until 1888 he and 
his family lived in San Francisco, but returned to the ranch in the year last- 
named and resumed the dairy industry as well as stock-raising. 

The family came to Bakersfield in 1901 and Mr. Corti erected a house on 
the corner of Twenty-second and E streets, but later bought his present home 
on the corner of Twenty-first and E streets. Two years after the death of his 
first wife he married Miss Eugenia Flournoy, a sister of Judge George Flour- 
noy, and a native of Texas, but this estimable lady was called from earth 
January 27, 1912, leaving a large circle of friends to mourn her untimely 
death. The family have been identified with St. Francis Catholic Church 
ever since they came to Kern county and ]\lr. Corti is also a member of the 
Knights of Columbus. In politics he adheres to Democratic principles. About 
1905 he sold all of his stock on the ranch, which he has since rented to a 
dairyman, the latter keeping about one hundred head of cows on the place. 




(^>$?^^*<7-c <^ /^Z^^z/a 



a^lrC^CA^ 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1161 

About three hundred and twenty acres are in alfalfa and perhaps an equal 
amount in pasture, so that the ])ro])erty is exceptionally well adapted to the 
dairy business and indeed is now considered one of the finest dairy farms in 
the entire county. 

MRS. EMMA LEA V AND A VEER.— Born nl St. Louis de Gonzat^ue. 
near Montreal, province of Quebec, Mrs. Vandaveer is a daughter of Michael 
and Genevieve (Maheu) Primeau, both natives of St. IMartine, Chateauguay, 
Quebec. Both the Primeau and the INTaheu families came originally from 
France and were of old and honored ancestr}' in that country, while their 
French-Canadian descendants displayed the same qualities of thrift and indus- 
try that had characterized the ancestors in Europe. For years ^lichael Primeau 
engaged in farming near St. Louis de Gonzague, but with all of his arduous 
labors he could give to his children few advantages aside from helping them 
to secure good educations. There were four children in the family and three 
are still living. Mrs. Vandaveer, who was the youngest of the family circle, 
completed her education in the Notre Dame convent at Huntingdon in Lower 
Canada, near York state. After she was graduated from the convent she 
engaged in teaching school for five years, but since coming to California in 
May of 1887 she has been interested principally in the hotel business. For 
seven years she managed the Petrolia hotel in Santa Paula, after which she 
followed the same business in San Francisco. Upon coming to Bakersfield 
in 1904 she continued in the same line of activity and for eight years managed 
the Boston hotel. This property she sold February 13, 1913. 

From the first identification of Mrs. Vandaveer with Bakersfield she has 
had a deep faith in its future prosperity and growth. The upbuilding of the 
city is a matter of personal interest and pride with her. The many favorable 
features for community growth have impressed her deeply. As an illustra- 
tion of her faith in local upbuilding it may be stated that she 
has erected four large and substantial houses in the city, three 
of these being located on the corner of Twenty-first and E streets, and the 
fourth standing at No. 2727 Twentieth street. Throughout all of her life she 
has been a devout Roman Catholic, an earnest worker in the church and a 
large contributor to its charitable enterprises. St. Francis' Catholic Church 
has in her not only a faithful, but also an active and capable member. As 
president of the Altar Society, promoter of the League of the Sacred Heart 
and treasurer of St. Francis Ladies' Aid Society, she has been identified inti- 
mately with organizations for the upbuilding of the church and the enlarge- 
ment of its sphere of usefulness. 

CHARLES H. KAAR. — The growing importance of the automobile 
industry won the apreciative recognition of Mr. Kaar to such an extent that 
during September of 1911 he relinquished other business interests in order 
to accept the agency for Bakersfield of the Studebaker automobiles. The 
garage is established at Eighteenth and L streets, the dimensions being 
115^2x132 and covering more floor space than any one-story garage in 
California, having room for about a hundred and seventy-five cars. It is 
equipped with machine shoo run by electric power, has a vulcanizing depart- 
ment, electric battery charging department and carries a full line of acces- 
sories and supplies. 

It was on the .Sth of March, 1894, that Charles H. Kaar first landed at 
East Bakersfield, in company with his father, John Kaar, the latter one of 
the honored upbuilders of this community and a man of sterling traits of 
character. (His biography appears in this publication.) There were hve 
children in the family and the fourth of these, Charles H., was born near 
Lochiel. Benton county, Ind.. January 15, 1878, hence was sixteen at the time 
of the removal to California. For two years he was a student in the public 
schools, but in 1896 he gave up his studies in order to earn his own liveli- 



1162 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

hood. The first wfirk which he undertook was the learning of the brick- 
layer's trade and in this occupation he served a thorough apprenticeship. 
At the expiration of his time he worked as a journeyman, visiting various 
points of the west and finding temporary employment at San Diego and 
other California cities, as well as Reno, Nev., and elsewhere. After taking 
contracts for mason work he began also to contract for houses and other 
buildings and upon his return to Bakersfield in 1907 he engaged in con- 
tracting and building, which he followed until he entered the automobile 
business. Meanwhile he erected a number of houses in Kern, some of 
which he si Id, but still owns eight at the present time, including the resi- 
dence which he erected for his family. To his efforts in no small measure 
was due the organization of the Builders' Exchange in 1910 and he was 
honored by being chosen its first vice-president, which ofifice he filled for 
one year and then withdrew from the organization upon giving up his build- 
ing activities. Fraternally he belongs to the Knights of Pythias and has 
been a generous contributor to the philanthropic work of the order. In 
marriage he became united with a native daughter of Kern county, Miss 
Agnes Montgomery, who was born and reared here, received an excellent 
education in Bakersfield and has made her lifelong home in this community. 
Two children bless their union, John and Emma. 

JACOB FETROW KAAR.— With other members of the family Jacob 
F. Kaar came to East Bakersfield in 1894 at the age of fourteen years 
and in this vicinity he has since been a resident, promoting local activities 
by his own admirable qualities of manhood and his devoted loyalty to the 
community. Son of John Kaar, mentioned elsewhere in this publication, 
he was born at Lochiel, Benton county, Ind., July 31, 1879, and received a 
fair education in the schools of his native locality,- but at an early age he 
left school in order to earn his own livelihood. When fifteen years of age 
he began to learn the butcher's trade. Every department of that business 
soon became familiar to him. His judgment concerning fat stock was excel- 
lent even when he was a mere lad and now it is doubtful if any man in the 
county surpasses him in that respect. At the age of nineteen he engaged 
in the business with his father, John Kaar, and a brother, Charles, but at the 
expiration of six months he began to assume the entire management of the 
industry and when he was less than twenty-one he bought the interests of 
his two partners. Not having any money of his own he went in debt for 
the entire sum, but such was his resolution and so accurate was his judgment 
that in eight months he was able to discharge the entire indebtedness. His 
next stej) was to start a bank account, in order that he might accumulate 
the capital necessary for the buying of stock. 

The small shack on Baker street with its limited space (20 x 20) sooii 
became inadequate to the needs of the growing business, whereupon Mr. 
Kaar's father assisted him in the buying of his present site in East Bakers- 
field and here he erected a brick block of two stories, 50x90. Later he added 
a third story. The first floor contains a laundry which has an annex of 
40 X 100. A grocery and the meat market occupy the remaining space on the 
first fioor, while the upper stories are devoted to a rooming establishment. 
Modern conveniences aid the proprietor in his effort to give the people of 
his town the best service and meat of the finest quality. The trade is so 
large that the slaughtering of the beeves forms an essential part of the 
business and this work is done at the slaughter-house one and one-half miles 
southeast of the city. Besides owning this important business Mr. Kaar has 
other interests, including the ownership of an eighty-acre ranch at Rosedale, 
where irrigation enables him to put the entire tract into alfalfa and thus 
engage profitably in the raising of hogs. In addition he owns valuable 
residence property in East Bakersfield. In fraternal relations he holds mem- 



HISTORY OV KKRX COUNTY 1165 

bership with the Knio;hts of Pythias, vvliile politically he votes with the 
Democratic party. His marriage took place in Jjakersfield and united him 
with Miss Laura Edna Wells, a native of Lochiel, Ind., the recipient of 
excellent educational advantages and a devoted adherent of the Congre- 
gational Church. Their family consists of three daughters, Emma Carolyn, 
Laura Edna and Marv Elizabeth. 

REV. J. J. PRENDIVILLE.— St. Joseph's Catholic Church, East Bakers- 
field, was founded in 1900 as a mission by Eather Patrick Lennon, who con- 
tinued to officiate as pastor until it was made a separate pastorate in 1907. It 
was then that Eugene Hefiferman became the first resident pastor and he was 
succeeded in March, 1910, by Father J. J. Prendiville, the present pastor, who 
soon after his arrival also began holding services in Taft and Maricopa. 

In September, 1911, Eather Prendiville built the Catholic Church at Taft, 
a $5,000 edifice. He originated the plan, following the old mission style, be- 
sides which he superintended the building, selected the lumber and his efforts 
have produced one of the finest churches in the San Joaquin Valley. He has 
also built a church for St. Patrick's congregation in Maricopa and he is holding 
services in Fellows. 

St. Joseph's Church and parsonage occupy about half a block of ground 
on Kern street, East Bakersfield, and among the dififerent societies are the 
Children of Mary, League of the Sacred Heart, Total Abstinence Society and 
The Sanctuary Society for Beys. In 1911 St. Joseph's Dramatic Society gave 
a play that proved a success and was repeated in the Bakersfield Opera House 
for the benefit of St. Francis Church. 

The pastor, Eather Prendiville, was born in Ireland, was graduated at St. 
Brendaus Seminary in Killarney, then studied theology and philosophy at 
Carlow college. In 1907 he was ordained priest by Bishoo Foley for the Los 
Angeles diocese. He was assistant to Monsigneur Fisher at Holy Cross 
Church, Santa Cruz, until March, 1910, when he was appointed to St. Joseph's 
Church. 

IRA HOCHHEIMER.— The Hochheimer department store on Chester 
avenue, extending one entire block from Nineteenth to Twentieth street, rep- 
resents the tireless supervision of its present manager, Ira Hochheimer ; as 
well as the ability of his father, Amiel Hochheimer, who is yet living, at the 
age of sixty-two ; Moses Hochheimer, an uncle, now deceased, a man of great 
executive ability and a moving spirit in the upbuilding of this establishment : 
Monroe Hochheimer, who acts as assistant manager at the present time ; 
M. H. Wangenheim, deceased, a former manager and a merchant possessing 
unusual faculty for organization ; and Henry Wangenheim, who has charge of 
the San Francisco offices of the four Hochheimer & Co. stores. Duly organ- 
ized as a corporation under the laws of the state of California, the company 
operates in all four departments stores in this state, one at each of the follow- 
ing places : Willow, Germantown and Orland in Glenn county, and Bakers- 
field, the establishment at Willow having been the first in the chain of stores. 

The brothers, Amiel and Moses, both of whom were natives of Penn- 
sylvania but residents of California from early years, embarked in mercantile 
pursuits at Dixon, Cal., but upon the completion of the railroad went to Wil- 
low, Glenn county, and established a store at that point, later establishing 
the three other stores still owned by the corporation. About the year 1900 
Moses Hochheimer and M. H. Wangenheim, both now deceased, came to 
Bakersfield and purchased from Mr. Belau the establishment known as the 
Pioneer store. At that time there were twelve employes. Business was con- 
ducted in a single store-room on Chester avenue, immediately north of the 
alley between Nineteenth and Twentieth streets. Today the business supports 
one hundred and fifty employes and ranks as next to the largest mercantile 
establishment in the entire San Joaquin valley. .\n entire block of ground 



1166 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

floor space is occupied on the east side of Chester avenue from Nineteenth to 
Twentieth street, in the Hopkins, Brodek and Scribner and Grand buildin^^s. 

The manag^er of this orreat business enterprise was born in the city of 
San Francisco August 6, 1876. The store at Willow was established in the 
same year (1876) and his parents moved thither, so that he grew to manhood 
in Glenn count}^ Besides having such advantages as were offered by the 
public schools he took a regular course of study in the University of California, 
from which he was graduated in the spring of 1898. Immediately after gradua- 
tion he returned to Willow and became manager of the store at that point. 
Four years later, upon the death of M. H. Wangenheim, the manager of the 
Bakersfield store, he was transferred to this city to fill the vacancy and thus 
at the age of only twenty-six assumed responsibilities of a very weighty nature. 

The presidency of the company is still held by Amiel Hochheimer, who 
remains actively in the business world and displays an energy scarcely less 
than that of his younger years. His brother, Moses, wdio died in the year 1912, 
is remembered kindly by the people of Bakersfield, where he was considered 
the leading merchant of the town and a man of high-minded, noble and 
humanitarian impulses. At one time Mr. Hochheimer served as lieutenant 
(in the staff of Governor Gillett. Notwithstanding his business responsibilities 
he is sociable and companionable and finds relaxation from business cares 
through membership in various organizations, including the Bakersfield Club, 
Army and Navy Club of San Francisco, Argonaut Club of San Francisco, and 
the Shriners and thirty-second degree Masons. 

EDWARD F- MILLARD.— The Millard family comes of old English 
lineage and the first representative of the name in America was Stephen 
W^illiam Millard, a native of the shire of Somerset, England, and a pioneer of 
1852 in California, having been allured on the long voyage around the Horn 
by reason of tales heard concerning the rich mines of the then unknown 
west. By the time of his arrival, however, a reaction from mining had begun 
and many were seeking their livelihocds along other lines of labor. It was to 
ranching that he turned his attention after he had landed at San Francisco 
and had taken a tour of inspection toward the interior of the state. For a 
time he held the position as foreman of the ranch owned by Lyman Beard at 
Mission San Jose. Later he began to farm rented land for himself, living for 
a time at Sunclglen, Alameda county, where his son Edward F. was born 
August 12, 1875 ; but later removing to Irvington in the same county and 
during 1892 coming to Kern county to take up general farming. For a number 
of years after his arrival in California he remained a bachelor, but after a 
time he met and married Rebecca Lively, who was born in Kentucky and at 
the age of three years had been brought across the plains by her parents, the 
lamily making the long journey in a wagun drawn by oxen. 

Among nine children comprising the parental family, seven of whom are 
now living, Edward F. Millard was next to the youngest. As a boy he at- 
tended country schools in Alameda county. At the age of fourteen he began 
an apprenticeship to the trade of printer. Three years later, when the fnmih- 
came to Kern county, he secured work as a type-setter in the composing room 
of the Weekly Echo under ^Messrs. Gregory and Smith, with whom he re- 
mained for eighteen months. Next he began to be interested in horticulture 
and general farming. The study of the fruit industry proved interesting to 
him. He devoted much time to developing kinds of fruit adapted to the cli- 
mate and soil of Kern county. After about ten years of labor in fruit-growing 
and kindred pursuits he became a conductor with the Bakersfield and Kern 
Electric Railway Company and in that position proved alert, capable and 
courteous. For about six years, beginning in 1906, he was connected with 
the ofiice force of the Power Transit and Light Company, continuing in the 
meter department after the concern had been absorbed hv the San Joaquin 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1167 

Light and Power Corporation. During- 1912 he received a merited promotion 
to the position of window clerk. 

Politics has not received a great amount of attention from Mr. Millard, 
yet he keeps in touch with national problems, favors progressive measures 
in 1( cal affairs and votes with the Republican party in the general elections. 
Fraternally he holds membership with the Modern Woodmen of America. 
In Bakersfield, May 4, 1902, occurred his marriage to Miss Josephine Cowing, 
who was born in Tulare, this state, and completed her studies in the Kern 
county high school. Descended from old Anglo-Saxon ancestry, she is a 
daughter of John Cowing, an Englishman who came to California in young 
manhood and engaged in farm pursuits. After he had settled in Tulare county 
he met and married Sarah Baley, a native of Georgia. Upon his removal to 
Kern county he purchased land five miles from Bakersfield and devoted many 
years to the development of the property, making of it a productive and val- 
uable tract. For some years he and his wife have lived in Los Angeles. 

GEORGE CARL HABERFELDE.— As proprietor of one of the most 
important furniture establishments in the San Joaquin valley and as secretary 
of the Bakersfield Merchants" Association, Mr. Haberfelde has been intimately 
identified with the commercial upbuilding of his community and holds a posi- 
tion among those enterprising, capable and resourceful merchants who sur- 
mount obstacles and rise superior to misfortune. Of German birth and an- 
cestry, he was born in Nuremberg, November 20, 1871, and was a son of John 
and Barbara Haberfelde, also Bavarians by birth. For some time the father 
carried on a factory where he manufactured frames for pictures and for mir- 
rors, but influenced by the reported opportunities of the new world he closed 
out his interests in Bavaria and brought the family to America about 1880. 
After a brief sojourn in New York City he went further west and settled in 
Chicago, where George C. served an apprenticeship to the trades of cabinet- 
maker and upholsterer and gained a knowledge of the furniture business of 
the utmost value to his later undertakings. There are four sons and one 
daughter in the parental family and all of these now reside in California, one 
brother, Henry, having come to Bakersfield after the arrival of George C. in 
this city. 

The year 1891 witnessed the arrival of George C. Haberfelde in California 
and the establishment of his headquarters in San Diego, where he opened and 
operated a bakery. At the expiration of two years he disposed of that shop 
and resumed work in the furniture business as manager of a large San Diego 
firm. During the period of his residence in that city he married Miss Alvina 
Schmidt in 1894 and they are the parents of four children, Albert, Clarisse, Ed- 
mund and Roland. The family removed from San Diego to Bakersfield in 1897 
and here Mr. Haberfelde later bought out the furniture business of Jacob Nie- 
deraur at Nineteenth and K streets. Although almost wholly without means, 
he had a good credit and was able to maintain a business of growing im- 
portance. The little frame building where he first started in business has 
since been replaced by the Fish building. But before it had been removed it 
proved inadequate to the demands of his increasing trade and as there were 
no large store buildings in Bakersfield at the time he secured a shack a little 
larger than the original place cf business. When he removed to it he had a 
total capital of only $200. From that small beginning he rose to prominence and 
success. By the prompt payment of his bills he maintained an excellent credit. 
Little by little he increased his stock of furniture until it represented a valua- 
tion of about $8,000. Just then, when he had only a small insurance protection 
of $600, a disastrous fire entirely destroyed the building and left him worse 
than penniless. 

L^ndismayed bv the great disaster. Mr. Haberfelde began in business once 
more, for his reputation was so high that he had no difficulty in securing on 



1168 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

credit all the merchandise he desired. By his upright treatment of customers 
he had won their friendshij) and they rallied to his support. In a short time he 
had regained his former position in commercial circles and since 1908 he has 
occupied commodious quarters in the Dinkelspiel building at Nos. 1904-1906 
Nineteenth street, having the most extensive establishment of its kind in the 
county, of which he is now the pioneer furniture dealer. In former years he 
was compelled to buy his furniture through middlemen, but even then he had 
resolved that when the business justified different procedure, he would go to 
headquarters for the source of his supplies. It is now possible for him to buy 
direct from the factory and thus save all of the profits of the middlemen, which 
in turn enables him to give to his customers the advantage of the reduced 
rates at which he buys. With all of his heavy business responsibilities he 
finds leisure to serve efficiently as secretary of the Kern County Merchants' 
Association, besides which he has been connected actively with the Knights 
of Pythias, W't odmen of the World and Ancient Order of United Workmen. 
In politics he supports Democratic principles. 

LEONIDES CASTRO.— With nothing but a stout heart and his good 
health to aid him, it is to his credit and a high compliment to his abilities that 
Leonides Castro has reached his present standing, due largely to his un- 
daunted effort and determined industry. He was born May 18, 1856, in 
Sonora, Mexico, sen of Thomas and Concepcion (Coronada) Castro, who 
were pioneers of Kern county. Leonides, familiarly known as Lee, is the 
eldest of their twelve childrey^even of these now surviving. In his boyhood 
it was necessary for him to ^^in the support of the growing family and as 
he gave his time to work on tlWliome farm it left little opportunity for attend- 
ing school. Meager as were his faciHties for gaining an education he never- 
theless became a well-informed man, self-study and observation, coupled with 
a quick mind and a retentive memory, being largely responsible for this. In 
1867 he came with his parents to Kern county and here he worked for his 
father more or less until he was twenty-five years old. He first settled on 
Panama ranch, where his father engaged in stockraising and general farming, 
later purchasing a hundred and sixty acres on section twelve. In 1876 he 
and his brothers were taken into partnership by the father and together they 
farmed this tract for about two years, when Lee Castro withdrew and entered 
the employ of Miller & Lux as horsebreaker. He remained with this com- 
pany for ten years, after which he was with the Kern County Land Company, 
engaged in the stock business. In 1890 he bought twenty acres of land, five 
miles south of Bakersfield. From time to time he added to this until he now 
owns one hundred and twenty acres, devoted entirely to general farming, with 
the exception of about eighty acres in alfalfa, under the Kern Island canal. 
It should be stated that the oldest ditch in the county was built by his father 
and was known as the Castro ditch. Thomas Castro built this for four and 
a half miles by the aid of ox-teams, plows and men to do the shoveling. 

Mr. Castro is raising horses, mules, cattle and hogs. He has three jacks 
and two stallions, all splendid specimens, and in his herd are some large, well- 
built mules and horses. For his cattle, horse and mule range he owns four 
hundred and eighty acres on Cottonwood creek, on the south slope of the 
Breckenridge mountains, where he also has access to a large public range. 
His brands are two Js with an inverted C above and VC. He is also engaged 
in contracting and teaming, grading and leveling of land. 

Mr. Castro was married in Sacramento, Cal., in 1880, to Miss Dixie Cage, 
who was born in Napa county, the daughter of Edward Cage, a pioneer of 
that county, whose sketch appears in that of Mrs. Domitilo Castro, her sister. 
Mrs. Castro was reared in Los Angeles and Kern counties, and was educated 
in the public schools. Mr. and Mrs. Castro became the parents of ten chil- 
dren, five of \vh(^m are hving. Named in order of birth, the children are: 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1171 

Charles, who hel]js his father and superintends the farm and stock business; 
Daniel, assisting^ in the care of the cattle ; Robert, who died at twenty years ; 
Henry, who died at the age of eighteen ; Sylvania, when twenty-two ; Annie, 
when six years; John, who is with Miller & Lux; Lottie, Mrs. Hughes, of 
Kern county ; Martin, attending the Kern county high school ; and Louisa, 
who died at fifteen years of age. Mr. Castro is a Democrat. The family resi- 
dence is at No. 708 Oregon street, East Bakersfield. 

ALFRED SWOFFORD.— Born in Daviess county. Mo., February 20, 
1874, Mr. Swofiford there grew to manhood, giving diligent attention to 
his studies at the local schools, and becoming a healthy, well-bred and am- 
bitious young man. Attracted early to the west and hearing reports which 
assured him of a good chance to improve his circumstances, he came to Cali- 
fornia in 1898, in March of that year locating in Tulare county, where he 
found employment and worked for about two years. Coming in April, 1900, 
to Hill's Valley, Fresno county, he went to work on a wheat ranch, of 
which J. W. Carpenter was proprietor. The latter did freighting as well as 
farming and ran two twelve-mule freight teams in hauling lumber from the 
sawmills of the Pine Ridge Lumber Company in the mountains to Fresno. 
Mr. SwofTord began as a teamster and worked his way up to be head teamster, 
continuing at this job until July, 1902, when Mr. Carpenter sold out to the 
Reed Brc thers of Reedley, Cal., and he continued in their employ doing team- 
ing until 1905. During this interval the Reed Bothers, H. M. and E. R. Reed, 
were filling their freighting contract to haul ujw^the heavy freight consisting 
of material and machinery for the Kern Rive^P^wer Company, now known 
as the Huntington Electric Power Plant, twelve miles below Kernville. At 
times Mr. Swofford handled teams of eight, sixteen, twenty-four and thirty- 
two horses, as the weight demanded, and machinery, some pieces weighing 
as much as fifty-two tons, was hauled, this necessitating the utmost skill in 
driving and the most accurate solving of the problems of directions and the 
careful management of his teams. Freight machinery, lumber and cement 
were carried for this firm, and Mr. Swofiford hauled the first and last load, his 
services proving most valuable to his employers. The job was completed in 
November, 1904. He remained with the Reed Brothers until July 1, 1905, then 
driving sixteen-horse teams for the borax contractor. Hank Hawn, and hauled 
borax from the Frazier Borax Mines in Ventura county to Bakersfield, taking 
eight days to make the round trip. In about November, 1905, he went to Los 
Angeles and engaged with Donovan-Bourland as a teamster, and remained 
with them through the winter, then returning to Bakersfield. He went to 
logging for the Frazier Borax Company until September, 1906, and through 
September, -October and November of that year was at Edison hauling heavy 
machinery for the Edison Electric Company as teamster for the Short Broth- 
ers, who had the contract for hauling all that heavy machinery. It was while 
in this employment that he drove thirty horses and hauled some nieces of 
machinery w^eighing as much as twenty-eight tons apiece. In 1907 he re- 
engaged with the Frazier Borax Company and became head teamster, work- 
ing for them until January, 1908, when he was transferred to Lang, Los 
Angeles county, and there continued teaming until August 1, 1908. when he 
went east to Missouri for a three months' visit, during August, September 
and October. The first of November found him back in Kern county and he 
then leased the Beekman ranch for five years, this being his present place, 
which bids fair to become one of the most productive places in the county. 
Mr. Swofiford has s')ent much time in corn-growing and has evinced a great 
interest in its production. In 1912 he grew several acres of corn which in yield 
and quality would compare favorably with that grown in Missouri. He has 
raised fine corn as a second crop after the first crop (of barley hay) has been 
taken ofif. In 1912 he planted several acres in this manner and found to his 



1172 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

surprise that the second croj) c)utyielde(l the corn planted as the first crop 
over two tons to the acre and tlie ears were exceptionally large and fine. So 
successful has he been in this venture that he is becoming a specialist on corn- 
raising. Mr. Swofiford is also interested in the breeding of good horses and is 
a shareholder in the celebrated Union Avenue Horse Company, owner 
of one of the best imported stallions ever brought to this state. Politically 
Mr. Swofiford is a Democrat. 

E. W. WALTERS. — A personal identification with Kern county cover- 
ing one-quarter of a century and a connection wath ranching for twenty years 
of that period entitle Mr. Walters to rank among the pioneer farmers to 
whose optimistic labors, unwearied application and large-hearted devotion 
the county owes in large degree its high standing as an agricultural center. 
When eventually approaching age imposed its limitations upon his strength 
and necessitated his retirement from ranching he sold the farm that had 
been his home for twenty years and removed to Bakersfield, where he has 
bought lots, erected a number of cottages and now makes his home, having no 
labor more arduous than the supervision of the six houses he still owns. It is 
but natural that a man who fought under the stars and stripes during the 
Civil war and who has been a lifelong student of governmental problems, 
should maintain a patriotic interest in every movement bearing upon our 
national prosperity and continued development. Political economy has been 
studied bv him for many years and has made him a Socialist. 

In a family of seven sons (all now deceased excepting tw^o) the fourth in 
order of birth, E. W. Walters was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, Janu- 
ary 15, 1842, being a son of the late Isaac and Isabelle (Correll) Walters, 
natives of Ohio, where the mother remained until death. The father, who 
had followed the trade of blacksmith in the Buckeye state, removed to Illinois 
during 1858 and embarked in the mercantile business. The last years of his 
life were passed in Missouri- and there his death occurred. At the time of 
the removal of the family to Illinois in 1858 E. W. Walters was a youth of 
sixteen years, rugged and energetic, well qualified to do a man's work in the 
breaking of new land and placing under cultivation of a farm. When twenty 
years of age he was accepted as a private in the Union army, becoming a 
member of Company H. Fifty-seventh Illinois Infantry, during August of 
1862. With his regiment he marched to the front and bore an active part 
in the contest between north and south. His principal engagements were 
those at Resaca, Dallas, Snake Creek Gap, Peach Tree creek, Kenesaw moun- 
tain, j^ovejoy Station and Atlanta. From beginning to end of the great march 
to the sea he was with the troops, enduring the hardships of forced marches, 
the fatigue of camp routine and the dangers of frequent skirmishes. On that 
march the most important battles in which he bore a part were at Golds- 
borough and Benton ville. As one of "Sherman's Greezers" he marched in the 
grand review at Washington, D. C, and from that city was ordered to Louis- 
ville, Ky., where in August of 1865 he was mustered out of the service. From 
there the regiment proceeded to Chicago, where he was honorably discharged. 
A clerkship of about twelve months was followed bv the marriage of Mr. 
Walters in November. 1866, and his removal to an Illinois farm. For twenty 
years he followed agriculture in that state, after which, from 1886 to 1888, 
he made his home in Creston, Iowa, and thence came to California in 1888, 
settled in Kern county, took up a homestead and began to transform the 
virgin soil into a productive ranch. The task was one of great difficulty. 
The arduous nature of the work might have daunted one less persevering than 
he, but in the end he had the satisfaction of owning an improved ranch, with 
neat residence, other substantial buildings, fences, fine stock, needed ma- 
chinery, etc., the property being one of the best in the San Emidio country. 
In 1908 he sold the ranch and came to Bakersfield. Avhich has since been 




M. 



cJUi^ 






HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1175 

the home of himself and wife, the latter formerly Miss Mary E. Scott, and a 
native of Sistersville, Tyler county, W. Va. Her father, John Scott, removed 
to Adams county and later to Hancock county. He and his wife, Mary E. 
Scott, both passed away in Illinois. Of the four sons and three daughters, 
two are living-. Three of the sons served in Illinois regiments in the Civil 
war, two of them giving up their lives in battle. Mrs. Walters, next to the 
youngest of the children, was brought up in Illinois. To herself and husband 
six children were born, five of whom are living. Named in order of birth 
they are as follows: Mrs. Etta I. Allen, of Los Angeles; Frank A., a farmer 
at Lerdo; John R., an oil driller on the west side; Oscar E., who died in 
infancy; Thomas E., who served in a California regiment in the Spanish- 
American and Philippine war, and now employed in the Kern river oil field; 
and Raymond I., a plumber engaged in business in Bakersfield. For many 
years Mr. Walters has been connected with Hurlburt Post No. 126, G. A. R., 
while he also is identified with the blue lodge of Masonry. Mrs. Walters is 
a charter member of Hurlburt Relief Corps No. 115, W. R. C, and a member 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

JOHN OLIVER HART.— Kern county, Cal., is particularly for- 
tunate in having a board of supervisors composed of men large in char- 
acter and in achievements. Prominent among these is John Oliver Hart, 
supervisor representing the third supervisorial district. Mr. Hart is a 
native of Kern county, a son of Joseph Bishop Hart, whose father, Joseph 
B., early located in Texas and came overland with ox-teams to California, 
through the Indian counLry, by way of Fort Yuma, to Elmonte, soon after 
1850, accompanied by his son and other members of his family. Joseph 
Bishop Hart obtained his schooling at Elmonte and engaged in stock- 
raising and farming, operating for many years near Keene, Kern county. 
In 1897 he sold his land and located at East Bakersfield, where he is now 
living aged sixty-nine years. He was a pioneer at Tehachapi, where he 
engaged in farming, stockraising and freighting with ox-teams from Los 
Angeles across Tehachapi to Havilah. In the latter enterprise he was 
assisted by his brothers Aaron and Martin and sometimes by others. 
Once his outfit was attacked by Indians near Walker's Basin and his two 
brothers were killed, a companion named Dawson making his escape. Jo- 
seph Bishop Hart married Mary A. Finley, a native of Texas, who was 
brought to California while a child by her father, John Henry Finley. She 
grew up in Fresno county to be a true woman of the west, and bore her 
husband three sons and three daughters, of whom two sons and two 
daughters are living. 

John Oliver Hart, the eldest, was born at Tehachapi, October 21, 1871, 
and obtained his education in the public schools. He early gained a prac- 
tical knowledge of the stock business, and after having assisted his father 
for some years, began to raise cattle in the mountains for himself. The 
brand he used was one which his father had established and was one of 
the early brands used in the county. It represented a heart with a yoke 
underneath, connected. In 1899 Mr. Hart settled in East Bakersfield, 
building his residence on Grove street, and he has since made his home 
there, giving attention meanwhile to his extensive stock interests. His 
stock range on the Kern river is one of the best in this part of the county. 
He has become well known to the business community as the local repre- 
sentative of the Union Hardware & Metal Company, the Associated Oil 
Company and Fairbanks, Morse & Co. Some of these relations have 
been maintained for twelve years. He was long foreman for the Asoociated 
Oil Company and severed his connection with Fairbanks, Morse & Co. 
only because of his election as supervisor of the third district, to which 
he was chosen as a Democrat in November, 1910. He took the oath of 
office, to serve four years, in January, 1911. and is making an enviable 



1176 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

record as an official, taking an active part in public improvements, such 
as road building, the building of the court house and the Kern river 
bridge and jail. Fraternally he affiliates with the Woodmen of the World, 
Eagles and the Order of Moose. As a citizen he has demonstrated his 
public spirit in many ways. He was married, at Tehachapi July 2, 1897, 
to Miss Carrie Roberts, daughter of Lewis and Nellie (Miller) Roberts, 
natives, respectively, of Canada and Vermont, both of whom are living in 
Globe, Ariz. She was born in Burling:on, Vt., and accompanied her par- 
ents to Idaho in 1882 and thence came to California in 1896. ^Ir. and Mrs. 
Hart have four children, Lila, Nora, Agnes and John. 

PETER PETERSEN.— A native of Denmark Mr. Petersen was born 
at SwGnborg, on the Island of Fyen, May 23, 1879, being the second oldest 
of a family of twelve children born to Hans and Katrina (Hansen) Petersen. 
The father is a carpenter in his native place, but the mother is deceased. 

Peter Petersen was educated in the public schools until fourteen years 
of age, when he began working at the carpenter's trade under his father, 
continuing with him until he was seventeen. In the meantime, having 
saved some mcney, he began attending the high school and after completing 
the course he entered the Government Dairy School at Joelland, working 
his way through school and graduating in 1902. He further perfected him- 
self as an engineer by taking a course at the Engineers' School in Odense, 
after which he became manager of a creamery at Skaro, Denmark. Having 
a desire to try his fortunes in California he came hither in 1906 and the 
first six months was an engineer with a gas well-borer near Stockton. He 
was then manager of a creamery in Oregon, later buttermaker at Layton, 
Cal., and later held a similar position in Fresno. 

In 1911 Mr. Petersen came to McFarland and became manager of the 
McFarland Creamery Company, engaged in the manufacture of butter, and 
since then the company has taken first prize at the state fair for the best 
quality of butter in the state. The company is also engaged in the manu- 
facture of ice. Mr. Petersen owns twenty acres three-quarters of a mile 
west (i McFarland, where he has built his home and is engaged in intensified 
farming and the dairy business. He has two pumping plants yielding one 
hundred and twenty-five inches of water, not only supplying his own place 
with ample water for irrigation, but also sixty acres adjoining, all devoted 
to raising alfalfa. He has on the place a herd of sixteen cows, all full- 
blooded and high grade Holsteins. 

Mr. Petersen was married in Denmark in 1906, being united with ^liss 
Christene Willumsen, and they are the parents of one child. Harry. Having 
been reared in the Lutheran Church, he and his wife adhere to that faith. 

ISAAC W. HARBAUGH.— Mr. Harbaugh was born in Washington 
county, Md., October 20, 1855, a son of Lewis F. and Anna (Hoffman) 
Harbaugh of old Maryland families. His grandfather, Alexander Har- 
baugh, served as a captain through the war of 1812. After he had completed 
the studies at the public schools Isaac W. Harbaugh entered a business col- 
lege in Baltimore and took a commercial course. Leaving college at the age 
of eighteen he began to work for his father and continued with him for three 
years, when he started out to earn his own way in the world. During 1877, 
he came to the west and became a resident of California, where for six years 
he was employed as a bookkeeper in a store in Mendocino county. Thence 
he went to Fresno to join his father, who had embarked in farm pursuits in 
that section of the state. In 1889 he came to Kern county and bought a quar- 
ter-section of unimproved land from the railroad company. The tract, which 
he still owns, lies twelve miles west of Bakersfield in the Rosedale district 
and in addition he owns one hundred and sixty acres between his home place 
and Rosedale, and he also owns property in Bakersfield. His quarter-section 





^ JlyU^\^^i^<^ 



HISTORY OF Kl^RN COUNTY 1179 

rancli is rented and lie devotes his attention to the raising of alfalfa, grain and 
stock on his home place, where now he has seventy-five head of hogs, the same 
number of cattle and twelve head of horses. The success crowning his well- 
directed efforts has been enhanced by the unceasing co-operation of his wife, 
whom he married August 10, 1898, and who bore the maiden name of Cecelia 
Burr. She is a native daughter of the state, having been born in San Francisco, 
where her parents were early settlers. Her father, Charles H. Burr, served in 
the Seventh Battery Wiscc nsin Light Artillery during the Civil war, and he 
passed away October 27, 1911. Her mother was before her marriage Martha 
L. Cantrell, a native of the state of New York, and she now makes her home 
with Mrs. Harbaugh. The education of Mrs. Harbaugh was acquired in the 
public schools and the University of California, and she was engaged in teach- 
ing in Kern county until her marriage. There are two children in the family, 
Charles L. and Clarence Arthur, whose training for future usefulness in the 
world forms the chief ambition of Mr. Harbaugh and his capable wife. The 
father is interested in the cause of education and is clerk of the board of trus- 
tees of the Greeley school district. The family attends the Episcopal church 
of which Mrs. Harbaugh is a member. 

GfiORGE A. YANCEY.— Two miles south of the town proper of 
Bakersfield, Kern county, lies the improved and up-to-date farm of George 
A. Yancey, a farmer of prominence in the community, who has prospered 
well since his coming to California in 1897, at which time he became a 
permanent and loyal resident of the county, giving his support to all 
projects proposed for the advancement and development of his community. 

William Yancey, father of George A., w^as born in Tennessee and was 
formerly a resident of Indiana, where in Benton county his son was born 
March 12, 1860. He married Maria Onesettler, born in Pennsylvania, and 
together they made their way to California in 1895, settling in the Weed 
Patch in Kern county. Inured to the hardships of pioneer life, they soon 
found themselves the owners of an improved and well-cultivated farm 
which they had acquired by their hard labors from the land in its wild 
state, and many happy days were spent there in the enjoyment of their 
well-earned prosperity. The father passed away in 1903, the mother, now 
at the age of seventy-two years, making her home at Glennville, Cal. 

Receiving his primary education in his native county, George A. Yan- 
cey made his home in Indiana for many years, growing to manhood and 
developing splendid traits of character which his parents had inscilled in 
him in their quiet, even home life. At the age of twenty-six he removed 
to Cass county. Mo., where he was married to Miss Sadie Bateman, a native 
of Coshocton county, Ohio, the daughter of Mathew and Marsha (McFar- 
land) Bateman, who were natives of Ohio and Pennsylvania, respectively. 
She was reared in Cass county. Mo. Wx. and Mrs. Yancey became the 
parents of two children, Gertrude, who is now the wife of Bob Kincer, a 
farmer of Gosford ; and John, who is at home with his parents. Mr. Yancey 
made his home in Missouri for many years, following the vocation of 
farmer, which has been his life work. His interest had ever been turned 
toward the west and with the thorough understanding of a farmer as to the 
exceptional conditions of the fertile soil and the climate in California, he 
decided in 1897 to follow his parents to Kern county, where upon arrival 
he purchased his present forty-acre farm on Union avenue and Brundage 
lane, just two miles south of the town of Bakersfield. Building house and 
barns, he set out to improve this land and such has been his success that 
today he is the owner of one of the best producing and generally well-kept 
farms in the vicinity devoted principally to alfalfa. His wife is also the 
owner of twenty acres of land on Union avenue, which tract is situated 
six miles south of Bakersfield and is a select piece of property. A Democrat 
in political matters, Mr. Yancey is well versed in party affairs and is alive 



1180 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

to all questions of importance concerning his party's welfare. He unites 
fraternally with the Modern Woodmen and Mrs. Yancey is a member of 
tlie Congregational church. 

AGUSTIN SANZBERRO.— The exercise of judicious foresight and care- 
ful management, supplementing perseverance and untiring industry, has 
enal)led Mr. Sanzberro to achieve independence while yet a young man and 
within a comparatively brief period from the time of his arrival in California, 
a stranger in a strange land, unfamiliar with the soil of the country. Only a 
few years have elapsed since he purchased his present well-improved farm 
nine miles northwest of Bakersfield. At the time of buying the tract of one 
hundred and sixty acres, no improvements had been put on the property 
and the possibilities of the soil were little known. Under his keen over- 
sight and wise judgment as to cultivation, large crops of alfalfa are annually 
cut and fed or sold. Irrigation is provided by means of the Beardsley canal. 
Combined with or supplementary to the making of hay, the owner of the 
ranch devotes much time to the sheep business, in which indeed he has been 
more or less interested from boyhood and in which his experience, skill and 
expertness are unquestioned by those standing at the head of the business 
in the county. 

Born in the village of Bastan, Navarra, April 2, 1878, Agustin Sanzberro 
is a son of Julian, a farmer, and was reared on the old home farm, giving his 
time to the aid of his father until he had reached the age of twenty. Mean- 
while a brother, Marcos, had preceded him to California and the reports he 
sent back induced the younger brother to join him in Kern county, where 
he arrived in February of 1898, ready to earn a livelihood as a herder of 
sheep. Starting out from East Bakersfield, he gave his attention to the care 
of the flock of his brother and ranged the sheep on the plains to the north- 
east. After five years as a herder he bought a flock of his own and started in 
business for himself, making his headquarters in Mono county, where he 
found an abundance of feed and water. Even when he bought his present 
farm in 1909 he did not relinquish his interests in sheep, but still owns a flock 
and finds their care neither laborious nor unprofitable. However, he no longer 
travels with the flocks over the ranges, but since his marriage in 1910 to Miss 
Catherine Etchart, of East Bakersfield, a native of Basses-Pyrenees, he has 
remained on the home farm, devoting himself earnestly to its care, cultivation 
and improvement. With his wife he holds membership in St. Joseph's Catholic 
Church at Fas' Bakersfield. Politically he is a Republican. 

D. B. COOK. — Experience in various lines of work in various parts of the 
east did not prove profitable to Air. Cook, who dates the beginning of his 
prosperity from the time of his removal to California. By birth and lineage 
he is a Virginian, identified with that part of the Old Dominion that during 
the Civil war remained true to the Union and resulted in the erection of a 
new commonwealth. West Virginia. Born in Rowlesburg, Preston county, 
in October of 1856, he is a son of the late Isaac Cook, likewise a native of 
Preston county and long a resident of that locality. During 1860 he crossed 
the Ohio river into Ohio and settled in Washington county, where he engaged 
in farming for a long period, ultimately, however, removing to Michigan to 
spend his declining days Since his demise the widow, who bore the maiden 
name of Alcinda Newman, has made Chicago her home. Of their thirteen chil- 
dren only five are now living, the next to the eldest being D. B., whose birth 
occurred in the decade 'prior to the Civil war and whose memories therefore 
include the privations incident to that period. The migration of the 
family to Michigan, in the hope that better fortune awaited them in a newer 
country remote from the scenes of the war, caused him to earn his livelihood 
during youth as a worker in the northern lumber woods. Having learned the 
trade of a l)lacksmith. he followed that occupation in Kansas and for a time 




I 




HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1183 

conducted a shop of his own at Seward, with, however, very little profit from 
the undertaking". 

From Kansas to Ohio and from blacksmithiuij;- to lumbering represented 
the next change in the life of Mr. Cook, who later spent some time in lum- 
bering in Preston county, W. \'a., thence going to the city of Washington 
and from there to Lewinsville. V'a. It was the next move that brought him 
to California and to Kern county, where he has made his home since 1903. 
Arriving here with little means,- he secured employment as a pumper in the 
Kern river oil fields. Later he filled a similar position at McKittrick, wdiere 
he soon embarked in the butcher's trade and also carried on an hotel. Mean- 
time in 1905 he had bought a tract of land six and one-half miles northwest of 
Bakersfield, under the Beardsley ditch. This he leased to tenants for three 
years, but in 1908 sold out his business interests and settled on the place. 
where he since has engaged in raising alfalfa. The forty acres are in the highest 
possible state of cultivation. Large crops of alfalfa are harvested and sold and 
the owner has found the investment a profitable one- While living at Mc- 
Kittrick he held membership with the Improved Order of Red Men. 

G, F. STROBLE. — A citizen who conscientiously devotes himself, his abil- 
ity and his high integrity to the public service is richly worthy of all the honor 
that can possibly come to him. To hold an office is at the best an unsatisfac- 
tory task, unsatisfactory at least to the incumbent. However well he may 
do there will always be persons who will censure him ; but there are a few 
officials who, like G. F. Stroble, constable of the third judicial tow^nship of 
Kern county, Cal., win almost universal approval. Mr. Stroble was born near 
Burgettstown, Washington county. Pa., February 3, 1862, a son of Frederick 
and Elizabeth Stroble, who were of German birth. The father, a native of 
Wurtemberg, became a miner in Pennsylvania and later in West Virginia 
and was eventually killed by an accident while at work. His widow died at 
Steubenville, Ohio, December 8, 1910, in her eighty-fifth year. They were the 
parents of three sons and one daughter, all of whom are living. John Frank's 
home is near Steubenville, Ohio. Charles lives in Idaho and Fredericka is 
Mrs. Ahrns, of Washington county. Pa. G. F. lived at St. Mary's, W. Va.. 
until he was thirteen years old, then returned to Washington county. Pa., 
where he was educated in public schools. He farmed there until 1888, or 
until about twenty-six years old. It was in that year that he came to Kern 
county, Cal., and entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Com- 
pany as fireman, running on trains between Kern and Tehachapi. In 1894 
he w^as elected constable to the third judicial township and in January, 1895, 
entered upon the duties and responsibilities of his office. In 1898 he was 
re-elected as an Independent and received a plurality of votes over two regu- 
larly nominated opponents. In 1902 he was re-elected on the Republican 
ticket by a good majority, and again in 1906. In 1910 he was re-elected over 
opDcsing nominees of both parties, and if he lives will serve until January, 
1915, a period of twenty years from the time he entered upon his first term. 
The fact that he has been so many times re-elected is sufficient evidence not 
alone of his popularity, but of the obligation under which he has put the 
people of his district. He was for nine years a member of the library board 
of Kern City and seven years of that time was its chairman until the ccn- 
solidation of that institution with the Beale library. Having prospered, 
perhaps not as he has deserved, but in a satisfactory degree, he has acquired 
considerable valuable residence ])roperty and in 1911 erected a large resi- 
dence at No. 714 Kentucky street. In May, 1913, he and Judge Marion sold 
the corner of O and Baker streets, 150 x 135 feet, which they had owned and 
improved jointly, to the city of Bakersfield for the site of the new library 
building in East Bakersfield. 

As a citizen Mr. Stroble has always been pul)lic-s])irited and helpful to 



1184 HISTORY OF KF.RX COUNTY 

all worthy interests. He is influential in local Republican councils and is a 
member of the Lutheran Church. He was made a ]\Iason in Bakersfield 
Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M., affiliates with Bakersfield Lodge No. 266, 
B. P. O. E., and the Knights uf Pythias. He married at Fresno, October 4, 
1891. Miss Maggie Emma Garrett, a native of Tennessee, and they have two 
children, Vance and Georgie. Mrs. Stroble is a member of the ]\Iethodist 
Episcopal Church South, a Pvthian Sister, and is past matron of Bakersfield 
Chapter, O. E. S. 

HERMAN S. DUMBLE. — Comparatively few of the men now active 
in the business affairs of Kern county can claim this as their native place, 
but such is the distinction enjoyed by Herman S. Dumble, whose birth 
occurred December 13, 1868. at Havilah, then the county seat. The family 
had been established in the west by his father, E. H. Dumble, a native of 
Chambersburg, Pa., and a pioneer of the '50s in California, who after having 
crossed the plains with wagons and oxen engaged in mining in the Sierras 
and along the Kern river. For some years he conducted a general store 
at Havilah, but later he engaged in the mercantile business at Los Angeles, 
returning to Kern county about 1874 and settling at Bakersfield, whither 
the county seat had been taken in accordance with the popular vote. 
Near town he began to improve an alfalfa and fruit farm. By his success 
in growing the first lemons and oranges in Kern county he proved that it 
was possible to raise citrus fruits here. Too much credit cannot be given 
him for his participation in the progress of horticultural activities. Believ- 
ing that the soil and climate equalled those of more widely advertised 
regions, he undertook to prove his theory by actual experiment and thus 
accomplished work of inestimable value to the county. When Kern and 
Kings counties were still a part of Tulare he held the office of assessor. 
As a pioneer he labored for the advancement of his chosen locality and 
when he died in 1903 many tributes of respect gave evidence of his high 
citizenship and the appreciation in which his services were held. After 
he came west he married Drusilla Skiles, who was born in Texas, came 
to California during the early '50s via the southern route and died at 
Bakersfield during 1881. The trip to the coast had been made with her 
father, who first settled at El Monte and later cultivated a part of the 
John Wolfskin ranch near the present site of Saw telle, but eventually 
removed to Kern Island and engaged in general farming throughout his 
remaining years. 

The parental family included five children, three of whom are now 
living, one, W. R., being now with the Kern County Land Company at 
Bakersfield. The eldest member of the famih^ circle, Herman S., received 
a public-school education. At a very early age he showed that he had 
unusual ability as a mechanic, hence was sent to the Jones Mechanical 
Institute in San Francisco, where he completed the regular course ol 
training. Afterward he engaged in drilling wells and in installing pumping 
plants and machinery for irrigaticn and stock purposes, this work taking 
him through Kern, Tulare, Kings and Fresno counties, and giving him a 
wide circle of acquaintances as well as a general appreciation of his skill 
in his chosen work. During 1898 he became superintendent of the machin- 
ery department of the Kern County Land Company and since then he 
has devoted his entire time and attention to the oversight of the shop, 
discharging his many responsible duties with tact, skill and promptness. 
Some years ago he erected a comfortable residence on the corner of B 
and Twentieth streets, Bakersfield, where he and his wife and their chil- 
dren, Charles and Frances, have an attractive home hospitably open to 
their many friends in the city and adjacent communities. Mrs. Dumble 
was formerly Miss Rita Kalloch and was born in the state of Washington, 
Init had lived in Bakersfield for some time before their marriage. Frater- 





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m '-'lii' 




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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1187 

nally Mr. Dumble is a member of the Woodmen of the World and the 
Knights of Pythias, U. R., in which he has been the recipient of official 
honors. From early life he has been staunch in his allegiance lo the 
Democratic party and at one time he served as a member of the county 
Democratic central committee. Upon the consolidation of Bakersfield and 
Kern in July, 1910, he was selected as a member of the board of trustees 
and in April of the next year, at the first general election he was re-elected 
to the position, where he has rendered faithful service as a member of 
various committees and has been particularly efficient as chairman ot the 
street committee. 

JOHN E. ROBERTS.— One of the enterprising and industrious citi- 
zens of East Bakersfield who is making every effort possible to obtain a com- 
petency and one also who is well known in fraternal and social circles there 
is John E. Roberts. His father, Henry O. Roberts, was born in Kentucky, 
but was reared in Indiana, where he was a farmer in Ripley county all 
his life, and where his death occurred. He was married to Zela Graham, 
born in Indiana, and to them were born three children, of whom John E. 
was the eldest, having been born April 7, 1871, in Versailles, Ripley county, 
Ind. 

After attending the common schools of this native place, John E. 
Roberts was sent to the Versailles Normal school, where he received a 
thorough training. He then ftllowed farming, first in his native state, and 
then in Illinois, Minnesota and Iowa, and upon hearing such excellent 
reports of the prospects in this country, he in 1895 set out for the west, 
arriving in California in May of that year. In August following he entered 
the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Co., as bridge builder at Tulare, 
after which he became a fireman for the same road running out of Bakers- 
field to Los Angeles. For four and a half years he remained in this position, 
giving it diligent attention and becoming so familiar with that work that in 
1903 he was promoted to locomotive engineer and he holds that position 
to-day. He has invested in forty acres of farming land on Union avenue, about 
three-quarters of a mile south of Bakersfield, upon which he has installed an 
electric pumping plant and is raising alfalfa. 

In 1901, in the city of Los Angeles, Mr. Roberts married Miss Georgia 
Sommars, who was born in Springfield, 111., daughter of Alichael Sommars, 
who was a brick mason in Illinois, where his death occurred. Her mother, 
who before her marriage was Margaret Devereaux, also passed away in 
Illinois. Mrs. Roberts is an active member of the Order of the Eastern 
Star of Bakersfield, while her husband is a member of Masonic Lodge No. 
224, F. & A. M., Bakersfield Chapter No. 75, R. A. M., also of Sumner 
Lodge, K. of P., and of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. He votes 
the Republican ticket, and is actively interested in the welfare of that party. 

BENJAMIN F. SEIBERT.— One of the substantial citizens of Kern 
county, who has been actively identified with its business life for a period 
of over twenty-five years is Benjamin F. Seibert, who came to this county 
in March, 1886. He was born April 20, 1867, in South Vineland, Cumber- 
land county, N. J., and at the age of six years moved with his parents, Ben- .^C^ 
jamin and Mariiha J. (Sell) Seibert, to Reno, Nev. where they remained 
one year, thence moving to Ogden, Utah. They w"ere at this point but a 
short time, and then moved to San Francisco and from there to San Diego, 
where thev remained bvit a year and a half, going from there to Anaheim 
in 1876. 

The schooling received by Mr. Seibert was naturally varied, as he was 
obliged to change schools as his parents moved on from place to place, but 
he was mentally of a bright mind and he learned easily. He studied at 
school until he reached the age of about fourteen and in December, 1882. 
began to learn the blacksmith's trade. He came from -Anaheim to Kern 



1188 HISI'ORY OF KRRX COUNTY 

county in March, 1886. and secured employment with C. N. Johnston, with 
whom he remained for eleven years, working at general blacksmi thing and 
proving himself an able and energetic laborer in this line of work. Then he 
moved to the Panama district and started in the business for himself, opening 
up a well-equipped blacksmith shop, and here he has since been engaged in 
building up a fine trade. In 1908 he bought an acre of land at Panama, Cal., 
and the next year moved upon it, having his shop built on the home prop- 
erty. Mr. Seibert was in Bakersfield to witness the flood of 1893, having 
been there also at the time of the big fire on July 7 , 1889. 

Mr. Seibert was married December 23, 1890, in Los Angeles, to Clara 
L. Searle, who was born in Stanislaus county, Cal., and attended the public 
schools in her native county and in Los Angeles. She came with her 
parents in 1877 to Kern county, and lived on what is known as Reader Hill, 
at present the site of the Santa Fe depot, and they lived there a year and a 
half, at that time moving to Los Angeles, but in 1889 they returned to Kern 
county to make their permanent home. Mr. and Mrs. Seibert have three 
children: Frank S., Arthur A. and Vera V. Politically he believes in the 
principles of the Republican party, and fraternally is connected with the 
Woodmen of the World. 

PETER HIEMFORTH.— Still in the prime of life (for his birth occurred 
in Leelanau county, near Traverse City, Mich., September 30, 1867), Mr. 
Hiemforth may expect many years of continued usefulness in the farming 
circles near Rosedale and in all probability these will also be years of increased 
gains through his experienced management of farm land. 

Educated in public schools of Michigan, his native commonwealth, 
Peter Hiemforth assisted his father, Frederick Hiemforth, at home during 
vacations and after he left school at the age of fourteen he gave his entire 
time to the work of an assistant to his father on the home place. At the 
attainment of his majority he left home and began to work for wages, at 
times being on farms and at other times working in lumber mills. Being 
of a frugal nature, inclined to save his wages instead of dissipating them 
in amusements, he was able in the course of a few years to buy the equity 
in a tract of one hundred and twenty acres. Later he increased his hold- 
ings through purchase until he had one hundred and ninety acres, where 
he engaged in raising wheat and also made a specialty of potatoes. To 
the regret of his many friends there he was obliged to dispose of his hold- 
ings and seek a more healthful climate. Attracted to California, he arrived 
in Kern county during April of 1903 and at once settled near Rosedale, 
where he now owns one hundred and fifteen acres, of Avhich all but five 
acres is in alfalfa. At the time of his purchase of the tract it was wholly 
unimproved. The task of preparing the place for alfalfa was one of great 
difficulty and necessitated incessant toil, but he has his reward in being 
the owner of one of the fine alfalfa farms in the county. While some of the 
hay is sold each year, much of it is fed to his dairy herd of thirty-two Jersey 
cows and to the other stock kept on this splendid alfalfa ranch. He has 
lately put down wells and installed a pumping plant with a capacity of 
two hundred inches. In his work he has had the assistance of his wife, 
whom he married in Northport, Mich., November 26, 1891. and who bore 
the maiden name of Jennie Scott. She was born in Northport, ■Mich., and 
was the daughter of Andrew Scott, a native of Ireland, who came to the 
United States and served in the Civil war in a Michigan regiment. Mr. and 
Mrs. Hiemforth are the parents of four children : Andrew, Kate, Theodore 
and Phillip. Mr. Hiemforth was made a Mason in Bakersfield Lodge No. 
224, F. & A. M. and also holds membership in the Woodmen of the World, 
while he is politically a Republican. He takes a great interest in keeping 
up the standard of the free schools and with that end in view he has con- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1191 

sented to serve as a member of the board of school trustees of the Rosedale 
district. 

FERNANDO ETCHEVERRY— The opportunities afforded by the 
Rosedale district as an agricultural region and its adaptability to the profit- 
able cultivation of alfalfa induced Mr. Etcheverrv to invest in a tract of 
eighty acres in 1908 and the following year he came to the place in order 
to take up the task of building a house and barn, checking the land and 
sowing it to alfalfa. The farm lies eight and one-half miles northwest of 
Bakersfield and is under the Beardsley canal. During 1913 the owner sunk 
two wells to a depth of one hundred and five feet with water rising to within 
twenty-seven feet of the surface, and has since had an abundance of 
water, pumping by means of an engine of fifty-horse capacity producing 
two hundred and fifty inches of water and thus afTording adequate irri- 
gation for the valuable property. 

Of French birth and lineatre, Fernando Etcheverrv was born in Aldudes, 
Basses-Pyrenees, March 1, 1869, and was the only child of Michel and Louisa 
(Chabano) Etcheverrv, the former still living on his farm in France, the 
latter being deceased. In boyhood Fernando was sent to school during 
the winter months and trained to help on the farm during the summer, 
but when sixteen, in 1885, he left France to seek a livelihood in the new 
world. At first he joined two aunts (Mrs. Peter Gastambide and Mrs. 
Domingo Gastambide), near Los Banos, Merced county, Cal., where he 
soon found employment as a herder of sheep, an occupation made familiar 
to him through earlier life in the valley extending from the Pyrenees moun- 
tains to the Bay of Biscay, a region peculiarly suited to the sheep industry. 
In 1890 he came from Merced county to Kern, now East Bakersfield. Mak- 
ing this place his headquarters, he engaged in the sheep business, ranging 
his flocks on the plains and in the mountains. Meantime, in 1892, he became 
proprietor of the Pyrenees hotel on Sumner street. After four years as 
a partner of F. ]\L Noriega, he purchased the interest of his partner and 
then continued alone for two years. Meanwhile he had continued an identi- 
fication with the sheep industry. For eighteen months he owned a flock, 
but, not being able to give the sheep personal attention owing to his business 
interests, he sold them to ether parties. Soon afterwards he began to im- 
prove his Rosedale ranch and, having sold out his hotel interests to his 
former partner. Mr. Noriega, he since has devoted himself exclusively to 
the raising of alfalfa. He has been a useful man to his community, an up- 
builder of East Bakersfield and Kern county, an earnest supporter of St. 
Joseph's Catholic Church in East Bakersfield and a contributor to move- 
ments for the benefit of the people. In politics he has voted with the Re- 
publican party ever since casting his first ballot. At the time of his arrival 
in Kern county he was unmarried and at East Bakersfield September 4, 1902, 
he was united with Miss Mathilda Etcheverry, also a native of Aldudes, 
Basses-Pyrenees, and a daughter of John and Catherine (Laxague) Etche- 
verrv, farmers in France. They have two sons, Felix and Peter. 

J. G. RUPP. — Since first coming to the Kern river fields during the 
spring of 1900 Mr. Rupp has risen by dint of his own untiring persever- 
ance and constant application from a very humble identification with one 
of the oil concerns to a position of influence and responsibility. It has 
been his privilege, partly through chance and partly through his own 
plans, to secure considerable experience in the oil industry in other parts 
of California and in other states of the v/est, so that he has the distinct 
advantage of being able to utilize at this place ideas of worth tested out 
at other points. During the spring of 1912 he was called to the superin- 
tendency of the Ojai Valley Petroleum Company, proprietors of forty 
acres situated on section 21. township 28. range 28. Under his supervision 
there are sixteen producing wells, exclusive of the Melwood lease operated 



1192 HISTORY OF K1":RX COUNTY 

by the same company. The holdings of the company are located in the 
extreme northwest corner of the Kern river fields. 

Born in Luzerne county. Pa.. December 17, 1871, J. G. Rupp is a twin 
brother of Al Rupp of Bakersfield. At the age of seven years he accom- 
panied other members of the family to Kansas, where he received a 
common-school education. By chance his early industrial efforts brought 
him into the oil business and he learned the work in every detail, serving 
as roustabout, tool-dresser, driller and in other capacities up to that of 
superintendent. As a driller he has worked in variovis parts of the west, 
one of his principal experiences being in the San Juan fields in San Juan 
county, Utah. While working in Colorado he was married at Boulder, 
that state, Miss Sarah Hand becoming his wife. They have three children, 
Mariam, Georgia and Kermit, and the family now occupy the superin- 
tendent's cottage on the company holdings. Called to his present position 
in May of 1912 by the company of which R. A. Sweet of Los Angeles is 
president, Mr. Rupp has devoted his attention closely and untiringly to the 
many responsibilities incumbent upon him in his effort to transform the 
holdings of the concern into a dividend-paying investment and in the 
meantime, while thus working, he has won the confidence of stockholders 
in the organization as well as the respect of other leading oil men of the 
field. 

MRS. MARGARET H. PREBLE,— No one among the older residents 
of Moiave occupies a higher place in the esteem of the people than does 
Mrs. Preble, who since coming to this city during 1891 has won the 
friendship of everyone with whom she has maintained business or social 
relations. Not only is she a woman of gracious and attractive tempera- 
ment and agreeable disposition, but in addition she possesses ex- 
ceptional mental qualities and has a broad education supolemented 
by the self-culture of later years. Shortl)^ after her arrival here 
she was tendered the appointment of postmistress under President 
Harrison. So satisfactory was her service that she . also received the 
appointment under President Cleveland and remained in the office 
for ten years altogether. Meanwhile, in order to increase the small income 
received from the office, she carried a stock of notions, confectionery and 
stationery, and also secured an appointment as manager of the long distance 
service of the Pacific Telegraph & Telephone Companv. As there was 
no location suited to her needs she bought a lot on Main street and built 
the store which she has since occupied, and in addition she erected a modest 
cottage for a home, thus surrounding herself with the simple comtorts 
that she found essential to the highest happiness. 

From early life a resident of California, Mrs. Preble was born at 
Springbrook, Erie county, N. Y., being a daughter of Capt. A. J. W. and 
Phylancy (Gilson) Palmer, natives, respectively, of Erie county and 
Pembroke, Genesee county, N. Y. After some years of fairly prosperous 
activities as an architect and builder in New York state. Captain Palmer 
came to California in 1859 and settled at Sacramento. During the Civil 
war he served as captain of a company of militia from that city. For years 
he was employed as a bridge-builder or as superintendent of bridge-build- 
ing for the Central Pacific Company and meantime he constructed the 
first snow-plow ever used on that railroad. For a time he had charge 
of the car department at San Diego. Upon leaving the California South- 
ern & Central Pacific Railway Company he formed an alliance with the 
Santa Fe as manager of their car department and bridge building and 
continued in that capacity until his death in San Bernardino at the age 
of sixty-eight years. In that city also occurred the demise of his wife, who 
had been a resident of California ever since making the tedious trip from 
New York via Panama to San Francisco during 1863, some vears before 



HISTORY OF KKRX COUNTY 1193 

the building- of the lirst railroad across the continent. They were the 
parents of six children, namely: Mrs. Margaret H. Preble; H. J., who 
died in Sacramento county; S. A., former mayor of Santa Cruz, this state; 
Mabel, who died in girlhood; Charles M., now living" in Santa Cruz; and 
Mrs. Hettie A. Dunn, of Sacramento. 

Graduated from the Sacramento high school at the age of seventeen 
years. Miss Margaret H. Palmer taught school for four years afterward 
in Sacramento. Three months after starting she was promoted to be 
principal of the intermediate department and continued in that post 
throughout the balance of her work as teacher. At Sacramento in 1874 
she became the wife of Charles B. Preble, who was born in Massachusetts 
and died at Alojave January 5, 1899. T'or a time during the earlv ]>art of 
his identification with the west he had been connected with a manufactur- 
ing business in San Francisco. After going to Barstow in 1885 he served 
as a clerk in the California Southern & Central Pacific office. During 1891 
he came to Mojave as a clerk in the freight department of the Southern 
Pacific, which position he filled throughout his remaining years. In poli- 
tics he favored Republican principles and his widow holds to the same 
political views, although when in charge of the postoffice her friends and 
supporters were not limited to that party, but included the entire popula- 
tion, irrespective of partisan affiliations. In religion she has adhered 
to the Congregational faith from childhood and has maintained a deep, 
generous interest in movements for the uplifting of humanity. 

JO. P. CARROLL. — As secretary of the Bakersfield Aerie of Eagles 
and house manager of the club headquarters in this city, Mr. Carroll has 
been closely identified with one of the popular and prominent organizations 
of his home town. Through his own personal energy and capability he has 
been instrumental in forwarding the success of the club enterprise. Work- 
ing in harmonious relations with the house committee consisting of Messrs. 
F. Gunther, C. A. Newman, Sam Sweitzer and N. R. Solomon, and ably 
seconding the executive leadership of the local president, he has promoted 
the welfare of the fraternity and enhanced the success of the club through 
his sagacious judgment as house manager. Having earned his own liveli- 
hood from the age of thirteen years and having been in practically every 
section of the west, he has gained a wide acquaintance and everywhere he 
is known as a wide-awake, hustling and genial citizen, typical in tempera- 
ment of the breeziness of the coast and reflecting in mental attributes the 
qualities belonging to men of the west. 

Born in the city of St. Louis, Mo., April 1, 1854, reared and educated 
in that place, Mr. Carroll had to stop school at the age of thirteen in order 
to earn his own livelihood. As a messenger for the Western Union Tele- 
graph Company he learned his first lessons in the business world. After a 
time he was promoted by the company and at the age of seventeen he was 
acting as chief tracer for the St. Louis office, but the failure of his health 
forced him to resign, thus abandoning a career that gave every promise of 
success. During 1872 he arrived in San Francisco. Removal to the west 
had been influenced by the hope of regaining his health through a change in 
climate. In that city he secured employment as clerk in a hotel. However, 
the anticipated physical benefit was not realized and he acted upon a sug- 
gestion that he try the air of the mountains. During 1874 he spent some 
time at Silver City. Idaho. Later he spent several years on a cattle ranch 
near Grant's Pass in Oregon. By riding the range as a cowboy he not only 
gained physical benefit, but in addition acquired a thorough knowledge of 
the country and of the stock industrv. Other occupations associated with a 
frontier environment were followed from time to time. When gold was dis- 
covered in the Klondike he went to Alaska with a crowd of prospectors, 
but the trip gave him no returns aside from a knowledge of a most inter- 



1194 HISTORY OF KERX COTXTY 

esting country. When other strikes were made in the United States and 
Canada he was among those who sought the new mines, but none of these 
expeditions proved profitable from a financial standpoint. 

Facility of expression and an ability to state facts in an interesting and 
concise manner had taken Mr. Carroll into the journalistic field at an early 
age and frequently he acted as correspondent for San Francisco dailies from 
mining camps in California and Nevada. During 1891 he came to Visalia, 
Tulare county, to take up journalistic work in connection with the Visalia 
Times and while in that town he acted as correspondent for the San Fran- 
cisco Call. After five years in Visalia he joined the first rush of miners 
to Randsburg in 1896, since which time he has been a resident of Kern 
county, although there have been intervals of absence from the county in 
the interests of enterprises at other places. Since coming to Bakersfield he 
has been engaged as correspondent to various city papers and also has been 
prominent in local politics as a leading Republican. During 1901 he became 
a member of Bakersfield Aerie No. 93 of the Eagles. At this writing he is 
serving his fifth term as secretary of the lodge and by virtue of that office 
he is in charge of the Eagles Club, besides which he has been induced to 
serve as an associate editor of the Eagles' magazine. 

On the second floor 'of the Niederaur building, at a cost of $12,000, the 
Eagles have fitted up a club-house that is one of the "show" places of 
Bakersfield. The visitor first passes into a lobby and reception room, fur- 
nished in weathered oak, with massive davenports, desks, chairs, rockers and 
a center table with all the leading newspapers and magazines, the whole 
being provided for the comfort of the members and visiting brethren. The 
ladies' parlors and dressing room are furnished in mahogany and birdseye 
maple. Handsome pictures adorn the walls and the electric light chande- 
liers are works of art. In the bufifet there are card tables and a collection 
of steins that is growing in number and interest, also a bulletin board con- 
taining the names of a]:)plicants for membership as well as letters from 
absent brothers. A billiard room adjoins the buffet and in a corner thereof 
is a den, a favored place for members, for from its balcony one can sit in 
ease and comfort, looking up and down the streets and watching the hurry- 
ing crowds as they pass. The secretary's office is the headquarters of Mr. 
Carroll. The lodge room, 75x60 feet in dimensions, has a seating capacity 
of six hundred and is provided with a fine Emerson piano. An eagle with 
outstretched wings stands on the altar in the center of the hall and a paint- 
ing of the same bird gives an artistic effect to the ceiling of the room. 
When dances are given the hall is transformed into a ball room, over whose 
polished floor the devotees of the dance glide merrily at the frequent social 
functions given by the club. To complete the comforts of the place a 
banquet hall has been built with a capacity of two hundred and connected 
therewith is a kitchen containing every modern equipment known to the 
culinary art. The Eagles have every reason to be proud of their luxurious 
quarters and the people of Bakersfield, irrespective of fraternal affiliations, 
evince the hichest gratification in the public spirit that has resulted in the 
acquisition of the handsome and modern club rooms. 

HARRY A. ETZWEILER.— Born at St. Joseph. M..., January 22, 1886, 
.Mr. F.tzweiler is a son of Jacob, a Pennsylvanian. and an architect and 
builder by occupation. Several buildings and warehouses in St. Louis and 
Galveston were erected under his supervision and from plans of his own 
drawing, while in addition he served for some years as a government in- 
spector of construction work at Galveston. Flis death occurred in 1910 
and four of liis children grew no, Catherine, Minnie, Harry .\aron 
and Jacob. The mother. Mrs. Debbie (Shaffer) Larson, is now living in 
Bakersfield. to which city Harry A. came in 1900 at the age of fourteen 
vears. For a short time he worked in a brick yard. From that time until 



HISTORY OF KERX CXJUNTY 1195 

1905 he served an apprenticeship to the trade of boiler-maker. Meanwhile 
he had the further advantage of night study in the National Correspon- 
dence School. For one year he engaged as boiler-maker in the Los An- 
geles lioiler works under George Hanke, after which he became an em- 
ploy of the Pioneer boiler works in the same city. As foreman of con- 
struction with the Los Angeles Gas and Electric Light Company he en- 
gaged in installing gas tanks. Such was his success in completing a 
$30,000 job, with three hundred workmen under him, that he was engaged 
by the Fulton engine works to superintend a similar work, representing 
about the same outlay of money. As a representative of the San Pedro, 
Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad Company he was sent to Los Vegas, 
Nev., and remained there for ten months, working as a boiler-maker. 

Returning to Bakersfield in June of 1908, Harry A. Etzweiler soon 
engaged with the Kern Trading and Oil Company in the Kern river field, 
where as boiler-maker and superintendent of concrete work he proved so 
efficient and reliable that he was sent to the Kerto division February 7, 
1911. Mr. Etzweiler's present position in the boiler department 
of the Sunset-]\Ionarch Oil Company dates from July 28, 1913. During 
1907 he married Miss Mamie Davis, daughter of Ola and Celesta (Edgar) 
Davis, of Los Angeles. Two daughters blessed their union, namely: 
Hazel, who died in November, 1912; and Audrey D., two years old. Be- 
sides being a leader in the Kerto Club, Mr. Etzweiler is identified with the 
Loyal Moose and the Woodmen of the World. With his wife he has 
maintained a deep interest in the organization and maintenance of the 
Kerto Sunday-school, which now numbers forty pupils. In addition he 
formerly served as superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday- 
school at Kern and also aided in the organization of the Epworth League 
and the Junior League. 

JEAN BAPTISTE CAPDEVILLE.— One of the first to settle in the 
town of Tehachapi, and who since 1892 has been one of the prime movers in 
its advancement, is Jean Baptiste Capdeville. A native of France, he has 
f'ince 1888 made California his home, and is numbered among the most exten- 
sive sheep growers in the state. He was born in the town of Osse, Basses- 
Pyrenees, France, October 17, 1868, the son of Jean Pierre Capdeville, a farmer 
and husbandman, who served for seven years in the French army. His wife, 
who before her marriage was Marie Anne Iriate, still survives. Of the eight 
children born to this couple Jean B. was the third. Until he was thirteen 
years old he attended public school and thereafter until he was twenty he 
followed farming in his native land. Full of ambition to achieve greater suc- 
cess in life than he felt he could gain by remaining there, he came to America 
in November, 1888, making his way directly to San Francisco, Cal., where for 
a year he was employed in the butcher business. He then moved to Porter- 
ville. Tulare county, and there his experience in the herding and care of sheep 
began, for in 1894 he had gathered enough knowledge of the business, as well 
as sufficient capital, to enable him to embark in the business on his own ac- 
count. He bought a flock of sheep and ranged them there for a while, later 
bringing them to Kern county, where ever since he has engaged in the busi- 
ness on a very large scale, having from four to seven thousand head at various 
times. 

Mr. Capdeville came to Tehacha])i in 1892, again in 1902 and finally 
in 1909, at which time he made it his permanent place of residence. He has 
acquired property holdings here as well as in Bakersfield, and has put forth 
every effort to aid in the public activities of Kern county, his keen observation 
as to its needs and his accurate ideas of carrying out the details of all projects 
making him valued among the citizens. In 1912 he erected the most beauti- 
ful residence in Tehachapi. 

On Se])teml)er 21. 1905, the marriage of Jean B. Capdeville and .-Vnue Fillet 



1196 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

took place in Los Angeles. She was born in La Doux, France, in 1885, and 
is the mother of four children as follows : Magdalene, Bertha, Annie and 
Albert. Mr. Capdeville was a member of the Knights of Pythias in Tehachapi 
until the lodge surrendered its charter. 

FRANK W. WALLEN.- — Numbered among those enterprising men of 
Kern county who have come here with ambitious spirit and undaunted courage 
to face the hardships of a new country is l'>ank W. Wallen, whose productive 
ranch covers forty acres in this county, all under cultivation. A native of 
Sweden, born in Skane on February 1, 1863, he was there during the early part 
of his life, attending school until he was fifteen years of age. His parents were 
farmers and he was reared as an agriculturist, but when fifteen years old was 
apprenticed to the blacksmith's trade for three years. After completing this 
he came to Michigan and for a short time remained there, later going to Mon- 
tana, where he worked taking contracts for teaming and hauling. Mr. Wallen 
had attended school for a short time also in the United States. In Montana 
he also followed the livery business for a time, and his line of work carried 
him through various parts of the state. Remaining there for a period of six 
years he then moved to the Bradford oil district of Pennsylvania and worked 
there as a tool-dresser, then as a driller, until he came to Kern county, Cal , 
arriving in the year 1899. Having gained experience in the oil fields in the 
east he had little difficulty in procuring a position in the oil fields here, and 
went to work as a driller in the various fields of Kern county. During this 
time he lived in Bakersfield for about twelve years, working most of the time 
in the oil fields, and in 1911 bought the forty acres of land four miles south of 
Bakersfield, on the Kern Island road, which is now his home place. Here he 
engages in general farming, hog raising and the poultry business, his large 
assortment of chickens consisting of Rhode Island Reds, Minorcas and 
Plymouth Rocks. 

Mr. Wallen is fraternally connected with the Knights of Pythias, Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a Mason of the Knight Templar degree, 
being also a member of Islam Temple, N. M. S., of San Francisco. He was 
married August 2, 1896, in Pennsylvania to Capitola Hyatt, who was born 
in Elk county, Pennsylvania, February 7, 1877. They are the parents of four 
children, as follows: Leonard C, Francis Capitola, Irene M. and Lilas. 

JAMES THOMAS MAGUIRE.— With the development of a community 
and Vv'ith the increasing of its industrial interests comes the many facilities of 
labor to lend their hand in alleviating the burden and smoothing the rough 
places in the road of progress. One of the most important of these, if not the 
most essential, is the telejdione, which in its installation will bring the com- 
munity in touch with outside interests, report its progress and eradicate jour- 
neys and troublesome drawbacks through loss of time. It is to James T. 
Maguire that the West Side district is most indebted for its fine telephone and 
telegraph system, for it is due almost entirely to his efforts and zeal that 
they were first placed in the vicinity. Mr. Alaguire was born May 10, 1873, in 
San Jose, Cal., the son of Patrick J. Maguire, who had learned the iron 
moulding trade in Boston, whence he had made the trip across the plains to 
the Pacific coast. In San Francisco he engaged for a few years in the wood 
and coal business at the corner of Third and Folsom streets until his marriage 
to Bridget McMahon, when he located at the Hacienda mine, in Almaden. 
Santa Clara county, and followed mining. Continuing thus until 1871 he then 
located in San Jose, where he was the first to engage in the local express and 
draying business, and this he continued to follow tmtil his retirement. His 
death, when he was seventy-two, took place September 16, 1905, and his wife 
passed away six weeks later. Of their eight children, seven of whom grew to 
maturity, James T. was the third eldest. 

Educated in the public schools, Mr. Maguire later entered Santa Clara 



HISTORY OF KKRX COUNTY 1197 

Colleoe and continued his studies until his sophomore year when he took a 
course in the Garden City Business College in San Jose, from which he was 
graduated in 1892. His first employment was with the Sunset Telephone & 
Telegraph Company, and later he began as an apprentice with the Pacific 
States Telephone & Telegraph Company. By careful and observing work he 
ddvanced through the different departments, mastering all of them, and he 
soon rose to be district superintendent of constructions, covering territory from 
South San Francisco to Santa Barbara. Later he was transferred to Oakland 
in the same capacity, covering territory from Eureka to South San Francisco, 
including San Francisco and Oakland. In 1905 he was transferred from the 
construction department to the commercial department and sent to Bakers- 
field as manager for the company, and the next year he was made manager at 
Los Angeles. Meanwhile he had become interested in the oil business on the 
west side, and he returned to Bakersfield in 1907 as manager for the Pacific 
States Telephone & Telegraph Company, finding time to devote to his per- 
sonal business while managing that territory. Until March 1, 1911, he con- 
tinued thus and then resigned to devote all of his time to his own afifairs. Mr. 
Maguire was the pioneer telephone man on the west side. In 1908, associated 
with C. S. Garfield of Bakersfield, but now of Ocean Park, he started to build 
the teleohone line from Bakersfield to McKittrick and the first station was in 
Tetzlaff's store. Then he built the line into jMaricopa, establishing the second 
station in Coons and Price's store in that place. When Taft started to build 
up, they built their line in there, and the third station was placed in Hopkins 
grocery store at Taft. The next station was in Fellows, in the Lawton and 
Blanks store. In all these fields they extended their lines to the different wells 
or company headquarters and business assumed such proportions that they 
erected a new building at Maricopa for their station. About the same time a 
new station was built at Taft on the south side of the railroad, but when the 
business district of the town was moved on to the north side they built on 
that side also, and there their headquarters are now found. In Fellows they 
built and established their own station and ofiice on the main county road, just 
north of town, and in McKittrick they also found it exDedient to move into 
their own building. The telephone system embraces the vast oil fields of 
Sunset, Midway, North Midway, McKittrick, Bellridge and also the Buena 
Vista and Elk Hills, covering an extensive area and including about seven 
hundred subscribers. At the time of the incorporation, in 1908, the firm became 
known as the Kern Mutual Telephone & Telegraph Company, with C. S. 
Garfield as president and manager. It was thus continued until J\Ir. Maguire 
resigned from the management of the Pacific States and he then assumed 
the presidency and general management, which he still retains, making his 
headquarters in Taft. 

On August 29, 1896, Mr. Maguire was married at San Jose to Miss 
Blanche Kamp, a native daughter of San Jose, the daughter of Aemilius and 
Cynthia (Morse) Kamp, who both crossed the plains in ox-team trains, the 
father as early as 1849. He was a pioneer nurseryman and horticulturist in 
Santa Clara county, and later was superintendent of Oak Hill cemetery. Both 
parents are now living retired in San Jose. Mr. Kamp had not received many 
educatic nal advantages in early youth, but he was ambitious to learn and 
by stud}^ and close observation he became a learned man, well informed on 
current subjects and the master of several languages, acquiring culture and 
intellect of a high order. Of the seven children born to Mr. and Mrs. Kamp 
four are living, of whom ]\Irs. Maguire is the second eldest. She was educated 
in the public schools and at Notre Dame College at San Jose. 

Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. oNIaguire, Maybelle Berniece, 
James Thomas, Jr., and John Patrick. The father is a member of Bakersfield 
Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E., of which he is past Exalted Ruler, and he is also 



1198 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

a member of the Bakersfield Club, serving as a member of the board of 
trustees and as treasurer until his business interests took him to the West 
Side. He is also prominent as a Knight of Columbus. In political issues he is 
a Democrat and is a member of the Kern County Democratic Central Com- 
mittee. The family residence, which he erected in Bakersfield in 1909, is 
located at No. 2318 T, street. 

ROBERT PALMER.— That he should have worked his way forward 
from po\erty to independence and, notwithstanding the handicap of being 
thrown upon his own resources at an early age before he had secured a 
common-school education, should have broadened his mind by self-culture 
and habits of close observation, proves that Mr. Palmer was a man of more 
than ordinary force of character and energy of purpose. The conditions 
that environed his early years were made discouraging by the death of his 
father, Edward Palmer, a native Kentuckian and a lifelong resident of the 
Blue Grass state, where his death occurred about 1829. About 1834 the 
mother, Martha (Patton) Palmer, removed to Illinois with her family and 
settled at Jacksonville. At that time Robert, who was born in Kentucky 
May 7, 1823, was a lad of eleven years, scarcely ready to take up the 
dif^cult burden of self-sup])urt, yet forced to do so by reason of the circum- 
stances of the family. It was as a miner that he earned a livelihood. While 
the work was difficult and physically exhausting he managed to find time 
for reading and developed into a manhood of broad mental vision, qualified 
in mind and body for the difficult task of pioneering. 

The discovery of gold in California changed the entire tenor of the 
life of Mr. Palmer, who early in 1850 joined an expedition bound for the 
w^est. The journey was made on horseback and with pack-animals. What 
might have been a tedious, uneventful trip was made memorable through 
several attacks on the part of savages and Mr. Palmer long carried in his 
arm a wound made by an arrow. Fortunately, however, none of the party 
was killed and it was without loss that they landed at Hangtown in August, 
immediately after which the young gold-seeker went to the Sierras to engage 
in placer-mining. After about ten years in the mines of that region he came 
to Kern county in 1860 and became interested in the mines at Kernville 
(then called Whiskey Flat). During 1862 with three other prospectors he 
located and developed placer mines at Claraville. This attempt proved success- 
ful. While working the mines he began to buy cattle and selected the LH brand 
for his herd. In 1876 he purchased from J. M. Lewis a tract now known as 
the Palmer ranch. To this raw land in Hot Springs valley he brought his 
family and frc^m that time until his death, May 30, 1905, he gave his atten- 
tion to the raising of cattle and to general farming, meanwhile winning the 
warm friendship of associates and co-workers throughout the valley. So 
great was his popularity that he could have had local offices had he chosen, 
but, while always voting the Democratic ticket, he steadfastly refused to 
run for public office. 

The marriage of ]\Ir. Palmer at San Francisco June 14, 186r), united 
him with Miss Rose Glennon, a native of Kells, county Meath, Ireland, and 
a daughter of James and Mary (Brady) Glennon, the former superintendent 
of a large estate in that county. During May, 1863, ]\liss Glennon crossed 
the ocean to New York City. January 13, 1864, she embarked on a vessel 
for Panama and on the 8th of February she landed in San Francisco, where 
she lived u]) to the time of her marriage. Afterward she made Kern county 
her h(uiie and at this writing, although spending her time largely with mar- 
ried daughters in Los .\ngeles, she still owns the old homestead of two 
hundred and eighty-two acres in Hot Springs valley. The ranch is devoted 
to alfalfa and stock and is without a superior on the Kern river, the present 
manager, Walter Palmer, continuing the careful oversight maintained by his 



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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1201 

father. The family consisted of twelve children who attained mature years, 
namely : Robert, a stockman of Kernville ; Margaret, wife of William Wear, 
of Wallace, Idaho; Richard, who died in Los Angeles in October, 1894; 
Edward, now living in Oregon ; Mrs. Mary E. Moberly, of Los Angeles ; 
Lee Palmer; Rose, wife of Dan Burke, of Panama, Kern county; Walter, 
on the home farm; Mrs. Hettie Curtis, of Hollywood; Mrs. Rebecca Dunn, 
of Los Angeles ; Patton, deceased ; and Mrs. Nellie Beaty, of Los Angeles. 
The children received fair educations. From 1876 until 1883 the parents 
were the only family in the entire valley having children and, public schools 
not having been established, they were obliged to hire at their own expense 
a teacher, but in 1883 the arrival of other people with children necessitated 
the establishment of free schools, which important work Mr. and ]\Irs. 
Palmer promoted, as they did all movements for the general upbuilding 
of the South Fork country. 

HENRY HOSKING. — That Kern county has offered exceptional oppor- 
tunities to young men of industry, intelligence and steadfastness of purpose is 
illustrated by the success here attained by Henry Hosking, an Englishman 
by birth and education, but since the autumn of 1885 a resident of the San 
Joaquin valley and for a long period of rising importance an employe of the 
Kern County Land Company. When eventually he resigned the respon- 
sible position which he held with that large corporation it was for the pur- 
pose of developing and improving a tract of land which he had purchased some 
years before and for which he had paid by installments out of his w^ages. 
Thrift as a farmer is indicated by the appearance of his valuable tract of 
eighty acres lying on the Kern Island road six miles south of Bakersfield. 

The first recollections of Mr. Hosking cluster around the shire of Corn- 
wall, England, where he was born March 8, 1863, and where he received a fair 
education in the schools of the Church of England. His parents, Richard and 
Mary (Sandow) Hosking, were lifelong residents of Cornwall, where the 
former died at eighty and the latter when eighty-one years of age. For a 
long period they had earned a livelihood for their family from agricultural 
efforts and had leased and cultivated a Cornwall farm, retiring only when old 
age rendered further manual labor impracticable. There were nine children 
in the parental family and of these Henry was fifth in order of birth. When 
nineteen years of age he took passage for America on one of the steamers of 
the White Star line that landed him in Quebec early in 1882. In compan}' w'ith 
his friend, Whitsed Laming, he traveled to Kansas and settled in Leavenworth 
county, where he secured work on a farm near Tonganoxie. For three years he 
continued in the same locality and in the same line of work, after which he 
came to California and joined his brothers, Richard and Andrew, who had 
preceded him to the Pacific coast. Immediately after arriving in Bakersfield 
he secured employment as a ditch-tender for the Kern Count}- Land Company, 
in whose employ he continued for nineteen years, meanwhile receiving promo- 
tions from time to time until at last he was made foreman of the water courses 
and canal system of the corporation. Upon leaving the employ of the com- 
panv he removed to his farm six miles south of Bakersfield and here he has 
since followed a practical and profitable system of agricultural work. 

The marriage of Henry Hosking and Emily Lincoln White took place in 
Bakersfield, to which city the bride had come from her native commonwealth 
of Iowa. Her parents, Bushrod and Margaret (Cork) White, were natives 
respectively of Virginia and Kentucky and were married in the Blue Grass 
state, whither Mr. White had removed at an early age. The next removal 
took them to Iowa and from that state they came to California and became 
pioneers of Kern county, where they made many friends among the early 
settlers. In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Hosking there are two sons, Ronald 
R. and Raymond H.. the former a graduate of the commercial department of 



1202 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the Kern county high school and the latter a high-school student, both being 
young men of fine minds and excellent abilities. In religious connections the 
family hold membership with the Bakersfield Episcopal Church, and politically 
Mr. Hosking is a Republican. 

THOMAS C. CASTRO.— A native of Santa Ana, Sonora, Mexico, Thomas 
C. Castro was born December 21, 1864, the son of Thomas and Concepcion 
(Coronado) Castro, both of whom were natives of Mexico. (For a full ac- 
count of the parental history refer to the sketch of Domitilo Castro.) 

Of their children Thomas C. Castro was the fifth in order of birth. 
Reared in Kern county, where he attended the public schools and learned the 
business of his father, that of raising stock, he became well versed on all 
matters pertaining to that line of work, remaining on the home place until he 
was seventeen. He then went to Nevada, where he entered the employ of a 
ranchman who was largely interested in stock-raising, and after three years 
with him came to Bakersfield again and followed ranching on the home place 
for a short time. He soon started out for himself, purchasing a twenty-acre 
tract, which he cultivated, and it was not long before he had a fine herd of 
cattle, also raising horses, both draft and roadsters. These are Belgium 
and Standard bred animals, and he has had many of the finest horses bred 
in the state on his place. His short-horn cattle, of Durham variety, have at- 
tracted much attention, and he has taken much pride in their exceptionally 
fine condition. He also ran cattle on the Breckenridge mountains. He now 
has forty acres of land under cultivation to alfalfa, about three miles south- 
west of Bakersfield, where he makes his home. 

In Bakersfield, in 1885, Mr. Castro was married to Maria Gonzales, a 
native of Sonora and the daughter of Guadalupe and Natividad (Peralta) 
Gonzales, both natives of Mexico. Mr. and Mrs. Castro became the parents 
of five children, as follows: Angel, Mrs. Charles E. Castro, of Bakersfield; 
Ramon; Carmelita, Mrs. Winn, and Josephine, Mrs. O'Brien, both of. Bakers- 
field; and Thomas Mcllvain. The family are devout members of the St. 
Francis Catholic Church, of Bakersfield, toward which they are liberal con- 
tributors, helping greatly in the building of the church. In politics Mr. 
Castro is a Republican. 

AUGUST AMOURIG.— The only one of three brothers to settle in Cali- 
fornia, August Amourig was born at Gap, Hautes-Alpes, France, September 4, 
1865, and is a son of Etienne Amourig, a farmer and stockman between the 
Rhone river and the Alps mountains. As a boy he helped with the care 
of the' stock when not in attendance upon the neighboring free schools. Dur- 
ing October of 1884 he crossed the ocean to America and settled permanently 
in California, where he found steady work in the employ of sheepmen on the 
plains. From the first he frugally saved his wages. Within two years he was 
able to buy a small band of ewes. This gave him a start in the sheep industry. 
Enjoying the free life of the plains and the care of the sheep, it seemed as if 
he would be favored by fortune, for his flock increased from year to year tintil 
it numbered about thirty-five hundred head. A change came in 1893. when 
the Democratic administration began to urge the removal of the tariff on wool, 
thus greatly injuring the sheep business. To make matters worse, a severe 
drought came at the same time. The result was that the young sheep-grower 
lost the work of nine years and began anew without any means. 

After having worked about six months for wages Mr. Amourig had 
earned enough to buy a team and he then engaged in the raising of grain near 
the lake. It was possible in that section to raise alfalfa and he secured excel- 
lent returns through allowing his hogs a free range of the meadows. Unfor- 
tunately as he was again prospering he made the mistake of going on the 
plains to raise grain and two dry years left him penniless. His next venture 
was the cutting of wood along the river. This he sold in Bakersfield and 
earned enough to buy a team. At the time of the first oil boom he engaged 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1205 

in teaming to the oil fields, driving an eight-horse team. Later he bought two 
lots in Kern and erected a cottage, making his home .there and engaging in 
general farm work near the town. At first he specialized with alfalfa and later 
he also operated a dairy. The purchase of forty-six acres under the Mill ditch 
proved an excellent investment. This land, situated about one and one-half 
miles from Kern, was under irrigation and in alfalfa, from which he secured 
five or six cuttings each year. In 1911 he bought four lots on Grove near Baker 
street, Bakersfield, and erected a livery barn where he now conducts a feed and 
sales stable, also sells hay and grain. Since becoming a citizen of this county 
he has supported Republican principles in national elections. Fraternally he 
holds membership with the Foresters of America. 

H. H. BROWN. — Indiana claims Mr. Brown a native son ; his birth 
occurred in Ripley county, that state, about fifty miles south of Indianapolis, 
on June.l, 1860, and here his early youth was spent. At twenty-two years of 
age he removed from there to Kansas, where he remained for four years en- 
gaging in agricultural pursuits and accustoming himself with the many details 
and habits of that life. In 1891 he came to Kern county, Cal., and taking up a 
liomestead in the Button Willow country, proved up on it, and this was the 
field of his labors for six years. In 1907 he purchased his present place of 
twenty-nine acres on Union avenue, about two miles from Bakersfield. Suc- 
cess has come to him in every project, and this has been largely due to his 
untiring effort in his undertakings, his clever manipulations of them and his 
unusual executive ability, which has served him well in his building operations 
especially, where he has had great need of those characteristics to bring about 
favorable results. The Brown block in East Bakersfield, which he has built, 
is a brick structure, 65x75 feet, three stories in height, and the arrangement 
is such as to make twelve apartments, of three and four rooms, four stores 
and basement, the stores being given over to mercantile firms. In addition 
he has built six cottages in East Bakersfield which are well-built and modern 
in every way, their general appearance being most artistic. On his farm, 
which he calls the Locust farm, Mr. Brown has found time to devote himself to 
the poultry business on a large scale, handling mostly thoroughbred Leghorns 
and the Silver-Laced Wyandottes, his poultry holding a wide and enviable 
reputation. In 1881 Mr. Brown was married to Miss Emily Hamilton, who 
was born in Jackson county, Ind., and to them were born six children, five 
now surviving, viz. : Pearl married A. J. Ferguson, a farmer in the Panama 
district, six miles south of Bakersfield, and they are the parents of three chil- 
dren. Fay, Fern and Harold. Ralph married at Denver, Colo., Miss Clara 
Fisher ; he served as soldier in the Philippines. Stanley is mailing clerk in the 
postofiice at Bakersfield. Harold and Helen are attending the high school at 
Bakersfield. Mr. and Mrs. Brown are members of the Baptist church at 
Bakersfield, and in politics Mr. Brown is a stanch Republican. 

CLARK DAVIS MORRIS.— The development of the Morris ranch of 
eighty acres lying on section 31, township 30, range 28, is due to the pains- 
taking and intelligent labors of Clark D. Morris since first he acquired the 
property about 1904 and established a home thereon. The neat appearance of 
the tract, with its meadows of alfalfa and its orchard of assorted fruits, indi- 
cates the systematic oversight of the owner, while his love of comfort and 
order appear in his substantial residence and outbuildings. Prior to the 
removal to this property he lived three miles to the north and three years 
before that he had experimented with dry farming near Rose station, to 
which point he had removed from his native county in Missouri. The family 
of which he is a member became established in Missouri perhaps one hundred 
vears ago and his parents. Joshua B. and Elsie (Baker) ]\Torris, were lifelong 
residents of that state. Their family comprised seven children, five of whom 
attained mature years, namely: John F. ; Clark Davis; Clay B.. who died at 



1206 HISTORY OF KKRX COUNTY 

about twenty-five- years; Julia, ^Irs. R. L. Edwards, of Bakersfield ; and 
Alice, wife of Albert Whitmer and a resident of Palo Alto, this state. 

On the home farm in Montgomery county, Mo., about seventy miles west 
of St. Louis, Clark Davis Morris was born Deceml)er 9, 1859, and his educa- 
tion was received in the country schools of the locality. During 1888 he 
married Miss Lucile S. Garrett, a native of the same county as himself and 
a daughter of W'ilson and Mary (McMahan) Garrett. Very early in the 
colonial settlement of the new world the Ciarrett family became established 
in Virginia, where William B. Garrett was born in 1795, and where the birth 
of his wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary Ockmon, occurred August 27, 

1805. With the occupation of agriculture ^^'illiam B. Garrett harmoniously 
united the trade of a millwright and after he removed to the prairies of the 
middle west he built the first mill in Callaway county, Mo. Among his children 
was a son, Wilson, a native of Virginia and an early settler of Moi^tgomer}- 
county. Mo., having taken up land in that region when all of the surrounding 
country was in the primeval state of nature. In early manhood he married 
Mary McMahan. daughter of John F. and Polly (Blackwell) McMahan. na- 
tives of Kentucky, the former born June 29, 1804, and the latter November 18, 

1806. After the death of Mr. Garrett, which occurred in Missouri, his widow 
came to Kern county and now resides with her daughter, Mrs. Morris. Be- 
sides this daughter, who was sixth in order of birth among the sons and 
daughters, she had eight children, named as follows ; Lydia, who passed 
from earth at the age of eighteen years ; Henry L., a resident of St. Louis, Mo. ; 
Mary A., living at Bonneterre, St. T^rancois county. Mo. ; John F., who died in 
1910; Emma C, whose home is in Montgomery City, Montgomery county, 
Mo.; William B., of Choctaw, Okla. ; James M., living in Kern county; and 
Benjamin C, of Bakersfield. Although now (1912) seventy-eight years of age, 
Mrs. Garrett retains the full possession of her physical and mental faculties 
and enters fully into the activities of the world around her, being especially 
interested in and devoted to her grandchildren, whose happiness and welfare 
are ever dear to her. Mr. and Mrs. Morris became the parents of six children 
and four of these are now living. Elden G., Howard R.. Fletcher M. and 
Lucile. 

Politically Mr. iMorris votes with the Democratic party. Although reared 
m the faith of the Methodist Episcopal Church and identified with that denom- 
ination in Missouri, he and his wife became prime movers in the organization 
of the Greenfield Congregational Church, which was established on Sunday, 
May 12, 1912, with twenty-one names on the list of charter membership. For 
the present these members and others of the community who worship with 
them are holding religious services in the Greenfield schoolhouse and enjoy 
the ministerial oversight of Rev. Mr. Reiley as pastor. 

MILES R. MARTIN, JR. — The acquisition of one hundred and sixty acres 
of raw land two and one-half miles northwest of McFarland marked the be- 
ginning of the identification of Mr. Martin with this portion of Kern county, 
whither he had come in 1909 and into whose possibilities and resources he has 
since investigated with gratifying results. From the first his impressions con- 
cerning the county have been favorable. During January of 1913 he became 
the owner of the quarter-section he now c perates. The need of water was im- 
perative. Immediately after buying the raw tract he sunk two wells and in- 
stalled an electric pumping plant which yields him over one hundred and ten 
inches of water. The entire quarter section has been leveled and he is rapidly 
sowing the whole acreage to alfalfa. Modern improvements are being made 
and the place presents a well-tilled appearance, with every prospect of becom- 
ing one of the most valuable alfalfa ranches in this part of the county. 

Born in Clarion county, Pa., September 13, 1873, Miles R. ?klartin. Jr.. is 
the son of the late Miles R., Sr., who was a native of New Jersey and resided 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1207 

near Newark, that state. Through a considerable period of prosperous activity 
he was in business as a wholesale coal merchant. Later he became an oil 
operator in the Clarion field in Pennsylvania, where a brother, Mahlon C, 
had preceded him, the latter becoming also largely interested in railroads as 
well as in manufacturing. One of the greatest enterprises attempted by the 
two gentlemen was the building of a street-car line in Bogota, South America. 
At the age of fourteen years Miles R., Jr., entered the office of the Cincinnati, 
Hamilton & Dayton Railroad as supervisor's clerk at Lima, Ohio, where he 
continued for several years. Going east to New- York City, he engaged as 
clerk with the L^nited States Rubber Company and continued for ten years in 
the same office. Upon resigning he returned to Pennsylvania to look after 
the business interests of his father and for two years he remained in that state. 
During 1905 he went to Bogota, South America, and entered upon the duties 
of acting general manager of the Bogota City Street Railroad, of which his 
father was treasurer and his brother the general manager. During the absence 
of the brother in Europe and elsewhere he served as manager for two years, 
after which he came to California in 1907 and took up mining pursuits at Hart, 
San Bernardino county. In that locality he bought, developed and sold mines. 
Some of his interests there he still retains. While living in that part of the 
state he was made a ^lason in Needles Lodge No. 326, F. & A. AL, and later 
he was raised to the Scottish Rite Consistory in Bakersfield. His marriage took 
place at Paterson, N. J., in 1904, and united him with Miss Frances May, a 
native of Elizabeth, that state, and a daughter of William F. May, a manu- 
facturer conducting business in New York City. 

CHARLES L. TAYLOR. — Significant of the abundant opportunities of- 
fered by Bakersfield to men of business ability and untiring energy is the suc- 
cess already achieved by Charles L. Taylor as proprietor of Taylor's bargain 
store at No. 1333 Nineteenth street on the corner of K, an establishment built 
up through his own painstaking industry and tireless devotion to busmess. 
That there is "no royal road to success" his own history indicates, for it has 
been only by indefatigable industry and keen sagacity that he has laid the 
foundation of a large business and has gained a rank among the progressive 
merchants of the city. Selecting as his specialties articles of small value, he 
built up an establishment known as the five and ten-cent store, in which he 
carries a full line of glassware, crockery and stationery, also many styles of 
neckwear and underwear, jewelry and hosiery, with such other articles and 
notions as may usually be found in stores of the kind. The tremendous sales 
enable him to buy at the very lowest prices. The goods are moved rapidly 
and thus everything is new, in excellent condition, pleasing to the most fas- 
tidious. An amount between $18,000 and $20,000 has been invested in the 
stock of merchandise. 

The proprietor of this large business is a native of Ohio and was born 
at ^^^inchester in the southern part of that state March 10, 1868. From an 
early age he has been self-supporting and always his interests have been along 
general lines of merchandise. As a youth in Ohio he clerked in general stores 
and acquired a knowledge of dry-goods enterprises. The first mercantile ven- 
ture that he made was at Antrim, Ohio, where he conducted a general store. 
When he came to California in 1900 he selected Bakersfield as his headquarters 
and secured employment in the laundry at this place, where he held a trust- 
worthy position for four years. During 1905 he organized and opened a five 
and ten-cent store out of which he has developed his present large establish- 
ment, which each year shows a healthy growth in its trade and a satisfactory 
enlargement in patronage. Many regard his success in business as phenome- 
nal, but it is rather the anticipated result of his energy, sagacity and keen 
business talent. 

Mr. Taylor is at present engaged in erecting a new brick two-story build- 
ing (plans by Architect J. M. Safifell), on Chester avenue between Seventeenth 



1208 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

and Truxtun, 53>4xlOO feet. Ground was broken March 15, 1913, and it is 
expected that building will be completed by September 1, 1913. The entire 
first floor will be occupied by Taylor's bargain store, and the second floor will 
be devoied to offices. 

While the store has taken much of Mr. Taylor's time, attention and capi- 
tal, he has had other interests, notably the Tejon Oil Company, of which he is 
vice-president, and in which he owns a one-eleventh interest as a stockholder. 
The members of the concern are principally residents of Bakersfield, the wells 
being located only six miles from this city. The company is a dividend-payer 
and has excellent prospects for a growing success. Five years before coming 
to the west Mr. Taylor married Miss Ola Beggs, of Antrim, Ohio, and they 
are the parents of one son, Raymond, born in 1900. The family hold member- 
ship with the Bakersfield Presbyterian Church and contribute generously to 
religious movements. In fraternal relations Mr. Taylor is connected with the 
Elks, Woodmen and Workmen. In politics he is a Republican. 

GEORGE H. SALLEE.— The superintendent of the Volcan Oil and 
Refining Company has spent the greater part of his life in California, but 
claims Missouri as his native commonwealth and Kentucky as the home of 
his paternal ancestors during the pioneer era, while his maternal progenitors 
were members of an old family of Roxbury, Mass. His parents, Jasper N. and 
Lucinda (White) Sallee, for years worthy and industrious members of the 
farming population of Missouri, eventually established their home in California 
and embarked in stcck-raising and general farming in the far west. At this 
writing they have retired from active cares and are living comfortably and 
happily at Dinuba, Tulare county, the father being quite rugged notwithstand- 
ing his seventy-two useful years of existence. The family consisted of two 
sons and six daughters. The second child, who was likewise the second son, 
George H., was born in Knox county. Mo., on the last day of the year 1870 
and attended the country schools near the home farm in that state. After 
he came with his parents to California in 1883 he also attended the public 
schools of the state, but for the most part in boyhood he helped his father 
with the farm work. While yet a mere lad he did a man's work in the care 
of the stock and the tilling of the soil. The early home of the family was in 
Amador county, where he helped to improve and place under cultivation a 
tract of one hundred and sixty acres. 

When twenty years cf age George H. Sallee removed from Amador to 
Tulare county, where he became interested in fruit culture, making a specialty 
of a vineyard and also raising peaches and pears, in which way he aided his 
father in securing a financial foothold as a horticulturist. While residing there 
he formed the acquaintance of Miss Jeannette McWherter, with whom he was 
united in marriage in 1903. Three children bless their union, George McW.. 
Fay and Fern. Mrs. Sallee is a sister of George McWherter, a prosperous 
fruit-grower in Fresno county, and a daughter of Elias and Jeannette (Ben- 
nett) McWherter, the former deceased in 1901 and the latter, at the age of 
sixty years, still living at the old homestead in Fresno county. 

As early as December of 1901 Mr. Sallee came to the Kern river fields 
and secured employment as a boilerman for the Nevada Oil Company. Six 
months later he transferred to the Peerless, with which company he continued 
for six years, meanwhile working in every department except that of drilling. 
By constant study and practical application he developed into an efficient 
worker and his services were called into requisition as superintendent by the 
Del Rey Oil Company. After eighteen months with the Del Rey he entered 
the employ of the Volcan in 1909. At that time the organization was known 
as the Cleveland Oil Company, but through bankruptcy of the proprietors the 
plant reverted to its original owners, the present officers being as follows : 
C. H. Wagner of San Diego, president; S. S. Johnson, postmaster at National 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1209 

City, vice-president ; Mr. Nolan of San Dieg-o, secretary ; and the People's 
National Bank of National City, treasurer. Mr. Sallee is a Mason, belonging 
to the blue lodge, chapter and commandery at Bakersfield. 

CHARLES CLARENCE PIERCE.— Mr. Pierce claims Indiana as 
his native commonwealth and Lake county as the place of his birth, which 
occurred January 12, 1859. During 1872 he came to the Pacific coast in com- 
pany with his parents, Isaac B. and Emily (Hayward) Pierce, and settled'in 
Santa Barbara, where his education, primarily carried on in Indiana schools, 
was completed through the grammar grade. Upon attaining the age of seven- 
teen years he left high school, where he had studied for several terms, and then 
took up the task of earning a Hvelihood. At first he worked for his father, but 
at the age of twenty-one he left the home place and removed to the Tejon 
canyon, where he remained for six years, meanw^iile buying land of E. D. 
Parks and also acquiring a ranch of three hundred and twenty acres that had 
been owned by Joe Short. In many respects the location was unsatisfactory 
and he was led therefore to dispose of his holdings, whereupon in about 1888 
he bought from H. A. Blodgett a farm cf one hundred and twenty acres, ad- 
joining Bakersfield on the west, and he has so improved it as to make it a 
source of a growing income and an object of admiration to those familiar with 
the work of its transformation into a profitable holding. For some eight or 
ten years he engaged in the dairy business and meanwhile built up a herd of 
milch cows of known quality and breeding. Since relinquishing his dairy 
interests he has engaged in the raising of grain and alfalfa. Eighty acres were 
sown to alfalfa which gives him a meadow of superior excellence and large 
yield, there being from five to seven tons cut to the acre, with four and some 
times five cuttings a year. Forty acres are in grain, which usually give a 
gratifying yield. Mr. Pierce has kcated a desert claim of two hundred and 
forty acres, six miles north of Bakersfield on the Glennville road, where he 
has developed water, sinking a well to the depth of four hundred and twenty 
feet. This gives an abundance of water for growing of citrus fruit, to which 
the soil and location is well adapted. 

The marriage of Mr. Pierce took place December 23, 1880, and united 
him with Alice Maude Hunt, who was born in Chicago, 111., June 29, 1862. 
and received her education principally in the schools of that city. At the age 
of fifteen years, during October of- 1877, she came to California with her 
parents, Joseph and Mary (Deming) Hunt, and established the family home 
at Santa Barbara, where she continued to reside until her marriage. There 
were five children in the family, namely : Grace A., who was graduated from 
the Kern County high school and passed away at the age of twenty years; 
Herbert L., of Ccalinga; Clifford E., at Taft ; and Jennings J. and Irene M. 
Mr. Pierce is a school trustee and belongs to the Woodmen of the World. 

JUDSON DAILY MARSH.— The eldest of three children, of whom the 
youngestj Homer, is with an automobile firm at Tecumseh, !\Iich., and the 
second, Genevieve A., is a trained nurse in Seattle, Wash., J. D. Marsh was 
born at Hillsdale, Mich., July 2, 1879, and is a son of Embery F. and R( sa 
(Berry) Marsh, natives respectively of New York and Michigan, and the 
former now employed by the Peerless Oil Compan}^ in the Kern river fields. 
It was not possible for the 3^outh to secure desired educational advantages, for 
he became self-supporting at an early age. After having served an apprentice- 
ship of three years under Frank Van Riper of the old iron works at Hillsdale 
and having been employed also for three years in the Alamo gas engine works 
in the same town, he went to Jackson at the age of twenty-one and secured a 
position with the Jackson Automobile Company. Under William Deal, who is 
still engaged as a machinist and manager with the company, he helped to build 
the first gas automobile ever turned out by the firm. Later he spent six months 
in the employ of the Cook Manufacturing Company, builders of gas engines. 



1210 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Returning to Hillsdale, he had charge of the tool room at the Alamo for one 
year and of the testing room for a similar period. Upon his return to Jackson 
he engaged in experimental work for the Lockwood Ash Motor Company 
and during the two years of his identification with the firm he developed a 
marine motor that eventually became very successful, bringing the company 
a wide reputation. 

In the interests of the Hall-Rittenhouse Heavy Duty Gas Engine Com- 
pany, a large corporation organized at Bucyrus, Ohio, Mr. Marsh finally 
perfected and built a large engine. Upon the completion of the model he be- 
came chief inspector for the firm while they were building the first twenty- 
five engines. Next he was sent out to erect engines in different parts of the 
country, his first work of the kind being at Elk Rapids, Mich., the next at 
Traverse City, that state, and the third at Oklahoma City. As an expert in the 
employ of the Buckeye Engine Company of Salem, Ohio, he next installed 
engines for that firm in Dodge City, Kan., Whitewater, Kan., Hutchinson,- 
Kan., Guthrie, Okla., Mulvane, Kan., and Oklahoma City. From the last- 
named place he went to Kansas City to erect an engine of one thousand horse- 
power for the Missouri and Kansas Interurban Railway Company. Later he 
completed the erection of a gas engine at Joplin, Mo., next he was called to 
Ponca, Neb., for a similar purpose, and then came to California to erect at 
Maricopa two engines of three hundred and twenty horse-power. From Mari- 
copa he was called to the Kern river oil fields to erect a gas engine of five 
hundred horse-power for the Peerless Oil C( mpany, whose superintendent, A. 
J. Crites, quick to see and appreciate mechanical genius, immediately hired 
him as chief engineer. Since then he has installed another engine of the same 
kind. These two engines use natural gas from the oil wells on the Peerless 
lease for fuel and, with their aggregate of one thousand horse-power, are 
conceded to be the largest and finest gas engines in the field. When the chief 
engineer accepted his present position he brought hither his family, consisting 
of his wife (whom he had married at Hillsdale, Mich., in 1901, and who was 
Miss Louise Weisel, of that city), and their children, Gladys, Norma and 
WiUiam. 

WESLEY WASHINGTON HILLIARD.— Before coming to this state 
Mr. Hilliard was engaged in farming in Texas, where he was born at Camerc^n, 
Milam county, March 9, 1881, and where he grew to manhood on a farm. The 
family comes of old southern lineage. His parents, J. H. and Rosalia (Hop- 
per) Hilliard, were natives respectively of Florida and Texas. The former 
is engaged in stock farming in Runnels county, Tex., and the mother died 
in the Lone Star state about 1889. There were three children who attained 
mature years, namely : Wesley Washington, of California ; Fannie, Mrs. S. 
S. Price', and William M., both living on farms in Mills county, Tex. At 
the age of about nineteen years W. W. Hilliard accompanied other mem- 
bers of the family to Mills county, in his native commonwealth, and there he 
assisted his father in running a stock ranch. From 1900 to 1904 he continued 
in Mills county, but in the latter year he came to California, arrived in 
Bakersfield on the 11th of Decembe/and on the 17th of the same month se- 
cured a position as a roustabout on the Central Point division of the Asso- 
ciated Oil Company in the Kern river field. 

After an experience of six months as a roustabout and at the expiration 
of ten months spent in California, Mr. Hilliard returned to Texas and 
resumed general farming and stock-raising. liowever, the quiet round of 
agricultural duties no longer satisfied him and at the end of eighteen months 
he returned to the Pacific coast, this time first going to Seattle, Wash., and 
there working for one month. Wages were lower in that city than in Kern 
county, which fact caused him to seek California once more. The trip was 
made by boat to San Francisco and thence by train to Bakersfield, where 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1211 

he arrived in Alay of 1907. Since then he has been connected in some way 
with the oil industry in Kern county. In the Kern river field he worked for 
the Imperial, Federated and Kern Trading and Oil Company. While with 
the last-named concern he devoted his time to tool-dressing. After two years 
as a tool-dresser, in 1910 he did his first drilling on the Cleveland Oil Com- 
pany's lease in the Kern river fields. Receiving an offer to enter the employ 
of the E. A. Hardison Perforating Company, he accepted August 1, 1910, 
and at first worked from the Bakersfield headquarters, operating on leases 
in the Kern river field. Meanwhile the west side was making a phenomenal 
development and his employers deemed it advisable for him to change his 
center of work to that stirring locality. During November of 1912 he and 
J. W. Wood began to operate on the west side, where his expert knowledge 
of a most difficult enterprise has given him the confidence of oil operators 
on all (_ f the leases. Giving his attention closely to business duties, he has 
little time and less interest in public affairs, nor has he been deeply inter- 
ested in social or fraternal organizations, although during the period of his 
residence in Texas he united with the Mullin Camp, Woodmen of the World, 
and in addition he is a member of the Loyal Order of Moose No. 473, at 
Bakersfield. 

FRANK A. BYRNS. — The superintendent of the pipe line department 
of the Standard Oil Company at Lost Hills was born in Oil City, Pa., Jan- 
uary 31, 1879. His father, M. A. Byrns, was connected with the oil and gas 
industry in Pennsylvania all his life and he is still an active business man, 
now engaged in general merchandising at Cranberry. Venango county. 
From a youth Frank A. Byrns grew up familiar with the oil industry. 
After graduating from the Oil City High School in 1896 he began the oil 
business under his father, continuing until 1899, when he entered the em- 
ploy of the Kenawah Oil Company in West Virginia, but two years later he 
left their employ to become pumper for Guffy & Galey at Weston, W. Va. 
In the spring of 1901 he was employed at Deadwood, Dak., putting in a gas 
system, on the completion of which he came to California in September, 
1902, and entered the employ of the Standard Oil Company as stationary 
engineer, under W. V. Miller. The next year he filled the same position at 
Coalinga, afterwards becoming field ganger. In 1909 he was transferred to 
San Pablo in charge of the storehouses, but he was later returned to Kern 
county by the company as assistant superintendent of the pipe line depart- 
ment at Lost Hills. In January, 1913, he was made superintendent of the 
department, a position he is now filling with his usual tact and ability. 

In Stockton, Cal., in 1906, occurred the marriage of Mr. Byrns with Miss 
Margaret Neville, a native daughter of San Francisco, and they have one 
child, Frank L. Mr. Byrns is well and favorably known and fraternally is 
a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 

PERCY L. ROBINSON.— An aptitude for mechanical work inherited 
from his father who. although an agriculturist by occupation, exhibited ex- 
ceptional skill in the handling and repairing of machinery, early turned the 
thoughts of Mr. Robinson toward the earning of a livelihood through an 
occupation demanding mechanical skill and in the selection of the oil indus- 
try as his life work he has made no mistake, as his rising success abundantly 
proves. Of English birth and lineage, he displays the dignity, strong per- 
sonality and practical common sense that have characterized his nationality 
from the beginning of history. When he came to the United States in 1908, 
accompanied by his wife and infant child, he proceeded direct to California 
and secured employment in the Kern river fields, where since 1911 he has 
engaged as sub-foreman under S. H. Martin, having charge of the pump 
work on the Sterling division of .the Associated Oil Company. 

The shire of Bedford is Mr. Robinson's native place and January 24, 



1212 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

1881, the date of his birth. As a boy he lived on a farm operated by his 
father, Henry R., who not only showed wise judgment in the tilling of the 
soil, but in addition was so capable in the handling of machinery that he 
was regularly employed in the running of threshing machines and similar 
work calling for considerable skill in mechanics. While attending school 
until fourteen years of age, the son during vacations had every opportunity 
to assist his father with the machines and thus he developed his native 
talent for such work. During December of 1903 he was united in marriage 
with Aliss Susan Sophia Johnson, a native of the adjoining shire of Buck- 
ingham in England, and for some years after marriage he remained in Eng- 
land, earning a livelihood for his family through mechanical and kindred 
work. At Wakefield, Yorkshire, England, their eldest child, Ethel Maudie, 
was born, and a second daughter, Lillian, was born in the Kern River oil 
fields. After settling in Kern county Mr. Robinson engaged in the oil indus- 
try and was with various concerns, but principally the Cleveland Oil Com- 
pany, until his selection for his present position with the Associated Oil 
Company. He belongs to the Woodmen of the World and Loyal Order of 
Moose. 

HON. JAMES WILLIAM FREEMAN.— The life which this narrative 
delineates began in Culpeper county, Va., November 6, 1821, and closed at 
Bakersfield, Cal., October 10, 1890. In 1850 he crossed the plains to California, 
going to Mariposa county, thence to Tulare county and becoming one of the 
fcunders of Visalia. While living there he represented Tulare county in 
the state senate, and it was at this session that he succeeded in 
passing the bill to form Kern county out of Tulare. At the time of the mining 
excitement in 1854 he became a resident of Keyesville and later engaged in 
practice at Havilah, at that time the ccunty-seat of Kern county. For four- 
teen years he served as district attorney of Kern county and his oratorical 
skill, fluency of speech and soundness of logic made him a power in profes- 
sional circles. The title of General, by which he was known, came to him 
through his leadership of a company formed at Visalia at time of the Civil 
war. The larger opportunities offered by Bakersfield caused him to give 
up the happy associations of years and he removed from Havilah to the later 
county-seat, where, just after the completion of his new home, lie passed 
away, followed to the grave by manifold tokens of affection and sincere 
regard. Fraternally, he was a Master Mason. From early life until the close 
of his useful existence he supported Democratic principles. 

The marriage of James W. Freeman and Mrs. Martha Ann (Burkett) 
Brown was solemnized in Sacramento, Cal., October 13, 1876, and resulted 
in the birth of a daughter, Mattie. now Mrs. O'Reilly, of Pasadena. Mrs. 
Freeman, who still occuoies the residence in Bakersfield built for her by the 
General shortly before his death, was born in Lexington, Tenn., and received 
her education in Arkansas public schools. Her parents, James and INIary 
(Greer) Burkett, were born in Tennessee, the former in 1818 and the latter 
in 1821 ; both died in Arkansas, the mother during 1863 and the father in 
1876. 

Shortly after leaving school Miss Martha Ann Burkett became the bride 
of Dr. Leonidas Brown, who was born in Tennessee September 18, 1839. At 
the outbreak of the Civil war, which occurred shortly after he had graduated 
from a medical college in Tennessee, he volunteered as a surgeon in the Con- 
federate army, was assigned to the First Tennessee Regiment and remained 
at the front until the end of the struggle. Twice wounded in battle, he car- 
ried two bullets in his body throughout the balance of his life and they were 
finally the cause of his death. When the south no longer had need of his 
services as a surgeon he began to practice in Arkansas, where, December 22, 
1867, he was united in marriage with Miss Burkett. The young couple set- 
tled in Texas, but about 1870 they came to California and established a home 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1213 

at Havilah, where he served several terms as county physician. He resigned 
from that office when the county seat was moved to Bakersfield. His death 
occurred October 20, 1875, from the effects of his army service. Besides 
his wife he left an only child, Dardan L. Brown, now a resident of Bakers- 
field. For many years Mrs. Freeman has been a member of the Kern County 
Pioneer Society. 

Upon the death of Mr. I^Yeeman the following resolutions were passed 
by the bar of Kern county, October 14, 1890: 

Whereas : Almighty God in his infinite wisdom has seen fit to remove 
from our midst our esteemed fellow citizen, beloved brother attorney and 
able jurist, the Hon. J. W. Freeman, and Whereas: He being one of the 
oldest residents in, and organizers of Kern County, California, and Whereas : 
He has represented this part of the State of California in the Senate of this 
State for the period of two terms, and has represented Kern Count^^ Cali- 
fornia, as District Attorney thereof, for about sixteen years, and Whereas : 
He has been a kind husband, a loving and indulgent father and mild and 
honorable in all he did, and Whereas : His death has deprived Kern County, 
California, of one of its ablest and most honorable lawyers, and the people 
of this county and the members of the Kern County Bar in particular of 
one of their purest, noblest and truest friends. 

Resolved : That while we deeply deplore his untimely death, w-e bow 
our heads in humble submission to this evidence of divine will. Resolved : 
That the relatives of the deceased have our deepest sympathy in this their 
hour of affliction. Resolved: That in the death of the Hon. J. W. Freeman, 
not only has his, family, relatives, the members of this Kern County Bar, and 
the judicial interests of this county, sufifered irreparable loss, but society at 
large has been deprived of one of the most useful members and brightest 
lights. Resolved : That these resolutions be spread upon the minutes of 
this court, and a copy thereof be sent to the family of the deceased, and one 
to each of the newspapers published in the County of Kern, State of Cali- 
fornia, with a request to publish the same. 

Thomas Rhodes, J. W. Mahon and Alvin Fay. Committee. 

DELL J. HOLSON.— In Silver City. N. Mex., where his yruj:h was 
spent, Dell J. Holson first saw the light of day on September 10, 1874. He 
was the son of Thomas W. and Nannie (Rees) Holson. the former a native 
of Glasgow, Scotland, while the mother was born in the Alps, Switzerland. 
Both early settlers in Colorado, it was there they met and married. For a 
time the father followed mining and then ran quartz mills. Removing 
subsequently to Silver City, N. Mex., he became interested in the stock 
business and had a cattle ranch near the city which proved so profitable that 
he followed that as his life work and the family are now making their home 
there. Three children were born to this couple, our subject being the second, 
and he was the first white boy born in Silver City. Receiving the education 
afforded by the grammar and high schools in his native city, the boy early 
learned the cattle business and became so thoroughly inured to the life of a 
stockman that he has followed it ever since. He is very proficient with the 
lasso and in the saddle is much at ease, and he was considered one of the 
best riders and ropers in that section, having won in contests on many 
occasions. When he was twenty-one he took charge of his father's cattle 
ranch and conducted it most successfully, later forming the Holson Cattle 
Company, of which he was president. They ran a very large herd of cattle 
until 1910, when the company sold out and dissolved and Mr. Holson then 
came to Bakersfield to enter the employ of the Kern County Land Company 
as cattle shipper. Tw^o years later he was promoted to stock foreman of the 
Stockdale division, and in August. 1913, on the death of the late Temple 
Taylor, he was promoted to superintendent of the division, which includes 
five of the company's ranches, thus reaping the reward for earnest, pams- 



1214 HISTORY OF KKRX COL^XTY 

takino^ labor and an unsullied record in the employ- of the larg^e company 
for which he is working-. 

Mr. Holson was married in Silver City, N. Mex., to Miss Lillian Clayton, 
a native of Texas and a g^raduate of the Silver City Normal. They have two 
daughters. Gladys and Fay. Mr. Holson was made a Mason in the Silver 
City Lodge No. 8, F. & A. M., and is a member of the Isaac Tififany 
Lodge No. 13, I. O. O. F., and of the Knights of the Maccabees. Mrs. 
Holson is a devout member of the Presbyterian Church. In political senti- 
ment Mr. Holson is a Democrat. 

J. J. DEUEL, SR. — Descended from French-Huguenots, Mr. Deuel fur- 
nishes a fine illustration of the possibilities before a skilled Amer- 
ican mechanic, for he has maintained an excellent reputation at his trade, 
besides showing ability as a farmer. Born at Wellsville, Columbiana county, 
Ohio, September 20, 1856, he began to earn his own livelihood at the age 
of eleven years and for some time was employed in the oil fields of Penn- 
sylvania and West Virginia. From 1871 until 1875 he served an apprentice- 
ship to the trade of boiler-maker in Pittsburg, Pa., whence he came to Cali- 
fornia in the year last-named, settling in San Francisco, where he worked 
for a steamship company until June of that year. Next going to Los An- 
geles he worked for almost two years with the George M. AVheeler geograph- 
ical survey and in the meantime surveyed from the Mexico line to ]\Iount 
Whitney: During that period he was on top of every large mountain in 
California as far north as Mount Whitney. 

Leaving the west Mr. Deuel for ten years engaged in building bridges, 
tanks and boilers for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and in the mean- 
time maintained his home at Wellsville. Ohio, where in 1879 he married 
Miss Flora Virginia Eaton. His next location was at Pensacola, Fla.. where 
for twelve years he was engaged as foreman with the Louisville & Nashville 
Railroad Company, having entire supervision of all boiler work for the 
company. Leaving Florida he returned to California and settled at Kern, 
where for five years he was employed by the Southern Pacific Railroad 
Company. The particular task in which he engaged was the changing of 
the engines from coal to oil. When that task was completed he left the 
railroad employ and began to work for the Axelson Machine Company in 
Bakersfield, delivering the pumps and fittings to the Kern river oil fields. 
Meanwhile he bought from Louis Smith eighty acres situated five miles 
southeast of Bakersfield. comprising one-half of the northeast quarter of 
section 2, range 29, where he now makes his home. This he has improved 
with three wells, one having a two-inch pump operated by a six horse power 
engine, and the other two have four-inch centrifugal pumps operated by 
twenty horse power oil engines which can deliver eighty inches of water. 

Mr. and Airs. Deuel are members of the Bakersfield Christian Church. 
Besides their own three children they have reared two other children, 
sisters. Flora and Eva Ramsey, the elder of whom is now the wife of a 
blacksmith at Kern. Of their own children, J. J., Jr.. holds a very respon- 
sible position as sales manager with the Axelson ]\Iachine Company for the 
state of California; the only daughter, Lottie M., is the wife of Henry Pierce 
and lives at Pensacola, Fla. ; and the younger son, H. P., follows the trade 
of a boiler-maker at McCook, Neb., where he is employed by a railroad 
company. 

JEAN B. ESTRIBOU.— Besides the management of the Afetropole 
market, Mr. Estribou devoted much time to the raising of cattle and alfalfa, 
for which purpose he bought and improved a ranch two miles south- 
east of town, and there he built and now maintains a slaughter-house. In 
addition to raising cattle on the ranch he buys elsewhere, for his trade is large 
and there is a constant demand for beef of the finest quality. It is said that 



HISTORY OF KKRX COUNTY 1215 

few men in Kern county excel him in judging the best points of stock and he 
shows especial skill in selecting cattle capable of being developed into the best 
quality of beef. In 1912 he sold his retail market, but continued the whole- 
sale beef business and then started the Estribou delicatessen, in the Metro- 
pole block, from which place he manages his wholesale business. It is 
equipped with a modern refrigeration plant. 

From early life Mr. Estribou has made his own way in the world, but 
the necessity of self-support, instead of proving a detriment, developed in 
him qualities of frugality, self-reliance and thrift and proved the foundation 
of ultimate success. During childhood he lived in Basses Pyrenees, France, 
where he was born June 16, 1865, in the village of Ogeu. The second child 
in the family and the only one to attain mature years, he was only five when 
death deprived him of the loving care of his mother, Marie (Fayance) Estri- 
bou, and later his father, Paul, spent some years in Buenos Ayres, South 
America, engaging there in the stock business until his death. The break- 
ing up of the home threw the boy upon the world at an age. when he should 
have been in school, but in spite of this handicap he has acquired by self- 
culture a broad knowledge of the world. In boyhood he served an appren- 
ticeship to the trade of butcher. Coming to California in 1882 and arriving 
in San Francisco, he worked at the dairy industry on the bay and also found 
emplovment in a laundry, as well as in other lines of business. During 
1893 he came to Kern county and two years later opened the Metropole 
market at East Bakersfield. Since then he has erected on Humboldt street 
a substantial brick residence, said to be one of the finest homes in the place. 
This beautiful home is presided over by his wife, whom he married in 
San Francisco and who was Miss Sophie Laborde, a native of Basses Py- 
renees, France. Five children blessed their union and the three youngest, 
Paul, Alfred and Denise, still remain to brighten the home with their pres- 
ence. The eldest, Mrs. Jeanette Bryan, is living in Bakersfield, and the 
second, Frank, a graduate of Heald's Business College at San Jose, is now 
a bookkeeper in the First National Bank of Kern. Besides being a leading 
member of the Board of Trade, Mr. Estribou has allied himself with other 
movements for the business and material upbuilding of his chosen place of 
residence. In politics he votes with the Republican party. Fraternally he 
holds membership with the Eagles, Druids, Woodmen of the World and 
Improved Order of Red Men. 

CECIL H. HANNING.— A native of Maine, Mr. Banning was born 
in Littleton, Aroostook county, July 14, 1872, the son of Merrell B. and 
Martha J. (Levitt) Hanning, farmers in Aroostook county. The father 
served in a ]\raine regiment during the Civil war for four years and eight 
months as a second lieutenant. 

Cecil H. Hanning is the youngest of four children, all living. As a 
boy he was sent to the public school near his home and studied in that New 
England institution until he was eighteen years old. The ensuing year he 
spent in labor on the family homestead and in 1891 he came to California, 
arriving November 24 and settling on the South Fork of the Kern river 
in Kern county. Being without capital with which to start in life on his 
own account, he worked for wages eight years and in 1899 found himself 
able to set up as a farmer in a modest way. Renting four hundred and 
eighty acres of land, he engaged in general farming and stock-raising. At 
this time he has three hundred and seventy-five acres under cultivation, 
grows much grain and alfalfa and has two hundred and sixty head of cattle 
and two hundred and fifty hogs. December 25, 1900, Mr. Hanning married 
Miss May M. McCray, who was born at Kernville, October 26. 1880, and they 
have three children, John C, Charles F. and Ruth. 

H. P. JENSEN, O. D. — A patronymic indicative of Scandinavian ancestry 
finds confirmation in the fact that Dr. lensen is a native of the fine old king- 



1216 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

dom of Denmark and a descendant of a race identified with that rugged coun- 
try from a period when authentic history lapses into tradition. His father, 
Mads, a man of exceptional expertness in the jewelry business, followed that 
line of work for years in Odense, Denmark, and later in Scranton, Iowa, 
where he still makes his home and carries on a prosperous trade. By his 
marriage to Caroline Larsen he had two children, the second of whom, H. P., 
was burn at Nyborg, on the east coast of the island of Fyen, Denmark, Octo- 
ber 27, 1875. In addition to the usual public-school opportunities he had the 
privilege of a polytechnic course. During vacations he assisted his father in 
the store and thus gained a thorough knowledge of the jewelry business 
while yet a mere lad. Accompanying his father to the United States in 1895 
he remained with him in Iowa for a brief period and then drifted west to 
Kansas, where he secured a position as manager of a jewelry business in 
Great Bend, continuing in the same place for five years and then resigning in 
order that he might enter upon a course of professional study. 

From his young boyhood the study of diseases of the eye had interested 
Dr. Jensen and as much of his work in the jewelry store had to do with the 
fitting of eye-glasses and spectacles he began to specialize along this line, 
the result being that in 1900 he matriculated in the Kansas City College of 
Ophthalmology. At the completion of the regular course of study he was 
graduated in 1902 with the degree of O. D. and with an exceptionally fine 
record for successful work. Not content with the information thus acquired he 
took a pcst-graduate course in Dr. Hamilton's School of Ophthalmology, a 
department of the Columbia Medical College of Kansas City. After the com- 
pletion of the second course he opened an office at St. Joseph, Mo., where he 
built up a growing and valuable practice during the eighteen months of his 
residence in the place. Desiring, however, to establish a home in the west 
he came to California during 1907 and spent six months in a tour of inspection 
through the state. 

At the expiration of the time Dr. Jensen selected Bakersfield as his 
future field of professional endeavor and at once opened an office at No. 1413 
Nineteenth street, where he began the practice of ophthalmology. In 1912 
he removed to his present quarters at No. 1513, where he has a suite equipped 
with every modern appliance for the successful prosecution of his work. 
Possessing superior ability along inventive lines, he recently invented a 
cylindrical grinding machine superior to any similar appliance now in the 
market and it is his expectation to utilize this invention in his own grinding 
establishment, which is operated by electricity. Recognized as a master of 
all diseases of the eye, he is consulted in all such cases in the community, 
not only by the patients themselves, but very frequently by physicians and 
other opticians, and his record for prompt and successful diagnosis of eye 
troubles entitles him to a position among the leading men of his profession 
in the state. To assist him in his practice he has his wife, whom he married 
in Fresno and who was Miss Lena Weiser, a native of Texas. Being a grad- 
uate of the California Optical College of San Francisco, she is thoroughly 
competent to assist him in the most delicate and intricate operations. Along 
the line of professional developments he finds pleasure and profit in asso- 
ciation with members of the American and California Optical Associations 
and further has served as vice-president of the Central California Optical 
Association, in which he ranks as a leading member. In fraternal relations 
he is connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, politically 
votes the Republican ticket at all national elections and in religion adheres 
to the Lutheran denomination, the church of his forefathers and the faith in 
which he was reared in his early home in Denmark. 

GUS ODEMAN. — A member of a family of eleven children and fifth 
among the nine that attained maturity, Gus Odeman was born at Sayrsborg, 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1217 

Norway, December 16, 1878. His parents sent him to school and brought 
him up in the faith of the Methodist Church. Like many of the boys of 
the community, he early went to sea. When only fifteen years of age 
he earned his livelihood as a sailor on the North sea. About 1896, after 
three years in brief voyages on that water, he shipped before the mast 
of an English vessel that started from Frederikstad on a cruise around the 
world, touching port at Australia and the Hawaiian Islands. At the time 
of stopping at Honolulu the plague raged in that city. The vessel was then 
turned toward America and cast anchor at Tacoma, where it was sold, over- 
hauled and loaded with lumber for the Australian markets. Altogether he 
made three voyages to Australia. In 1902, after having sailed several times 
around the world, first under the English flag and later under that of 
France, he settled in San Francisco and announced his intention of becoming 
an American citizen. During the two following years he was in the revenue 
service ale ng the Pacific coast and as a salmon fisher in Alaskan waters. 
During 1904 he retired from the life of a sailor after eleven years spent on 
the high seas. 

A brief period of employment as fireman on a dredge on the San Joaquin 
river was followed by promotion to be a leverman, but soon Mr. Odeman 
was obliged to leave on account of an attack of malarial fever. The doctor 
ordered him to the mountains, but a sojourn in Shasta county did not bring 
restoration of health and he then began work at a logging camp in the 
Santa Cruz mountains, where soon his strength was restored. Upon leaving 
the logging camp he spent five months as a fireman on river boats in the 
San Francisco bay, after which he engaged in fishing at Santa Cruz and 
followed kindred occupations in the same locality. Later he spent a few 
months in dredging at Moro Rock. For eighteen months he was employed 
in the vicinity of San Pedro, where a passageway for ocean vessels was 
being opened up to Wilmington. From there he entered the employ of the 
J. F. Lucey Company of Los Angeles, and was engaged in constructing 
siphons in connection with the building of the Los Angeles aqueduct which 
conveys the waters from the Owens river on its way to Los Angeles. Much 
of his work was in connection with the construction of the San Antonio and 
Dove Spring Camp siphons. W^hen the job neared completion, he resigned 
for the work had been replete with accidents and inimical to life. Since 
then he has been in the Sunset and Midway fields. He has worked for the 
United Crude and American Oil companies and for the Monarch refinery, 
owned by the Sunset Monarch Oil Company, but more recently has been a 
pumper in the employ of the Boston Pacific Oil Company. Since coming to the 
oil fields he has invested in a tract of sixteen acres in Merced county and 
it is his intention to improve the propertv bv planting fig trees. 

GEORGE CARLOS SABICHI, M. S.,'M. D.— Romance enters into the 
association of the Sabichi family with California. As early as 1838 Matthias 
Sabichi, of Austrian birth, came from Vienna to Los Angeles and there won a 
bride from an old family long resident at the Mexican capital. Two sons. 
Matthias, Jr., and Frank, were born of the union, the younger of these claiming 
October 4. 1842, as the date of his birth. When eight years of age. his mother 
having passed away, his father decided to take the boys to England in order 
that they might have the advantages of a liberal education. At that time Los 
Angeles was a mere hamlet without schools worthy of the name. The dis- 
covery of gold was drawing immense throngs to the west, but was not in- 
creasing the population of the southern part of the state. To a man am- 
bitious for his sons, there seemed little opportunity in the Spanish pueblo 
that as yet had not become imbued with American enterprise. Accordingly 
father and sons started on the long journey to the old world. While they 
were crossing the Isthmus of Panama the father was suddenly stricken with* 



1218 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

yellow fever and succumbed to the disease, leaving the young boys alone and 
friendless. When the unfortunate voyage had come to an end and they were 
landed in England, the American consul, Joseph Rodney Croskey, received 
them into his own home, became a foster-father in every sense of the word 
and carefully attended to their education. 

Upon the completion of a course of several years in the Royal Academy 
at Gosport near Portsmouth. England, where he had received a practical 
education, Frank Sabichi was given a commission in the English navy and 
cruised through the waters of Europe, visiting the principal cities of the con- 
tinent, besides seeing much of the Orient. In his voyages he found abundant 
opportunity to acquaint himself with the history, customs and languages of 
the various countries, and thus he became fluent in the use of all the lan- 
guages of the south, of Europe. His own misfortunes had made him self- 
reliant. Forced to care for himself from an early age, he became observant 
beyond his years, while association with cultured people in addition to his own 
thorough education gave him a culture of manner and dignity of address. 
Dui-ing his service in the navy he took part in many historical adventures, 
notably the Sepoy war in India and the siege of Sebastopol. Upon more 
than one voyage he visited the Philippine Islands, whose wealth and possi- 
bilities greatly impressed him. Notwithstanding the fact that he was both 
popular and successful in the navy, he never ceased to yearn for the land of 
his birth and during 1860 it became possible for him to return to Los Angeles. 
Having determined to prepare himself for the practice of law, he entered the 
office of Glassell, Smith 8z Patton, at that time leading lawyers of Southern 
California, and there continued until he was admitted to the bar. 

Through familiarity with the language of the then prevailing population 
and through knowledge of local afifairs, Frank Sabichi came rapidly to a 
substantial and remunerative practice. However, as a practitioner in a com- 
munity of small population he felt himself to be hampered, and so gradually 
entered into business enterprises, eventually retiring from practice in order 
to give his entire time to personal matters. Several important land syndicates 
and projected railroad systems received his practical counsel and co-operation. 
He became a director in the San Jose Land Company, which controlled a vast 
acreage now in the heart of the orange belt of Southern California. Appre- 
ciating the necessity of extending railway lines throughout the country, he 
became associated in the promotion of the Los Angeles & Ballona Railroad 
and for a time acted as vice-president of the company. His purchases of real 
estate in Los Angeles testify as to his sagacity and foresight. The twenty 
acres formerly the family homestead are now included in East Seventh street, 
a thoroughfare of great commercial importance, whose first establishment 
was in a great measure due to the activity of Mr. Sabichi. From the first he 
had a great faith in the future of the city and this c( nviction he supported by 
personal investments, which eventually brought him wealth. As a progres- 
sive citizen he maintained a warm interest in political and public afifairs. 
Every movement for the local advancement received his aid. It was not his 
desire to accent public office, for his business affairs engrossed his attention 
and were more to his taste than public service. After repeated refusals to 
become a candidate he was elected to the city council in 1871 and re-elected in 
1874, acting for the latter term as president of that body. The presence of a 
man of executive abilitv and civic rectitude being necessary in the council in 
1884 to establish an additional water supply, he reluctantly consented to be- 
come a member of the board. During his incumbency he took up and con- 
cluded negotiations by which the city acquired immensely important water 
rights upon Los Feliz rancho, which in later years became of strategic advan- 
tage to a city of constant development. 

During 1893 Mr. Sabichi was urged to permit his name to be presented 
to President Cleveland for appointment as minister to Guatemala. Thirty-nine 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1219 

senators and twenty-six assemblymen of the state legislature, irrespective 
of party affiliation, the justices of the supreme court of California, the bench 
and bar of San Francisco and Los Angeles, together with merchants, bankers, 
lawyers and captains of industry throughout all of the state, inscribed a 
memorial to the president presenting the abundant and admirable personal 
qualifications of Mr. Sabichi and his fitness for the delicate task of repre- 
senting the national government in the southern country. In addition to 
many other public offices, Mr. Sabichi served several times on important 
commissions cif the city, particularly the park commission and the board of 
police commissioners. Besides being a charter member of the Pioneer Society 
of Southern California he was identified actively with the Native Sons of 
the Golden West and held in it the office of grand trustee until his death. 

The marriage of Frank Sabichi took place May 4, 1865, and united him 
with Magdalena, daughter of William Wolfskill. The story of the life of 
Mr. Wolfskill is replete with interest and adventure. One of the earliest 
settlers of Los Angeles, he became the owner of a broad domain which in- 
cluded within its limits the first orange grove planted in Southern California 
outside of the old missions. This consisted of one hundred acres. When the 
Southern Pacific Railroad was brought into the city the family donated a 
part of this valuable grove of fifteen acres to be utilized for depot and freight 
yards. The example of his honored father-in-law and the remembrance of his 
own father, so long since dead, aroused in Mr. Sabichi a desire to add to the 
prestige of their names and he spent his whole life as one who has a trust in 
his keeping. When finally he passed from earth April 12, 1900, he was fol- 
lowed to the grave by tributes of admiration and praise from the many who 
had occasion to test his generosity, appreciate his worth and esteem his 
gracious dignity. His widow, at the age of sixty-eight years, is still making 
Los Angeles her home. 

Among the children of Frank and Magdalena Sabichi the following at- 
tained mature years: Francis Winfield, who died at the age of forty; Magda- 
lena, x^gatha, Joseph Rodney, George Carlos, William W., Louis M., Rosa 
and Beatrice. Juanita, Ruth Naomi and Leopold died in early years. Of 
those who attained maturity George Carlos Sabichi, \[. S.. M. D., was fifth in 
order of birth. After having been sent through the grammar grades of the 
public schools in the city wdiere he was born November 4, 1878, he became 
a student in St. Vincent's College and there in 1898 received the degree of 
B. S. During 1899 he was granted the degree of M. S., after a thorough post- 
graduate course. Next he took biological studies at Berkeley, where he be- 
came a charter member of the Beta Xi, of Kappa Sigma. With the advantage 
of such excellent classical and scientific training, he matriculated in the medi- 
cal department of the University of Southern California, where he studied for 
four successive years, being given the degree of M. D. in June, 1904. at the 
time of graduation. From that time until 1906 he acted as house surgeon 
in the Los Angeles County hospital, with a capacity of nine hundred and fifty 
beds and wbere his advantages for practical experience were unexcelled. There 
he laid the foundation for the wide reputation in surgery he now enjoys. Dur- 
ing 1906 and 1907 he served as first assistant surgeon at the National Soldiers' 
Home for Disabled Soldiers at Sawtelle. Cal., receiving the appointment to the 
position from Brigadier-General La Grange. At the same time he carried 
on a general practice at Sawtelle and Los Angeles. Upon resigning his post 
at the hospital he went east for post-graduate study and took a course at 
Columbia University, New York City, where he made a specialty of surgery 
and received the degree of M. D. Returning to Los Angeles in June of 1907, 
he was married there on the 26th of that month, his wife being Miss May 
Myers, whose mother is a direct descendant of Gen. Robert E. Lee and 
whose father, John Myers, is an honored pioneer of Los Angeles. There 
are two children in the family of Dr. Sabichi, namely: Isabelle Magdalena and 



1220 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Juanita Ronero. On December 27, 1912, the University of Southern California 
granted Dr. Sabichi the degree of Doctor of Medicine, an honor extended to 
only such of the alumni whose work has proven highly meritorious. 

A residence at Randsburg during 1907-08 was brought about by the ap- 
pointment (if Dr. Sabichi as chief surgeon for the Yellow Aster Mining and 
Milling Company, which employs about one thousand men. From Randsburg 
he came to Bakersfield in April, 1908, and here in addition to conducting an of- 
fice practice and acting as family physician he has become consulting surgeon 
for the coast lines of the Santa Fe, covering the entire system from Albu- 
querque to Los Angeles and from Bakersfield to San Francisco. He has 
his office in the Producers' Bank building and his residence at No. 1620 Seven- 
teenth street. Alcng the line of his profession he has maintained an active as- 
sociation with the Los Angeles Medical Society, the California State Med- 
ical Association, the American Medical Association and the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science. In addition he has acted as surgeon 
for the Knights of Columbus, of which he is a leading member. Other organ- 
izations to which he gives allegiance are the Fraternal Brotherhood. Modern 
M^oodmen of America and Woodmen of the World, also Bakersfield Parlor 
No. 42, Native Sons of the Golden West, in which he has been honored with 
the office of president. The Mu Sigma Mu and Bakersfield Club have his name 
enrolled upon the list of members and his interests have been broadened still 
further by an active identification with the National Geographical Society. 

DR. CHARLES H. SEARS.— A native of Michigan, Charles H. Sears 
was born in Battle Creek, the son of Allen H. and Edna (Howe) Sears. His 
boyhood was spent in Michigan where he learned the trades of blacksmith 
and horseshcer. Upon coming to California in 1886 he secured empL yment 
on the Richard Gird ranch near Pomona, where for two years he had 
charge of the machine work. Upon leaving the ranch he went into Pomona 
and opened a blacksmith shop en Second street and Garey avenue, where 
now stands a large implement house. At that time Pomona was a mere 
village, giving little prospect of its present high state of development, and 
he worked with other pioneers to secure needed civic improvements. Grad- 
ually his shop increased in importance and ten hands found steady employ- 
ment. While living in Pomona he first began to practice veterinary surgery, 
although he can scarcely recall a time when he was not interested in 
horses and successful in caring for them. A practical knowledge of the 
profession was acquired under Dr. W. J. Fleming and upon the death of the 
latter he succeeded to the veterinary practice, later passing a most creditable 
examination before the state board of veterinary examiners. 

From Pomona Dr. Sears removed to San Bernardino in 1900 and engaged 
in veterinary practice, thence coming to Bakersfield in January of 1905. Since 
then he has conducted a veterinary hospital at No. 2211 Chester avenue, where 
now he has forty head of horses in his care. This being the only hospital 
of the kind in Kern county and having a reputation for skilled management, it 
naturally receives the bulk of the practice for miles around Bakersfield. As 
a member of the State Veterinary Medical Association the Doctor keeps in 
touch with the work throughout California and meets every improvement 
with an earnest determination to avail himself of its advantages. Asa judge 
of horses his reputation is widely extended, while in the breeding of fine 
animals he also has been successful. A number of well-known horses have 
come from his barns and he still owns Richard B. by Woolsey, a three-year-old 
with a record of 2:16, trial 2.06; also Donello, said to be without a superior 
along the coast, record of 2:18^^, trial 2:10; besides other animals that stand 
at the head in the list of equine favorites throughout the state. 

HENRY F. DEVENNEY was born in Santa Ana. Orange county. Cal., 
May 11, 1879, the fourth oldest of the eight children born to John and Eliza 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1221 

(McDonald) Devenney, who were born in Pennsylvania and Iowa respec- 
tively. The family came to California in 1874 and located at Santa Ana, where 
the parents were farmers. Eventually they retired to Bay City, where they 
now reside. 

Henry F. Devenney was brought up on the ranch and received his educa- 
tion in the public schools of Santa Ana, on the completion of which he fol- 
lowed farming- until he entered the employ of the Santa Ana brickyard. In 
a short time he resigned and engaged as foreman of the Stanton ranch at 
Brookhurst for four years. At the end of that period he came to Wasco in 
August. 1909, locating a homestead of eighty acres six miles south of town. 
Afterwards he obtained title to it and since then has improved the property. 
In February, 1911, he entered the employ of the Fourth Extension Water 
Company, having charge of their engineering and pumping plants. He also 
purchased a local water system, which he has extended, and is supplying 
water for domestic use to his patrons in Wasco. He is a firm believer in the 
future prosperity of Wasco and has invested his surplus and owns two resi- 
dences in town. 

In Anaheim occurred the marriage of Henry F. Devenney and Miss Mar- 
garet L. Williams, who is a native daughter of Orange county. Of the union 
there is one child, Carl Henry. Politically Mr. Devenney is a Republican, 
Fraternally he is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and w^ith 
his wdfe belongs to the order of the Fraternal Brotherhood. 

JOSE SOLA w^as born in the city of Ochagarvia, Province of Navarra, 
Spain, June 20. 1881, where he grew up on the farm and received his education 
in the local schools. He aided his parents all he could and also managed to 
work out and in that way made enough extra money to attend night school. 
W'hen nineteen he enlisted in the Spanish army, serving three years and be- 
coming a corporal. While in the army he learned the barbers' trade and fol- 
lowed it until his honorable discharge in December, 1902, when he came to 
California and in the same month to Bakersfield. 

Not understanding the language or customs, he accepted the first place 
he could find, that of sheep herder for Miller & Lux. After eleven months in 
their employ and five months with the Kern County Land Company he came 
to Tehachapi, where he worked for Jamison at the Lime Kiln for four months 
and was then taken sick. Upon his recovery he went to San Francisco, where 
he established himself in the barber business on Powell and Broadway. On 
selling out he worked in the Palace shop until three days before the earth- 
quake; he had taken a boat for San Pedro and thus escaped the terrors of that 
period. Then working at the trade in Los Angeles, Bakersfield and San Pedro, 
he next opened a barber shop in Fresno and while engaged in business there 
he married IMiss Ignacia Errea, also a native of Spain. 

On account of his wife's health he sold his business in Fresno and re- 
moved to Tehachapi, Two years later he opened the Yellowstone barber shop, 
where he has been successfully in business ever since and is well and favorably 
known. He has built a residence in the town where he resides with his wife 
and three children, Mike, Ignatius and Margaret. Fraternally he is a member 
of Fresno Aerie No. 39, Eagles. He is favorably impressed with the country 
of his adoption and his admiration for the Stars and Stripes impelled him to 
acquire American citizenship November 20, 1911. Politically he adheres to the 
principles of the Republican party. 

HIBBARD SMITH WILLIAMS.— Having been brought to California 
when only four years of age, Mr, Williams is a typical Californian in all 
except nativity, and no one is more enthusiastic than he regarding the future 
possibilities of this state. In this respect he resembles his father, the late 
Charles H. Williams, who from the time of his arrival in Los Angeles in 



1222 HISTORY OF KKRX COUNTY 

1874 until his death in 1879 always contended that it would eventually become 
the greatest city along the Pacific coast. The faith he cherished concerning 
the future of Los Angeles he backed by his actions, acquiring the title to 
about five city blocks in the downtown district. It was not his privilege to 
live to witness the fruition of his hopes and the realization of his optimistic 
faith, but by his identification with T. E. Rowan in the real estate business 
he promoted civic development and became a factor in permanent upbuild- 
ing. F(T years he was an influential Knight Templar. At dififerent periods 
of his life he had lived in the three great sections of the country: the east, 
where he was born at Boston, ]\Ias§., and where he engaged in the stationery 
business at Waltham ; the middle west, where he settled after the Civil war 
in Floyd county, Iowa, and built and operated a flour mill at Rockford ; and, 
lastlv. the far west, where his closing years were spent. 

The marriage of Charles H. Williams united him with Miss Emma 
Irene Hibbard, a native of Milwaukee, and now Mrs. E. I. Winslow. of 
Fresno. There were three sons of the first marriage and of these Hibbard 
Smith Williams was born at Rockford, Floyd county, Iowa, November 18, 
1870. Only the vaguest memories remain to him of the old Rockford home 
and the flour mill built by his father near the placid Shell Rock river. After 
the age of four years he lived in Los Angeles, where he attended the public 
schools, the University of Southern California and the Los Angeles Business 
College. Early in life he began to work as a freight clerk with the Hancock- 
Banning Company, after which he attended business college until gradua- 
tion. Having a desire to study machinery, he apprenticed himself to the 
trade of a machinist with Fairbanks. Morse & Co. in San Francisco, con- 
tinuing with them from 1898 until 1901. On the 15th of January of the latter 
year he came to the Kern river oil field, engaging as a bookkeeper and assis- 
tant foreman with the dreen-Whittier Oil Company. Seeing the possibili- 
ties of the oil industry, he determined to learn all of its details. With that 
object in view he went into the field and took anv position possible to fill. 
For a time he was employed as a pumper. Later he learned drilling. After 
fourteen months he entered the employ of the Associated Oil Company as 
division superintendent at McKittrick. arriving at this place April 15, 1902. 
For seven years he filled the position, discharging its duties with the great- 
est efficiency. Meanwhile he had opened up the McKittrick field for the 
company and had accomplished much in their interests. When finally he 
resigned from their employ in 1909 it was for the purpose of carrying on the 
Pacific iron works at McKittrick, which place he had purchased in partner- 
ship with J. M. Smith. Later he bought out the interest of his partner, since 
which time he has been sole proprietor of the plant. A specialty is made of 
the manufacture of oil well machinery, fishing and drilling tools. 

The distinction of being the largest manufacturing business in the north- 
west part of Kern county belongs to the Pacific iron works. Steam and elec- 
tric nower enable the work to be conducted with dispa'ch. Besides carrying 
on this important plant Mr. Williams is known as the pioneer wild-catter 
in the McKittrick field. Some years ago he drilled a well on the Leader Oil 
Company's lease in North McKittrick, but found no oil. With a Ball and 
Williams outfit he drilled a well in the same field that still gives out a 
solendid production, but his interests in this well have been sold. About 
1911 he obtained a lease of forty acres seven miles north of McKittrick, 
where he put down a well to a depth of fourteen hundred feet and obtained a 
good supply of oil. Considerable profit has come to him through his specu- 
lation in the oil game, in which he has taken many hazards, but has come 
out in excellent financial shape. He has given very little attention to poli- 
tics, but votes the Republican ticket in national elections. Fraternally he 
was made a Mason in Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M., and he is also 
identified with the Bakersfield Club. His marriage took place in Los Angeles 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1223 

and united him with Miss Delia A. Bowlsby, who was born at Elizabeth, Jo 
Daviess county, 111., but has been a resident of California from girlhood. 

AUGUSTINE AMOUR.— Born at Marseilles, France, February 12, 1881, 
and reared at Gap, Hautes-Alpes, Mr. Amour was orphaned in lioyhood. 
While still very youne; he served an apprenticeship to the trade of 
butcher, wc^rking for his board and clothes, and at the conclusion 
of his time receiving: regular wages. Neither the trade nor the sur- 
roundings afforded him satisfaction. Prospects for the fu.ure seemed 
discouraging. Hearing much concerning the favorable openings in California 
he determined to come to the west. When he first reached the state and landed 
finally in Bakersfield in November, 1903, he was without means, but he experi- 
enced no difficulty in earning a livelihood through the herding of sheep. A 
year later he went to San Francisco and in about three months proceeded to 
Napa county, where for three years he held a position in the dairy department 
of the state hospital. 

Upon coming to Bakersfield with the intention of becoming a permanent 
resident, Mr. Amour embarked in the bakery business on Humboldt street. 
In time he bought the lot and building, continuing in that location until 
August, 1913, when he rented the place. Immediately thereafter he began to 
improve his lots on the corner of Kern and Grove streets, where he has 
erected a two-story brick structure, 37x52 feet in dimensions. The Amour 
building will be utilized for a store and a rooming house, both under the per- 
sonal supervision of Mr. Amour, assisted by his wife, who was Miss Alberta 
Riccalde, a native of the province of Asturias, Spain, but a resident of Cali- 
fornia from girlhood. Their family comprises two children, Augustina and 
Albert. Since becoming a citizen of our country Mr. Amour- has been stanch 
in his allegiance to the Republican party. In fraternal relations he is con- 
nected with the Druids. 

ALFRED SIEMON.— Born in Van Buren county, Iowa, January 2, 1881, 
Afred Siemon is a son of William and Josephine Siemon, who for a consider- 
able period made a home in Iowa, but when their son had become a pupil in 
the eighth grade of the public schools they moved to Missouri, settling in 
Caldwell county. Later he became a student in the high school of Brecken- 
ridge, Caldwell county, and continued there until his graduation with the 
class of 1898. In his early life the family made a number of removals and 
thus he was privileged to see something of the country in Iowa, Missouri and 
Colorado before they came to California in 1902 and established their home 
in W^hittier, Los Angeles county. The presence in that section of a con- 
siderable number of members of the Society of Friends had attracted them to 
Whittier, where for four years he attended the Friends' College in the classical 
course. Before he had completed school he had fixed his ambition upon the 
profession of law and his first studies in that line were conducted in the law 
office of A. Moore at Whittier, where also he served for four months as a 
justice of the peace, but resigned at the time of going into Los Angeles to 
pursue his law studies. There he matriculated in the law department of the 
University of Southern California and while carrying on his studies in that 
institution he earned a livelihood as a law clerk in the offices of H. T. Gordon 
and A. P. Thompson. 

While still in the Thompson law office, during the July session of the 
district court of appeals, Mr. Siemon was admitted to the bar in 1908, and in 
the following year he finished his work at the law school. While employed as 
law clerk he had acquired a thorough knowledge of stenography and type- 
writing and his skill in the art proved of great advantage to him in his work in 
law offices. Possibly his most important and most helpful position, from the 
standpoint of experience gained, was that of salaried assistant for one year 
to Oscar A. Trippett, general attorney for many extensive interests in South- 



1224 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

ern California, and special attorney for the California National Bank, the 
Home Telephone Company, the William R. Staats Company, the Lowe Gas 
Company and other corporations. The prominence of Mr. Trippett in trial 
cases gave Mr. Siemon an opportunity to appear in court on motions, etc., and 
he also became an expert in the preparation of briefs, so that when he 
opened an office in Bakersfield he was thoroughly qualified to attend to the 
interests of clients in every department of the law. Since establishing himself 
in this cit}' he has been associated with W. W. Kaye, with offices in the Hop- 
kins building, and the firm has become well known throughout all of the San 
Joacjuin valley. Six months before he came to this city he had married, in 
July, 1!;09, Miss Inez Bennett, of Whittier, Cal., and they have a pleasant 
home in Bakersfield, brightened by the presence of a daughter, Josephine, and 
a son. Bennett. The family hold membership with the First Methodist Episco- 
pal Church, in which Mr. Siemon officiates as a steward and in addition he has 
been for many years an active adherent of the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation, in which organization he rendered intelligent and constant assistance 
during the period of his college and university attendance. 

Mr. Siemon is taking an active part in furthering the work of the Good 
Citizenship League of Bakersfield 

E. S. FOGG, M. D. — Northern Kern County is fortunate in having located 
in its midst the person of Dr. Fogg, a man of much professional ability, high 
ideals and strong moral worth. He is well and favorably known, not only 
among his patients and wide range of practice, but among the men of his 
profession in the county. His birth occurred in Cumberland County, N. J., 
August 28, 1867, and he is the youngest child of a family of eight children 
born to Joseph H. and Rebecca W. (Davis) Fogg, both havinof been born in 
that county. On his paternal side he is descended from an English family, 
members of which came to Philadelphia in its early settlement and were 
Quakers. On the maternal side he is of Welch extraction. 

His parents were farmers so that. early in life Dr. Fogg learned the rudi- 
ments of farming, receiving his preliminary education in the public and high 
school at Shiloh, N. J. After completing the high school he took the scientific 
course at Alfred university in western New York, where he remained two 
years. During this time he became acquainted with Dr. Mark Shepherd and 
the association with him decided him to study medicine when he should have 
acquired the necessary credits to enter medical college. He next spent two 
years in the scientific department at Milton college. Rock county, Wis., and 
then entered the medical department of the University of Michigan at Ann 
Arbor and was graduated in Julv, 1897, with the degree of M. D. For one 
year he attended the Philadelphia Polyclinic Hospital and then began the 
practice of his profession in Bridgeton, N. J., a place in his native county 
where he continued with marked success until 1910. During this time he was 
surgeon to the Bridgeton hospital for about ten years. Coming to California 
in 1910 he located in Wasco in the fall of the same year and here he has 
met with deserving success as a physician and surgeon, having attained a 
large and lucrative practice throughout the northern and northwestern part of 
Kern county. He is the local surgeon for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe 
Railroad. 

The marriage of Dr. Fogg to Miss Emma Bullock was celebrated in 
Shiloh, N. J., his wife being a native of Derbyshire, England, and they have 
one child, Katherine. Fraternally he is a Master Mason. 

E. K. BLOOD. — When the eastern states were giving up some of their 
finest young people to aid in the settlement of the vast regions to the west, 
Daniel H. and Susan (Turner) Blood, natives of Ontario county, N. Y., 
joined the tide of westward emigration and betook themselves to the then 
wilds of Michigan. Clinton county had few settlers when they arrived to take 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1225 

up residence there. One of their first steps was the locating of a claim and 
the securing of title to land, from which they endeavored to develop a farm. 
Near them sprang up a tiny village, which Mr. Blood named Victor in honor 
of his native town of Victor in New York. At that place in 1856 occurred 
the birth of a son, E. K., who was next to the youngest in a family that com- 
prised twelve children, eight of whom are now living. In boyhood this youth 
had few advantages. The country was new, schools widely scattered, the 
towns small and industries stagnant. The new tide of progress had not yet 
begun which was to make of Michigan one of the greatest states in the union. 
Theirs was the pioneer task of working in the midst of discouraging difficulties 
and earning a livelihood by the most strenuous and unceasing exertion. 

CominGT to California during 1893 and settling- at Bakersfield, where later 
he built a residence on Dracena avenue, Mr. Blood began to work at his trade 
under Erank Hicox. Eor two years he continued with the same employer and 
during the latter part of the period he acted as foreman on jobs. Later he 
worked for James Rich and Mr. Ashton. About 1899 he began to take con- 
tracts for building. Since then he has built numerous public structures and 
private residences, including the Noriega block in Ea^t Bakersfield at No. 525 
Sumner street, the barns for the Union Ice Company in Bakersfield, the 
Gregory building. Ideal Livery Stable, home of J. B. Wrenn and residence of 
Arthur Crite as well as many others. Eor three years he was employed on 
contracts in Monterey county at Carmel by the Sea, where he built stores and 
cottages and aided in the early construction work in that popular resort. Erom 
the time of attaining his majority he has voted the Republican ticket and his 
interest in national issues has been that of a progressive, loyal citizen. In 
religious belief he is connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church and has 
been unvaryingly generous in contributions to such work as well as to gen- 
eral philanthropic projects. Before leaving Michigan he had married Miss 
Carrie Chapman, a native of that state ; she died at Bakersfield, leaving an 
only child, Laverne. Afterward he was united in marriage with Miss Minnie 
Wilhite, a native of Missouri, and by this union there is a daughter, Agnes. 

EDWARD F. BRITTAN.— Born in x-Xdams county. Iowa, October 2, 
1881, ^^r. Brittan received a good common-school education there, and at 
the age of about eigfhteen he removed to Montana with his parents, L. A. and 
Olive J. (Moore) Brittan. The parents settled on a large farm near Boze- 
man, Montana, and there the father engaged in the real estate business while 
the boys took care of the farm, raisins: many cattle. Edward E. became a 
student in the Montana Agricultural College at Bozeman and finished the 
sophomore year, coming then to California and securing employment in the 
vicinity of Los Angeles. Eor one year he was employed as an officer in the 
Whittier reform school, but resigned that position in order to take up the 
study of law in the University of Southern California. In order to pay his 
way through the law school he secured a clerkship in the law office of Wood- 
ru+t & >'cClure, with Avhom he continued for two years after he had been 
admitted to the bar in 1908, and his service in their employ proved of the 
greatest assistance to him through the gaining of a wide experience in their 
large practice. Coming to Bakersfield in 1910 he opened a law office in the 
Havden building- and upon the completion of the Brower building engaged an 
office in this block, where since he has given his attention to a general prac- 
tice. Mr. Brittan was elected chairman of the Republican Central Commit- 
tee of Kern county in 1912, in which capacity he is still serving. In October, 
1912, he was united in marriage with Miss Edna H. Smith, daughter of 
Bedell Smith, deputy county clerk of Kern county. 

ERSKINE BEMUS.— During the colonial period of American settle- 
ment the Bemus family crossed the ocean from England and settled on the 
Atlantic seaboard in New England. Later generations aided in the coloniza- 



1226 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

tion of New York and in Genesee county, that state, occurred the birth of 
S. J. Bemus, son of Asael, a fifer in the war of 1812. Throughout much of his 
life he followed the occupation of an architect, first in Dunkirk, N. Y., and 
later in Curry, Erie county. Pa., where he passed from earth at an advanced 
age. In young manhood he had married Laura Richardson, who was born in 
New York and died in Pennsylvania. Of their three children the eldest, 
Erskine, was born in Dunkirk, Chautauqua county, N. Y., August 25, 1849, 
and received public-school advantages in his native county and in Erie coun- 
ty, Pa. In the fall of 1864 when only fifteen years of age he offered his 
services as a volunteer in the Union army, was accepted as a private, and at 
Meadville, Pa., was mustered into Company E, One Hundred and Third Penn- 
sylvania Infantry, with which he went to the front. The greater part of his 
service was in North Carolina. At the expiration of the war he was honorably 
discharged at Harrisburg, Pa., in June of 1865, and returned to his home with 
a meritorious record for fidelity to his country and gallant service in the 
army. In later years he has maintained an intimate association with the 
Grand Army of the Republic and is now actively connected with Hurlburt 
Post. 

A vear in school followed the return from the war and in 1866 ^Ir. Bemus 
removed to Ohio, first living in Ashtabula and later in Urbana. At an early 
age he took up the study of architecture and ever since he has followed the 
occupation. For seventeen years he was the leading ' architect in Sidney, 
Shelbv ci unty. Ohio, where he designed and superintended the erection of 
an opera-house, school-bouse and many private residences as well as a num- 
ber of churches. Meanwhile during 1897 he spent six months in Pasadena and 
thus became interested in California. After his return to Ohio he resumed 
occupative work at Sidney, but he never ceased to reflect with pleasure upon 
his western experiences and eventually he closed out his Ohio interests, 
removed to California in 1909 and took up the work of an architect in Bakers- 
field. His ability as an architect appears in the Labor Temple building, the 
Bakersfield garage, the Barlow, Baer, Jamison and Beggs residences, and 
other buildings of unusual attractiveness. Since coming to Bakersfield he 
has officiated as president of the board of trustees in the Baptist Church and 
has been a leading local worker in that denomination. Fraternally he holds 
membership with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. While living in 
Urbana, Ohio, he married Miss Lucy Fisher, who was born in Defiance, that 
state, and died at Sidney in 1908. Throughout her years of maturity she had 
been an earnest member of the Baptist Church and a liberal giver to charit- 
able movements. Surviving her are six children, namely: Temperance, Mrs. 
Given, of Sidney, Ohio; Mrs. Clara McLeod, of Bakersfield; Mrs. Beatrice 
Stefifa, of Los Angeles ; Alice, who owns and conducts the Sweet shop in 
Bakersfield; Denton, a cement contractor in Sidney, Ohio; and Harry, who is 
engaged in the building business in Bakersfield. 

JOHN A. PICKLE.— From the time of his arrival at the McKittrick oil 
fields during November of 1902 up to the present time, with the sole excep- 
tion of two months spent in the Coalinga oil fields, Mr. Pickle has been em- 
ployed on the quarter section which includes the ten-acre lease of the Kern 
River Oil Company and the lease of one hundred and fifty acres owned by 
the Jewett Oil Company. Since July of 1909 he has filled the position of 
superintendent of the latter company, whose large lease now has fourteen 
wells, ten of them producers, with a monthly average of eight thousand bar- 
rels. The company takes its name from the president, Philo Jewett, of Bakers- 
field. The vice-president, FI. A. Blodgett, and the secretary-treasurer, A. Weil, 
also are Bakersfield capitalists. 

As early as 1851 the Pickle family established itself in California. During 
the fall of that year John F. Pickle, a native of Alabama, came across the 
country with a herd of cattle and settled on a tract of raw land in Sonoma 



HISTORY OF KKRX eorx'!^' 1227 

• 

county. Later he lived for brief periods in Mendocino, Santa Barbara, San 
Diego and Orange counties, and now, hearty and robust for a man of eighty, 
he is making his home at Ukiah. All of his twelve children attained maturity 
and only one is now deceased. From their father they inherited a robust 
constitution and under his training each was prepared for life's responsi- 
bilities. John A. was born in Alendocino county April 30, 1879, and attended 
school in his native county and Santa Barbara county, followed by one term in 
the public schools of San Diego county. From the age of thirteen years until 
nineteen he aided in the cultivation of farm lands operated by his father in 
San Diego and Orange counties, and afterward for four years he helped to 
cultivate a farm in Mendocino county, from which he came to the oil fields 
of Kern county to enter upon an occupative identification that has reflected 
credit upon his intelligence and industry. During 1905 he was married at 
Santa Rosa, Sonoma county, to Miss Lulu Gavin, of Potter valley, Mendocino 
county. Besides owning a city residence at Santa Rosa he has purchased a 
tract of forty acres near the Rosedale colony in Kern county, where he is 
improving a small farm and bringing the land under excellent cultivation. In 
politics he votes with the Democratic party. Fraternallv he is connected 
with the Improved Order of Red Men at McKittrick. 

PINKNEY J. WALDON.— Near Enterprise, Ind., P. J. Waldon was 
born ]\Iarch 11, 1837. a son of Isaac and Lucinda (Bennett) Waldon, the 
latter of whom died in Indianapolis, Ind. The former, a lifelong farmer, 
removed from Indiana to Missouri in 1839 and remained in that state for 
five years, returning to Indiana in the spring of 1844 and settling at Rising 
Sun, Ohio county, where he died in the fall of the same year. Of 
his family of four daughters and five sons there now survive two daughters 
and three sons. The third in order of birth, Pinkney J., was two years of 
age when the family went to Missouri and seven when they returned 
to Indiana. As a boy he lived in Ohio and Switzerland counties, which 
adjoin each other, lying near the state of Ohio and the Ohio river. Owing 
to the early death of his father he had no educational advantages, but 
was forced to support himself by farm work from boyhood. During the 
first raid by Morgan in 1862 he enlisted as a member of an Ohio regiment 
of state militia and served as guard along the Ohio river until receiving 
an honorable discharge. During April of 1863 he started overland for the 
west and cnssed the plains with a mule team. Stopping in Nevada, he 
secured work in the mines at A'lrginia City and continued there for 
five years. 

With packmules for the carrying of supplies Mr. \^'aldon came to 
California on horseback in 1868 and settled in Kern county, where he took 
up land in the Canfield neighborhood. Lack of water prevented him from 
securing satisfactory returns fr(<m his quarter section. A company of 
twenty-six farmers, of whom he was one. promoted and organized a concern 
for the building of the Buena Vista ditch. With the securing of an abund- 
ance of water he put his farm largely into alfalfa, although he also raised 
grain on a portion of the tract. After selling the place in 1877 he spent 
several years in the hog-raising industry on lake Buena Vista. Avhere he 
was very successful. With a partner he drove fourteen hundred head of 
hogs across the mountains to San Luis Obispo county. On the way many 
of the animals died, but they were able to clear considerable money through 
fattening the balance on acorns and then selling them at an excellent figure. 
Later he bought land that now forms a part of the Bellevue ranch and there 
he engaged in raising grain and alfalfa. When the property was sold he 
became interested in alfalfa-raising on the Blodgett ranch, but this prcn^ed 
an unfortunate enterprise. Three dilTerent crops of alfalfa were drowned 
in overflows of the river and he was left almost financiallv ruined. En- 



1228 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

deavoring to make another start, lie turned his attention to Standard-bred 
horses and while he raised some fine specimens of equine flesh, the market 
dropped, all thorough-bred stock depreciated in price and he was left with 
nothing, after years of hard work and tireless industry. 

A brief experience on a ranch in the Rio Bravo district was followed 
by the removal of Mr. Waldon to Kern in 1898, his object in coming to 
town being the education of his children. Trading his land for a block 
on Flower street he built a house and established his family there. For 
eight years he served faithfully as janitor of the school-houses in Kern. 
Meanwhile his children had been educated and four of them were holding 
good positions, so he resigned as janitor with only $105 as capital. Il- was 
his good fortune to find one hundred and sixty acres of alkali land that no one 
wanted, but appreciating its possibilities he secured it in haste. At first he 
used it for pasture and for that purpose he built a substantial fence around 
the entire tract. Later he took up an adjacent desert claim of one hundred 
and sixty acres, of which he has since sold eighty acres, so that he now owns 
two hundred and forty acres in one body. In national principles he supports 
the Democratic party. 

In Bakersfield he was married to Miss Mary Ann Dunn, who was born 
in County Carlow, Ireland, came to California in 1882, and to Kern county in 
1884. Six children were born of this marriage, namely: Frederick, a con- 
crete worker of Bakersfield; Belle, a teacher in the East Bakersfield schools; 
May, who is employed as a bookkeeper in Bakersfield; James I., a partner in 
the Bakersfield sheet metal works; Edward, who is engaged as a well-borer; 
and Wesley, who is with the firm of Reilly and Brown in Bakersfield. 

HON. WILLIAM BYARD TIMMONS.— The Timmons family, to 
which the Hon. William B. Timmons bekngs. has been represented in this 
country by sturdy warriors, every generation having produced a patriotic 
soldier who gave valiant service to the cause they were upholding. Elijah 
Timmons, great-grandfather of William B., was resident in Maryland and 
served during the Revolutionary war; his son, Stephen, was born in Mary- 
land, but afterward settled in Ohio, where he enlisted in the war of 1812 in 
the Kentucky Riflemen and saw service with Jackson at New Orleans. Rev. 
James T. Timmons, son of Stephen, was born in Pickaway county, Ohio. A 
minister in the United Brethren Church, he was a pioneer preacher in Indiana, 
later in Illinois and then in Missouri, where he passed away. During the 
Black Hawk Indian war he served in the same regiment as did Abraham 
Lincoln and was actively engaged throughout that trouble. He married Sarah 
Oxford, who was born in North Carolina, daughter of John Oxford, a pioneer 
of Tippecanoe county, Ind., who served in the North Carolina line in the 
war of 1812 and was also with Jackson at New Orleans. He was a farmer bv 
occupation. Mrs. Timmons passed away in Missouri. 

The eldest of a family of ten children born to his parents, of whom nine 
are living, William Byard Timmons was born September 4, 1833, in Milford, 
Tip;)ecanoe county, Ind. Until sixteen he remained with his father learning 
the rudiments of agriculture and attending the common school, which was 
a log house with slab benches. He then went to near Lexington, McLean 
county, 111., and did farm work, at the age of twenty-one starting out for him- 
self and farming in McDonough county. He remained there until 1857, 
removing then to Scotland county. Mo., to farm there. True son of a noble 
soldier, at the call to arms he volunteered and enlisted for service in the Civil 
war, being sworn into service July 6, 1861, and becoming a private in Com- 
pany B, Twenty-first Missouri Volunteer Infantry. Unflinching courage, 
brave efifort and patriotic devotion to duty soon won him the attention and 
admiration of superior officers and he rose to rank of sergeant, serving the first 
two years in Missouri. In 1861 he was detailed as a scout under General Pope 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1229 

in northeast Missouri, and during this service had many narrow escapes. When 
Pope was ordered to Tennessee, Mr. Timmons was one of three selected from 
the old regiment and detailed as scouts to report to General McNeal, and 
under the latter he saw scouting service in Missouri until 1863, gcing then to 
his regiment already in Tennessee. He veteraned with the regiment in 1864, 
serving until a year after the war, and was mustered out of service at Fort 
Morgan, Ala., in 1866. He received his honorable discharge in St. Louis. 

Judge Timmons returned to his farm in Scotland county after the war 
and continued to live there until the year 1887 when he came to Kern county 
and homesteaded a tract one mile west of Delano. This he improved and 
engaged in stockraising, principally cattle and horses, but in 1910 he disposed 
of his ranch and the stock and has since lived retired in Delano. He served as 
postmaster of Delano for four years, being appointed by President Harrison 
and in 1906 was elected justice of the peace of the Fourth township of Kern 
county, being re-elected in 1910 and he has his office in Delano. Judge Tim- 
mons married Miss Vashti A. Koontz, who was born in Illinois, and to the 
union were born ten children : Sarah, Mrs. Baldwin, resides near Bakersfield. 
Jesse is a farmer near Long Beach. Rcse, Mrs. Wilson, resides in Idaho. 
Adeline, Mrs. Slocum, lives in Scotland county. Mo. Frank lives in Yuma, 
Ariz. Emma, Mrs. Woosley, is a resident of Delano. Cora is Mrs. Spaulding 
of Los Angeles. Eva, Mrs. Dresser, of Los Angeles; Zorada, Mrs. Penaro. of 
Oakland, and Everett, of Delano, complete the family The revered and hon- 
ored father is a member of Delano Lodge No. 356, I. O. O. F. and in politics 
unites with the Republican part}-. 

HON. WILLIAM E. SIMPSON.— The records of the Simpson family 
indicate Canadian ancestry and Robert E. was a native of Hamilton, 
Ontario, but in young manhood removed to Illinois to take up work at 
the trade of blacksmith, which he followed for years in Galesburg. After 
he had removed from Canada he married Miss Margaret Mason, a native of 
Joliet, 111. They became the parents of six children, all of whom are 
still living. The eldest of the six, William E., was born in Galesburg, 
111., April 12, 1889, and at the age of eleven years accompanied the family 
to California, where his father, settling in Kern county, found employ- 
ment in the Bakersfield iron works for the next nine years. !^Ieanwhile 
he also worked as a machinist's helper and apprentice and in that way 
earned enough to pay his expenses in the Kern county high school, from 
which he was graduated in 1909 with a high standing. 

It had long been the ambition of Mr. Simpson to secure an education 
in the law and three months after he completed the high-school course 
he matriculated in the law department of the Leland Stanford, Jr.. Uni- 
versity. During the course in that institution he earned the means for all 
expenses. Each summer he worked in the oil fields of Kern county or 
found employment in the Bakersfield iron works. The vacations also 
were utilized as periods for the earning of necessary money for the course. 
The fact that, in snite of the time devoted to outside work, he was 
graduated in May of 1912 with an exceptionally high standing proves not 
only determination of character and resolution of purpose, but also an 
unusual capacity of intellect and superior powers of mind. Immediately 
after his graduation from the university and his admission to the bar of 
California he opened an office at Bakersfield. where, September 3, 1912, 
he was honored by nomination at the Democratic orimary as a member 
of the assembly. At the election, November 5, following, he received a 
majority of seventeen hundred and fifty, and is now representing his 
county, the fifty-sixth assembly district, in the fortieth session of the 
state legislature. 

On December 31. 1912. Mr. Simpson married Ethel Robesky. of Bakers- 



1230 HISTORY OF KERN COl^NTY 

field. Cal., and a native of Iowa. Both had .qone through hij^h school and 
colleg^e together. 

During his residence at Palo Alto Mr. Simpson was identified with 
the Delta Chi of the university and for some years he also has been 
associated very prominently with the Knights of Columbus. As a legis- 
lator he regards his task as an exalted privilege, believing that there 
can be no greater responsibility of citizenship than the aiding of jirogres- 
sive movements and the upbuilding of the commonwealth along lines of 
permanent jirogress. 

HARRY A. JASTRO.— It was the privilege of Mr. Jastro to enjoy 
exceptional advantages in the preparation for his life activities and of these 
opportunities he availed himself to the utmost, thus laying the foundation 
for the broad knowledge he now possesses. Born in Bakersfield October 14, 
1875, a son of Henry A. Jastro, chairman of the Kern county board of super- 
visors, he was sent to the local schools during early boyhood, but at the age 
of fourteen went to Europe, where he spent six years in study. For a time 
he enjoyed the advantages afforded by the technical department of the Uni- 
versity of Berlin. From there he went to Aix-la-Chapelle, Aachen, Rhenish 
Prussia, and entered the Technical College, where he took the complete course 
and finished with a creditable standing. After an absence of six years he 
returned to the United States and shortly after his arrival in Bakersfield 
secured employment with the Power Development Company. Six months 
later he went to San Francisco and found a position as draftsman with Cobb 
& Hesselmeyer, hydraulic and mechanical engineers, then employed as con- 
sulting engineers for the Power Development Company. With them he con- 
tinued for eighteen months and later for six months worked with the old 
San Francisco Gas & Electric Company. These varied positions were most 
helpful in enabling him to gain a practical experience in all the departments 
of his chosen calling. 

Upon returning to Bakersfield and entering the employ of the Bakersfield 
Gas & Electric Light Company, Mr. Jastro began in a very lowly capacity, but 
by dint of perseverance, accurate knowledge of the business and resource- 
fulness in his daily emergencies, he worked his way up to be assistant super- 
intendent. When he left the firm it was to enter the employ of the Edison 
Electric Light Company of Los Angeles and for three years he was con- 
nected with their engineering and business departments, during the period of 
the construction of their nine-million-dollar plant on Kern river. For the 
tunnels of this company he contracted to build eight miles of concrete line, 
an undertaking of great importance involving large expenditures and many 
responsibilities. From 1906 until the shutting down of the plant in 1907 he 
was connected with the engineering and business departments of the Eastern 
Colorado Power Company, located at Boulder, Colo., on Clear creek. Soon 
after his return to Bakersfield he became general manager of the Power 
Transit & Light Company, which during 1910 was absorbed by the San 
Joaquin Light & Power Company. The latter concern retained him as man- 
ager at Bakersfield for six months and then appointed him manager of their 
commercial department, which position he has since filled with accuracy, 
intelligence and marked professional skill. Along the line of his chosen calling 
he has been connected with the Pacific Coast Gas Association, while socially 
he is a leading member of the Bakersfield Club. During 1910 he married in 
San Francisco Miss Edna AI. Crooks, a native of Boston, Mass., and a lady 
of exceptional culture. In politics he supports Democratic men and meas- 
ures. Fraternally he is a member of Bakersfield Parlor No. 42, N. S. G. W., 
has filled the office of secretary of liakersfield Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E., 
and is ex-secretary and past president of Aerie N^. 93, F. O. E., as well as a 
member of the grand lodge of the order. 

ERWIN W. OWEN.— An identification of ])ut a few^ years with the 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1231 

citizenship of Bakersfield and the oil interests of Kern county has been suf- 
ficient to give Mr. Owen an influential position in this section. When the 
failing health of his father, Josiah Owen, rendered advisable the presence 
of a member of the family in Kern county to direct the important interests 
here, it was the request of the parent that this son should come hither. Ac- 
cordingly he closed out his interests in Texas, resigned the office of county 
treasurer of Maverick county, and in January of 1909 became a resident of 
Bakersfield, where he since has maintained a supervision of the family busi- 
ness aiTairs and at the same time has engaged in the practice of law with 
growing success. As vice-president and a director of the Eight Oil Com- 
pany and as a stockholder in the Buena Vista Land & Development Company, 
also as a stockholder in the Colorado Pacific Development Company, he has 
become closely associated' with important industries. He is now a member of 
the firm of Claflin & Owen, attorneys at law, with offices in the Morgan 
building. 

In his removal to California Mr. Owen was accompanied by his family, 
which consists of wife and two children, Erwin W. and Ellen A. Mrs. Owen, 
formerly Miss Anna Lege, was born and reared in Texas, and is identified 
with the Daughters of the Republic of that state. Her father, Capt. Charles 
L. Lege, a pioneer of the Lone Star state, served as captain of a Texas com- 
pany in the Confederate army and proved his valor by heroic actii n on 
more than one fiercely contested battle-field. Mrs. Owen has been a member 
of the Episcopal Church from girlhood and Mr. Owen contributes to the 
maintenance and charities of that denomination. In national politics he votes 
with the Republican party. While living in Texas he was made a Mason in 
Eagle Pass Lodge No. 626, F. & A. M., also became associated with the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, while since coming to Bakersfield he has 
allied himself with the Woodmen of the World. 

CHARLES J. LINDGREN.— The life which this narrative delineates 
began August 5, 1858, at Norrkoping in the eastern part of Sweden near the 
shores of the Baltic sea and closed in San Francisco April 24, 1913. Between 
these two dates that span an era of one-half century or more there was a con- 
stantly broadening influence on the part of the man himself in occupative 
connections, in commercial avenues and in the material upbuilding of Cali- 
fornia. Throughout all of his life he made a specialty of the building business, 
but this did not represent the limit of his forceful activities, for in addition 
he was a heavy stockholder in the Bakersfield Sandstone Brick Company, be- 
sides holding stock in the Lindgren-Hicks Company of San Francisco, the 
Golden Gate Sandstone Brick Company and the Holland Brick Company of 
Antioch. As a contractor his name was inseparably associated with construc- 
tion work in the state. Many substantial business blocks and public buildings 
in various parts of the state furnish a silent but convincing evidence concern- 
ing his skill and ability, among these being the Sacramento county court house, 
the Humboldt Bank building and the Y. M. C. A. building in San Francisco, 
the Southern Hotel and its Annex, the Bakersfield opera house, Scribner opera 
house, Kern county high school, Manchester Hotel building, Manley apart- 
ments, the Security Trust Company's Bank, the Bank of Bakersfield, and the 
Brower, Redlick and Tegler buildings, all in Bakersfield, also the Tevis resi- 
dence at Stockdale, which is among the most attractive homes in Kern county. 

The first nineteen years in the life of the late Charles J. Lindgren were 
passed uneventfully in a part of Sweden offering few opportunities to people 
of ambition and enterprise, but furnishing a humble livelihood to those who 
sought such with diligence. In a family of ten children, six of whom are now 
living, he had only such advantages as the locality and period aflforded in an 
educational way. His parents were John Frederick and Jolianna (johanson) 
Lindgren. The former, who died at the age of seventy-two, followed the 



1232 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

occupation of a builder. Many of his buildings, all constructed of brick or 
stone, still stand as substantial as when first erected and give abundant testi- 
mony concerning his efficiency as a skilled workman. 

Under the careful oversight of such an experienced builder Charles J. 
Lindgren gained a substantial knowledge of the building business. When he 
crossed the ocean to America at the age of nineteen he was able to secure im- 
mediate employment with a force of carpenters. For some time he worked in 
Chicago, but the possibilities of the west lured him across the mountains. His 
identification with Bakersfield began in 1889, when the work of rebuilding was 
begun after the disastrous fire. While he did not remain in the city until his 
death, his identification with its interests never ceased. When business occa- 
sionally brought him back to Bakersfield, he found the greatest possible pleas- 
ure in meeting and shaking hands with old friends. Nor was his circle of 
friends limited to Bakersfield. Throughout Kern county he had hosts of 
friends. In Fresno, where he lived for a time and where he had a number of 
very important contracts, he ranked high as a builder and as a man. In the 
San Joaquin valley many important structures gave expression to his ability 
and splendid command of every phase of the building business. During the 
latter part of his life he maintained offices in the Monadnock building, San 
Francisco, and officiated as president of the Lindgren Company, one of the 
most substantial building concerns in America. 

While living in Chicago Mr. Lindgren was united in marriage with Miss 
Bergquist, who survives him, occupying the elegant famih^ residence on Pierce 
street. San Francisco. Three children survive their father, Charles J., Gertrude 
and Edna. In politics Mr. Lindgren was a Republican. Although large busi- 
ness interests prohibited an active political life, he was ready to support all 
measures for the benefit of city or state. No native-born son of the west cher- 
ished for it a deeper afifection than that exhibited by Mr. Lindgren, who was 
loyal to state and patriotic in every sense of the word. As vice-president and a 
large stockholder in the Bakersfield Sandstone Brick Company he had intimate 
business relations with the president of the concern, James Curran, whom he 
selected as executor cf his estate by will. An intimacy covering many years 
only served to deepen Mr. Curran's original favorable opinion of Mr. Lindgren. 
whose promptness and unswerving integrity attracted him and whose business 
course he followed with the interest of a true friend. The secret of Mr. Lind- 
gren's rapid rise he found to be his skill in judging and directing workmen, his 
honesty in dealing with them and his unerring ability to discern any weak spot 
in a building or in the method used in construction. Through these qualities 
he was able to fill every contract expeditiously, efficiently and honorably; 
through them he arose from noverty to independence and from an unknown 
station in the world to a leading position among the contractors of his city 
and state. 

LEWIS A. BEARDSLEY. — An honored and influential position among 
the pioneers of Kern county was held by the late Lewis A. Beardsley, at one 
time superintendent of county schools, also principal of the Bakersfield 
school. The annals of the county record his name and it is further preserved 
in local nomenclature, for the Beardsley school district and the Beardsley 
canal give evidence of his early and intimate association with movements for 
the permanent upbuilding of the locality. More than a quarter of a century 
has brought its startling changes since he passed into eternity, but the com- 
munity of his adoption has not forgotten his long and interesting identification 
with its pioneer history. The canal which he and two other pioneers built 
still flows through the same channel, although it has been enlarged to meet 
an increasing demand for irrigation. The school district to which he donated 
an acre of ground still bears his name and from the old school many children 
have gone forth to take places of honor in the world of business or agriculture. 

The life delineated in this review began at Danby, Tompkins county, N. 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1233 

Y., November 23, 1832, and closed in Kern county, November 3, 1886. The 
family is of old eastern lineage and Darius and Naomi Beardsley, parents 
of Lewis A., lived upon a farm in Tompkins county for many years. Primari- 
ly educated in country schools and later a. graduate of the Danby Academy, 
L. A. Beardsley came to California in 1853 and tried his fortune in the mines, 
without, however, meeting with any conspicuous success. September 27, 
1861, at Visalia, he enlisted in Company E, Second California Cavalry, and 
served with his regiment until October 7, 1864, when he was honorably dis- 
charged from the army. Immediately afterward he began to teach school 
at Piano, Tulare county, and after coming to Kern county in 1869 he taught 
at Glennville. A vacancy occurring in the office of county superintendent of 
schools, he was appointed to the position and at the expiration of one year 
was duly elected to the place, then re-elected at the expiration of the first 
term. Meanwhile for two years he served as principal of the Bakersfield 
school. 

Believing that much of the ultimate wealth of Kern county would come 
from the cultivation of its soil, Mr. Beardsley entered a homestead of one 
hundred and sixty acres three miles north of Bakersfield and identified him- 
self with the agricultural class. One acre of the tract he donated for school 
purposes and when a school was started there he taught in it for two years. 
In order to secure irrigation for. his farm he interested himself in the develop- 
ment of a canal and with two others built the original canal that still bears his 
name. An abundance of water was thus secured for the raising of alfalfa and 
he put the farm largely in that crop. A pioneer in agricultural development, 
much of his work was in the nature of an experiment and he was among the 
first to prove the value of alfalfa in this section of the country. 

At Glennville, Kern county, June 10. 1866, occurred the marriage of Lewis 
A. Beardsley and Louisa A. Finley, the latter a native of Saline county. Mo., 
born on Christmas day of 1845. When a babe in arms she was brought to 
California, in the spring of 1846 the family starting across the plains with 
ox-teams and wagons. The expedition was of considerable size and met with 
a number of vexatious delays. Finally some of the members, known in his- 
tory as the Donner- party, decided to try the short cut-ofif, but fortunately 
the Finley family did not leave the old route. Finally, after much sufifering, 
they reached their destination in safety, but the Donner party met with a 
sad fate, all but two perishing from starvation amid the snows of the Sierras. 
The trials of the Finley family were not ended with their arrival in California, 
for during the Mexican war they were obliged to guard themselves in a fort 
and it was not until peace was declared that they could safely resume farm.- 
ing operations. During 1861 they settled on a farm near Piano, Tulare 
county ; later Mr. Finley returned to the Santa Clara valley and lived at San 
Jose for three years. Upon coming to Kern county he spent four years on a 
farm near Glennville where he lost his wife, Sarah (Campbell) Finley, who 
was born, reared and married in Kentucky. Asa Finley himself was a native 
of Saline county, Mo., and had spent his life almost wholly in that locality 
prior to his removal to the west. After the death of his wife he lived with 
their children and died at Stevinson, Merced county, this slate, at the age 
of eighty-six years. Of his eight children all but two are still living. Mrs. 
Beardsley, who was third of the number, received her education in Santa Clara 
Seminary supplementing attendance at country schools. Of her marriage 
four children were born, all living except George, who died in Bakersfield. 
The other son, Lewis C, is now in Redwood City, and the older daughter, 
Mrs. Naomi Bowles, makes her home in Oklahoma, so that the only member 
of the family continuing in Kern county, aside from Mrs. Beardsley, is the 
younger daughter, Mrs. Clara Kent, of Bakersfield. For twelve years after 
the death of Mr. Beardsley his widow remained on the ranch. After she had 
disposed of the property she came to Bakersfield and erected a residence at 



1234 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

Xo. 715 I street, where since she has made her home, meanwhile acquiring the 
friendship of the people of her community and taking a warm interest in the 
activities of the Women's Relief Corps of Bakersfield, as well as the Kern 
County Pioneer Society. 

JOSIAH OWEN. — The noble impulse which led men of the courageous 
pioneer t}-pe to identify themselves with the material development of the 
frontier furnished the impetus that governed the westward migrations of the 
Owen family. Early in the history of Missouri they were planted upon its 
soil and assisted in its agricultural upbuilding. From that state Frederick 
Owen removed to Idaho, where he devoted the rest of his years to agricultural 
pursuits. Josiah, son of Frederick, was born in Caldwell county, Mo., and 
received a public-school education in that state. At a very early age he began 
to study the rocks and minerals on the home farm and along the Missouri 
streams. The talents so evident in his later years were manifested even in 
childhood. With no one to encourage him in his studies and with no oppor- 
tunity for training under educated geologists and mineralogists, he yet rose to 
an eminence that won the attention of the greatest specialists in the science. 
This resulted from natural abilities fostered by a painstaking practical study of 
the secrets of Mother Earth. 

During the Civil war Mr. Owen offered his services to the Union and was 
accepted as a member of the Forty-Fourth Missouri Infantry, in which he 
remained until the close of the struggle. Early in the 70s he removed from 
Missouri to Texas and for a time lived in the Panhandle, but later settled in 
Johnson county, where in 1876 occurred the death of his first wife, Sarah 
(Cramer) Owen, a native of Ray county, Mo. Three sons were born of that 
union, namely: AVilbur F., now engaged in mining in Mexico; Oscar D., 
a horticulturist living at Beverly, Ohio; and Erwin W., of Bakersfield, Cal. 
After the death of his wife Mr. Owen gave his attention to mining in Mexico 
and Texas and made and lost several fortunes. His ability, however, had 
come to be widely recognized and led to his selection by the Southern Pacific 
Railroad Company to represent their interests as geologist and to develop 
their coal fields in Sonora, Mexico. In addition he acted as assistant to the 
state geologist of Texas, Prof. E. T. Dumble, of San Francisco and Houston, 
Texas. Coming to California during 1899, he settled at Los Gatos, built a 
residence and improved the grounds until they became among the most 
beautiful in the city, their interest being enhanced by the presence of plants 
and trees brought by him from all parts of Mexico. The Los Gatos home is 
occupied by his widow, Margaret (Crawford) Owen, a native of Texas and 
a daughter of Col. J. S. Crawford, member of an honored and well-known 
pioneer family of the Lone Star state. By that marriage Mr. Owen had two 
daughters, Ethel and Margaret, the elder of whom is now a student in the 
Leland Stanford University. 

As manager of the Kern Trading & Oil Company, a subsidiary concern of 
the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, Mr. Owen came to the oil fields of 
Kern county, where in addition to acting as representative for that company 
he acquired interests of his own, perhaps the most important of these having 
been stock in the Eight Oil Company. In addition he was interested in the 
Buena Vista Land and Development Company and owned oil lands in 
Colorado and Nevada oil fields. Perhaps no one excelled him in a close 
acquaintance with the California oil fields, especially those of Kern county. 
These he had mapped out thoroughly and exhaustively. His death, which 
occurred at Los Gatos December 19, 1909, was conceded to be a deep loss to 
the geological interests of the west, which he had studied with profound 
concentration of mind and devotion of spirit. After he settled in Los Gatos 
he became a prominent member of the General Ord Post, G. A. R., his interest 
in it continuinu until death, and Doliticallv he was a Republican. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1233 

JEAN BOREL. — This veteran of the Franco-Prussian war, who for a 
quarter of a century was engaged actively in the sheep industry in Cali- 
fornia, but now is livinj^ retired, is a native of Canton Daspre sur Buis, 
Hautes-Alpes, France, and was born in December, 1849, being the fifth in a 
family of ten children, seven of whom are still living. The parents, Pierre 
and Marie (Gilbert) P)orel, were engaged in husbandry in the Alps moun- 
tains and the children were trained to be helpful at home, so that they were 
well prepared for the responsibilities incident to self-support. Attendance 
at the country schools and work on the home farm kept Jean Borel busily 
occupied in the years of his youth until seventeen, when he enlisted in 
the French army. For five years he served faithfully and well in the 
Second Company, One Hundred Fourteenth Infantry, in which he rose 
from the ranks to be sergeant. During th.e Franco-Prussian war he was in 
active and continuous service. Many times he was in peril of his life. Some 
of the battles (including that of Sedan) were peculiarly dangerous and 
decisive, but it was his good fortune to receive no wounds, so that he was 
able to take his place in every engagement. One of his most thrilling war 
experiences was the siege of Paris, which lasted about six months. At 
the close of the war he received an honorable discharge. 

After a period of employment as a workman and later as foreman on 
a construction job for a railroad, Mr. Borel left France to cast in his 
fortunes with the new world. For a year he herded sheep. ^Meanwhile he 
w^as studying the business as conducted in California, so that when he 
bought a flock of his own in 1885 he was in a position to handle it intelli- 
gently. During the ensuing years he met with a growing success. After a 
long and prosperous identification with the same business, in 1910 he sold 
his flock and retired to private life, ourchasing property in East Bakersfield, 
where he has built a residence. His time is devoted to the oversight of 
his property interests. When a young man in France he was united in 
marriage with Miss Marie Bertino. who passed away in that country. 

ANDREW ALFRED BURNES. — Talents that are winning recognition 
in widely different lines of activity characterize Mr. Burnes of Bakersfield. 
The fact that he is achieving success is all the more remarkable when it is 
known that his boyhood was signally lacking in opportunities and was 
made gloomy by the loss of his parents, Joseph and Susan Burnes. honored 
members of a farming community in Arkansas. The second among three 
children, he was born near Fayetteville, that state, on the 22d of February, 
1883. and upon being orphaned at the age of six years was taken into the 
home of an uncle, Henry Burnes, a struggling farmer whose means were 
so limited that the lad was forced to assist in the maintenance of the family. 
For a few months of each year he was allowed to attend school, but for 
the most part he worked in the fields doing a man's part when yet a mere 
lad. His present large fund of information has been obtained by study 
and self-culture since he was eighteen years of age. In addition to complet- 
ing an engineering course in the International Correspondence School of 
Scranton. Pa., from which he received a diploma, he is now taking a course 
in mechanical drawing under Fred W. Dobe. of Chicago. 

Having heard and read much concerning California, in November of 
1900 Mr. Burnes came to this state. For several months he was employed 
in a copper mine. Later he secured work as a stationary engineer in the 
building of the Folsom. Fair Oaks, Upper and Lower Stockton macadam 
roads in Sacramento county. During April of 1911 he came to Bakersfield 
and entered the employ of the Valley Ice Company, whose machinery he 
helped to erect and whose plant he assisted in comnleting. Since then he 
has continued in the employ of the company. During the soring of 1912 
he was promoted to be night engineer, which position he has held up to 



1236 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the present time. In addition to understanding thoroughly this department 
of engineering he is well posted as an electrical engineer and also has made 
a special study of refrigeration. For some years he has been an interested 
member of the International Union of Steam and Operating Engineers. 

Engineering skill by no means represents the limit of the ability of 
Mr. Burnes, who is also of a literary bent of mind, a student of the best liter- 
ature of the ages, the composer of a number of songs now in the hands of 
publishers and the author of several scenarios that have been accepted for 
publication. One of the pastimes of his leisure hours has been the writing 
of shcrt stories and these have appeared in Sunday papers in the west. 

SAMUEL R. CLARK. — It would be difficult to name any depart- 
ment in the meat business which is not thoroughly understood by Mr. 
Clark, proprietor of a large market at Mojave and a joint owner with FI. A. 
Wenz in a first-class market in San Diego. To a large extent he gives his 
attention to the business in Mojave. This, since its purchase from his brother 
in 1908. he has continued to operate under the name of the City meat market, 
with himself as sole proprietor and owner. The location is central, the busi- 
ness flourishing, the equipment up-to-date and the sanitary conditions un- 
surpassed, so that the energetic manager is reaping the financial profit to be 
expected from a work so well conducted. Nor is the San Diego business 
less flourishing. Indeed the Palace market on D between Seventh and Eighth 
streets, with its attractive new fixtures, its fine refrigerating conveniences 
and its sanitary conditions, ranks as the finest place of its kind in the city 
by the southwestern sea. 

The Clark family comes of Irish lineage, David Clark, a native of 
the Emerald Isle, but a resident of the new world from youth, crossed the 
plains with wagon and oxen to California during the summer of 1853 and 
mined for a time with other Argonauts in search of gold. Not finding the 
hoped-for fortune he returned to Illinois and became a pioneer of Warsaw, 
a river town in Hancock county, where for many years he served as constable 
and was well-known among the early settlers of that then prosperous place. 
From Illinois he removed to Kansas and took up land in Morris county. 
Nine years later he became a pioneer farmer in Thomas county, same state, 
where he and his son, Samuel R., still own the old homestead of four hun- 
dred and eighty acres, although of recent years he and his wife, Lucinda 
(Webster) Clark, a native of Iowa, have been making their home in Cali- 
fornia at the ocean port of San Pedro. 

There were thirteen children in the family of David Clark and all of 
these are still living. The fourth youngest, Samuel R., was born at Warsaw, 
111., April 25, 1877, and received a common-school education in Kansas, where 
from a very early age he assisted in the work of the home farm. During 1898 
he volunteered for the Spanish-American war as a private in Company M, 
Twentieth Kansas Infantry, with which he went to the Philippines and served 
imder General Funston on battlefield and in camp. At the expiration of nine- 
teen months of active, arduous service on the islands he was mustered out 
in October of 1899 and settled in California during December of the same 
year. Joining a brother, D. S., in Mojave, he became an employe in the butcher 
business owned by the former and in time he bought one-half interest, then 
in 1908 became sole proprietor, continuing as such up to the present time. 
Markets which he formerly owned at Barstow and San Pedro he has sold, 
retaining only the home market and the business at San Diego, which, to- 
gether with his farm interests in Kansas and his ownership of two houses in 
Mojave, combine to give him a place among the most prosperous business 
men of Mojave. His family consists of his wife, who was Miss Minna Mc- 
Bride. a native of Ireland, and during girlhood a resident of Los Angeles, 
and their two sons, Webster and Norbert. Interested in educational matters, 
he is rendering efficient service as a member of the board of school trustees 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1237 

and is endeavoring to promote the welfare of the Mojave schools. Since com- 
ing to this city he was made a Mason in Tehachapi Lodge No. 313, F. & A. M. 

GEORGE CALHOUN.— The president of the National Oil Refining 
and INIanufacturing Comj>any and the efficient business manager to whose 
keen, capable supervision may be attributed the growing importance of the 
organization, traces his lineage to Scotland and exhibits in his own forceful 
personality many of the qualities that brought fame to the representatives of 
that country. He is a son of David and Isabelle (McKay) Calhoun, natives 
respectively of Edinburgh and Inverness, Scotland, but from early life resi- 
dents of Nova Scotia, where they bought land near Pict(;U and developed 
a large farm. It was at that old homestead George Calhoun was born Sep- 
tember 7, 1850, and from there, after having gained such book-learning as the 
country schools afforded, he went forth to earn his own livelihood in the 
world. Early travels took him to Maine, where in 1864 he began an appren- 
ticeship to the trade of a stone-cutter and served his time with fidelity, 
meanwhile acquiring a thorough knowledge of the occupation. When ready 
to do journeyman work he engaged in contracting. Later for five years he 
had charge of the Boston water works and during the period of his superin- 
tendency he put in all of the city reservoirs. 

A new line of business next engaged the attention of Mr. Calhoun, who 
embarked in the publishing business in New York City as an employe of F. 
A. Munsey at the very beginning of the latter's spectacular career as a pub- 
lisher. Later he held an important position with Robert Bonner on the New 
York Ledger. Upon resigning from that publishing plant he went with the 
George INIunro Publishing Company as a traveling salesman. After he had 
traveled for one year in their interests, they stationed him in Chicago as 
western manager and for sixteen years he continued in that city, meanwhile 
promoting their interests by his energetic application to business. During 
the later years of his identification with the company he had become inter- 
ested in California oil fields. In 1901 he began the organization of the 
National Oil Refining and Manufacturing Company, which was incorporated 
under the Arizona laws and capitalized at $1,000,000, with himself as president 
and general manager. Both of these positions he has retained to the present 
time. Construction work on the refinery was begun in 1903. The following 
year the plant was started for the refining of oil and the manufacture of 
asphalt, the latter prtduct now being shipped to every part of the world. 
The refinery is situated in the Kern river oil field and has a capacity of 
fourteen thousand tons of asnhalt a year. Aside from asphalt they also 
rnanufacture gasoline, gas-engine distillate, coal oil and a variety of lubricating 
oils. Among- the leading brands are the Golden State, Pioneer, Superior and 
National. In order that he might be able to devote all of his time and atten- 
tion to the refinery the president in 1906 established his home in Bakersfield 
and as a result of his wise judgment and keen ability he has been able to 
develop one of the largest refineries in the entire state. In 1912 he organized 
the Bakersfield Investment Company, of which he is president and his son 
IS secretary and superintendent. At Hanford the company built a refinery 
for the manufacture of light oils. 

The first marriage of Mr. Calhoun took place in Conwav, N. H., in 1870 
and united him with Miss Nellie G. Bachelder, who was born in New Hamp- 
shire and died in Chicago May 3, 1906, leaving an onlv child, George W., 
now the superintendent of the National Oil Refining and Manufacturing Com- 
pany. At Bakersfield, November 8, 1908, occurred the marriage of ^Ir. Cal- 
houn and Miss Alice M. Rogers, of Covington, Ky., a lady of cultured mind 
and many attractions, who shares with him in the respect and regard of 
acquaintances. For years he has been closely interested in ^lasonic afifairs 
and meanwhile he has taken many of the degrees of the order. First made 



1238 HISTORY OF KERX CC^UNTY 

a Mason in Hope I.odge Xo. 244, A. F. & A. M., in New York City, he later 
iden tilled himself with Lincoln Park Chapter No. 177, R. A. M., in Chicago, 
also Chicago Council No. 4 and Oriental Consistory, Scottish Rite, in Chi- 
cago. While still residing in that city he also became connected with Lincoln 
Park Commandery No. 64, K. T., and Medinah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S.. in 
addition to maintaining an intimate association with the work of Mizpah 
Cha])ter No. 549, Order of the Eastern Star. 

ARTHUR WEABER.— During the early portion of the nineteenth cen- 
tury P>enjamin Weaber, a Pennsylvanian by birth, became a pioneer in the 
sparsely settled regions of Illinois adjacent to the city of Chicago. The gov- 
ernment land which he first pre-empted formed a part of the vast swamp 
district near Naperville, Dupage county, but later he took up land at Brush 
creek, Cook county, fifteen miles out from Chicago, and from there eventually 
he removed to a tract of raw land two miles from the present site of Riverside. 
Among his children there was a son, Edward, born prior to the removal of 
the family from the vicinity of Allegheny, Pa., and throughout life an industri- 
ous tiller of the soil, giving time and attention to no other occupational calls, 
except that he served with quiet heroism during the Civil war as a member 
of Company B, One Hundred and Fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. It is a 
noteworthy fact that he had three brothers in the same company, while four 
of the Townsend famil}^ brothers of his wife, also served in the same company. 
In spite of participation in many desperate engagements and the dangers inci- 
dent to long forced marches and camp life, all of the number returned except 
one of the Weaber brothers, who fell in battle. For some years after the war 
Edward engaged in farming in Illinois, but during 1876 he took his family to 
Kansas and homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of land in Russell coun- 
ty. His death occurred ten years after he had settled upon that farm. Two 
years before had occurred the demise of his wife, Alida May (Towmsend) 
Weaber, who was born near Bufifalo, N. Y., and at an early age had been taken 
to Illinois by her father, Gilbert Townsend, pioneer of the region adjacent to 
Chicago. 

Among four daughters and two sons comprising the family of Edward 
Weaber, all of whom are still living with the exception of one daughter, 
Arthur W^eaber was next to the oldest and was born at Hinsdale, Cook coun- 
ty, 111., April 6, 1868. but at the age of eight years accompanied the family to 
Kansas. That country was then new and unimproved. Little opportunity to 
attend school came to him. His present wide fund of information results from 
self-culture rather than attendance at school. From the age of twelve years 
he gave his entire time to the work of the home farm, where the struggle for 
a livelihood was stern and discouraging. After the death of his mother and 
father he started out to make his own way, returning in 1887 to Illinois, where 
for eighteen months he was employed as a switchman in the Chicago yards of 
the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. During that time he studied 
telegraphy and then was given employment as an assistant in ofifices between 
Chicago and Aurora, where he continued for eighteen months. Next he was 
appointed assistant agent at Hinsdale. During December of 1889 he came 
to California and after a brief sojourn at Delano, Kern county, on the 1st of 
March, 1890. he was aopointed agent for the Postal Telegraph Company at 
Bakersfield. This position he has since held with the exception of one year, 
when as an employe of the San Joaquin Valley (now the Santa Fe) Railroad 
he held a position as assistant agent at Bakersfield for three months and as 
agent at Wasco, Kern county, for nine months. At the expiration of the year 
he resigned and returned to Bakersfield where he resumed the agency of the 
Postal Telegraph Company. His high reputation as a citizen and his devo- 
tion to Republican principles led that party to nominate him in 1902 for city 
treasurer and tax collector, and he was elected by a gratifying majority, not 



HISTOF^' OF KF.RX COUNTY 1239 

only that time, but in 1906 at the expiration of his first term. Upon the con- 
solidation of Bakersfield and Kern in July, 1910, he was chosen to act in a 
similar capacity for the new town and in April of 1911 he again was elected to 
the offices of city treasurer and tax collector. 

When the stationery store belonging to the Scribner estate was placed 
on sale during 1907 Mr. Weaber acquired the business and since then he has 
occupied the quarters at No. 1822 Chester avenue, where he carries a full 
line of stationery, ofifice supplies, carbon paper, typewriter ribbons, fountain 
pens, sporting goods, toys, books and games, and other articles to be found 
in a first-class establishment of that kind. In the store he has the Postal 
Telegraph office as well as the ofifice of the city treasurer and tax collector. 
As a business man he has proved his worth, while as a citizen his standing 
is the highest. As a member of the Kern County Board of Trade and Bakers- 
field Merchants' Association he has been identified with two leading organiza- 
tions for the material upbuilding of the city. After he came to Bakersfield 
he here married Miss Myrtle Tyler, who was born at Shaftsburg, Mich., and 
by whom he has two children, Ora and Perry. His fraternal relations are 
extended and include membership in the Yeomen, Ancient Order of United 
Workmen (in which he is past master workman). Woodmen of the World, 
Modern Woodmen of America and the Degree of Honor (in which he has held 
leading official positions), beside which with his wife he has been identified 
with the AVomen of Woodcraft at Bakersfield. 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN McCULLOUCH.— The McCullouch family 
traces its history back to an early identification with that of America. The 
first of the name to establish a home in the central west was John, born at 
Pittsburg, Pa., in 1804, and by trade a weaver and spinner, working for some 
years in a factory in his native city, but attracted to the Mississippi valley 
during the period of its early development. Settling in Iowa in 1848, 'he 
operated a sawmill and a planing mill at Ozark on the Maquoketa river in 
Jackson county. The mill was run by water power and became popular among 
pioneers throughout all that section of the country. To establish a lumber 
yard and engage in the lumber business followed as a direct result of his suc- 
cessful management of the mill and until his death in 1868 he continued to be 
one of the leading business men of Jackson county. By his marriage to Mary 
McSurley, v/ho was born at Youngstown, Ohio, in 1815, and died in Iowa in 
1887, he became the father of seven sons and four daughters. Six of the 
eleven children still survive. One of the sons, Alfred, enlisted in the Twelfth 
Iowa Infantry at the opening of the Civil war and while gallantly fighting 
at Shiloh he was Avounded and captured. While imprisoned at Macon, Ga., 
he died, and another son, Charles, died at St. Louis while on his way home 
from the front, having served through the war as a member of the Twenty- 
sixth Iowa Infantry. 

The youngest of the sons, Benjamin Franklin, was born near Canton, 
Jackson county, Iowa, September 23, 1849, and was a child of about twelve 
years when the war opened. He recalls vividly the uneasiness of that period 
and the sorrow of the family over the untimely fate of his older brothers. 
From childhood he had been taught to be useful. His work in the lumber yard 
and the mill gave him such a thorough knowledge of the business that at 
eighteen he was able to run the sawmill at Ozark without assistance. After 
two years there he operated a similar business at Clay Mills for seven years. 
An experience with other occupations followed and in April of 1879 he came 
to California. On the 23d of that month he arrived at Tulare, where he 
engaged at carpentering for three years. As manager of a warehouse he spent 
one year at Tipton, Tulare county. Entering the employ of the Puget Sound 
Lumber Company in 1885, he became a salesman in their Tulare yard and 
continued as such for twelve years. 

A resident of Kern countv since 1898, Mr. McCullouch for ten years 



1240 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

acted in the capacity of stationary engineer in the Southern Pacific shops at 
Kern, now East Bakersfield. Since 1908 he has been a yard salesman for the 
King Lumber Company in Bakersfield. His long experience in the business 
and excellent knowledge of different grades of lumber give value to his serv- 
ices. Meanwhile he has erected four houses in East Bakersfield, but all of 
these have been S( Id and he now resides on Terrace \\'ay. a suburb of Bakers- 
field, where he owns ten acres of land under irrigation and devoted to alfalfa, 
poultry and fruits. Before leaving Iowa he had married Miss Emma Bick- 
ford, who was born in Jackson county, that state, and died at Tulare, Cal., 
in 1884. Of that union there are two children now living, namely: James A., 
on the ranch ; and Mrs. Mary J. Bishop, of Bakersfield. The second marriage 
of j\Ir. McCullouch took place in Tulare and united him with Miss Mary J. 
Berry, a native of Oregon. The nine children of their union are named as 
follows: Mrs. Eulalia Blalock and Mrs. Frankie Karpe, both of East Bakers- 
field ; Mrs. Veldora Maston, of Los Angeles ; Mrs. Mida Garrett and Mrs. 
Marie Finn, both living in East Bakersfield ; Naomi, Eva, Leo and Emma, 
who remain with their parents in the suburban home. While living at Tulare 
]VIr. and Mrs. McCullouch were prominently connected with Rebekah Lodge 
No. 118, and in addition he was past noble grand of Tulare City Lodge No. 
306, I. O. O. F., also past district deputy grand master and a leading local 
worker in the order. Poliricallv he is a Democrat. 

DAVID WHITSON NELSON.— The superintendent of the city schools 
of Bakersfield is a descendant of a colonial family of old Virginia, whose 
earlier representatives bore an honorable part in the material upbuilding of 
the colony and whose later representatives followed the tide of migration 
across the mountains into the blue grass regions of Kentucky. Still another 
generation crossed the Ohio river into the undeveloped country of Indiana and 
rendered pioneer service upon that then frontier of agriculture and civilization. 

Into such a pioneer family Rolla T. Nelson was born in Indiana, the son 
of a Kentuckian who developed a farm in the state further north. He, how- 
ever, turned to carpentering rather than to agriculture and made the building 
business his principal occupation, following it for some years in Hendricks 
county and later in Boone county, where he died. When a young man he 
had married Mary E. Jordon, a native of Indiana, now residing in Boone 
county. The family comes of Irish extraction and her father, David Jordon, 
came to America from the north of Ireland, settling in Indiana. In the old 
country he had learned and followed the trade of a weaver, but in the new 
world he gave his attention to general farming. The familv of Rolla T. 
Nelson comprised nine children and seven of these are still living, one, L. E., 
being a resident of East Bakersfield. The next to the eldest in the family 
circle, David Whitson Nelson, was born in Hendricks county, Ind., May 30, 
1856, and began his education in public schools in Boone county, later taking 
the regular course of study in an academy at Battleground, Tippecanoe coun- 
ty. It was not possible for his parents to give him the advantages his ambi- 
tious spirit craved. With typical resolution he determined to earn his own 
way through college. Fortified by that high ambition, he began to teach 
school while yet a mere youth. For a considerable period the work of teach- 
ing alternated with attendance at institutions of learning. By his own eflforts 
he completed the course in Wabash College as far as the close of the sopho- 
more year. In the same way it was possible for him to spend several terms 
at the Lebanon Normal and a similar institution at Ladoga, Ind., where dili- 
gent application to study qualified him for important future responsibilities. 

The first position of especial importance to which Professor Nelson 
devoted himself was that of principal of the literary department in the insti- 
tution for the education of the blind at Indianapolis, Ind., where he taught 
for eight years, meanwhile winning a high place in the regard and confidence 
of those having the oversight of the school. With the end of the eighth year 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1241 

he resic^ned in order that he might take some pedagogic work of especial value 
to future educational work. For the accomplishment of his purpose he 
matriculated in the Indiana State Normal at Terre Haute, from which he 
was graduated in October of 1893 with high honors. Immediately after gradu- 
ating he came to California and established his residence at Bakersfield, where 
for a year he served as deputy county recorder under T. A. Wells. Meanwhile 
he had secured a position in the Beardsley school and at the beginning of the 
fall term entered upon his duties there, where he continued for two years. 
During 1896 his ability was recognized by' election as supervising principal of 
the Bakersfield schools and he has continued for eighteen years in the same 
position, the title in 1904 having been changed to that of superintendent. Un- 
der his administration a remarkable improvement has been effected, manual 
training has been introduced, the schools have been well graded and brought 
to a h'^h stpudnrd. 

Fraternally Professor Nelson is a Master Mason. Prior to his removal 
to the west he was married in Lebanon, Ind., to Miss Clara Ross, who was 
born and reared near that place. In national principles he favors the Demo- 
cratic partv. Along the line of his chosen profession he has maintained a 
warm interest in the work of the California State Teachers' .A.ssociation and 
is also an associate member of the National Educational Association. Ever 
since he established his home in Bakersfield he and his wife have been identi- 
fied with the Methodist Episcopal Church and at this writing he is officiating 
as a member of the board of trustees. Upon the organization of the Beale 
library he was chosen a member of the board of trustees and for several years 
he liP'^ 'serve^^ as secretarv of that bodv. 

WITXIAM HENRY THOMAS.— Of Welsh de'^rent Wilh'am Henry 
Thomas' family was founded in America early in the '30s by his father. John 
Thomas, a native of Caermanthenshire, in the southern part of Wales and by 
trade a harness-maker and saddler. After he had crossed the ocean to Penn- 
sylvania and had taken up land in Union county he followed his chosen 
occupation while at the same time he devoted some attention to the clearing 
of a farm near Buffalo Cross Roads. For a short time subsequent to bis im- 
migration he remained immarried, but among the fair daughters of Union 
County he chose a wife and then established a home of his own. The capable 
woman who remained the companion of his maturity and advanced years 
was Lydia Ann Hartman, a native of Union county and a member of a very 
old and honored family of that portion of Pennsylvania, her father, Jacob 
Hartman, having been likewise a native of the same county, where he devoted 
his active years to farm pursuits. While the family were living near what 
was then known as Buffalo Cross Roads (now Buffalo R^ads) a son was 
born in 1847 to whom was given the name of AVilliam Henry and who is now 
city recorder of Bakersfield. The tide of migration was taking men and 
women to the unimproved prairies of the Mississippi valley and the Thomas 
family joined in the westward movement, during 1852 establishing a home 
at Cedarville, Stephenson county. 111., where the father found emplovment as 
a saddler and harness-maker. Another move was made during 1865 and 
settlement was made in Iowa, where a fine farm was developed near IMarshall- 
town. Both the fa<:her and mother remained in Iowa until their death. 

The parental family comprised eight children, all but one of whom at- 
tained maturity and three sons and one daughter now survive, the eldest being 
William Henry, whose birth occurred August 22, 1847, and whose bovhood 
from five years was passed in Illinois. One of the most vivid recollections of 
his youth is that of hearing the celebrated debate in Freeport, 111., between 
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. When scarcely seventeen years 
of age in the soring of 1864 he enlisted as a private in Company F, One FTun- 
dred Forty-second Illinois Infantry, and was mustered into service at Spring- 
field, that state, after which he accompanied the troops into Kentucky and 



1242 HISTORY OF KERN CdUNTY 

Tennessee. The enlistment had been for a hundred days only, but they were 
kept in service al^ont six months and in November, 1864, he was honorably 
discharged at Springfield. Immediately afterward he enlisted as a member of 
Company G, Forty-sixth Illinois Infantry, and again he accompanied his regi- 
ment into Confederate territory, where he participated in the siege of Mobile 
and the taking of Fort Blakely, the final engagement of the war. His regi- 
ment was retained in the south after the close of the long struggle and he wis 
finally mustered out at Baton Rouge, La., in February of 1866. Meanwhile his 
father had removed to Iowa and had settled upon a farm near Marshalltown, 
where the young soldier joined him. At once' he began to assist in the im- 
provement of the land and the raising of the crops. The years passed by 
swiftly and for some years he was connected with the sheriff's office in Mar- 
shall county. In 1881 he left Iowa for California, settling in Los Angeles and 
engaging in the real-estate business. From that city in 1888 he removed to 
Fresno to continue the same line of business. From 1890 to 1893 he made his 
home in Chicago, but during the year last-named he returned to the west and 
February 28, that year, settled in Bakersfield, where he was employed as 
superintendent of the horse department with the Kern County Land Com- 
pany. For a long period he continued in the same position and even after he 
had resigned from their employ in 1902 he continued to handle horses, a work 
in which he was unusually proficient. In 1907 he was elected city recorder of 
Bakersfield and at the consolidation of Bakersfield and Kern in July, 1910, he 
was elected to the same position, to which in April, 1911, he was re-elected 
for another term of four years. In Bakersfield he married Miss Arvad Mel- 
linger, a native of Stephenson county. 111. Since coming to this city he has 
identified himself with Hurlburt Post, G. A. R.. and has been generous in his 
contributions to its charities. Poliliically he is a Republican. 

JAMES H. PARKER.— The force that resides in individual character 
and that impels to the development of mental powers finds an illustration in 
the life of Professor James H. Parker, assistant superintendent of the schools 
of Bakersfield and a leading promoter of educational work in the city. The 
promise that he gives of increasing usefulness in the public school system 
afifords gratification to those who watch the careers of the native sons and 
the descendants of our western pioneers, for he claims California as the 
place of his birth and is the son of one of the early and extensive ranchers 
of Butte county. The elder James Parker, who was a native of Wayne 
county. Mo., and a corporal in the Union army during the Civil war, left 
Missouri for the west shortly after the close of the struggle in which he had 
borne so honorable a part. Upon his arrival in California he selected for 
his future home a tract of raw land near Chico and thereafter gave his 
attention to the developing of the place into a productive and remunerative 
ranch with abundant pasturage for his fine herds of stock. Eventually he 
became the owner of two large ranches in Butte county, and these were 
not only utilized for stock range, but also for the raising of grain and hay, 
and in each department of agriculture he met with encouraging success. 
When he began to feel the encroachment of age with its attendant infirmities 
he sold his farms and retired to private life. The last eighteen months of 
his life were passed in East Bakersfield and he died here in 1911, while the 
death of his wife, who was Mary E. Reese, a native of Missouri, occurred 
in Butte county, June 9 of the following year. 

There were ten children in the Parker family, and all but two are still 
living. The fifth in order of birth, James H., was born at the old home- 
stead near Chico December 23, 1881, and grew lo manhood at the ranch. 
meanwhile attending neighboring country schools. From youth he exhib- 
ited keenness of intelligence and acuteness of mental powers. It was his 
ambition to fit himself for educational work. With this object in view he 
began the study of pedagogy in the Chico State Normal School and there- 



HISTORY OF KKRX COTXTY 1243 

after continued in the same institution until he was ,e:'raduated with the class 
of 1906, after which he enj^aged in teachint.';- in Siskiyou county. From that 
county he came to East Bakersfield in 1907 to become an instructor in the 
Washinijton school, where the follovvins^ year he served as assistant principal 
in charge of that work. Effectiveness in discipline and thoroughness in in- 
struction led to his retention in the same office. Upon the consolidation of 
the school work at the union of the two cities in 1910 he was elected assistant 
superintendent of the city schools, which position he has since filled with 
ability, tact and fidelity. Meanwhile he has kept in active touch with the 
work of the State Teachers' Association and the San Joaquin Valley Teach- 
ers' Association, in both of which he is a member, while in addition he has 
become an associate member of the National Educational Association. Since 
coming to Bakersfield he has become identified fraternally with Bakersfield 
Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E. In religious views he is in harmony with the 
doctrines of the Presbyterian Church and has been a regular contributor to 
its maintenance and philanthropies. Politically he gives his allegiance to 
Republican principles. 

ERNEST V. BENJAMIN. — It is not uncommon to read in fiction of 
young men who through sheer force of ability and character forge their way 
to the front and take their place among the leading men of public affairs or 
captains of industry. In actual life such occurrences are rare, since wealth 
or influence or prestige form important elements in determining the position 
of men. It may be said, however, that in the instance of Mr. Benjamin 
ability and acumen have brought him to prominence without the aid of facti- 
tious circumstances. The fact that he is a member of the management com- 
mittee of the Kern River Oilfields of California, Limited, which forms one of 
the most important oil-producing organizations in the entire district, bespeaks 
the possession of an high order of business judgment. Nor is his only asso- 
ciate on the committee. W. W. Orcutt of Los Angeles, less talented than 
himself, for he stands among the most influential geologists of America and 
has an enviable reputation as a specialist on matters pertaining to the geology 
of the oil fields of California. 

On section 33, townshio 28, range 28, the Kern River Oilfields of Cali- 
fornia, Limited, own six hundred and forty acres, formerly belonging to 
the old Imperial and 33 Oil Companies. In addition they own all of section 
1, township 29. range 28, also have four hundred and eighty acres on section 
25, township 28, range 27, and three hundred and seventy acres on section 19, 
township 28, range 28. Besides this large acreage the company is acquiring 
lands in the Santa Maria and other fields. The Standard is now putting down 
a deep well on section 35 to test the territory in this respect and if successful 
the Kern River Oilfields will no doubt proceed to further development. They 
have two hundred and forty wells on section 33 and are deepening some in 
order to get better results from the new air-compressor system. 

Of English birth and lineage, possessing the force and aggressive char- 
acter that has made the Englishman a dominant powder in the world, Mr. 
Benjamin is a native of London, England, and was born April 28, 1883. 

WILMOT LOWELL. — Probably few men were more intimately identi- 
fied with the early upbuilding of Bakersfield and Kern county than was 
Wilmot Lowell, and certainly none exhibited a greater devotion to its wel- 
fare, according to his means, than did he, for whenever possible he contributed 
of time and means and influence to progressive projects. Few of the enter- 
prises advanced for the general welfare lacked his enthusiastic support and 
sagacious aid. Among the early settlers who came here from the east and 
established homes in this growing country, none was more loyal to his 
adopted community, none more generous in the maintenance of neighborhood 
enterprises, and none more highly honored for worth of character than was 
the late Wilmot Lowell, who for years ranked among the leading sheep- 



1244 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

raisers of Kern county, later engaged in horticultural pursuits in the suburbs 
of Bakersfield and finally became interested in the real-estate business and 
in the building up of comfortable homes for the people. For some years 
the city had the benefit of his executive ability in the office of trustee and 
the Methodist Episcopal Church persuaded him to fill the same position in 
their local work. Besides the building up of property on Eighteenth street 
and on Chester avenue he was interested in the building of the Southern 
hotel and also donated one acre of ground to be sold for the benefit of the 
Beale library. In honor of his memory and in recognition of his generous aid, 
a room in the library bears the name of the Lowell room. 

Born at Concord, Me., November 16, 1836, Wilmot Lowell was a son 
of ^^''illiam and Mary (Tyler) Lowell, likewise natives of Maine, and a 
grandson of John Lowell, a farmer by occupation and of English ancestry. 
The parental family consisted of six children, namely: Wilmot, Danville 
and William H., all of whom died in Bakersfield ; Henry, who died in Boston 
in 1912; John and Alexis, both now living in Bakersfield. When advanced 
in years the father relinquished his farming activities in Maine, also retired 
from ship-carpentering, in which he had engaged to some extent, and came 
to Bakersfield, where he remained until death. About 1862 Wilmot Lowell 
came via Panama to California and settled in the vicinity of Hollister, San 
Benito county, where he engaged under Flint & Bixby, and there gained his 
first knowledge of the sheep industry. The work proving congenial from 
the start, he soon made preparations to enter the same. After he came to 
Kern county he continued the sheep business with his brothers, William H. 
and Alexis, meeting with alternating successes and reverses. Their home 
ranch, which has since been laid out and built up as a part of the city of 
Bakersfield, w-as sold soon after they discontinued the sheep business, in 
1887. to the Lowell Land & Improvement Co., and was laid out as the 
Lowell addition. In this company Mr. Lowell held a one-fifth interest and 
filled the office of president. He gave his entire attention to the upbuilding of 
this addition and to other real estate holdings which he owned until his health 
failed and he was obliged to relinquish active work. During 1902 he resigned 
as city trustee and his death occurred December 14, 1905, at his residence in 
Bakersfield. From young manhood he had sustained Republican tenets and 
given his allegiance to the party in all elections. 

The marriage of Mr. Lowell took place at Westboro, Mass., in 1889 and 
united him with Miss Sarah Elizabeth Flagg, daughter of Alexis and 
Mehitable (Lowell) Flagg, natives respectively of Vermont and Maine, the 
mother dying in her native commonwealth, and the father in Massachusetts, 
where he had followed general farming. Mrs. Lowell was born in Wilming- 
ton, Windham county, Vt., and is the survivor of two children. Her educa- 
tion was received in the schools of Maine and qualified her for the responsi- 
bilities of business. Since the death of Mr. Lowell she has remained at the 
family residence. No. 1119 Eighteenth street, and superintends personally 
her varied interests and continues as far as is possible Mr. Lowell's deep 
interest in and devotion to the advancement of Bakersfield. 

COL. ARTHUR SAXE CRITES.— The title by which the cashier of 
the First Bank of Kern is familiarly known comes to him through his service 
as lieutenant-colonel of the Second Regiment, California National Cuard. 
His experience in military tactics, however, has not been limited to the 
Guard, for he holds membership with the Spanish-American War Veterans 
by right of identification with that recent struggle. During May of 1898 his 
name was enrolled as a member of Company G, Sixth California Volunteer 
Infantry, stationed in camp at San Francisco, and drilled during the summer 
to an intimate knowledge of all military details. Upon being mustered out 
in December of the same year he held the rank of quartermaster sergeant. 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1245 

At the reorg^anization of the National Guard in 1899 he became a member of 
Company G, Sixth Regiment, and was elected its captain. From the first 
he was popular with the members of the Guard, who about 1905 elected him 
major of the regiment. When the Sixth was mustered out in May, 1907, he 
re-enlisted as a private in Company L, Second Regiment, California National 
Guard, and was promoted to be first sergeant, later was chosen second lieu- 
tenant and battalion quartermaster. On the 20th of October, of the same 
year, he was elected lieutenant-colonel of the Second Regiment, which com- 
mission he has held ever since. 

A son of Angus McLeod and Louesa Maria (Jewett) Crites, early set- 
tlers of Kern county, Arthur Saxe Crites was born near Caliente, this 
county, February 4, 1879, and in childhood walked a distance of four miles 
to the grammar-school in Keene. Later he became a student in the Kern 
county high school, Bakersfield, and when he completed the course in 1895 
he was a member of the second graduating class of that institution. Before 
the Spanish-American war he engaged in ranching, but after his return in 
December, 1898, he became bookkeeper for the Kern County Land Company. 
Later he entered the Kern Valley Bank and after two years as bookkeeper 
he was promoted to be assistant cashier, which position he filled for three 
years. Meanwhile the First Bank of Kern had been organized in 1901 and 
early in 1905 he and G. J. Planz bought a controlling interest in the institu- 
tion, of which he since has been cashier and manager. 

Jn addition to the management of this well-know^n banking institution 
Col. Crites acts as secretary and manager of the Kern County Mutual Build- 
ing & Loan Association, al.so is a member of the original board of directors of 
the Security Trust Company (now the largest banking institution in Kern 
county) and has other interests that identify him intimately with the financial 
affairs of city and county. From early life he has been strong in his adher- 
ence to Republican policies and at this writing he acts as a member of the 
county central committee of the party. Masonry appealed to him in young 
manhood by its philanthropic principles and spirit of brotherhood. As past 
master he is connected with Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. Al. Besides 
being king of Bakersfield Chapter No. 75, R. A. M., he officiates as prelate 
of Bakersfield Commandery No. 39, K. T., also is associated with Al Malaikah 
Temple, N.M.S., in Los Angeles. Three children, Emma C, Arthur Saxe, Jr., 
and Angus D., have been born of his union with Miss Nellie L. Duncan, who 
was born near Quinc}', 111., but came to California at an early age and was 
a resident of Bakersfield at the time of their marriage. 

BENJAMIN LEONARD BRUNDAGE.— In the passing of Benjamin 
L. Brundage, on August 20, 1913, in Los Angeles, the city of Bakersfield 
lost one of its most conscientious, enterprising and liberal citizens, one 
whose efforts toward the advancement of civic interests, whose un- 
selfish activity in the development of conditions and whose per- 
sonal progressive spirit aided not a little in the rapidity with which Bakers- 
field has come to the fore. Probably best known as the city assessor of 
Bakersfield, he for a number of years officiated as secretary of the Bakers- 
field Board of Trade and in this position spared no effort to promote the 
permanent prosperity of the community. 

Mr. Brundage was a lifelong resident of Kern county, the son of 
Benjamin and Mary B. (Lively) Brundage, and was born in Glennville 
March 2, 1871. From the age of one year he lived at the county-seat where 
he became well kncnvn not only through his offfcial capacity, but also as 
an enterprising business man. as an extensive rancher and progressive 
horticulturist, and as an automobile dealer as well. Primarily educated 
in the local schools, he later was sent to Hopkins Academy in Oakland 
and then entered the L'niversitv of California as a member of the class 



1246 HISTORY OF KERX COUXTY 

of 1892. For years he operated with success the Brundage ranch of four 
hundred and seventy acres, which is devoted to general crops. In 1912 
he constructed a brick and concrete business block at the corner of Fif- 
teenth and I streets, which he devoted to his automobile business. 

For some years, beginning in January of 1899. Mr. Brundage acted 
as deputv cotmty assessor under J. M. Jameson. During April of 1899 he 
was chosen city assessor for the first time and since then he has been re- 
elected at the expiration of each term. His long retention in the office 
furnishes abundant evidence as to the trustworthy quality of his services and 
the devotion which he gave to every duty while in office. As a Democrat 
he was a loyal party leader, a champion of the principles for which that 
organization stands, and a believer in its adaptability to promote national 
prosperity. 

l)uring the year 1906 Mr. Brundage married Miss Virginia Stark, who 
was born in the county of Los Angeles, and was educated in Bakersfield, 
and who survives him. Mr. Brundage was a prominent and most popular 
mem.ber of the Elks and the Knights Templar, which orders graciously 
conducted his funeral service with the attendant honors, and he was laid 
to rest in Union Cemetery, Bakersfield, mourned by not only a host of 
loving friends and relatives but by an entire community who deeply felt 
the loss of one whose generous motives and untiring energy had contributed 
so much to their well being. His memory shall live long in the hearts of 
those who have benefited by his kindly and thoughtful acts and he has gone 
to eternal rest with the assurance of having done his duty well, justly 
earning the praise, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." 

CHARLES W. CURTZWILER.— The Curtzwiler family lineage is 
traced to Germany and after emigration from that country the original 
name of Kurtzweiler was for convenience changed to the present spelling. 
Charles, father of Charles W., was born and reared in Cologne, but after 
the death of his father he accompanied the widowed mother and other mem- 
bers of the family tc) the new world. A brief sojourn was made in Kentucky 
and then removal was made to Holgate, Henry county, Ohio, where his 
mother passed her last days. Attracted to the west by reports concerning 
its mining possibilities, Air. Curtzwiler tried his luck in the Sierras, but 
found no gold to reward his laborious efl^ort. For a time he conducted a 
hotel at Waterford, Stanislaus county. Later he lived at Tulare and eventu- 
ally removed to Merced, his present place of residence. Some time after 
he came to the west he married Miss Eureka Garrison, who was born in 
this state and died at Tulare. Her father, William T. Garrison, came of a 
colonial family of New England and was an emigrant across the plains 
during the era of the prairie schooner and the overland trail. For years he 
engaged as a contractor in the building business, but is now retired from 
active labors and makes his home in Tulare. 

The family of Charles Curtzwiler comprised six children, of whom five 
are still living. The eldest, Charles W., was born July 22, 1880, during the 
residence of the family at Waterford, Stanislaus county, and he was six at 
the time of their removal to Tulare. He was graduated May 24. 1901. from 
the Tulare high school, an.d on tlie 6th of July following he arrived in Kern 
county. L]) to September 1. LX)3. he had been employed as a clerk for two 
dififerent firms, after which lie was engaged as mailing clerk with the Kern 
Count \^ Land Comijany. with whom he has continued ever since, by promo- 
tion going from one position to another until in April of 1910 he was made 
water clerk for the concern. Since that time he has devoted himself assid- 
uously to the duties of the position. 

The marriage of Mr. Curtzwiler. which was solemnized in b'ast Bakers- 
field in March. 190.^. united him with Miss Minta Lawhorn and has been 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1247 

blessed with two daughters, Constance and Wilma. Mrs. Curtzwiler is a na- 
tive of Kansas, but was reared and educated in Visalia, where her father, John 
W. Lawhorn, resided for many years prior to his demise. In recent years 
Mr. Curtzwiler has erected a comfortable and attractive residence at No. 
2728 Twentieth street and there he spends his leisure hours in the society 
of family and friends. Although a believer in Democratic principles, he is not 
a partisan and takes no active part in political movements. In religion he is 
in sympathy w^ith all measures for the uplifting of humanity, but maintains 
an especial interest in the Congregational Church, of which his wife is a 
member. In fraternal relations he is connected with the Knights of Pythias 
and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. 

MRS. EMERETTA C. SYBRANDT.— The supervisor of music in the 
public schools of Bakersfield has utilized her rare talents in developing 
among her pupils a love for and a knowledge of the art to which she has 
devoted a lifetime of intelligent study. Four years of successful work in 
this position have given to the people an admiring recognition of her 
ability and eflficiency. Thoroughly educated in the rudiments of music, pos- 
sessing a native talent for the art supplemented by the best educational 
opportunities the east afforded, at one time she made a specialty of the lead- 
ing parts in operas and oratorios, but with her marriage in young woman- 
hood to George Sybrandt, of Albany, N. Y., she retired from professional 
labors. Thereafter for four years, until the untimely death of Mr. Sybrandt, 
she irradiated a home life with the tender ministrations of wife and mother, 
giving to her husband the cordial co-operation and loving helpfulness of the 
true wife, and surrounding their two children, Ida and Paul, with self-sacri- 
ficing care which became even more watchful after the death of their father. 

Although a resident of the east for a considerable period and enjoying 
the advantages of its splendid conservatories of music, Mrs. Sybrandt 
l,^roudly claims California as her native commonwealth, the home of her 
early girlhood, Rocklin, Placer county, having been her native locality and 
the environment of her earliest memories. She cannot recall the time when 
her interest in music began. It seemed a part of her being, an innate pos- 
session of her soul, giving expression to the deepest thoughts and holiest 
aspirations of her nature. Fortunately it was possible for her to develop her 
conspicuous talent for the art and she was trained under competent in- 
structors in Boston, Mass., Albany, N. Y., and Syracuse, N. Y., where for 
some years she held a prominent position in musical circles. Her married 
life was passed in New York and after the death of her husband at Albany, 
that state, she returned to California, where for eight years she taught 
music in the bay cities, mostly at Alameda. For a time she was the solo 
soprano in the Unitarian Church and later held a similar position in the 
First Methodist Episcopal Church, both in Alameda. Later, at San Jose, 
she held positions as solo singer in the First Congregational Church and 
Unitarian Church, after which she took charge of the choir of the First 
Presbyterian Church. Meanwdiile students under her wise guidance were 
trained in a knowledge of music and carefully prepared to enjoy a steady 
progress and an ultimate success in the art. When the board of education in 
Bakersfield during 1909 sought an artist competent to serve as supervisor 
of music in the public schools, her enviable reputation led them to ofi"er the 
position to her and it has been a matter of subsequent congratulation that 
they were successful in enlisting her interest and securing her acceptance of 
the difficult and responsible position. 

CLARENCE LESTER HEROD.— The sixth in a family of ten, C. L. 
Herod was born near Greencastle. Putnam county, Ind., a son of Bailey and 
Harriet (Minter) Herod, and a brother of James Herod, mentioned else- 
where. Reared in Putnam and Hendricks counties. Ind.. he had 



1248 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

such advantages as the local schools afforded. In 1887, when yet a mere lad, 
he came to California and began to work at Big Pine in Inyo county. Soon, 
however, he crossed the state line into Nevada and secured employment in 
Fish Lake valley in Esmeralda county as a laborer on a ranch owned by 
N. T. Piper, who in a short time, recognizing his efficiency, placed him in 
charge of a general store at Oasis. At the same time he had charge of the 
postoffice which was in the store room. Leaving Nevada in 1890 he came 
to Kern county and became connected with his older brother, James, in 
the dairy business, operating the Keefer ranch in the Panama district and 
manufacturing butter for the Bakersfield markets. At the expiration of two 
years he sold his interest to the brother and secured a clerkship with 
Dunkelspiel Brothers, later holding a similar position with other Bakersfield 
firms, and in 1910 associating himself with the Ardizzi-Olcese Company. 

The marriage of Mr. Herod took place in Bakersfield December 10, 1895, 
and united him with Miss Louise Yoakum, a native daughter of Kern 
county and a lady of business ability and social prominence. Her father, 
William Yoakum, was born in Missouri and crossed the plains to Cali- 
fornia before a railroad had been built across the continent. Afterward he 
engaged in mining and milling until his death. Particularly was he asso- 
ciated with the development of three of the well-known old mines of Kern 
county, viz.: Long Tom (where he built a mill), the Little Hattie and Isa- 
bella. Some time after coming west he married Callie Gilbert, a native of 
Texas. Three daughters blessed their union. The youngest of these, 
Louise, was born at the Long Tom mine in this county. The eldest daughter, 
Harriet E., formerly a teacher in Bakersfield, is now the wife of J. S. 
Douglas, of the San Emidio ranch. The second daughter, Minnie, now Mrs. 
W. F. McKinzie, of Lebec, Kern county, also engaged in teaching in the 
Bakersfield schools for some years. Mrs. Yoakum, who afterward became 
Mrs. Pettit, crossed the plains with her parents in the days when wagons and 
oxen were utilized as the only sure means of transportation across the 
deserts and plains. Her father, Robert Gilbert, had served in the Mexican 
war and had traveled through California as early as 1848, but returned to 
Texas and it was not until some years later that he brought the family to 
live in the west. The present home of Mrs. Pettit is at Fort Tejon Canyon, 
where she owns a ranch. Mrs. Herod was educated in the Kern county 
schools and has always remained a resident of this community. Politically 
she favors the Democratic principles, while her husband is equally stanch in 
allegiance to the Republican party. Besides being prominent in the local 
work of the Women of Woodcraft, she is a charter member and leading 
worker in Tejon Parlor No. 136, Native Daughters of the Golden West, at 
Bakersfield, in which organization she was formerly the president and is now 
the recording secretary. 

LEWIS CASS WORTHINGTON.— Descended from an old southern 
family that became established in Virginia during the colonial period of our 
national history, Lewis Cass Worthington was born in Oregon, Ogle 
county. 111., in 1848, and is a son of the late John and Nancy (Drummond) 
Worthington. Primarily educated in the public schools of Ogle county, he 
later enjoyed the advantages of study in Mount Morris Seminary, an old, 
influential and leading educational institution of northern Illinois. After 
being graduated from the seminary he left Mount Morris and returned to 
the home farm, later being interested in agricultural pursuits in Illinois for a 
few years. During 1874 he came to California and secured employment in 
the building of the west side canal at Los Banos, Merced county. In a 
short time he was promoted to be superintendent of construction and from 
that he became superintendent of canals and ditches at Madera. The same 
line of work kept him l)usy in that county for some time and there he 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1249 

filled important contracts with trustworthiness and fidelity. When less 
activity began to be manifested in the building of canals he turned his at- 
tention to ranching, although he never wholly abandoned the work of 
building canals and irrigation systems. About 1894 he came to Bakersfield 
and became interested in the teaming business as well as in contracting, 
since which time he has become widely known as an authority and an expert 
in all canal and irrigation work. Several of the modern irrigation systems 
of California have been built wholly or in part by him. The Stevenson sys- 
tem he built in its entirety. The San Joaquin and Kings river canal was 
pushed to completion through his energetic oversight, and in addition he 
built a ])art of the Turlock and Madera systems, as well as sixty-four miles 
of the Sutter-Butte system of canals. 

Since the death in Bakersfield in 1907 of Mrs. Worthington, who was a 
native of Oregon, Ogle county. 111., and bore the maiden name of Alice R. 
Mix, Mr. Worthington has made his home in this city with his daughters and 
has continued to superintend his varied local and outside interests. His 
eldest daughter, Lois Worthington, M. D., now the wife of Frank Davis, 
was graduated with the degree of M. D., from Cooper Medical College De- 
cember 8, 1897, and since then has engaged in professional practice, her 
office being now in the Producers' Bank building in Bakersfield. Prominent 
in the profession, she maintains a w^arm interest in the work of the American 
and California State Medical Associations. Socially she has been influential 
in the organization of Native Daughters at Bakersfield. The second daughter, 
Jean Worthington, D. D. S., now the wife of Jack Bennett, an oil operator 
with headquarters at Bakersfield, is a graduate of the dental department of 
the University of California and now has a dental office in her home city. 
The youngest daughter, Mazie Worthington, D. D. S., a graduate of the 
dental department of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in San Fran- 
cisco, now has a suite of rooms for dental practice in the Producers' Bank 
building in Bakersfield. 

Dr. Lois Worthington, who is a native of San Leandro, Alameda county, 
became the wife of Frank Davis in Bakersfield October 15. 1906. Since 
March of 1902 Mr. Davis has lived in Bakersfield and meanwhile has filled 
a responsible position as yardmaster with the Santa Fe road. Born at 
Marca, Macon county. 111., he is a son of John T. Davis, a native of Illinois 
and now residing in the Randsburg district. A farmer by occupation, he 
came to California during the '80s and settled at Rosedale, where he devel- 
oped a tract of raw land. Later he removed to Tehacliapi, entered a claim 
and improved a farm. Upon selling that place he took up a desert claim in 
the Mojave desert, where at the age of seventy-eight he is still activel}^ at 
work as a farmer. Of his five living children only two settled in California. 
The eldest of the five, Frank, w^as born May 4, 1864, and at the age of 
eighteen years secured work as a brakeman on the Illinois Central road. 
Later he worked in a similar capacity with other roads, after which he was 
promoted to be a conductor on what is known as the Big Four road out 
from Urbana, 111. His first trip to Bakersfield occurred about twenty-five 
years ago and he spent a short time in the employ of the Southern Pacific 
Railroad Company. On returning to Illinois he was employed as yardmaster 
in the Peoria yards of the Peoria & Pekin road, but resigned the position to 
settle permanently in California during the fall of 1901 and after a few 
months with the Santa Fe at Fresno- he was transferred to Bakersfield as 
yardmaster for the same road. 

EDWIN L. FOSTER.— Significant of the importance of Bakersfield is 
the fact that it has attracted to local professional circles men of breadth of 
thought, energy of temperament and acuteness of reasoning faculties, among 
whom not the least conspicuous or influential is Edwin L. Foster, attornev- 



1230 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

at-lavv. Like the majority of the i)rofessional men of the community, he is on 
the sunny side of life's prime, with a future of 2"rowin_o; possibilities 1)efore 
him and with a present reputation that comes from a profound knowledge of 
the law. not only as related to California, but also as aiiplied to other states 
and the general government. W^hen he assumes a case his clients realize that 
his vast fund of legal kn(l^^•ledge, his personal probity and his resourcefidness 
are enlisted in their favcM-, and they repose in him a confidence v/on by a 
knowledge of the skill with which invariably he has conducted all of his cases. 
Having once given himself to a case in the courts, he becomes a persistent 
fighter for his client and gives the closest attention to every detail connected 
with the affair. In support of progressive projects he is e(!|ually capable and 
persistent and the city has in him one of its most able citizens and public- 
spirited men. 

Prior to removing to California with his parents in 1885, Mr. Foster lived 
in Macoupin county. 111., where he was born at Brighton, July 8, 1871, and 
where he had received his elementary education. After coming to the west 
he comnleted his high-school course and also took a thorough course in the 
law. Admitted to practice in the superior court of California in 1898, he at 
once established himself for professional work and has since practiced in this 
state, with the exception of a few years spent in the east as an attorney in 
Massachusetts and New York City. Through his education, which to some 
extent was acquired in Massachusetts, and also through a residence in the 
east in the years 1902-1905, he gained an excellent knowledge of conditions 
in that part of the country and has found the information of value to later 
activities. Since coming to Kern county in February of 1905 he has risen to 
prominence among the attorneys of Bakersfield, where he maintains his office 
in the Andersen building at No. 1669^ Chester avenue and where he has 
proved a distinct and influential acquisition to the professional element of the 
community. 

HON. CHARLES LEMUEL CLAFLIN.— For generations uncounted 
the bright aspiring minds of the youth of every locality have turned tov/ard 
the law as offering an opportunity for the exercise of their unquestioned 
talents and as affording a desirable avenue to future success. In choosing 
the law as his life work Judge Claflin was influenced by a decided preference 
for the ])rofession and by a recognition of talents of his own admirably qual- 
ifying him for such activities. That his choice was wisely made thirty years 
of successful practice have proved beyond question. Since he came to Bakers- 
field he has risen to leadership among the members of the Kern county bar 
and has built up a large practice whose basic strength is his own exceptional 
ability and unwavering integrity. As the senior member of the firm of Claflin 
& Owen, he has established a large corporation practice, has been chosen to 
attend to the law business of the First Bank of Kern and the National Bank of 
Bakersfield and exerts a wide professional influence founded upon his thor- 
ough knowledge of the law. 

Judge Claflin was born at Lebanon, Van Ikiren county, Iowa, August 17, 
1858, received a public school education, studied law in an of^ce at Keosauqua, 
Iowa, came to California in 1880 and the following year was admitted to prac- 
tice in Modoc county, where he began upon professional work. During 1882 
he was elected district attorney of Mode c county and held the office for one 
term. In 1890 he was elected superior judge of Modoc county. For six years 
he continued on the bench and won recognition through impartial service and 
wide knowledge of jurisprudence. Upon retiring from the office January 1, 
1897, he resumed private practice, remaining in Modoc county for three years, 
and thence removing to Bakersfield in 1900 at the time of the great oil boom in 
Kern county. In his removal to Bakersfield he was accompanied by his wife, 
whom he had married in Modoc countv in 1884 and who was Miss Nellie 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1251 

Welch, of Nevada county, this state. Their family consists of six children, 
namely : Harlan A\\, Charles L. Jr., Anita E., George E., Harry L., and Theo- 
dore R. Besides the family residence in Bakersfield and other city property, 
Judge Claflin owns farming lands and also has acquired interests in the oil 
fields, the entire investment representing an aggregate of large value. Pro- 
nounced in his allegiance to the Republican party, he nevertheless seeks no 
offices at its hands and the positions which he has filled came to him, not 
through political influence, but in recognition of his superior qualifications 
and splendid type of citizenship. The years of maturity he has devoted to the 
law and as a counselor he exhibits ripened judgment, while as an advocate 
he shows a profound knowledge of legal technicalities. Indeed, in every de- 
partment of the profession his talents are manifest and his standing assured. 

MRS. LOUISA J. CARVER.— Throughout an identification of more 
than sixty years with California it has been the privilege of Mrs. Carver to 
witness the remarkable development of the state, the building of railroads, 
the starting of towns, the opening up of ranch lands and the foundation 
of the remarkable material prosperity which makes the sunset state a 
favored region of destiny. The atmosphere of romance lingers around her 
eventful life, yet in the actual passing there has been less of romance than 
of unquestioned adherence to duty and a courageous endurance of the hard- 
ships incident to frontier existence. No memory of girlhood stands out more 
clearly in her well-stored mind than that of the crossing of the plains dur- 
ing the summer of 1850. The family had lived on a ranch near Jefiferson 
City, Mo., where she was born and where at an early age she had been 
trained to a knowledge of housewifely arts and practical farm duties. Her 
father, Hiram Hughes, a pioneer of brain and brawn, with the sturdy 
physique of the frontiersman, had left his native Tennessee for Missouri at 
the age of seventeen years and settled near Jefiferson City with his parents, 
who were farmers and stockraisers. Some years after going to Missouri he 
married Lucinda Johnson, a native of Kentucky. On their Missouri farm 
two children came to bless the home, the younger being Napoleon, who be- 
came a cattleraiser and died in Linn's valley many years after coming to 
California. 

The elder of the two children, Louisa J., was a young girl on the 
threshold of womanhood at the time the family crossed the plains. March 
9, 1850, they started on the long journey as members of an expedition that 
numbered seventy-two men and thirty-one wagons. Ox-teams were used 
to draw the wagons and in addition Mr. Hughes started with sixty head of 
loose cattle, but unfortunately he lost the greater number of these on the 
load. The report of trouble at Salt Lake City led them to deflect their 
coiu-se from that point, so they traveled via Sublet's Cut-ofif and on the 31st 
of August arrived at Hangtown (now Placerville). In common with the 
majority of the early settlers Mr. Hughes at first earned a livelihood in the 
mines. After some years he embarked in the stock business in Tuolumne 
county. From there he removed to Stanislaus county. Eventually he came 
to Linn's valley and bought a raw tract of land. The development of the 
ranch engaged the remaining years of his activity and he resided there until 
his death at eighty-one years of age. His wife lived to be eighty-three. 

During the long journey across the plains the young girl had acci- 
dentally met on one occasion a youthful Argonaut, Joel Carver, who was 
crossing the plains with a large expedition from Missouri, but not connected 
in any way with the Hughes party. By chance the young couple met a 
second time in Sonora in 1851 and were again introduced. Their acquaint- 
ance ripened into affection and they were married in Calaveras county Feb- 
ruary 27, 1853, after which they settled on a stock ranch in Stanislaus 
county fifteen miles from the present site of Oakdahe. Mr. Carver was born 



1252 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

in Springfield, 111., January 27, 1832, the original Carver homestead having 
stood within two miles of the state capitol. During boyhood he accompanied 
his parents to Missouri and settled near Neosho, but in 1850 he again sought 
a location further west, this time traversing mountains and deserts to en- 
gage in mining and ranching in California. 

The year 1869 brought Mr. and Mrs. Carver to Linn's valley as pioneer 
stockraisers. Arriving here, he continued to use the brand adopted by him 
in Stanislaus county, but finding a similar brand in use in the valley he was 
compelled to change. Thereupon he adopted the brand H with a bar over it, 
which Mrs. Carver has cc ntinued to use up to the present time. In all of 
his work she proved a most efficient heloer and they worked together hap- 
pily and successfully until his death in 1885. The care of the house and of 
the children did not represent the limit of her wonderful energies. Hour 
after hour she would ride on the range helping in the care of the stock and 
the rounding up cf the cattle. No difficulty daunted her ardent spirit. No 
hardship depressed her optimistic soul. To such as she success cannot fail 
to come. That it came to her is the legitimate result of her splendid execu- 
tive ability, keen foresight and unwearied perseverance. 

The old Dunlap place of four hundred acres formed the first purchase 
of the Carver family in Linn's valley. Realizing that the range would soon 
be taken uo so that cattle could not roam at large, Mrs. Carver understood 
that the only successful way to conduct a cattle industry was through the 
ownership of vast areas. Acting upon that conviction, she began to fortify 
her business by purchasing large tracts. From the railroad she bought the 
Coyote ranch, a tract of forty-four hundred and eighty acres, lying just 
northwest of Woody, Kern county. This great ranch lies in one body and is 
fenced, besides being well watered by large springs and affording early feed 
for fattening cattle in the spring. Across the county line in Tulare county 
Mrs. Carver later purchased the Coho ranch of thirty-two hundred acres in 
one body, fenced, and amply watered by a branch of White river. The large 
property is utilized for a breeding ranch. At Bull Run meadows she also 
owns nineteen hundred and twenty acres in a body, located in the Forest 
reserve, so that she is able to avail herself of the government privilege of 
renting thcusands of acres from that vast range. The home farm on IJpper 
Poso creek in the upper jiortion of Linn's valley has been increased and 
now comprises five sections or thirty-two hundred acres. About four hun- 
dred acres are rich meadow lands and, being irrigated from Poso creek, 
yield an abundance of hay and feed. The property is well improved with a 
commodious and comfortable residence as well as the buildings necessary 
to the proper management of a great ranch. On all of the ranches a spe- 
cialty is made of raising Shorthorn Durham cattle. 

A devout believer in the home mission of women, Mrs. Carver always 
made her home, her husband and her children the paramount issue in her 
active years, although such was the versatility of her talents that she could 
also engage in outside activities without neglect to more intimate duties. 
Four of her seven children are now living. The only son, Jefif Carver, is a 
stockman in Linn's valley. The daughters are Mrs. Lou Conner, also of the 
valley ; Mrs. Annie Huey, of Tulare county ; and Mrs. Rose Danner, of 
Willows, this state. LIcme and ranch have not engrossed the entire thought 
of this remarkable pioneer. It has been her pleasure to keep in touch with 
the development of the state and to contrast its present height of develop- 
ment with the primeval conditions prevailing when first she saw the Pacific 
coast country. Nor does she live wholly in the past, interesting as its mem- 
ories are and eventful as was its record. Modern questions of suffrage and 
various movements to improve industrial and civic conditions receive her 
sympathetic, and in som'e cases active, interest. While always a Democrat 



HISTORY OF KERN COITXTY 1253 

politically, she has been content to play a passive role on all public ques- 
tions and her devotion to the development of county and commonwealth has 
been free from partisan spirit. 

FREDERICK J. ECKHOFF.— A native of Baltimore, Md., Mr. Eckhofif 
is the son uf John l£ckhuii\ who was born in Hanover, Prussia, and who 
became an early resident of Baltimore, ]\Id. Thoroughly grounded in the 
knowledge of stock-raising he became a dealer in that line, filling con- 
tracts for the provision of stock, and he built up a good business. In 1846 
he removed to St. Louis, Mo., locating just south of the city, where he con- 
ducted a small stock yards, there dealing in live stock. He had married 
Annie Berger, also a native of Hanover, and her death occurred in St. Louis. 
They became the parents of five children, four of whom now survive, Fred- 
erick J. being the second eldest. 

It was on March 15, 1841, in Baltimore, Md., that Frederick J. Eckhoff 
first saw the light of day, and he was but five when taken to St. Louis by his 
parents. He had the advantage of attending the public schools in a large city 
and made rapid progress there, in the meantime hel)ing his father in his stock 
business. In 1865 he started across the plains to California, which had been the 
destination he had long had in mind. With horse and mules he came, taking 
the route via Salt Lake to Northern California, and after four months of hard 
travel arrived in Plumas county. The Indians were then on the w^arpath and 
the train had several serious combats with them and during the trip six of 
them were killed. Upon arriving in California for some months Mr. Eckhoff 
was engaged in mining near Ouincy. From there he went on horseback via 
Carson City and Owens river into Arizona and then back into California again, 
arriving in Kern county December 25, 1869. He worked at mining for various 
parties in different places for some time making his headquarters at Havilah, 
Kern county, but finally entered into the project for himself. With others he 
was interested in the remodeling of the 5 Stamp mill at Clairville in the Piute 
Mountains, but this did not prove a profitable undertaking and he decided to 
give up mining as it was too unsatisfactory at that time. 

In 1876 Mr. Eckhoff started in the liquor business in Kernville, and con- 
tinued successfully engaged in that work until 1888, when he located in 
Bakersfield and engaged in the same business in partnership with Thomas 
E. Owens, but later sold out to his partner. Mr. Eckhoff has done a little real 
estate business in connection with these interests. Mr. Eckhoff was married 
in Bakersfield, in 1907, to Miss Louisa Raaz, who was born in Oakland, Cal. 

ROLLIN LAIRD. — The present city attorney of Bakersfield belongs to 
an honored pioneer family of California and traces his genealogy to Scotland, 
whence cne of the name crossed the ocean to America shortly after the close 
of the Revolutionary war. When the great unknown west first attracted 
worldwide attention through the discovery of gold Peter Laird determined to 
cast in his lot with the enthusiastic army of Argonauts bound for the mines 
of the coast. Accompanied by his family, in 1851 he came across the plains 
with a prairie-schooner and a drove of stock. In the care of the stock he was 
aided by his boy of seven years, John W. P., whose extreme youth did not 
prevent him from attempting to do a man's work in the long and fatiguing 
journey. The difficult tasks devolving upon father and son were rendered 
less arduous through the constant encouragement and cheerful aid of the 
beloved wife and mother, a woman of deep religious spirit and gentle char- 
acter. She bore the maiden name of Julia A. Pierce. While still a young 
woman, needed in her home and unspeakably dear to her family, she was 
taken from them by an unfortunate accident. The family had settled in 
Eldorado county and the father had engaged in mining at Mokelumne mines, 
where he established his wife and children in camp. One day in 1854, 
while Mrs. Laird was Iving in a hammock, a mine blast occurred and she 



1254 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

was killed by a flying- rocket when one of the powder charges exploded. 
Her passing • was mourned not alcine by the immediate family, but also by 
the miners, to all of whom she had been a friend, benefactor and nurse. 

After the Laird family had lived for some time at the old mining camps 
of Diamond Springs and Shingle Springs, about 1858 they moved to Sacra- 
mento county and became interested in the stock business. During the 
latter part of the '60s they removed to Inyo county. Peter Laird 
died at the home of his son, Judge J. W. P. Laird, at Bakersfield 
in January, 1910, at the age of eighty-nine years. John W. P. Laird 
was born at Mount Carroll, Carroll county. 111., May 28, 1844, and in 
1851 came across the plains from Missouri with his parents. Later he 
worked in the mines and on ranches. While engaged in the cattle industry 
he procured some law books from an t -Id-time attorney in Sacramento and 
after the day's work was done he read law by the camp fire. Thus by dint 
of hard work, both manual and mental, he fitted himself for the career 
of an attorney. When he resolved upon a legal career he was considerably 
past thirty and in 1879, soon after he was admitted to practice before the 
California supreme court, he was elected district attorney of Inyo county, 
serving as such until 1886. During the first administration of President 
Cleveland he served as register of the Independence land office. His first ap- 
pearance as an attorney in Kern county occurred in 1890, when he came to 
Bakersfield as special prosecutor in the trial of W. T. C. Elliott for murder, 
the case resulting in mistrial, and Elliott was never acquitted or found 
guilty. Being well pleased with Bakersfield, Mr. Laird determined to estab- 
lish an office in this city and in May, 1891, he arrived here, being followed 
by his family in July. In the practice of law he formed a partnership with 
Jackson W. Mahon, then a young attorney just rising to prominence, now a 
supericir judge of Kern county. The pleasant and profitable association was 
terminated after a few years by the election of Mr. Mahon to the bench. 
Later Mr. Laird formed a partnership with H. L. Packard and this con- 
nection existed until 1903, when he was appointed district attorney to suc- 
ceed the late J. W. Ahern, an able lawyer and a loyal friend. Such was the 
ability with which the vacancy was fiilled that in 1906 Mr. Laird was regu- 
larly elected to the office and in that capacity he was regarded as an able 
prosecutor and a fearless champion of the people's cause. 

A recognized leader of the Kern county Democracy, Mr. Laird exercised 
a wide influence in the party councils and in 1900 was elected assemblyman 
on the regular party ticket. While a member of the house he served on the 
Pardee investigating committee during the Chinatown scandal in San Fran- 
cisco, taking a prominent part in the investigation. In the fall of 1910 the 
Democrats nominated him without opposition to represent the thirty-second 
district in the state senate. At the election Kings and Tulare counties gave 
large Republican majorities, which defeated him, although he carried his 
own county by a flattering vote. Upon the death of Judge Ben L. Brundage, 
less than a year before his own demise, he was a member of the committee 
on resolutions and in that capacity gave a deserved tribute to that honored 
California pioneer, whose career in the law was long and brilliant. 

While living in Inyo county in 1872 Mr. Laird married Henrietta Mc- 
Laughlin, who had come to California ten years before and whose death 
occurred at Bakersfield during 1900. They were the parents of three sons, 
Ernest, Lester and Rollin, all residing in Bakersfield, where the eldest son 
is employed as court reporter and the youngest serves as city attorney. 
After the death of his first wife Mr. Laird married again and is survived by 
his widow, also by four step-daughters, namely : Mrs. A. K. Miller, of 
Berkeley; Mrs. Ralph Knight, of Stockton; Mrs. Oscar Reynolds, of Helena, 
Mont. : and Mrs. Ralph Toland, of Bakersfield. During the latter part of 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1255 

1910 ill health began to assail the Judge (for by that title he was commonly 
known) and early in 1911 he spent three months in the mountains near 
Weldon, but the change of climate proved of no avail. A few days after 
his return from the mountains he dropped dead from heart failure on the 
sidewalk a short distance from the residence of his step-daughter, Mrs. 
Miller, in Berkeley, whither he had gone to put himself under the care of 
physicians. The body was brought to Bakersfield and interment was made 
under the auspices of the Masonic fraternity, of which he was an honored 
member. Universal regret was felt on account of his sudden demise. None 
knew him but to admire him for his splendid qualities of mind and heart. 
It was profoundly felt that in the upbuilding of the community he, as a 
member of the bar, ranked with the most brilliant who ever practiced law 
in the broad San Joaquin valley. His youngest son, Rollin, whose career 
has somewhat resembled his own up to the present date and who is be- 
lieved to possess many of his sterling characteristics, was born in Inyo 
county, this state, September 8, 1880, is a graduate of the Valparaiso (Ind.) 
Law School in 1909, was admitted to the bar in Indiana and during the 
same year in Los Angeles, from which place he returned to Bakersfield to 
engage in practice. Elected city attorney in 1911, he is filling the office 
with such efficiency that his friends predict for him greater honors and a 
bright future in the political world. 

FRITZ CHARLES NOEL.— Authentic history reveals the identification 
of the Noel family with the Huguenots in France as far back as the year 
1416 and indicates their sufferings during the religious persecutions that 
culminated in the famous massacre of St. Bartholomew. Exiled from their 
home land, the Noels sought refuge in Germany and thence migrated to 
Sweden, where they lived and flourished for many generations. After having 
engaged for years in the lumber business at Stockholm, F. A. Noel removed 
with his family to England and secured a position with the Maxim-Norden- 
felt machine gun works in London, where he spent his remaining years in 
successful business activities. By his marriage to Hilda Rampe, who is like- 
wise deceased, he had a family of six children, of whom four are now living, 
namely : Frederick Adolph, a lumber merchant in London ; Fritz Charles, 
the only one of the family to settle in America ; Ernest Rudolph and Gerda, 
both residing in Paris, France, where the former is a proficient and prominent 
civil engineer. 

Stockholm, Sweden, is the native city of F. C. Noel and May 11, 1867, 
the date of his birth. He was educated in a high school in Sweden and in 
the City of London College. At the age of fifteen he accompanied his par- 
ents from Stockholm to London and at the age of twenty-one he crossed the 
ocean to America, settling first at Montreal, Canada, where he secured em- 
ployment on the Montreal Herald. During 1892 he came to the United 
States and established himself in Chicago, where he engaged with the 
Chicago Tribune until 1898. While living in Chicago he met and married 
Miss Alartha Klove, of Leland, 111., and for some years he carried on the 
Leland Times, an eight-page weekly which he had founded. This he still 
owns, although since he came to California in 1911 he has leased it to 
others. During 1901 he visited his relatives in London and Paris and trav- 
eled through other parts of Europe, finding in the tour much to interest 
and impress him, but returning to the United States more than ever con- 
vinced of its superiority to the old world. 

Upon his removal to the west Mr. Noel bought ten acres of orange land 
one and one-half miles south of Edison, in the Porter Land colony, and this 
he has commenced to improve. In addition he owns his residence at No. 
1745 Orange street, Bakersfield, and recently purchased forty acres at the 
lower end of the Weed Patch near the Tejon ranch, as well as one hundred 



1256 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

acres at Lerdo, the new fibre center. Together with Mr. Soper, who owns 
one hundred and forty adjacent to his forty, he has undertaken the devel- 
opment of water on the land, with the intention of planting the tract to 
orange trees as soon as adequate irrigation is assured. 

The real-estate firm of G. W. Shearer & Co., formed in May of 1912, and 
constituting a continuation of the old company of Sears & Shearer, is com- 
posed of two energetic young men, G. W. Shearer and F. C. Noel. Mr. Noel's 
family consists of his wife and three children, Gladys J., Frederick A. and 
Myra H. They are popular in social circles and are regular attendants at the 
services of the First C( ngregational Church of Bakersfield. 

GEORGE W. SHEARER.— The senior partner in the real estate firm of 
G. W. Shearer & Co. is a member of an old ea'^tern family and was b( rn in 
Franklin county, Pa., on Christmas day of 1879, being fourth in order of 
birth among the five living children that comprise the family of Jacob F. 
and Margaret (McCartney) Shearer. The eldest of the five, Annie, married 
S. R. Fortna, a farmer living in Franklin county, Fa. The second, Mac W., 
is engaged in general farming in that county, where also lives the second son, 
Frank S., a capable farmer. The youngest member of the family circle, 
May, is the wife of Calvin Leidig, proprietor of a meat market at Orrstown, 
Franklin county. The only one of the five to leave his native county was 
George W., who has been a resident of California since 1907. The father, 
now sixty-five years of age and a man of considerable means, has devoted 
his entire active life to agricultural pursuits and is still a large landed pro- 
prietor and stock-dealer at Upper Strasburg, Franklin county, where for 
years he and his wife have made their home. 

By working on the home farm and by teaching school in- Franklin 
county for four years, George W. Shearer earned the money necessary for 
the completion of his education. In a business college at Lancaster, Pa., he 
studied bookkeeping and shorthand and thus became qualified for the posi- 
tion which he secured with the Chambersburg Electric Light & Power Com- 
panv. Upon giving up that place he taught one term of school and then 
became an instructor in stenography and typing. After two years as a 
professor in a commercial institution he resigned in 1907 in order to come to 
California, and here he immediately secured a place with the Associated Oil 
Company at Oil Center, Kern county. At the expiration of two years with 
the oil company he embarked in the real estate business, opening an office 
in the Oil Exchange building, Bakersfield, in May of 1909, and at this location 
he has since continued. During May of 1911 the firm of Sears & Shearer 
was organized with W. L. Sears as senior member. June 1, 1912, the com- 
pany was re-organized and is now composed of G. W. Shearer and F. C. Noel; 
both voung men of integrity, ability and energy. Since coming to this county 
Mr. Shearer has acquired property in East Bakersfield and Wasco, also a tract 
in the Lost Hills district and citrus lands at the lower end of the Weed Patch 
near the Tejon Pass. 

Arrangements have recently been made whereby the firm of G. W. 
Shearer & Co. are the exclusive agents for the new seven thousand acre 
colony at Lerdo, Kern county, which is owned by the San Joaquin Light and 
Power Corporation. It is here that the ramie plant is being successfully culti- 
vated and grown, and it is here also where the inventor, G. W. Schlichten. 
has located one of his justly famous decorticating machines. The ramie plant 
has heretofore been grown principally in the Orient, in India, China and 
Japan, where labor is cheap. Mr. Schbchten's great invention, however, will 
now make it possible to produce the ramie fibre at a cost cheaper than it can 
be produced by hand work in India, China or any other country. This venture 
at Lerdo is attracting attention from far and near, so much so that the agricul- 
tural department sent to Lerdo the expert, Professor Dew^ey, to investigate 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1257 

and report on this industry. Ex-Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson has 
said that Schlichten's invention is the most important and valuable to the fibre 
industry of any machine since the cotton gin. It does the work of three thou- 
sand men and revolutionizes the former expensive and wasteful hand method. 
Since the ramie fibre can be used in making twines, ropes, threads, fishing 
nets and lines, as well as cloths of the finest and most durable texture, it 
requires no great stretch of the imagination to see that Lerdo and its new 
industry will socn hold an important place in the industrial development of 
California. Ramie cloth has the fine, beautiful gossamer-like tissue of China 
or Japan linen. It is the identical cloth from which was made for the ancient 
queens of India bed sheets so fine and thin that they could be drawn through 
finger rings; while the Bible reveals the fact that ramie cloth was linen that 
was used in wrapping the bodies of the mummies, and the quality of the 
cloth is elsewhere fitly expressed in the words "raiment of fine linen." 

NEWELL JONATHAN BROWN, M. D.— The principle of heredity 
appears in the selection of a profession by Dr. Brown and in his gratifying 
success as a surgeon and medical practitioner, for the genealogical records 
show that on one side of the house seven successive generations rose to local 
prominence as physicians and it has been a source of gratification to him 
that two of his sons have entered the profession, for which they exhibit a 
decided talent. Although of Canadian birth, he is a member of an old family of 
New England, whom chance or destiny caused to cross the border line into 
the province of Quebec. During the colonial period of our national history 
the family came to this country from England and his grandfather, Capt. 
John Brown, a native of New Hampshire, served as an officer in the war of 
1812. Later he crossed into Quebec and engaged in farming. On that trip 
he was accompanied by his family, which included a son, Ozias Gilbert, a 
native of Epsom, N. H., near the city of Concord, born March 27, 1806, and 
died at the old home December 25, 1901, at almost ninety-six years of age. 
He too became a farmer in the province of Quebec, where he met and married 
Margaret Foss, a lifelong resident of Canada and of Scotch extraction. It is 
through the Foss ancestry that the heritage of professional ability is derived, 
their male representatives having been men of remarkable intelligence and 
manifest talent in surgery. 

The youngest of six children, Dr. Brown was born March 10, 1854, in 
Stanstead, province of Quebec, a short distance across the line from Vermont. 
It was the desire of his father, Ozias Gilbert Brown, that he be educated for 
the medical profession and his own talents turned his ambitions in that direc- 
tion. After he had graduated from a local academy he matriculated in McGill 
University, a famous medical college at Montreal, where he studied medicine 
for three years. He then entered Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, 
being graduated from that institution in November, 1875, with the degree of 
M. D. Immediately he came west as far as Iowa, where he opened an office 
at Red Oak, but in 1877 he removed to Grundy county, the same state. The 
following year he married Miss Celia Frances Eastman, who was born at 
Oskaloosa, Iowa, being a daughter of Lieutenant-Governor (later State Sena- 
tor) E. W. Eastman, deceased in 1884. Dr. and Mrs. Brown are the parents 
of four sons, namely : Newbern Nuckolls, M. D., of Bakersfield ; Newell Jon- 
athan, Jr., M. D., of Tehachapi ; Austin Foss, a druggist and pharmacist by 
education; and Oilman Grenough, who is now engaged in farming near 
Modesto. 

Professional labors became so exhausting and increased with such 
rapidity that Dr. Brown failed in health. During 1878 he spent three 
months in Colorado, camping and living an outdoor life in Elbert county. 
The result was so gratifying that he decided to remain and engage in 
practice. When he moved further west five years later his health was re- 



1258 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

established and his practice large. Esta])lishing an office at Hailey, Blaine 
county, Idaho, in 1883, he soon became known as a successful physician 
and surgeon. For many years he served as coroner and health officer of 
Blaine county. Meanwhile he had become owner and medical director of 
the Miners' hospital, the leading institution of the kind on the line of the 
Oregon Short Line Railroad. Much of his time was given to the care of 
patients in the hospital, which had a capacity of fifty beds and was equipped 
with every modern convenience for the care of the sick or the needs of 
operative surgery. As surgeon for the Oregon Short Line Railroad he 
also had a considerable practice. More than eighteen years were spent in 
Hailey and they were filled with professional successes. Meanwhile, how- 
ever, he had begun to realize the limitations of the region from an educa- 
tional standpoint and a desire to give his sons better educational advantages 
than Idaho afforded caused him in 1901 to remove to Los Angeles, where 
he opened an office at No. 423^^ South Spring street. In addition to 
private practice he engaged as professor of dermatology in the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons at Los Angeles, from which institution his eldest 
sons, Newbern N. and Newell J., Jr., twins, were graduated in 1905. Newell 
J., Jr., afterward opened an office at Tehachapi, where he is now surgeon 
for the Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific Railroads. Newbern N. came 
to Bakersfield in the fall of 1907, and two years later he was joined by his 
father, the two having since practiced together with offices in the Oil 
Exchange building. In addition to their large private patronage they act 
as surgeons for the Santa Fe Railroad. The two sons and their father 
have maintained an active association with the county, state and American 
Medical Associations. The son, Austin F., is also a resident of Bakers- 
field, so that the youngest son, a resident of Stanislaus county, is the 
only member of the family living away from Kern county. In politics 
all affiliate with the Republican party. While making his home at Hailey, 
in 1884, Dr. Brown was made a Mason in Hailey Lodge No. 16, F. & A. M., 
of which he is still a member; he was raised to the Royal Arch in Alturas 
Chapter No. 5 and served as high priest. In 1887 he was made a Knight 
Templar in Boise Asylum Commandery No. 1, and the same year took the 
Scottish Rite thirty-second Consistory degrees and the K. C. C. H. in 
Hailey. On his removal to Los Angeles he affiliated with Los Angeles Con- 
sistory No. 3, of which he is still a member, and since coming to Bakersfield 
he has been elected president of the Scottish Rite Association. He is also 
a member of El Kalah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Salt Lake City, 
being a charter member. He holds membership also in the Los Angeles 
Lodge No. 9^, B. P. O. E., and with his son, Newbern N., belongs to the 
Bakersfield Club. 

CAPT. ALVIN E. MORGAN.— Throughout the greater part of his life 
a resident of Bakersfield, where until his death he followed the building busi- 
ness, Capt. Alvin Edgar Morgan found another field of useful service in an 
identification with the California National Guard. When about twenty-four 
years of age he enlisted and was accepted as a member of Company .G. 
Sixth Regiment of the California Guards. Later through consolidation this 
became merged into Company L, Second Regiment, from which he was 
transferred to the hospital corps as sergeant. Later he was returned to Com- 
pany L as first sergeant, from which he was promoted to the rank of 
second lieutenant. During the chaotic condition in San Francisco following 
the fire he was on active duty as first sergeant. During 1911 he was success- 
ful in organizing Troop A of the First Squadron, California Cavalry, and 
immediately after the organization he was chosen captain, which office he 
filled with ability and characteristic energy until his death February 20, 
1913, when he was buried with military honors. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1259 

Born at Rochelle, Ogle county, 111., September 8, 1875, Alvin Edgar 
Morgan was a son of C. M. and Ida (Canfield) Morgan, natives respectively 
of Illinois and Wisconsin, and now residents of Kern county. The father, 
who is a plastering contractor by trade, came to Bakersfield during 1884 and 
joined a brother, Alfred, then superintendent of the McClung ranch. The 
brother until his death in 1910 retained him in the capacity of foreman and 
since then he has been employed as night watchman on another ranch in 
this county. Of the eight children comprising his family all but three still 
survive. The eldest of the family. Alvin Edgar, attended the primary schools 
of Illinois and the grammar schools of California, and while still a mere lad 
acquired a thorough knowledge of the stock business. Upon starting out 
for himself he became an employe and learned to manufacture soda in the 
C. O. D. soda works, remaining with that company for nine years in all 
and holding the position of manager during the latter part of his connec- 
tion with them. In 1906 he went to San Francisco and worked at the trade 
of a carpenter, remaining for eighteen months. Meantime he took a corre- 
spondence course in the drawing of plans and in general architecture, also 
in the building business. From San Francisco he came back to Bakersfield 
and secured employment as foreman for Mr. Lindgren. During the eighteen 
months of his association with that contractor he aided in the building of 
the New Southern hotel, Tegeler building. Hotel Florence and Security 
Trust Company's bank. Upon severing his association with Mr. Lindgren 
he engaged in business for himself and since then had made a specialty of 
building cottages and bungalows, meanwhile having erected his own resi- 
dence on the corner of Ninth and L streets. This comfortable home is pre- 
sided over with dignity and economy by his capable wife, whom he married 
in Bakersfield and who was Miss Mamie Long, a native of Lawrence, Kans. 
She is the daughter of Elisha and Jennie (Canfield) Long, and came to 
California in 1897. Of the marriage cf Mr. and Mrs. Morgan was born one 
son. Alvin Reese. In fraternal relations Captain Morgan held membership 
with the Ancient Order of United Workmen. 

J. M. SAFFELL. — The genealogy of the Safifell family indicates an 
honorable southern lineage dating back to the colonial era. Nor was there, 
in the entire American history of the family, any member more intelligent in 
mind, more efficient in service, more patriotic in citizenship or more earnest 
in religious work than Rev. Samuel Peck Safifell, who was born in Tennessee, 
November 29, 1820. With scarcely any educational advantages, he pos- 
sessed such great native endowments and such intense spiritual devotion of 
character that at the age of only seventeen he was a lay preacher of local 
lame. The bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church of his district, recogniz- 
ing his superior talents, ordained him to the ministry of the Gospel. Through- 
out a long and active life, while earning a livelihood in various occupations, 
he gave his services gratuitously in frontier communities. After a week of 
arduous labor as carpenter, wheelwright or wagonmaker (in all of which 
trades he excelled) he was never too weary to devote the entire Sabbath to 
preaching and other work of a similar nature. Remote and isolated regions, 
where people had no church privileges, felt the impetus of his generous aid 
and helpful sermons. At different periods of his mature years he lived in 
Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas and California, and in each of these states he 
accomplished much for Christ and His church. Born in Tennessee and 
deceased in Fresno, Cal., the interval between birth and death represented 
an era of intense religious activity and self-sacrificing" labors for the uplift- 
ing of humanity. 

By the marriage of Rev. Samuel P. Safifell and Mary A. Watson, who 
was born in Lawrence county, Ala., January 9, 1823, and died in Fresno, Cal., 
there were thirteen children and seven of these are now living. J. M.. the 



1260 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

fourth among the survivors, was born in Marion county, Ark., February 27, 
1858, and at the age of six years accompanied his parents to Illinois, when 
ten years old moved with them to Kansas and at twelve returned with them 
to Arkansas. In each of these states he attended public schools. As soon as 
large enough to assist his father he began to learn the trade of carpenter. 
After he arrived in Kelseyville, Lake county, Cal., in November of 1873 he 
earned his livelihood at carpentering. After he had removed to Red Bluff 
in 1877 and had taken employment under Flans Hansen, builder, he began the 
study of architecture, his interest in the specialty having been fostered by the 
exceptional ability as architect and designer displayed by his employer. 
Initial experience as architect and superintendent of construction came to 
him with his location in Fresno, where he remained for eleven years, mean- 
while meeting with gratifying success. The first four-story building erected 
in the town was the Fresno Loan and Savings Bank, which he designed and 
superintended. Other important buildings were planned under his super- 
vision. A long period of intense devotion to professional work undermined 
his health. Unable to continue in business, he gave up his interests in 
Fresno and for seven years traveled in different parts of the west, working 
when able, roughing it in camp, living in the open air and seeing much of the 
country, while gradually regaining his strength. 

As early as 1901 Mr. Safifell came to Bakersfield for the first time. In a 
temporary residence of eighteen months in this city he laid the foundation 
of the high professional standing he now enjoys. Among his architectural 
plans were those for the First Bank of Kern and the Mortenson hotel. Upon 
leaving this city he spent a number of years at San Pedro and there super- 
intended the construction of various large structures as well as private 
homes. Returning to Bakersfield in 1909, he since has devoted his time to 
the work of architect and superintendent of construction, having planned in 
this period the Axelson machine building, the Verdier building and many 
schoolhouses and residences. To a large degree he has recovered his health, 
so that it is possible for him to give to his profession the close attention and 
painstaking care it demands. By his first marriage he has a son, Joseph, 
Edward, now a resident of Trinity county. By his second wife, who was 
Miss Ella Milne, a native of Nevada, he has four children, namely: Frank, 
now in Los Angeles; Mrs. Laura Zuver, whose husband is employed in the 
Kern river oil fields ; Melvin and Lillie, of Bakersfield. Reared in the Meth- 
odist faith, Mr. Safifell always has retained a deep aft"ection for that church 
and a practical interest in its progress. Politically he votes with the Renub- 
lican party. In fraternal relations he holds membership with the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows. 

JAMES SHANNON ADAMS.— As engineer for the North-American Oil 
Consolidated in the Midway field Mr. Adams is well qualified by an aptitude 
for mechanical engineering inherited from his father, a competent engineer 
at one time largely interested in saw-milling and lumbering. 

LIntil about seventeen years of age Mr. Adams lived in Michigan and 
he was born in Isabella county, that state, August 6. 1891, being the only 
surviving son of Thomas G. and Sarah Jane (Muma) Adams, the latter 
of whom died in 1905. The two daughters in the family, Sarah L. and 
Hattie Irene, still reside in Michigan, the former in Detroit and the latter 
at Clare, Clare county. The father, who engaged in lumbering and also 
operated an engine at Gilmore, Clare county, finally removed from Michigan 
to the Pacific northwest and is now living in Washington. From early life 
he had a local reputation for skill as a mechanic and for ability to handle 
any kind of an engine. Training his only son with exacting care, he taught 
the lad in early years to understand every detail connected with engines 
and to operate them with unerring skill. Natural ability developed by care- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1261 

fill training has enabled the younger man to make good as an engineer. 
jNIarch 12, 1908, he arrived in Bakersfield, and secured work in the Kern 
river field. During July of 1911 he went to Los Angeles, but soon returned 
to the Kern river field. In March of 1912 he came to the Midway field and 
secured work as an oiler under Mr. Caffrey on section 16 division of the 
North American Oil Consolidated, with which corporation he has continued 
up to the present time, and since January, 1913. has been filling the position 
of engineer. January 1, 1913, he was united in marriage with Miss Mildred 
Leone Whittekin, a native of Pennsylvania, and immediately after his mar- 
riage he brought his wife to the section 16 division, where they now occupy 
one of the company residences. 

JOHN V. UPTON.— At Dundas, Richland county. III, Mr. Upton was 
born December 22, 1863, a son of Isaac and Cynthia (Malick) Upton, 
the former born in Kentucky of Irish descent, and the latter a member of an 
ancient and honorable Teutonic family whose genealogy is recorded back two 
hundred years in German history. The parental family numbered five chil- 
dren and John V. was the only son who attained mature years. After he 
had completed the studies of the country schools he devoted himself to gen- 
eral farming and in 1888 left Illinois for California, where he investigated 
conditions in Kings, Tulare and Kern county. August of 1888 found him 
in the county last-named, where he pre-empted the southwest quarter of 
section 30, township 30, range 30, and during the period of pre-emption he 
earned a livelihood at ditch work in Tulare county. 

During October of 1895 Mr. Upton bought one-half section of school 
land forming the south half of section 24, township 30, range 29, and of this 
tract he still owns one hundred and sixty acres, devoted to dry farming, in 
which he is regarded as an expert. The family home is located on the forty- 
acre tract three and three-fourths miles southeast of Edison and eleven and 
four-tenths miles southeast of Bakersfield, where he and his wife have a 
comfortable ranch-house, brightened by the presence of their children and 
made happy by mutual devotion and harmony. In April of 1899 Mr. Upton 
returned to Illinois and there married Miss Mary J. Hershey, of Lawrence 
county. Upon his return to California he settled on the ranch and has since 
labored with undaunted determination to develop the land. His task has 
been one requiring great courage and optimism. For years he was obliged to 
haul water from the Southern Pacific Railroad Company's tank at Bena, 
not only paying a high price for the water, but in addition devoting much 
time to the difficult work of hauling all that he needed on his farm. Under 
all of his discouragements he has not lost faith in the ultimate success of 
agriculture in the district and in the final value of his ranch for general 
farming purposes. In his family there were eight children. One son, Robert 
v., was only one week old at the time of his death. The surviving children 
are Isaac M., Cynthia E., Roy Smith, Ruth' Lucile, Ina M., Bertha M. and 
Elizabeth Irene, the latter born June 6, 1913. All are intelligent and ener- 
getic and are a source of pride and joy to the parents. 

HENRY C. DUNLAP.— Throughout this, his native county, Mr. Dun- 
lap has a wide circle of acquaintances, particularly among the county officials 
and their assistants, for he has acted as courthouse custodian ever since Jan- 
uary 1, 1895. 

A member of a pioneer family of Kern county, where he was born 
December 10, 1863, Henry C. Dunlap descends from good old southern stock 
and is a son of James and Lucy (Ellis) Dunlap, both natives of Texas, the 
latter now deceased, but the former is a resident of Tulare county. The 
Ellis family removed from Mississippi to Texas during the early settlement 
of the Lone Star state, while the Dunlaps lived in Missouri during the early 
part of the nineteenth century. There were six children in the parental fam- 



1262 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

ily, but of these one daughter died in infancy and one son, Thomas, who had 
rendered efficient service as deputy under Sheriff W. J. Graham, died in 
Kern county at the age of twenty-six years. The only surviving daughter, 
Emma, married H. L. Conner, now superintendent of a large ranch near 
Tipton, Tulare cuunty. Two sons, John and J. W.. are prominent stockmen 
and ranchers in that county. Henry C, who has been a lifelong resident of 
Kern county, married in April, 1888, Miss Callie Slinkard, who was torn in 
Los Angeles county and their union has been blessed with four children, 
namely: Clotean. now the wife of F. P. Harmony, of Missouri; Breer M., a 
bookkeeper at Weil's department store, Bakersfield ; Leonard J., bookkeeper 
for R. Pyle, Bakersfield ; and Ward J., who is a student in the Bakersfield 
schools. Like Mr. Dunlap, Mrs. Dunlap also comes from pioneer California 
families, who originally came from the south. Her father, Solomon Slinkard, 
was a native of Arkansas, while her mother, Laura (Glass) Slinkard, was 
born in Texas. The mother crossed the plains with her parents while a 
mere girl, and the father was about twenty years of age when he came to 
California. They were married in Los Angeles county and had nine children, 
of whom Mrs. Dunlap was the fifth child. The father prospered excep- 
tionally well in Los Angeles county for a while, but owing to the ill health 
of his wife he sold out there and moved to Tulare county, settling on the 
White river, near California Hot Springs, where he engaged in the cattle 
business. Both are now^ deceased, but are well remembered by a host of 
pioneer friends in Los Angeles, Tulare, as well as Kern counties, where 
many of their children, including Mrs. Dunlap, grew to maturity, and en- 
joyed all the experiences and incidents common to the well-to-do pioneer 
California ranchman's life. 

VINING E. BARKER. — Perhaps throughout the entire county of Kern 
there is not to be found a more complete and sj)lendidly conducted ranch 
than that of Vining E. Barker, its wide area of three hundred and twenty 
acres of well-irrigated, productive land evidencing the untiring energy and 
clever management of its details. This was originally the property of an 
uncle of Vining Barker who was a native of New York and left there in 
18.S1 to make a home in California. He came by way of Panama and was 
engaged in mining for a time in various places, in 1872 locating in Kern 
county, where he purchased three hundred and twenty acres of land and 
followed farming until his death December 25, 1895. 

Vining T. Barker was born February 22, 1851, and brought up on the 
home farm in Morenci, Lenawee county, Mich., wdiither his parents, Albert 
and Julia (Wilcox) Barker, had come from New York in the early days. 
Driving from New York over the difficult corduroy roads, they settled in 
Lenawee county, Mich., where they bought a claim ; there the father, who 
was a native of New York, passed away. Receiving all the advantages af- 
forded to him by the local public schools, Mr. Barker then attended the 
Bryant & Stratton Business College in Cincinnati, Ohio, and after graduation 
was engaged in the mercantile business in Morenci for a time. His first trip 
to California occurred in 1877, and he returned to the coast in the fall of 
1890 expecting to make a visit, but the many advantages appealing to a 
youtig man finally influenced him to make California his home, and returning 
to the east to dispose of his interests, he came back and superintended the 
farm of his uncle in Kern county for a time, later ]mrchasing it from his 
estate. The ranch is situated about fourteen miles southwest of Bakersfield 
in the Old River district, under the Stine canal, and here are raised alfalfa 
and stock, and a flourishing dairy business is carried on. Irrigation is also 
procured from a flowing artesian well that has a depth of six hundred and 
fifteen feet, the orchard, vineyard and garden being irrigated and water for 
domestic use is supi)lied. It is known to be one of the finest flowing wells in 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1263 

the county. There is also on the ranch a large artificial lake in which fish 
abound and the whole effect of the place is one of beauty, system and pro- 
ductiveness. Along with this interest Mr. Barker has oil property in Mc- 
Kittrick, and he is a stockholder in the United States Oil and Develop- 
ment Company. 

The marriage of Mr. Barker occurred in Morenci, Mich., February 22, 
1882, uniting him with Miss Ella Dean, who was born in Wauseon, Fulton 
county, Ohio, daughter of James S. and Eunice E. (Clemmans) Dean, the 
former born in Chemung county, N. Y., and the latter in Ohio. James S. 
Dean served in the Civil war in Company A, Sixty-seventh Ohio Volunteer 
Infantry, holding the office of lieutenant. He was a large farmer in Ohio and 
resided in Wauseon, where he died in 1905 ; his widow still survives. Mrs. 
Barker was educated in the college at Ada, Ohio, and with her husband 
shares in the friendship of a host of well-wishers. They have one child. Jay 
A. Barker, of Bakersfield. In politics Mr. Barker is a Republican. 

MATEO SMITH. — Loyalty to local development is a characteristic of 
the citizens of East Bakersfield and in this attribute Mr. Smith stands second 
to none. After having been variously occupied at other places, in 1907 he be- 
came identified with the real-estate business in this place and has since been 
successful in handling property for others, developing his own holdings, 
and buying, selling and trading real estate. To an unusual degree he under- 
stands valuations in his home towm and he also exercises a keen foresight 
concerning future increases and the upward trend of the realty market. Be- 
sides his residence at No. 905 Fremont street, which he erected some years 
ago, he owns other property in the city and he is also the owner of a small 
ranch three miles out, where he is interested in the raising of alfalfa and 
stock. In addition he owns interests in oil companies and oil lands in the 
fields of this county. 

A native son of the state, Mr. Smith was born at Gilroy, Santa Clara 
county, October 21, 1868, and is a son of the late Charles and Carmen (Pas- 
caida) Smith. The father, an Austrian by birth and a sailor by occupation, 
was attracted to California by the discovery of gold and during 1849 rounded 
the Horn, sailed up the Pacific and cast anchor in the harbor of San Fran- 
cisco. For some years he followed mining and in addition he also owned and 
conducted hotels. After having conducted an hotel at Old Alameda he fol- 
lowed the same business in Gilroy and later in Hollister. While engaged in 
placer mining in Tuolumne county he died there at the age of seventy-four. 
Later his wife, who was a member of a pioneer family of Santa Clara county, 
came to East Bakersfield to make her home with her son, Mateo, and here 
she died at seventy-three years of age. There were eleven children in the 
family and five of these are still living. Of the eleven Mateo was fifth in 
order of birth. From ten years of age he not only supported himself, but 
also aided in the maintenance of the family. It was impossible for him to 
secure a good education, but he has acquired a broad fund of inforrnation 
through habits of close observation and through the intelligent cultivation of 
his mental faculties. 

After having been a helper in a dray business at Hollister for a number 
of years :Mr. Smith came to Bakersfield in 1886. His energy and versatile 
talents led him to acquire a thorough knowledge of carpentering and of 
plumbing and steam-fitting, besides the trade of a stationary engineer, which 
last-named occupation he followed not only in this city, but also in the moun- 
tain sawmills. All of these trades he followed more or less and should he 
choose, he could now earn a livelihood at any of them. In addition he has 
been interested in mining and has improved a number of claims, but this 
work he has found far from profitable. Among the principal points of his 
mining ventures Keyesville and Piute have been the most important and now 



1264 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

he also has claims on Mill creek in the Breckenridge mountains. While min- 
ing at Keyesville he located a ledge, Good View, out of a small strata of 
which he took $6,000, but that entire sum he afterward sunk in attempting a 
further development of the same ledge. While mining has been an interest- 
ing occupation for him, as for all who have ever entered it, it is his belief that 
the greatness of California consists less in its mines than in its rich soil, its 
possibilities of horticulture and agricultural cultivation and its superb climate. 
His marriage took place in East Bakersfield February 12, 1911, and united 
him with Mrs. Delia (Fowler) Miller, a native of Kirksville, Mo., and the 
mother of one child, Mary Elizabeth, by her first marriage. 

Mrs. Smith is the daughter of Dr. R. M. and Martha (O'Brien) Fowler, 
natives of Berlin, Germany, and Dublin, Ireland, respectively. The father 
was a graduate physician from the University of Berlin and for many years 
practiced medicine in Kirksville, but he is now retired and looking after his 
large real-estate interests. Mrs. Smith is a graduate of the State Normal at 
Kirksville. Most of her life has been spent in business ; since coming to 
Bakersfield she has engaged actively in the real-estate business and is ably 
assisting her husband. She has charge of the renting department, which 
she is bringing to marked success, and has a large clientele among the large 
property owners of the city. 

GEORGE S. MAY. — The president of May's Transfer and Storage Com- 
pany, incorporated under the laws of the state of California, has had many 
interesting experiences since first he embarked in the draying business in 
1898. The incident which led to the starting of the business was in itself 
apparently insignificant. The proprietors of what was then the leading 
transfer ctmpany of Bakersfield caused his arrest, as he thought very un- 
justly, for hauling a trunk without a city license. A second complaint against 
him caused him to embark in the business for himself and he then organized 
the Opposition Transfer Company. For a year his sole equipment comprised 
one horse and a wagon which had been rebuilt from an old hotel bus, the 
whole worth about $40. One of his first friends and helpers was Las Mon- 
toya, who aided in the rebuilding of the wagon. Opposition of every kind 
was presented, but he steadily gained in the competing game against his 
business opponents. Soon it became apparent that the trade required addi- 
tional equipment. Accordingly he bought out the George Carlock Trucking 
Company and thus secured needed wagons and horses. Later he took in the 
Union Transfer Company on a percentage basis and on his suggestion his 
brother, Charles A., purchased that concern, becoming one-third owner with 
his brother. About three months afterward Charles A. bought out Wood's 
Transfer Company and thus became one-half owner in the whole business. 

Disposing of their trucking and draying interests, the brothers devoted 
themselves strictly to the transfer and storage business and for fifteen years 
have handled the business of all the theatrical companies in Bakersfield. 
Meanwhile they secured the government contract for hauling mail between 
the depots and the postoffice. They also secured the contract with the Wells- 
fargo Company for transfer of packages between the depots. Last of all 
they won the commercial trade of the city. From a very modest beginning 
their trade increased steadily and now they utilize eleven transfer and dray- 
age trucks. Trunks and suit-cases formerly were stored in a room, 10x16, 
which previously had been used as a harness-room in their barn. Soon this 
small space proved inadequate. Other rooms were rented, but each in turn 
became too small for the growing business. It then became necessary to 
erect a suitable storage warehouse and in August of 1911 the brothers began 
the construction of a building, 50x110 feet in dimensions, with a capacity of 
ten thousand square feet. This fireproof structure stands on the corner of 
Stockton and Humboldt streets, East Bakersfield, and the large barns stand 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1265 

in the same block not far distant from the residences of the two brothers. 
The office of the company is in the basement of the Old Fish building in 
Bakersfield. The capital stock of the company, $20,000 paid in, was secured 
by the sale of two thousand shares of stock at $10 per share. 

A native son of the state, George S. May was born at Sierraville, Sierra 
county, near Truckee, Nevada county, where his father, George, was a popu- 
lar pioneer, a well-known miner and the manager of a sawmill. The pos- 
sessor of musical ability of a high order (although undeveloped) he learned to 
play the violin and was in constant demand at the country dances of the 
early days. In that way he came to be known as "Fiddler" May. His warm- 
hearted disposition brought him hosts of friends, .while his remarkable exec- 
utive ability made him a leader in pioneer circles. While engaged in mining 
he had business relations with Senator Jones of Nevada and Senator Stewart 
and at one time he was a partner of Senator George Hearst. For some years 
his life record was a history of the mining development of the west, whither 
he had come during the eventful year of 1849. Born in Hamilton county, 
Ohio, in 1829, he had gone to Springfield, that state, in early life and thence 
to Springfield in Illinois. As soon as he heard of the discovery of gold in 
California he made preparations for the trip to the west and during the 
summer of 1849 he crossed the plains with ox-teams. In 1850 he arrived 
at the placer mines above vSacramento. For a time he hauled freight with 
oxen from Sacramento to Yuba City, Yubatown, Grass Valley, Nevada City 
and other early mining camps.. 

The first shaft on the Yellow Jacket in the near vicinity of the Com- 
stock lode in Nevada was sunk by George May, who received his pay in 
ore and sold the same for $100,000, but unfortunately lost the entire fortune 
in a similar venture with the Golden Curry mine. Later he was elected 
sheriff of Nevada county, Cal., and during the Civil war he served as 
United States marshal. When the war closed he began in the livery business 
at Nevada City, but was unfortunate in having his stables twice destroyed by 
fire. From that county he went to Sierra count}^ and there married Miss 
Isabelle Davis, daughter of T. J. Davis, Jr., an honored pioneer, and grand- 
daughter of T. J. Davis, Sr., commonly known as "Grizzly" Davis on ac- 
count of his record in the killing of bears, and at the time of his death the 
owner of the land now occupied by Davisville in Yolo county. In the family 
of George INIay there were ten children, but three of these died in infancy. 
The seven now living are named as follows : George S., of this article ; Grace 
G., wife of Henry Williams, of East Bakersfield; Charles A., represented 
elsewhere in this volume ; John Clarence and James Albert, farmers in the 
Weed Patch ; Lillian E., who married Clay Phillips, now living on a farm 
in the Weed Patch, but employed for some years as manager of associated 
stores in the various oil fields of the state; and Arthur, also a farmer in the 
Weed Patch district. 

When George S. May was five years of age the family moved from 
Placer county to a farm at Tracy's Crossing, Kern county, but later removal 
was made to Havilah, near which place the father engaged in cattle ranch- 
ing. After a time return was made to the valley three miles south of Bakers- 
field. During the gold excitement at Bodie, Mono county, the father pros- 
pected in that region. Later he managed the Whiskey Hill mine in Calaveras 
county, where he took out as high as $40,000 per month. On his return to 
Kern county he resumed farming. He then went to Randsburg, where he 
became interested in the Buckboard mine and was also a factor in developing 
the townsite of Randsburg. While engaged in filling a logging contract at 
Breckenridge mill he died suddenly of heart failure, August 12, 1899, mourned 
by friends in every part of the state. The widow, now sixty years of age, 
lives at the old homestead in the Weed Patch. Their eldest son. George S., 



1266 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

was married in 1897 to Miss Trinity Silva, who was reared in Bakersfield and 
educated in the Methodist Episcopal University at Los Angeles. Mrs. May 
is an own sister of the lieutenant-governor of the state of Colima, Mexico. 
By her marriage she is the mother of two daughters, Evelyn B. and Berniece 
D., aged eleven and thirteen respectively, both students in the Paige Sem- 
inary for Girls at Los Angeles. This school has an attendance of one hun- 
dred and thirty-six girls, ranging in age from eleven to nineteen. In June, 
1913, each of Mr. May's daughters took one of the three prizes offered 
for the best scholarships. 

DAVID L. HOENSHELL.— Well known as a contractor of Bakersfield 
and a resident of this citv' since September of 1889, Mr. Hoenshell is a 
native of Coshocton county, Ohio, and was born in the year 1860. Rural 
environment made agriculture familiar to his boyhood years, for his father, 
John, tilled the soil as a means of livelihood for the family. After he had 
acquired a knowledge of the three R's in the country school near his home 
he was apprenticed to the trade of a carpenter and during the course of his 
service he was sent into the timber to fell the trees and hew in pieces the 
logs ; by so doing he gained a thorough knowledge of lumber in its natural 
state and the information thus acquired was a help to him in later expe- 
riences. Upon attaining his majority he left home to make his own way in 
the world and following the trend of emigration toward the west found a 
place of sojourn in Kansas, where he engaged in farming in Atchison county. 
Later he became interested in the stock business and also conducted a 
butcher shop in the same locality. Coming to California during 1885 he 
proceeded from Los Angeles to Tulare county and found employment in 
agricultural pursuits. During the spring of 1889 he became agent for the 
Union Ice Company at A'isalia and in September of the same year he re- 
moved to Bakersfield as agent for the same company, which shipped in 
large quantities of natural ice from Truckee. Until 1893 there was no other 
ice business conducted in Bakersfield. He continued with the firm until 
1898 and then resigned his position in order to engage in other enterprises. 

Ever since 1898 Mr. Hoenshell has engaged in contracting and building. 
For four years his principal task was the building of derricks in the oil 
fields. For more than two years, about 1906-07, he gave his whole attention 
to a contract for roofing the twenty-eight reservoirs of the Standard Oil 
Company, each of these reservoirs covering seven acres. Of recent years he 
specialized in bungalows in Bakersfield and residences in the west side oil 
fields as well as in other parts of Kern county, while his splendid reputation 
lor excellence of work has brought him contracts from Orange, Santa Bar- 
bara and Ventura counties. In addition to the filling of numerous contracts 
for buildings in the oil regions and for city and country residences, he ha= 
erected a number of jniblic buildings and in every class of construction he 
has been alike successful. At one time he held stock in the Superior Oil 
Company and at this writing he owns an interest in the Parafifine Oil Com- 
pany. During 1891 he bought a corner on Eighteenth and H streets. At that 
time there were only a few scattered houses west of Chester avenue, where 
now business blocks of substantial construction abound and it is safe to pre- 
dict that eventually a valuable block will occupy the site which he still owns. 
In addition to this fine city property and other town realty, he owns one 
hundred and thirty acres of fine ranch land in Kings county. While living 
in Atchison county, Kans., he married Miss Hattie Handley, a native of 
Indiana. They are the parents of four children, of whom the eldest, Hattie, 
is a successful teacher, and the second, William, follows the trade of a 
machinist. The two youngest, Toby and Rosse, are high school students. 
Fraternally Mr. Hoenshell is connected with the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen. For seven years he was deputy sheriff under Henry Borgwardt. 



HISTORY U¥ KERN COUNTY 1267 

GEORGE E. WHITAKER.— Tor thirteen years George E. \V hitaker 
has been a practitioner at the Kern County bar. ilis father, JJenjamin L. 
VV hitaker, was born in Ireland, as was also his mother, the former being 
assistant cashier of the Bank of Ireland in Dublin. His death occurred when 
he was but thirty-four years, before the birth of George E., which took 
place in Derby, England, on October 22, 1866. Later the widowed mother 
married the late Dr. J. H. Stallard, of San Trancisco, a native and resident 
of England, who was a man of wealth and spent most of his time in 
travel. Owing to unfortunate mining investments which swept away his 
fortune, the family left England to reside permanently in San Trancisco, 
where Dr. Stallard resumed the duties of his profession, enjoying a large 
and lucrative practice. 

George E. Whitaker was educated at Rugby school in England, after- 
ward going to the Government Military College at Versailles, Trance. Upon 
his arrival in San Francisco he proceeded to fit himself for a mercantile 
career by taking a business course in the Heald's Business College. Shortly 
after completing such course he left for the Hawaiian Islands to accept 
a position. He remained in the islands between nine and ten years, occupy- 
ing a position of trust and responsibility with one of the largest sugar 
corporations there. During all of this time he had cherished the desire 
to engage in the practice of the law and ' devoted a great portion of his 
spare time to its study, for which he was well grounded by reason of his 
course at Rugby, as well as by the practical business experience he had 
acquired in the island. He resigned his position and returned to San 
Francisco about 1894, and a short time after his return he entered the law 
office of Walter H. Linforth, one of the leading attorneys of that city. On 
August 28, 1896, he was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of the 
state of California and later on was admitted to practice in the United 
States Court. After his admission he formed a law partnership with 
Walter H. Linforth, under the firm name of Linforth & Whitaker, with 
offices at No. 310 Pine street, in the old McCreary building, San Francisco. 
Soon thereafter the partnership was enlarged by the entrance of Hon. 
Grove L. Johnson, father of Governor Hiram Johnson, the firm name 
becoming Johnson, Linforth & Whitaker, with suite of offices located in 
the Call building. This partnership continued about a year, when the 
senior member removed to Sacramento and the law business was con- 
tinued by Linforth & Whitaker, who kept the same offices and built up a 
lucrative practice, continuing thus until the end of 1900, when it was 
dissolved by mutual agreement. About this time there was great excite- 
ment over the discovery of oil in the Kern River field in Kern count}^ and 
this, connected with the fact of his growing intimacy with the late Harry 
V. Reardon. who ofiFered him a partnership, determined Mr. Whitaker to 
come to Bakersfield, where he and Mr. Reardon started a law office under 
the firm style of Reardon & Whitaker, with offices in the Stoner Block. Mr. 
Reardon had already reached an eminent position as trial lawyer, having 
for several years been the trial lawyer for the .land dcDartment of the 
Southern Pacific Railway Company and having risen to distinction in his 
own countv of Butte. His father, Judge Reardon. was District Judge of 
Placer and Nevada counties. The youns: law firm rapidly forjjed to the fore, 
but in 1903 was disrupted bv the death of Mr. Reardon. leaving Mr. Whitaker 
to conduct the large and constantly increasinsr practice alone and he has 
ever since retained the same location for his office and field of operation. * 

Mr. Whitaker has a clear, active lep-al mind, and his tireless work, un- 
questioned integrity, courteous and aflFable manner, profound knowledge of 
law and his excellent business judgment have brought his success 



1268 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

in abundant measure. He has the unquahfied respect of court and bar alike, 
while he numbers amon^ his clientele many of the leading corporations and 
oil companies known to Kern county. Although a clever criminal lawyer, his 
successful ventures in the oil business and his large clientele among oil 
men and financiers divert his time and efforts mainly to civil practice in 
which department he has become very proficient. Although a general prac- 
titioner, his corporation practice has become very large and he has in con- 
sequence reaped w^ealth in goodly measure. In his political views he holds 
steadfastly to the principles of the Republican party. At San Francisco in 
1889 he was united in marriage to Miss Nettie M. Sisson, the niece of A. W. 
Sisson, late of the well-known constructing firm of Sisson, Crocker & Co.. 
who won wide acquaintance as contractors on the Union Pacific and South- 
ern Pacific Railroads. Mr. Whitaker has abiding faith in the future of 
Bakersfield and Kern county. 

PIERRE VILLARD. — After more than twenty-five years of industry 
as an employe of others or as the owner of a flock of sheep, eventually Mr. 
Villard was in a position to invest in a tract of Kern county's splendid irri- 
gated land and since then he has concentrated his attention upon the improve- 
ment of his farm. 

A son of Pierre, Sr., a farmer in France, Pierre \^illard, Jr., was born in 
Hautes Alpes April 19, 1862, and arrived in Kern county October 3, 1881. 
For many years he was engaged as herder for the flock owned by Peter Lam- 
bert, an influential stockman of that day. Meanwhile he made his headquar- 
ters at Sumner (now East Bakersfield). During 1898 he bought a small 
flock of sheep and for the next decade he gave his time largely to the care 
of the drove, ranging them in Kern, Inyo, Fresno or Tulare county as con- 
ditions directed or the necessities of pasturage rendered advisable. In 1907 
he sold the sheep and invested the proceeds in the purchase of seventy-one 
acres on Brundage lane near Union avenue six miles south of Bakersfield. 
The land is under irrigation from the canal and is devoted to grain and al- 
falfa, besides being improved with family orchard and vineyard,- neat farm 
house and substantial barn. In Bakersfield, July 20. 1907, he married Miss 
Rose Grimaud, a native of Hautes Alpes, France, and they are the parents 
of two children, Peter and Rose. The family holds membership with St. 
Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in East Bakersfield. 

GEORGE W. KUEHN.— Shortly before the outbreak of the Civil war 

there came from Germany to the United States a young man named William 
Kuehn, a native of the vicinity of Hamburg and the possessor of very limited 
means, but of an excellent education in his native tongue. Settling in Penn- 
sylvania , in 1861, he immediately enlisted as a private in Company E, Fifty- 
fifth Pennsylvania Infantry, and went to the front with his regiment, taking 
part in a number of important engagements. Three years of active service 
had been passed when he was seriously wounded at the battle of Drury's 
Blufif. The wound was so serious that the amputation of a leg was made 
imperative. For many months after the operation he was unable to work, 
but meanwhile he had received an honorable discharge from the army, and 
as soon as possible he entered a business college in Philadelphia, where he 
took a commercial course. Soon afterward he opened a lumber yard at 
Minersville, Schuylkill county. Pa., and there he remained in business until 
his final retirement at an advanced age. For almost thirty years he also 
served as the city justice of the peace. At Minersville, where he still makes 
his home, he married Alice Jones, who was born near that city, of Welsh 
parentage. Eight children were born of their union and seven are still living, 
George W. being next to the eldest of the number and a native of Minersville, 
born 'March 30, 1872. 

Upon the completion of a high-school course in his native city Mr. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1269 

Kuehn served an apprenticeship to the trade of moulder in Minersville. 
However, his tastes led him to a study of music rather than to the life ot a 
tradesman. From childhood he had loved music and had displayed excep- 
tional ability in that art. This led to the takinc;- up of its study at Dana's 
Musical Institute in Warren, Ohio, where he remained a student until he 
was graduated at the completion of the regular course. Meanwhile he had 
made a specialty of the piano and clarionet, in both of which he possesses 
exceptional proficiency. From 1898 until 1900 he engaged in orchestra work, 
traveling in different states and teaching students who had advanced beyond 
the rudiments of the profession. Meanwhile he had married at Warren, 
Ohio, Miss Efifie Smith Pinkard, who was born in Illinois, but grew to 
womanhood in Ohio. The ill health of his wife caused him to leave the east 
in 1900, with the hope that she might be benefited by the sunny climate of 
California. It happened that he arrived on the coast shortly after oil had 
been discovered in the Kern river field. Emigration was turned to Kern 
county and he saw in Bakersfield an excellent field for his professional activi- 
ties. Accordingly he established a home here and began as an instructor 
of the piano, in which he has been successful from the start, being not only 
the pioneer piano teacher in the city, but one of the most prominent and 
popular. Kuehn's orchestra, the principal organization of the kind in Bakers- 
field, was started under his personal supervision and has been trained to a 
degree of professional skill apparent in its rendition of the most difficult 
compositions. The gratifying position held by the orchestra may be attrib- 
uted in large part to the painstaking and intelligent supervision of the leader, 
whose musical temperament enables him to guide the instruments with fine 
feeling and judicious restraint. Mr. Kuehn saw the possibilities of Bakers- 
field soon after he came and purchased the northwest corner of G and Twenty- 
first streets, where he built three substantial residences, one of which he occu- 
pies, and in another he has his studio. 

Having given time and thought and attention very closely to professional 
duties, Mr. Kuehn has had neither the inclination nor the leisure for partici- 
pation in public affairs and indeed takes no part in such aside from casting a 
Republican ticket at national elections. Of the two daughters born of his 
marriage Margaret is the only survivor, Estella having died at the age of 
seven years. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian 
Church and also are interested in the activities of the Women of Woodcraft, 
their membership in the same resulting from his association with the Wood- 
men of the World. In addition he has been identified for years with the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen. 

STANISLAUS GRIMAUD.— Sturdy French ancestry has contributed to 
Stanislaus Grimaud that strength of character, firmness of purpose and shrewd 
business ability which has placed him among the most successful stockmen 
of Kern county. He was born December 13, 1854, in St. Bonnet, among 
the lofty Hautes Alpes, France, the son of an active and thrifty farmer of 
that place, Pierre Grimaud, who married Marie Boyer and became the father 
of eleven children of whom but two survive. The parents are both deceased. 

Exceptional educational opportunities were those afforded to Mr. Gri- 
maud, his studies in the public schools being supolemented by a course at 
the college in Grenoble, and being naturally of quick mind and keen percep- 
tion he imbibed the principles of developing his intellect with such celerity 
that he was ready to face life's problems when still quite young. In No- 
vember, 1873, he left France for America with the intention "of making Cali- 
fornia his destination, and coming via Havre and New York arrived in San 
Francisco January 10th, following. He immediately set to work to procure 
emplovment, and went to work in a coffee and spice factory for nine years. 
In 1882 he came to Delano, Kern county, to enter the employ of a sheep man, 
and two years later he bought a flock of fifteen hundred sheep and began to 



1270 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

engage in that enterprise for himself, ranging his flocks around Delano and 
the mountains of Kern, Inyo and Mono counties. In 1892 he made a trip 
to his old home, his visit lengthening to fifteen months, when he returned 
to Kern county to resume his sheep business. In 1901 he sold his sheep and 
removed to Paulina, Crook county, Ore., where he again engaged in sheep 
raising, his flock numbering five thousand head, and he also had three hun- 
dred head of cattle. Deciding to return to Delano he sold his business in 
November, 1909, and upon arriving in Kern county bought a band of sheep 
and continued until 1912 in the sheep raising business, but then sold out. 
In January, 1913, he bought forty acres near the Kern Island road, seven 
miles south of Bakersfield, and engaged in dairying, which still is his busi- 
ness. All the land is under irrigation, and alfalfa and grain are raised in 
abundance. A large dairy herd is kept and the most excellent facilities used 
for the dairying. 

Mr. Grimaud was married January 19, 1889, to Miss Rosine Borel, who 
was born in St. Laurent, Hautes Alpes, France, and came to California in 
1888. Three children have come to this union, Emma, who was educated 
at St. Mary's Academy, The Dalles, Ore. ; Stanislaus, who also attended St. 
Mary's; and Adrien. Mr. Grimaud is Republican in his politics. 

MAURICE NICOLAS.— The sterling integrity and honesty of purpose 
noticeable in every business transaction and in every association of life 
place Mr. Nicolas high among the French-American farmers of Kern county, 
while the possibilities offered by this county to such energetic, industrious 
farmers as he, find illustration in the growing success attendant upon his 
labors. In the early period of his residence in America he made Minnesota 
his home, but the rigorous climate and the lack of satisfactory returns from 
the cultivation of the soil led him to dispose of his stock and implements 
there and direct his activities toward work in the far west. In coming to 
this country, a lad of only sixteen, unfamiliar with the English language or 
the conditions of life in the new world, he had the advantage of being 
directed and advised by uncles, a number of whom had come to this country 
in preceding years. His parents, Joachim and Anna (Andre) Nicolas, were 
lifelong residents of France, where the mother died in 1874 and the father 
in 1897, the latter having devoted all of his life to agricultural pursuits in his 
native- province. There were three children in this family and the second of 
these, Maurice, was born at the old homestead in Hautes Alpes February 16, 
1869, and alternated his time in youth between the country schools and the 
usual routine of farm work. As previously stated, he was only sixteen 
when he cast in his fortunes with the possibilities of the new world. Two 
uncles, Frank Andre and Father Jean Andre, had settled in Minnesota and in 
1885 he joined them in Renville county, where he worked for wages on a 
farm. 

Perhaps a year after his arrival in this country Mr. Nicolas began to 
operate land as a renter, an uncle having established him on his own farm, 
where he learned agricultural affairs as conducted in that part of the world. 
The farm was under cultivation principally to wheat, but other products also 
were raised. In 1891 the young tenant sold off his implements and stock 
and came to Los Angeles, where he entered the employ of a brother-in-law, 
Andre Andre, a large sheepman owning flocks in the mountains and on the 
range not far from that city, and mentioned elsewhere in this volume. Dur- 
ing 1894 the sheep were brought to Kern county in order to have the advant- 
age of the excellent pasturage afforded by this section of the state. Here, as 
in Los Angeles county, Mr. Nicolas was given charge of the stock, which 
thrived under his efficient oversight. Finding the industry interesting and 
profitable, in 1900 he bought a flock and entered into partnership with Mr. 
Andre, ranging the large flock in Kern, Tulare and Inyo counties. After 
some years of personal ownership of a flock in 1906 he sold the sheep, with- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1271 

drew from the partnership and gave himself the merited enjoyment of a trip 
back to France, where he spent four months in visiting the scenes famiHar 
to his youth and renewing acquaintanceship with kindred and boyhood 
friends. Upon his return to Bakersfield he bought forty acres on Union 
avenue five miles south of the city, under irrigation from the central branch 
of the Kern Island canal, and well adapted to the raising of grain and alfalfa, 
which are the principal products of the farm and form the leading and re- 
munerative activities of the thrifty owner. He is a Re])ublican in politics. 

PHILIP WINSER. — Descended from an old and honored family of Kent, 
England, Mr. Winser was born near Tenterden, October 29, 1863. a son 
of Albert and Mary J. (Beaufoy) Winser, natives respectively of Kent and 
Norfolk. The latter passed away in 1908; the former, hale and rugged for 
one of eighty-one years, is now living retired at his country home, Rats- 
berry. The family consisted of ten children, but of these Philip was the 
only one to seek a location in California and it was during 1891, after he 
had finished his education in different English schools and had followed 
farming in his native shire for fifteen years, that he became a resident of 
Tulare county, having joined the Kaweah Co-operative colony, of which he 
was elected a trustee. While the colony did not prove to be a financial suc- 
cess, he had learned much concerning the soil and its needs during the period 
of his experimental work as a colonist. Such lessons brought later returns of 
great value. Having purchased and cleared a tract of land on the North 
Fork of Kaweah, he joined with a few neighbors in building a ditch for irri- 
gation and then planted an apple orchard. For a time he got some returns 
by selling grafted nursery stock. Before he had received any returns from 
the land he worked in the employ of others in order to meet expenses of 
a livelihood and of the improvement of the tract. 

When finally the apple trees came into full bearing Mr. Winser found 
that he had more than could be sold in his regular trips among the residents 
of near-by towns. Exeter, Hanford and Visalia furnished him with excel- 
lent markets during the first year of his sales. Meanwhile he had heard 
much concerning Bakersfield and in October of 1904 he hauled a load across 
the country to this city. Immediate sale was made at a fair price. Return- 
ing home, he loaded and shipped a car to this place, but the apples having 
been put in the car loose arrived in poor condition and scarcely paid ex- 
penses. Quick to learn the lesson, he carefully packed his next consignment 
in boxes loaded with care, then shipped his car, which arrived intact. Mean- 
while he had received favorable mention for his fruit and twice had been 
awarded medals for his apple exhibit at the Central California fair. For 
three winters he and his wife spent about three months in Bakersfield, hand- 
ling and selling their shipments from the ranch. During 1906 they erected 
a house at No. 216 Twenty-second street, but later they bought a lot and 
built a comfortable home at No. 200 Twenty-second street, where they have 
since resided. 

For the convenience of the handling of the products of his farm Mr. 
Winser has built two cellars with a capacity of twenty-five tons, and he is 
now in a position, through the running of two wagons in Bakersfield, to 
market his own crops, also to buy and market the crops from other ranches. 
He has a regular route for his wagons and delivers to customers apples, 
walnuts, dried fruits, oranges, lemons, almonds and grape fruit. The apples 
come from his ranch of one hundred and sixty acres, twelve miles above 
Lemon Cove in Tulare county, while the other products are bought from 
ranchers and fruif-growers of Kern and Tulare counties. On his ranch he 
has nine acres in Ben Davis and Winesap apples. 

Since coming to Kern county to make his home Mr. Winser has bought 
a number of lots and has built several houses in Bakersfield and East Bakers- 
field, these being now rented to tenants. At Tulare, February 17, 1892, he 

51 



1272 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

was united in marriag^e with Miss Mary Blanche Beaufoy, who was born in 
Dover, Kent, England, and by whom he has a son, Lindley, a member of the 
Kern county high school class of 1915. They are both believers in social- 
ism and regard its theories as offering a practicable solution to the growing 
labor evils of the age. The family to which she belongs comprises eight 
children and three of these came to California, the others, William and 
Albert Beaufoy, being also residents of Bakersfield. Their parents, the late 
Samuel and Mary A. (Ayling) Beaufoy, were natives respectively of Nor- 
folk and Surrey, England, and lived for many years in Dover, where Mr. 
Beaufoy engaged in mercantile pursuits for a time and later followed the 
occupation of an accountant. It was not until 1905 that Mr. and Mrs. 
Winser returned to England to make their first visit among the friends- and 
relatives known to their earlier years and in that visit, as well as in a later 
trip made in 1912, they had a pleasant vacation. 

HERBERT WILLIAMS WALFORD.— Interesting experiences have 
individualized the career of Herbert W. VValford, who at different periods 
of his life has made his home in Europe, Africa and America, and therefore 
has gained a broad knowledge of the world through travel and habits of close 
observation. In all of his travels he has found no place more to his liking 
than California and no country more genial and attractive in climate than 
this land t f sunshme and flowe's. \'\ hue attracted hither in the hrst in- 
stance through considerations of health he remained through his own satis- 
faction with prospects and people, and even after a long period of service 
in the Boer war he still bore in mind the thought of California, returnmg 
hither after a service of five years under the British government in Africa. 

Mr. Walford was born in Weston Super Mare, Somerset, England, and 
is a member of a family of musicians. His parents, Edward and Fannie 
(Mable) Walford, were natives respectively of Bridgewater, Somerset, and 
Millverton, England, and now make their home at Fenny Stratford. The 
family comprises four sons and three daughters. Among the seven, Her- 
bert W., born September 26, 1870, was fourth in order of birth and is the sole 
member of the family to establish a home in the United States. The father, 
a musician of al)ilily and a teacher of considerable prominence, for some years 
acted as manager of concert tours given in all parts of the British Islands 
and participated in by all of the children, each of whom he trained for a 
special part. The specialty of Herbert W. was comic and character song, 
but he was also proficient with the 'cello and mandolin. As the family 
traveled extensively he was educated under the charge of a governess. Dur- 
ing 1895 he sufifered the loss of his voice and that experience changed his 
entire future. Hoping to be benefited by a change he came immediately to 
California intending to remain but three months. Six weeks after his arrival, 
owing to an attack of malaria, he sought the fine air of the San Emidio 
mountains, where he rapidly recuperated. At the expiration of three months 
in California he wrote to relatives in England that he had decided to remain 
one year. Before the end of the year he had gotten into the saddle in the 
employ of the Kern County Land Company and was busily engaged in riding 
the range, punching cattle and bossing ditch gangs. When the year came 
to a close he had decided to stay for three years and by that time he liked 
the country so well that he determined to remain until he had lived in the 
west for five years altogether and this determination he carried into action. 

Returning to England in 1900 with the intention of going on to the 
Paris Exposition, Mr. Walford fell a victim to the war fever before he had 
started for Paris and enlisted in the same year as a member of the Baden- 
Powell Mounted Police or South African Constabulary. Gallant service 
caused his promotion to the rank of corporal at the expiration of seven 
months and two months later he was commissioned sergeant and posted at 
the depot troop, their military base. Having gained the sergeant's stripes for 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1273 

services in the field, he obtained permission from the colonel for his marriage 
to his fiancee, Miss Edith Maynard, an English girl, who was born and reared 
at Bletchingley, Surrey, being a daughter of William and Alice (Smith) 
Maynard, the former still a contractor and builder in Bletchingley. Just 
before he started for Capetown to join his intended, who came out from 
England to be married, the sergeant was promoted to the rank of troop 
sergeant major and as he traveled to Capetown he had as an escort a corporal 
and two troopers, the war being still under full swing. The marriage was 
solemnized in April of 1902 and at the end of a week the groom returned to 
his post at Heidelberg, Eastern Transvaal. Three months after the close 
of the war he was honorably discharged in January of 1903 and then became 
connected with the Central South African Railroad Company as foreman 
of construction work. Being able to speak the native Zulu and Basuto 
languages he was well qualified to manage his crev/ of almost seven hundred 
natives. Later he was appointed store-keeper in the resident engineer's 
office at Braamfontein and next was transferred to the signalling department 
of the chief engineer's office in Johannesburg. Although offered induce- 
ments to remain in South Africa he resigned his commission April 27, 1905, 
and returned to England on the Saxon. 

After a visit of three months with relatives and friends in England 
during September of 1905 Mr. Walford returned to California and imme- 
diately resumed work with the Kern County Land Company. For four 
months he held a position as foreman of a ditch camp, after which he took 
up water measurements. Five years later he resigned to become bookkeeper 
for M. T. Kean, contractor. At the expiration of four months he again re- 
signed, this time to become assistant dispatcher with the San Joaquin Light 
and Power Corporation and after ten months in that capacity he was pro- 
moted to his present position in the main offices of the company. On his 
return to Bakersfield he built a residence at No. 2009 Twenty-second street, 
and this attractive home is presided over graciously by Mrs. Walford and 
is brightened by the presence of four children, namely : Guy, who was born 
at Johannesburg, Africa; MoUie, whose birth occurred in Surrey, England; 
and Jack and Dorothy, both of whom were born in the Bakersfield home. 
The familv are members of the Episcopal Church of Bakersfield and frater- 
nally Mr. Walford, prominent with the Knights of Pythias, holds rank as 
first sergeant of the Uniform Rank of that Order. 

JOSEPH J. HALTER.— Born in Neckarsulm, Wurtemberg, Germany, 
August 19. 1858, Mr. Halter attended school there and then entered horti- 
cultural college at Hohenheim, graduating in 1879. In 1882 he came to the 
United States and located first in Montgomery county, Ohio, where he 
remained for five years, being employed in ' a nursery. In the fall 
of 1890 he came to California to start a nursery for E. E. Elliott in Kern 
county, and he remained here for a year giving valuable service to his 
employer. He then took charge of the vineyard of Mr. Galtes and after 
two years moved to Tehachapi, w^here he engaged in grain farming, and 
also stockraising. In 1904 he came to his present home tract of twenty 
acres at Panama, which he now owns and in addition to this he rents two 
hundred and forty acres, eighty of which adjoins the homestead farm. He 
devotes most of his time to general farming, dairying and stockraising, and 
in addition finds time to run an apiary of sixty stands of Italian bees, which 
has proved a great success. 

Mr. Halter is an active member of the Woodmen of the World. He is 
a well-known man in his community, and has many friends and acquaint- 
ances. Up-to-date and reliable, he is a citizen that takes deep interest in 
his countrv's welfare, and though he has never held office, he is ever ready 
to do a public-spirited man's duty if called upon. Mr. Halter was married 
October 5, 1891, in St. Francis Church at Bakersfield, to Odella Rothen- 



1274 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

fluch, who was born in Alsace Lorraine, Germany, June 3, 1871. They are 
the parents of nine children, as follows : Lena, Bertha, William, Carrie, 
Josie, Clair, Anna and Martha. 

E. W. RANDOLPH.— The Randolph homestead was on the Massa- 
sinawa river near Marion, Grant county, Ind., and for years its care en- 
grossed the attention of Jacob Randolph, who had removed thither from 
his native Ohio. While yet in middle age he died at the old home farm in 
March of 1880, leaving to his wife and children the memory of an honorable 
existence devoted to the discharge of the duties devolving upon him as 
head of a household and as a progressive citizen of the community. Of his 
five sons the third, E. W., born on the home farm December 7, 1869, is now 
the sole survivor. The wife and mother, who bore the maiden name of 
Sarah E. Connelley and was ])orn near Marion, Ind., has married again 
since the death of Mr. Randolph and is now a resident of the village of 
Upland, in Grant county. 

The death of his father forced upon Mr. Randolph the responsibilities 
of self-support when he was only ten years of age, and ever since then he 
has "paddled his own canoe." The family with whom he made his home 
allowed him to attend school in the winter months, so that his education 
was not wholly neglected. By doing chores in the mornings before school 
and in the evenings after he returned to the home he paid for his board, 
while in the summer months he proved very helpful in the fields long be- 
fore he was large enough to do a man's work in the world. At the age of 
sixteen he began to learn the trade of a sawyer in Grant county. From that 
he drifted into the work of a planing mill. During 1891 he went to Upland, 
Grant county, where for fifteen years he held a position with T. J. Deeran, 
owner of the largest '^laning mill in all that section of the C( untry. In his 
place he was almost indispensable and his resignation in March of 1907 was 
greatly regretted by all those connected with the plant. Resigning with 
the intention of settling in the west, he came at once to California and has 
since been connected with the Union Lumber Company of Bakersfield. 
Promoted from one position to another, since October of 1907. he has been 
mill foreman, and upon the destruction of the plant by fire in 1909 he helped 
in the work of rebuilding, had charge of the millwright work and installed 
the machinery, this being thoroughly modern and complete. His comfort- 
able home at No. 1131 Eighth street is presided over by his wife, formerly 
Lissa Marshall, who was born at Upland, Ind., and is a daughter of Milton 
Marshall, an old settler of Grant county, a prosperous farmer of that section 
of Indiana, and for four years a member of a Union regiment during the 
Civil war. In national politics Mr. Randolph votes with the Democratic 
party. Fraternally he belongs to the lodge and encampment of Odd Fel- 
lows and with his wife holds membership with the Rebekahs in Bakers- 
field. 

ARTHUR B. FILBEN.— The citizens whose identification with Kern 
county has proved of the greatest value to local advancement are those who 
have endeavored to ascertain the most profitable crops for farm production, 
those who have developed important business enterprises and those who in 
other avenues of labor have promoted the general welfare. Not the least 
prominent nor the least successful of such public-spirited men are the Fil- 
bens, father and son, the former of whom has developed a particularly valu- 
able ranch of one hundred and sixty acres, while the latter now acts as man- 
ager of the same. The planting of sixty acres of the tract in a vineyard of 
muscat grapes seemed in the nature of an experiment, but the results justi- 
fied the undertaking, for it was discovered that the product possessed a 
flavor unsurpassed by the grapes of even the famed Fresno vineyards. 
Much of the ranch has been put into alfalfa and grain, both of which are 
well adapted to the soil of Kern county. During 1904, after Arthur B, 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1275 

Filben had completed the studies of the San Francisco schools and the San 
Jose Academy, he came to Kern county to assume the management of this 
productive property. At that. time Wasco was known as Dewey, and it 
possessed the insignificance of a small hamlet remote from all business 
activity, but later the development of oil brought the district into consider- 
able prominence and enabled Mr. Filben to engage successfully in the real 
estate business. At the present time he has charge of a number of sub- 
divisions in Wasco and in addition he manages twelve hundred acres of land 
well adapted to orange culture. The management of these various interests 
leaves him little leisure for outside matters, but we find him cheerfully co- 
operating in all movements for the progress and advancement of the county. 
He has the distinction of being a native son, his birth having occurred Aug- 
ust 1, 1884, at Manchester, Mendocino county. October 1, 1907, he was 
united in marriage with Miss Louise Gustavus, who was born at Antigo, 
Wis., October 1, 1888. Two daughters, Dorothy F. and Helen, comprise 
their family. 

In referring to the ancestry of the Filben family we find that they 
descend from colonial residents of New England. The father. Rev. Thomas 
Filben, a native of Boston, Mass., born in 1857, accompanied his parents to 
San Francisco at the age of five years and attended the public schools of 
that city. During 1880 he was graduated from the College of the Pacific at 
San Jose. He then engaged in educational work in Mendocino county and 
was a member of the county board of education. Afterward he entered the 
ministry of the Methodist Episcopal denomination. For twenty-five years 
he held pastorates in San Francisco and Sacramento and adjacent points, and 
the value of his labors was evident in the results secured. As early as 1883 
he superintended a Chautauqua at Pacific Grove, which was the first of its 
kind in California and the second in the United States. For a time he acted 
as superintendent of instruction at the summer sessions and even at the 
present time he retains an important identification with the work. Upon 
first visiting Kern county during 1892 he formed a business connection with 
the ranch of six hundred and forty acres owned by the Palm Fruit Company, 
Incorporated. His services as manager were retained for a considerable 
period. About that same time the Rosedale colony was established and 
small tracts were planted to grapes as well as various deciduous fruits. Al- 
though owning interests in Kern county he continued to make San Fran- 
cisco his home from 1892 until 1905, when he bought the present home place 
of one hundred and sixty acres near Wasco and here he has since lived with 
his son, being retired from all active cares, but maintaining a warm interest 
in every movement for the further development of the large resources of 
Kern county. Realizing the imperative need of irrigation facilities, he put 
on his ranch one of the very first wells in this part of the county. The pump- 
ing plant comprises a gasoline engine of fifty horse-power with a flow of two 
hundred and fifty inches, abundantly sufficient to provide water for all the 
needs of the ranch. 

RALPH H. THOMPSON.— A love of travel and adventure characterized 
the early years of Mr. Thompson, who when yet a mere boy started out for 
himself in the world and earned a livelihood by manual labor as he traveled 
from place to place throughout all of that vast region stretching west from the 
Rocky mruntains. From his earliest memories he was familiar with the vast 
unsettled plains of Texas. Born in that state May 10, 1879, he learned a 
love of freedom from its great expanse of unpeopled lands and from the lure 
of its sun-kissed valleys. Yet the Lone Star state did not satisfy his thirst for 
adventure, which led him on and on into the mines of the west, the great timber 
lands of the northwest, the lofty mountains and the broad plains of America. 
It is a noteworthy fact that when only eighteen he made a trip overland 
through the British possessions into Alaska. In the midst of the exposures 



1276 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

and harclshi]js of such an adventure many might have perished, but a robust 
constitution carried him through in safety and he arrived at Dawson in splen- 
did physical condition for active mining operations. The great discovery of 
gold in the Klondike was made shortly after his arrival and stimulated him to 
increased exertions, resulting in the establishment of a location on No. 32 
above on Bonanza, where he opened a mine and engaged successfully in 
mining for a year or more. From boyhood he had been interested in mining 
and it was his faith in the possibilities of the Alaskan fields that led him to the 
Klondike before gold had been discovered in that field. 

As early as 1896 Mr. Thompson had made his first trip to California and 
then and later he saw much of the country through his travels among the 
mines and lumber camps. WHiile at dififerent times he has visited the greater 
part of the United States he has found no region whose climate and oppor- 
tunities interest him more than California and the state has in him a loyal 
citizen. When the "wanderlust" of early years had given place to a desire to 
establish himself in the permanent citizenship of a community he selected 
California as his chosen home and Bakersfield as the center of his business 
activities, arriving here in 1906 and embarking in the business of a contracting 
painter. In boyhood he had been trained in both painting and carpentering, 
and always more or less he has fi llowed these occuoations, so that he was 
prepared to take up contracting with every assurance of a successful outcome 
for his labors. His comfortable home at No. 822 Oregon street is presided 
over bv his wife, formerly ]\Iiss Antonia Jacomini and a native of Bakersfield, 
where she was educated and married. One son, Charles, blesses the union. For 
some years Mr. Thompson has been identified with the Builders' Exchange 
of Bakersfield. In addition to the management of his contracts in the building 
business he is proprietor of the Buck stables on Baker street in East Bakers- 
field, where he conducts an important livery, feed and sale business. Frater- 
nally he holds membership with Sumner Lodge No. 143, K. of P., and is past 
chancellor c* mmander. 

CLARK APPLEGARTH.— The superintendent of the Applegarth Re- 
fining Company possesses the energy of temperament, activity of mind and sa- 
gacity of judgment that secures for his business undertakings an excellent 
measure of success notwithstanding opposition of a most formidable nature. 
The high quality of his product and the untiring energy of his nature have been 
the two elements entering into his steady progress. The production of asphalt 
for paving forms his special line of business and his product, the Williams 
asphalt mastic, a patented mixture, has a refutation for quality and dura- 
bility that is not excelled by any of the productions of the modern industrial 
l^lants of the country. Since he became the active head of this business and se- 
cured the entire control of the plant he has increased the output by a slow but 
steady development. At this writing the refinery uses two hundred and fifty 
barrels of crude oil per day and turns out approximately twenty tons of as- 
])halt in the same time, the average production per month being almost six 
hundred tons. 

The distinction of being a native son of California belongs to Clark Apple- 
garth, who was born in INTerced September 25, 1877, and is a son of Clark and 
Martha (Norman) Applegarth. During his early childhood the family re- 
moved from Merced to Hanford and in the latter town he received his school- 
ing. From youth he has been self-supporting and always his inclinations 
turned him toward the oil fields, so that he acquired an expert knowledge of 
the oil industry while still quite young. At the age of twenty years he went 
ro the oil fields of South Coalinga, Fresno county, where he secured work as a 
day laborer. Little by little he worked his way out of the ranks of unskilled 
laborers. The first experience he ever had as a driller was secured in the South 
Coalinga fields. Other parts of the industry became familiar to him while 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1277 

working at that place. From Coalinga he went to Stockton and secured work 
as a day laborer for the Davis Refining Com])any, manufacturers of asphaltum. 
In addition he worked for the Tesla Bricquette Company. From a very humble 
position he worked up step by step until finally he was made superintendent of 
the Davis Company and it was while connected with that organization in its 
large refinery that he mastered the production of asphaltum. 

While living at Stockton and engaged in the manufacture of asphaltum 
there Mr. Applegarth was united in marriage with Miss Emma Thyarks, by 
whom he now has one son, Norman. From Stockton he was sent to Alma, 
Mich., to put the Alma IMastic plant on a paying basis, in which he succeeded. 
The time spent in the east proved most helpful to him from a business stand- 
point and gave him a thorough familiarity with the production of the patented 
product in which he since has specialized. Upon his return from Michigan he 
leased the old Volcan refining plant from the Volcan Oil and Refining Com- 
pany and since 1906 he has devoted his energy to the building up of the plant. 

SCOTT & GOODMAN.— The first store in the little settlement at Re- 
ward was started by M. P. Scott and took the form of a mercantile estab- 
lishment containing a stock of goods suited to the needs of oil operators, 
through which he gained a wide circle of friends in the entire field. Increase 
of popularity came to him wi:h his appointment as the first postmaster of the 
new town, a position that he since has filled with marked efficiency, although 
having disposed of the store in which for a time he had his ofifice. Recently 
he has associated with himself his nephew, H. S. Goodman, who like himself 
is a native of Roanoke, Roanoke county, Va., descended from an old family 
of that commonwealth. 

A son of Joseph and Lou (Scott) Goodman and a graduate of the 
National Business College of Roanoke, Mr. Goodman came to the Pacific 
coast shortly after he had completed his studies in the commercial school. 
Not long after his arrival in Kern county he became connected with his 
uncle, M. P. Scott," in the mercantile establishment and in the operating of 
the Reward postofifice. Since the sale of Mr. Scott's former business, uncle 
and nephew have been partners in a general store carrying a stock of sta- 
tionery, confectionery, cigars and notions, and they are well known through- 
out all this part of the oil field, where their sterling qualities and exceptional 
business capability have brought them the confidence of acquaintances and 
the warm regard of intimate associates. In their efforts to promote the 
prompt delivery of mail to the people using the Rew-ard postofBce they have 
instituted a service direct from the train at McKittrick, which saves about 
two hours delay in the delivery of the mail bags at their ofifice. In many 
other ways they have promoted the convenience of the patrons of the office. 
Both maintain warmest interest in the upbuilding of the community and the' 
development of this portion of the oil field. In politics both are Democrats. 

M. P. Scott is a native of Princeton. Mercer county. Va., (now W. Va.). 
his birth occufring January 4, 1860, the son of Dr. John D. Scott, who was 
a mechanic of such exceptional ability that he made the principal portion of 
his dental instruments, and these he used in his practice until the time of 
his death at Roanoke, Va., about 1907. He moved to Christiansburg when 
his son was only a year old. and it was there that M. P. Scott passed his boy- 
hood days. \Vhen he reached the age of nineteen he began to clerk in 
a general mercantile store at Floyd Court House, Floyd county. Va.. and 
continued there for four years. He then went to Roanoke, Va., where he 
lived for twenty-five years, a part of this time being in business for himself 
and the remaining time working as a clerk. At Roanoke he was led to 
overbuy real estate during the boom and when the panic between 1893-1898 
occurred he met with financial disaster, losing everything, so that it took him 
three years of hard work for wages to pay his debts, which he cleared up 
entirely. In May, 1908, he came to California, being at the time in a nervous 



1278 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

and greatly debilitated state of health. Putting up a tent he camped for six 
months and drove a team for the Benedict & Merrill Company, meantime 
circulating a petition for a post ofifice to be established at Reward. In Aug- 
ust, 1909, he was appointed postmaster of the newly established ofifice (which 
was begun in March, 1909), and in December he received his commission and 
supplies. Mr. Scott has never married. 

CHARLES DICKINSON. — Long experience in eastern oil fields pre- 
pared Mr. Dickinson for critical recognition of the values of western districts 
and the fact that he has been a stanch upbuilder of the Maricopa field, an 
earnest advocate of its possibilities and a generous contributor to its progres- 
sive projects, furnishes ample evidence as to his faith in its future. Of east- 
ern birth, born at Silver Creek, Chautauqua county, N. Y., he began to work 
in the Ohio oil fields at a very early age and for ten years he experienced the 
reverses and successes incident to oil operations in Wood county, Ohio, 
where he filled almost every position from that of roustabout to foreman. 
Altogether he worked in Ohio oil districts for ten years and then came west 
to California, where he secured employment in the Whittier and Ventura 
oil fields. Coming to Maricopa in 1904 he engaged with the Adeline Oil 
ComDany. on whose property he drilled eight wells, besides drilling four wells 
on the Adeline Extension Oil Company's property. Altogether he has drilled 
twenty Avells in the Sunset field. Having become intimately acquainted with 
Barlow & Hill, oil operators, of Bakersfield, he has entered into business rela- 
tions with them, their combined interests owning the Adeline and Adeline 
Extension properties at Maricopa. While living in Ohio he married Miss 
Mary Weaver, a native of that state, and they now have a substantial resi- 
dence on the Anaconda lease. 

Besides being manager of the Anaconda lease of forty acres with three 
producing wells, located on section 12, 11-24, Mr. Dickinson is proprietor of 
the Maricopa Realty Company, a director and one of the largest stockholders 
in the Maricopa Bank, builder and owner of the Dickinson block, the original 
locator of the Adeline Extension Townsite subdivision in Maricopa, and with 
others a leading factor in the erection in 1911 of a two-story brick block, 63x93 
feet in dimensions, the largest and most attractive public building in the city, 
occupied by the Maricopa postoffice and the Carroll hotel, the Maricopa 
Drug Company, and the Wells-Fargo Express Company. The fine structure 
now occupied by the Maricopa Bank received his substantial support in its 
erection. 

With all of his other varied interests Mr. Dickinson finds time to serve 
efficiently as vice-president of the West Side Good Roads Club, of which 
F. W. Train is president and Charles Barnhart secretary, among the other 
active members being J. I. Wagy, L. L. Collman and C. Z. Van de Hork. 
In this official capacity he energetically promotes the "Three Hours by Auto 
to the Coast" movement, a project which it is estimated will cost $200,000, 
but will be worth far more than that sum to the people of -the west side. 
Indeed, the building of the road would ensure the future of Maricopa. 

GEORGE D. HENDERSON.— Allured by the hope that he might find 
in California more attractive Imsiness opportunities and a more healthful 
climate than his own Canadian country could boast, during the year 1878 
William P. Henderson, a bookkeeper formerly employed by a Toronto con- 
cern, brought his family to the western coast of the United States and settled 
in San Jose. A later removal established them at Ontario, San Bernardino 
county. At the time of coming to this state there were four children in the 
family and another child, named Muriel Grace, was born after the location of 
the family in the Santa Clara valley. Two other daughters. Margaret and 
Lillian, both of Canadian birth, are now residents of Los Angeles. The older 
"-"on, Thomas, a civil engineer bv occupation, is connected with the Kerckhofif 
mining interests in Los Angeles. The younger son. George D.. born in To- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1279 

ronto, Canada, February 4, 1875, was only three years of ag'e at the time of 
accompanying" the family to the west, hence his early recollections cluster 
around sights and scenes in the Santa Clara valley. Although ambitious to 
acquire a good education, he had no opportunities to attend school aside from 
the grammar grade, but the lack of thorough schooling has not greatly handi- 
capped him. Industry and determination have enabled him to forge ahead 
and earn a livelihood. While yet a mere lad he worked in the press-rooms 
of Wannop & Forbush, also Goodwin & Thomas, and other job printing firms 
of Los Angeles. 

When news of the discovery of oil in the Kern river field reached Mr. 
Henderson he resigned his position and came at once to Kern county. As 
this was in the year 1898, he ranks among the earliest workers to secure em- 
ployment in the Sunset field. Beginning as a day laborer with Messrs. Blod- 
gett and Jewett at the old Sunset refinery, he soon gained an excellent 
knowledge of the industry and was able to fill the position of foreman with 
the old Occidental Oil Company, many of whose wells were put down under 
his supervision. During 1903 lack of transportation facilities caused the oil 
industry to languish. Some of the companies stopped work and a large num- 
ber of the workers sought other fields. It was then that Mr. Henderson de- 
cided to try his luck in the gold mines. Proceeding promptly to Searchlight, 
Nev., he secured employment in the Duplex mine and became foreman of the 
shaft gang. In a short time he left that country for New Mexico and at 
Fierro, Grant county, gained a valuable experience in copper mining during 
an employment of one year with the Hanover-Bessemer Iron Ore Associa- 
tion. The spring of 1908 found him again in Kern county. For a short time 
he was employed on section 35, with the Sunset Road Oil Company, but in the 
same year he came into the employ of the Sunset Monarch Oil Comoany. That 
he has won the confidence of superior officials is evident from the fact that 
in January of 1911 he was promoted to be foreman of section 2 lease with 
twenty-five producing wells. 

ALPHONSE CHAUVIN.— Descended from French ancestors, Mr. Chau- 
vin was born at Buenos Aires, Argentina, South America, December 23, 1880, a 
son of Jean Baptiste and Clerice Chauvin, the former a native of Marseilles, 
France, and now living retired at Las Mees in that republic. Generations of 
the Chauvin family had engaged in the manufacture of shoes and the tanning 
of leather. Naturally therefore he turned to the hide and leather business in 
early life. After his marriage he took his young wife to South America and 
settled in Buenos Aires, where he established a plant for the tanning of 
leather. His travels took him throughout the Argentine Republic, in every 
part of which he interested himself in the buying of hides. Prosperity came 
to him. By degrees he acquired a large fortune. Meanwhile his son, Al- 
phonse, at the age of two years had been sent to Marseilles, France, to be cared 
for in the home of an uncle. The parents themselves later went back to 
France, hoping' to enjoy life and health among their old friends, but soon the 
mother passed away and not long afterward the father lost almost his entire 
fortune through the failure of the Bank de la Provincia, in which he was a 
heavy depcsitor. Hoping to retrieve his losses he returned to Buenos Aires 
and remained for a time, but without the success of the first sojourn in that 
city. 

In addition to the son, Alphonse, the family included twins born in 
France, but only one of these attained mature years, namely : Emile, now a 
teacher of languages at Bogota, Colombia, South America. From two until 
ten Alphonse lived in France. When he returned to South America with his 
father he had a thorough knowledge of the French language. Later he stud- 
ied Spanish in the Argentine. Upon his return to France he was sent to the 
public schools. At the age of fourteen he became a bell boy in one of the 
leading hotels of IMarseilles. Later he was employed at Nice, Monte Carlo 



1280 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

and Geneva, next going to Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, and from there 
to London. At Nice he had served an apprenticeship in a bakery. While in 
London he wished to enlist in the English army for service in the Boer war, 
but upon asking the advice of a friend, Mr. Todd from Genoa, he was urged 
to keep out of the army and at the same time advised to go to Genoa, where 
a position as Lalian-English interpreter would be tendered him on the Prince 
line of steamships. Accepting at once, he traveled via France to bid his 
father farewell and then started on the long journey. At the expiration of his 
second voyage to America, January 1, 1903, he decided to remain, so resignea 
the position and found employment in New York City. During the excite- 
ment caused by the discovery of gold at Tonopah, Nev., he traveled across 
the continent to the scene of the new camps, and remained there long enough 
to clear up some gold. 

While en route to San Francisco and when as far as Reno, word was re- 
ceived of the earthquake and fire at San Francisco. Mr. Chauvin pursued his 
way to Oakland, where he entered the relief service. His linguistic ability 
enabled him to be of great assistance as an interpreter. When the excite- 
ment had somewhat subsided he engaged to go to Costa Rica, Central Amer- 
ica, in order to hunt birds for the San Francisco Museum. In addition while 
in the southern country he engaged in hunting birds for their plumage, which 
he shipped to the New York markets. Within eight months he had cleared 
about $2,000. For the purpose of continuing such work he went to Barran- 
quilla, Colombia, South America, but found that the government had imposed 
heavy fines and penalties for shooting the particular kind of birds desired. 
This brought the object of the expedition to an end. Later he was joined by 
his brother, Emile, from France and the two went to Bogota, where the 
younger brother remains. His own attention was given to the purchase and 
management of an English soap factory. Raw material, however, was so 
difficult to procure and so expensive that he abandoned the manufacture of 
soap. Intending to again hunt birds of plumage, he pushed into the interior, 
but there fell seriously ill with malaria, and for some time hovered between 
life and death. At such a crisis he was fortunate in having as a nurse Miss 
Elena Gonzales, whose mother owned a ranch of fifteen thousand acres in that 
section of the country. When the invalid had regained his strength through 
the ministrations of the beautiful young Spanish nurse, the two were married 
at Bogota, and for a time afterward he engaged with his brother in the man- 
agement of a school of languages in that city. 

Chance brought Mr. Chauvin into contact with the great magician, Ray- 
mond, at Panama, where he entered into a contract with him to act as man- 
ager and interpreter. AccomDanied by his wife, he traveled with the Ray- 
mond party through Colombia and Venezuela, thence proceeded to the ad- 
joining islands of Grenada and Trinidad, also exhibited in various cities of the 
larger West Indian group and toured through the Barbadoes and St. Vincent's 
Island. The itinerary of the party included Brazil, but the yellow fever being 
very prevalent in that country, Mr. Chauvin refused to continue and resigned 
at the Barbadoes. With his wife he then visited Canada, where he engaged 
with a stock company of actors and in that work visited the principal cities of 
Canada and Nova Scotia. Later he went south to Mexico, where he met with 
svtccess in his specialties. Since 1910 he has lived in California and has 
carried on a bakerv business in Kern county. Since coming here he has 
identified himself with Blue Lodge No. 426, F. & A. M., at Taft." 

JAMES ALLEN BARR. — The developments that have made the Kern 
county oil regions the cynosure for the eyes of the world and that have 
attracted hither young men of brain and optimistic faith, drew to their ever- 
present possibilities James Allen Barr, the manager of the store of the Asso- 
ciated Supply Company at McKittrick and a young business man of excep- 
tional capability, well qualified by training and experience to take charge of 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1281 

the responsibilities associated with a position of unusual importance. 
Throughout almost his entire life Mr. Barr has lived in California, but 
Kansas is his native commonwealth, his birth having occurred in the city 
of Topeka on the 5th of September, 1887. In company with other members 
of the family he came to the west and settled in the little town of Sanger, 
where he attended the grammar and high schools, graduating from the latter 
in 1907 when nineteen years of age. 

In a family of six children, all still living, James Allen Barr was next 
to the eldest. His father, W. M. Barr, a native of Iowa, and during young 
manhood a merchant in Topeka, Kan., married Miss Janie Chambers Allen, 
who was born in West Virginia and died at Sanger, Cal., during 1902. Sub- 
sequent to the removal of the family to the Pacific coast, W. M. Barr engaged 
in the real estate and insurance business at Sanger. Upon his election in 
1907 as cashier of the Sanger State Bank he closed out his other interests and 
gave his time wholly to the banking business. Upon the merging of that 
institution into the First National Bank of Sanger he remained as cashier. 

Following his graduation from the high school James Allen Barr entered 
the employ of the Associated Oil Company at Oil Center, where he continued 
for one year, resigning his position in order to take a business course in the 
College of Commerce, University of California. One year was spent in that 
institution. Upon his return to Oil Center he entered the employ of the 
Associated Supply Company in 1909, and was sent to the McKittrick field 
immediately. As an assistant in the Company's stores at IMcKittrick, Oil 
Center and Fellows, he gained the experience and the familiarity with the 
business that qualified him for promotion and since December of 1912 he has 
served with efificiency as" manager of the store at McKittrick. 

DAVID EDWARD THOMSON.— Born near Piano, Tulare county, July 
8, 1869, D. E. Thomson is a son c f \\'illiam Thomson, who came to California 
in 1865 and became a merchant near Piano. 

The grandfather of David E. Thomson was a native of Kilmarnock, 
Scotland. In the public schools of Piano our subject received his edu- 
cational training. Upon leaving school he drove stage from Visalia 
into White River for some years until he reached his majority, when he went 
into the cattle business on Deer Creek in Tulare county. In 1894 he left his 
home place and made his way to Lone Pine, Inyo county, Avhere he followed 
the cattle business for two years, at which time he came to Randsburg, Kern 
county, as one of the first settlers, in October of 1896. He took a position 
with the Yellow Aster Mining Company with whom he remained for a short 
time. However, he was not the man to be satisfied with working for others, 
and he branched out for himself, locating in the Struger district, where he 
remained for about ten years engaged in mining. For four years he worked 
for a wholesale liquor concern, but finally gave that up to devote his time to 
his own interests. At present he is one of the proprietors of the Houser 
hotel at Randsburg, and he also has some mining property, all of which is a 
source of income for him, which is extremely gratifying. Aside from the 
hotel business he is agent for the Bakersfield Brewing Company. Since No- 
vember, 1912, he has been conducting a meat market in Randsburg; also a 
retail ice business. 

As a public-spirited and interested citizen Mr. Thomson has served his 
adopted town as constable, and also as deputy sherifif, and his services have 
been most satisfactory to his fellow-citizens. He is a popular member of the 
Fraternal Order of Eagles, and his name is well-known in that locality as 
that of a reliable, conscientious man. Politicallv he is a Republican. 

Mr. Thomson was married February 12. 1908, in Los Angeles, to Sadie 
Nieto, who was born in Los Angeles, and they have two children, Ploomey 
Jane and Edward. Mrs. Thomson's parents were of old Southern California 
families and the town and vallev of Los Nietos were named for her father, he 



1282 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

being the owner of a very large landed estate; his death, however, occurred 
when he was still a young man. 

E. R. LONG. — The growing business interests of Bakersfield have a 
capable representative in E. R. Long, who for some years has conducted a 
wholesale hay and grain business with office in the Fish block. Since coming 
to this section of the state he has formed a wide acquaintance among the 
farmers of the San Joaquin valley, from whom he buys hay and grain in large 
quantities for shipment to his customers in Los Angeles and elsewhere. Ship- 
ments are made in carload lots, the cars being filled at various stations along 
the line of the railroad, thus affording the utmost convenience to the farmers 
who deliver the product and enabling them to avoid the annoyance of long 
hauls. In other instances, when the hay is purchased in the bulk, Mr. Long 
himself attends to the matter of baling and hauling, and these large interests 
make him a very busy man indeed during certain seasons of the year. As a 
commission man he has proved resourceful, energetic and industrious, and by 
integrity in all transactions has won the steady patronage of a large number 
of customers. 

Allen county, Ohio, is Mr. Long's native place, and he was born near 
Lima, January 7, 1875, being a son of M. H. and Clara A. (Cochran) Long, 
the latter of whom passed away many years ago. The father, who engaged 
in the hay business in Ohio for many years, came to California about 1908 
and is now living retired in Los Angeles. E. R., who was the eldest child in 
the family, has an own brother and one half-brother living. When not in 
school he assisted his father in the hay business and thus early acquired a 
thorough knowledge of the industry now engaging his attention. At the age 
of nineteen years he came to California and settled' in Los Angeles, where 
during 1895 and 1896 he was in the hay commission business. Later other 
business enterprises commanded his time and gave him the training essential 
to successful business activities. When he came to Bakersfield in 1903 he 
embarked in the wholesale commission business with E. H. Loveland as a 
partner and gave personal supervision to the hay business of the firm. After 
five years in the co-partnership he retired from the firm in order to establish a 
business of his own, and since then he has maintained an office in the old Fish 
building in Bakersfield, but spends much of his time in various parts of the 
valley buying hay and baling it for the markets of the city. 

The marriage of Mr. Long took place in 1905 and united him with Miss 
Minnie B. Painter, of Los Angeles, by whom he has three children, Helen 
Anita and Orley Delbert, and a baby girl yet unnamed. In political views he 
votes the Republican ticket, but never exhibited any partisanship in his opin- 
ions, on the contrary placing a genuine public spirit ahead of narrow partisan 
strife. From early life he has been interested in religious affairs and now is 
a leading member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Bakersfield. 
Here, as well as in his former home in Los Angeles, the church has had the 
benefit of his sincere interest, generous contributions and unwavering devo- 
tion. He is trustee of the official board and the Sunday school superintendent, 
which latter position he has faithfully held for the last eight years. 

JOSEPH BAUMGARTNER, SR.— The founder and first president of 
the. Bakersfield Brewing Company was born in Koetzing, Bavaria, Germany, 
February 19, 1859, and died at his home in Bakersfield April 2, 1912, at the 
age of fifty-three years. As a boy in his native land he served an appren- 
ticeship to the brewers" trade and gained noteworthy skill in the occupation, 
so that when he crossed the ocean to the new world he experienced no diffi- 
culty in securing steady employment. After a sojourn in New York City 
he went to the then new district of Winnipeg, Canada, where he held a 
position as brewmaster in the Drewry brewery. Removing from Canada to 
Pennsylvania he worked as a brewmaster in Allegheny and was a trusted 
employe of the large concern operated by Hipley & Son. Meanwhile he had 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1283 

been utilizing every experience so that he might qualify himself for inde- 
pendent business undertakings and when he went to Latrobe, Pa., in 1893, 
he built the Latrobe brewery, which later he sold to a syndicate, operating 
under the title of the Pittsburg Brewing Company. The venture had been 
profitable and he had laid the foundation of a substantial fortune during his 
Pennsylvania experiences. His next enterprise took him to Iowa, where he 
built a brewery in Sioux City and conducted the same under the title of the 
Sioux City Brewing Company until he sold in 1899 at a gratifying profit. 

When the Iowa venture had been brought to a successful consumma- 
tion Mr. Baumgartner went to New Jersey and built a brewery at- Camden. 
This likewise proved a profitable investment and during 1910 he sold for 
D simi that represented large returns for his capital and labor. Imme- 
diately afterward he came to California and settled in Bakersfield, where he 
purchased a desired site on Twenty-fourth street and there erected a brew- 
ery with a capacity of thirty thousand barrels per annum. The plant repre- 
sents an investment of $300,000 and the product, known as the Lion brew, 
was put on the Bakersfield market for the first time May 2, 1912, since which 
time it has leaped into great popularity. 

The Bakersfield brewery was from its start equipped with every appli- 
ance and improvement that modern science could suggest, including two 
electrically driven boilers of one hundred horse-power each ; fourteen chip 
casks of one hundred and ten barrels each ; fourteen stock tubs of one hun- 
dred and eighty-five barrels each ; twelve fermenting tubs of one hundred and 
ten barrels each, and the capacity of the outfit is one hundred and twenty 
barrels to a brew. 

In the refrigerating room ten new chip-casks, with a capacity of one 
hundred and fifty barrels apiece, are now being installed, while the bottling 
department has added a National soaker of the Bcrry-Wehlmiller make, with 
a capacity of one hundred barrels per day, said machine insuring the highest 
possible sanitary service. The bottles are soaked in two separate antiseptic 
solutions and twice rinsed in hot water, after which they are taken to the 
new Eick washer, where they are thoroughly scrubbed by a most ingenious 
mechanism. Being thus thoroughly cleansed and rinsed, the bottles are 
next filled by means of a new Henes-Keller rotary counter pressure filling 
machine, and promptly corked by means of a "Jumbo" crowner. The prod- 
uct is then treated to a thorough pasteurizing process, and finally labelled by 
means of a new Ermold labeling machine. Thus the whole process of 
bottling is done by a complete set of the latest and most approved machinery 
built for that purpose, in the most cleanly and sanitary manner which busi- 
ness ingenuity has thus far been able to devise. The company's large and 
constantly increasing trade has necessitated the use of two new auto trucks 
of one and one-half and three tons capacity respectively. 

The most skilled brewers are employed and the best of ingredients are 
utilized, the aim being the highest stage of perfection possible. The insti- 
tution is destined to become an important factor in the future development 
of the city. Much of the material used will be produced in Kern county, so 
that farmers will be benefited. However, some of the hops will be imported 
from Bavaria and Bohemia, these varieties being essential in the manufacture 
of their beer. A well ninety-three feet deep has been driven on the premises, 
which is pumped at the rate of one hundred and seventy-five gallons a min- 
ute. Employment is furnished to about thirty persons. The company was 
incorporated for $200,000, with the following officers : Joseph Baumgartner, 
Sr., president; John Baumgartner, vice-president; William Baumgartner, 
treasurer; and Joseph Baumgartner, Jr., secretary. The death of the founder 
in no respect changed the plans of the institution, for John and W^illiam for 
years have been practical brewers, while Joseph, Jr., has been thoroughly 
familiar with everv detail of the office work. There has been, therefore, no 



1284 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

essential change in the management since the death of the founder of the 
business. 

The marriage of Joseph Baumgartner, St., united him with Miss Mar- 
garet Brautigam, a native of Bavaria, and now a resident of Bakersfield. 
Eight children comprise the family, namely : Joseph, Jr., John, William, 
George, Ruse, Anna, Charles and Alargaret. 

PATRICK LAMB. — Descended from an honored eastern family Patrick 
Lamb was born at Mount Clemens, Mich., June 11, 1869, and is a son 
of the late Frank and Mary (Feller) Lamb, the former of whom, an attorney 
well known among professional men in Mount Clemens and also widely 
acquainted in Kentucky, passed away about 1898 after a long and successful 
career as a lawyer. After his decease the widow went to Kansas to make 
her home. A lady of culture and education, she had made a specialty of the 
saidy of music in girlhood and for years was recognized among the most 
skilled and proficient musicians in Mount Clemens. The family comprised 
five sons and one daughter, viz.: Patrick, Charles C, Hugh B., Frank C, 
Ralph and Mamie, the last-named being a trained nurse residing in St. Louis. 

After having completed the studies of the grammar and high schools of 
his native city, Patrick Lamb started out to make his own way in the world. 
When seventeen years of age he found employment in the Lima oil field in 
Ohio, where he worked his way up from roustabout to tool dresser. Succes- 
sively he was employed in the fields at Findlay, Signet and Bowling Green, 
Ohio. From that state he went over into West Virginia and engaged in 
drilling at Sistersville. A desire to see more of the world led him to Kansas, 
where he had considerable experience in the Neodesha oil fields. Returning 
to Ohio, he resumed work at one of the oil centers in that state. The same 
industry took him to Bartlesville, Okla., in the boom period of that oil center. 
At different times he engaged in other oil fields, principally in the Caddo 
field in Louisiana. Again going to Oklahoma, he resumed work at Bartles- 
ville, and also made brief sojourns at Cleveland, Nowater, and Kiefer. Im- 
mediately after coming to California early in 1908 he secured employment in 
Kern county, where he has engaged successively as driller on the Santa Fe 
lease, with the Consolidated Midway and Western Minerals for one year 
each, with the Gate City for five months, the Sunset Extension for seven 
months, and lastly with the Miocene, where at present he is retained in the 
capacity of driller. 

GEORGE W. SHAFFER.— A member of an old eastern family, G. W. 
Shafifer was born ()ctol)er 19, 1881, at Cumberland, Md., also the birthplace 
of his father, Conrad, while his mother, Alice, also claimed Maryland as her 
native commonwealth. When yet a mere infant he was taken by his parents 
into a timber and mountainous region about twelve miles west of Cumber- 
land, and there the father secured employment in connection with the running 
of a sawmill. Later, however, the parents removed to a farm and took up 
agricultural pursuits, which they have since followed in the vicinity of Cum- 
berland. Besides their only son, who was the youngest child, thev had three 
daughters, Jessie May, Cora Jeanette and Clara Belle. From childhood the 
son exhibited an inclination toward mechanical work. One of his favorite 
pastimes was the making of wooden models for engines. Any department of 
mechanics became a hobby with him. His first practical experience was 
gained while operating the engine in the saw-mill for the W. C. W^hite Lum- 
ber Company. At the age of twenty-one he became an apprentice in the 
Westinghouse shops at East Pittsburg, Pa., where he won the good-will of 
the foreman and gradually worked his way out of the ranks of unskilled 
laborers. 

An idea of the remarkable exactness demanded by the shop superinten- 
dents of their workmen may be sained from the statement that, while varia- 
tions of one-fourth of .001 would be allowed to pass, any greater variation 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1285 

would not be accepted and the workman must take up the task again. While 
at times this extreme accuracy seemed needless, in the main every worker in 
the shops saw the justice of the demand and strove with painstaking care to 
bring his work up to the mark of perfection. Such training was of invaluable 
aid to Mr. Shafifer then and has assisted him in later positions, causing him to 
discharge every duty with unfailing accuracy. After he had spent five busy 
and heloful years in the Westinghouse shops- he entered the employ of the 
Union Switch and Signal Company at Swissvale,. Pa., but resigned his posi- 
tion at the expiration of six months in order to come to California. On the 
6th of May, 1908, he arrived in San Francisco and there he was engaged to 
enter the employ of the Los Angeles Aqueduct Company at Mojave, this 
state. For two years he worked as a machinist with the construction corps 
at Mojave, his leading jobs being the repairing of steam shovels, gas engines, 
concrete mixers and automobiles. Upon leaving that place he came to the 
oil fields near Maricopa and entered upon his duties as machinist with the 
Monte Cristo Oil and Development Company in the Sunset field at Maricopa. 
Since coming to this locality and engaging in his present position, November 
11, 1911, he has had charge of all work in a mechanical line upon the two 
Monte Cristo leases at Maricopa and Kern river, besides which he is pre- 
pared to do outside job work. 

PARKER BARRETT.— As the original locator of section twenty-five, on 
which the well-known gusher Lakeview appeared, Parker Barrett became 
prominent in the oil fields in Kern county, but he has been identified with va- 
rious industries throughout the west in which he has evidenced his keen 
business judgment and unquestionable integrity in whatever he finds at hand. 
His enterprise has taken him into the fields of mining, railroading, contracting 
and building, and the automobile business as well as the oil industry, and 
his vast experience in these lines has served him in good stead in his de- 
cisions and movements. His father, Uriah, a native of Ohio and of old Quaker 
family, was a pioneer in Jasoer county, Iowa, owning the original site of 
Grinnell, that state, where Parker Barrett was born September 3, 1860. 
However, Uriah Barrett returned to Ohio and located in Belmont county until 
1866, when he removed to ]\Iarshall county, Kans., and settled at Barrett, on 
Vermilion creek, where he passed away. His wife was Nancy Beall, a native of 
old Virginia, whose death occurred in Kansas. Six of their seven children 
are surviving them, Parker being the third youngest and the only one of the 
family living on the coast. 

From the age of six Parker Barrett lived on his father's farm at Barrett, 
Kans., and attended the local schools. When eighteen he went to Nevada 
to follow mining and stock ranging for two years, and then returned to Kan- 
sas to remain a year. The year 1884 brought him to California and he soon 
made his way to Kern county, and in Caliente entered the bridge and building 
department of the Southern Pacific railroad. One year later he went to the 
mines in Piute, where he spent a year and then, in 1886 went on to Tulare, 
where he again entered the employ of the Southern Pacific, serving this time as 
fireman on the run between Tulare and Bakersfield and north to Lathrop. 
In 1889 he was promoted to engineer and in this capacity drove the engine 
between these same points, but the railroad union trouble in 1894 influenced 
him to give up railroading and for two years he mined in northern California 
in Shasta and Trinity counties. The inauguration of the oil industry in Kern 
county caused him to come back to Bakersfield and in 1900 he made a loca- 
tion on 25 Hill and succeeded in getting a well under way, when he sold out 
and engaged in contracting and building in Bakersfield. In 1906, when the 
Standard Oil Company began the construction of their pipe line on the west 
side, he located there and continued in the contracting and building business, 
making his headquarters at Maricopa. In this business Mr. Barrett was asso- 
ciated with J. A'l. Dunn, they making a specialty of rig building until Mr. 



1286 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Barrett sold out his interests to his partner. In 1908 he began locating oil 
iands in partnershij) with Messrs. Freed, Dunn & Stroud, the company locating 
on fractional 25, 34 and 8 and fractional 30, building rigs on a large scale. 
Later they sold their improvements to the Lakeview Oil Company, leasing 
their property to them, with the result that the world-renowned gusher made 
its appearance. Associated with Messrs. Dunn, McReynolds & Derby, Air. 
Barrett also located sections 24, 26, 14, 12, 2, 4 and 8 in Buena Vista Hills, 
which were leased to Captain Mattson, now the Honolulu Consolidated Oil 
Co. Valuable wxlls have been struck and the property is considered the best 
oil holdings on the west side, as there is a production of gas as well as oil and 
they are now the greatest natural gas producers in the state of California. 
Mr. Barrett is now associated with J. M. Dunn in the M and F Garage under 
the firm name of J. M. Dunn Auto Company and he is serving as vice presi- 
dent. They handle the Overland, Stutz and Marion cars and the business 
has shown rapid increase since the organization. 

Along with his many business interests Mr. Barrett is largely interested 
in the Bank of Maricopa, and with his investments and oil property has be- 
come a well-to-do man. He married in Bakersfield Miss Oma Dover, a native 
of California, who bore him three children, Percy M., Gladys E. and Thelma. 
Socially he is a member of the Bakersfield Club, the Sierra Madre Club of Los 
Angeles and the Los Angeles Athletic Club. 

FAUSTINO MIER NORIEGA.— Born in Santander, Spain, February 
15, 1856, when fifteen years old Mr. Noriega left his parents' home and 
became errand-boy in a nearby city, but when tired of his work came to Cali- 
fornia in 1872, his choice of location being influenced by the fact that his god- 
father, Vincent Noriega, lived in Tulare county. The journey here was an event 
to the untraveled boy and consumed many weeks, for he immigrated first to 
New York, and from there came to the coast by way of the Isthmus of Panama, 
reaching San Francisco October 4, 1872. His first experience of importance 
was not calculated to impress him favorably with his adopted country, for 
upon stepping off the train at Oakland he broke his ankle. Recovering, he was 
taken by friends to Visaiia, and in December of the same year he came tc 
Kern county. By working with his cousin at sheep herding he in time man- 
aged to save enough money to take up land on his own responsibility. He 
homesteaded eighty acres and pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres just 
west of Famoso, which he afterward sold to the Kern County Land Com- 
pany. In 1879 he became identified with this company as a sheep driver. In 
1882 he entered the employ of Miller & Lux and was foreman of their sheep 
department until 1893. During this time his operations as buyer and seller 
were conducted on a large scale and he had from thirty to forty men under 
his charge. That his services were satisfactory in the extreme is evidenced 
from the fact that he remained with the same employer for twelve years. 

In December, 1893, Mr. Noriega came to Sumner, now East Bakersfield, 
and erected on Sumner street the Ivaria hotel, now called the Noriega, for 
which he was obliged to borrow $3,500, and of which he is still the proprietor. 
He also erected the new brick hotel Pyrenees on Kern street which cost $9,000, 
and besides is the owner of other houses and property in the town. His inter- 
est in sheep continued unabated, as for many years he was half owner of about 
eight thousand sheep which during the winter were grazed on the plains and 
in the summer were driven to the mountains of Inyo and Mono counties. Fie 
owns one hundred and sixty acres at Saco, about eight miles from Bakersfield, 
which is devoted to the raising of alfalfa and is under the Beardsley canal, and 
besides this he owns range land for his stock. Mr. Noriega was one of the 
organizers of the First Bank of Kern and has been a member of the board of 
directors and its vice-president from the beginning. 

On February 14, 1893, Mr. Noriega married Louise Inda, a native of 



HISTORY Ol' KKRN COUNTY 1287 

Basses-Pyrenees. France, and they have five children, Martha Lena, Julia, 
Christena, Frank and Albert. About 1899 Mr. Noriega erected a large mod- 
ern brick residence on Baker and Oregon street which the family now occupy. 

JOHN RICHARD WILLIAMS.— An early period in the colonization 
of Virginia found the Williams family associated with the Old Dominion 
and Henry F. Williams was born in Prince William county, that state, being 
a son of John Williams, a lifelong resident of the commonwealth. When a 
mere lad the former acquired a thorough knowledge of carpentering and fol- 
lowed the same in Washington, D. C, from which city in November of 1848 
lie started for California. At that time no news had been received in the east 
concerning the discovery of gold, but he had been interested in the west from 
the reports of General Fremont containing accounts of its climate and soil. 
With the idea of coming west firmly fixed in his mind he secured passage on 
the steamship Falcon, which left New York December 1, 1848, for the Isthmus 
of Panama. There were no passengers bound for California except a few gov- 
ernment officials, four missionary clergymen and four young mechanics, he 
being one of the latter. When the ship reached New Orleans en route to 
Chagris, news of the discovery of gold having reached that point, the ship 
was there filled to overflowing with men whose sole object was to hunt for 
gold, with no intention of settling permanently in the west. At Panama a 
wait of several weeks was necessary before the arrival of the steamship Cali- 
fornia, which, crowded to the point of sufifocation, finally conveyed the 
ardent Argonauts to San Francisco. Upon landing almost everyone of that 
\'ast throng rushed for the gold diggings, but the young carpenter, who had 
brought with him a complete set of tools for cutting down lumber and build- 
ing houses, did not swerve from the resolution he had made before he learned 
of mining afifairs. 

No wharf had been built for the accommodation of passengers or the 
unloading of cargoes. The passengers crowded the small boats that conveyed 
them to the beach from the ship, anchored in the bay. Mr. Williams waited 
until the second day, when the crowd having diminished he was able to take 
his tools with him. Immediately after landing he secured a job, which was to 
fit up a small postofifice for Charles L. Ross, who had been appointed the first 
postmaster by the postal agent, Hon. William Van Voorhies, an appointee of 
President Polk and a fellow passenger of Mr. Williams on the steamship from 
Panama. As he fitted up the first postoffice for San Francisco, Mr. Williams 
might justly be called one of the founders of the town. That honor he claimed 
for himself throughout all of his later years. As soon as he had saved enough 
money he built a carpenter shop, the first in the city, and over it he hoisted 
his sign in large letters, this being the first sign of any kind in the town. The 
shop was located on the east side of Montgomery street between W^ashington 
and Jackson streets. Sometimes it was necessary to elevate the little shop on 
stilts, for the waters of the bay would come up to it and cover it to a depth of 
several feet. The location proved convenient for the landing of lumber and 
other materials when brought in lighters from the ships lying at anchor in 
ihe bay. There being no wharf at which the vessels could discharge their 
cargoes, it was necessary to float them ashore at high tide in small barges, 
of which there was great need for more. That fact being apparent to the 
young carpenter, he decided to supply the deficiency and cast about for a 
partner with money. He was fortunate to win the consideration of Hon. 
Henry T. Robinson, who had been a fellow passenger on the ship and had 
brought money with him. Later he was elected a state senator from Sacra- 
mento to the first legislature and also became prominent as a member of the 
constitutional convention. He agreed to advance $500 for materials to con- 
struct a barge, which Mr. Williams would build, and the latter constructed the 
boat on the beach near what is now the intersection of INTontgomery and 



1288 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

Jackson streets, and from that spot floated it into the bay at high tide. The 
\-enture proved successful. The barge was rented at $50 per day until it had 
])aid for itself. Then it was sold to a sea captain, Mott, for $2,000 and the new 
owner handled it with large profit. The cost of landing freight from "ships at 
that time was almost as great as the freight charges are now from Boston to 
San Francisco. 

The next venture of Air. Williams proved even more successful than the 
first. A\'ishing to build another barge and having the means to do so alone, he 
found that it was impossible to secure lumber of the desired quality. Then 
he conceived the idea of going to the nearest body of timber "land and manu- 
facturing by hand the necessary timber. Capt. W. A. Richardson owned or 
controlled a timber tract near Sausalito and he consented to the establishing 
of a logging camp on his land, also agreed to haul on his schooner any sup- 
plies, needed. A competent ship carpenter was made foreman at $16 per day 
and he hired his assistants at $10 per day, with an additional man as cook 
and man of all work around the camp. Camp supplies and implements were 
ordered from the store of C. L. Ross & Co., and the expedition boarded Rich- 
ardson's schooner at Clark's Point for Sausalito. Mr. Williams trusted every- 
thing to his foreman and did not go near the camp. In less than three weeks 
Captain Richardson brought the party back in his schooner with the barge in 
tow, filled with the waste and surplus material around the camp, all of which 
was of such value. in his construction work that the venture proved highly 
profitable. The barge was given in charge of Captain Johnston, with an option 
to buy one-fourth interest for $1,000; and he managed it so well that it paid 
$150 per day until it had nearly paid its full cost. Then it was sold outright 
tor $4,000. The same day it sold at that sum a full rigged barque lying at 
anchor in the bay, which had been deserted by the crew, sold for only $3,000, 
all of which was due to the fact that there were no buyers for barques at the 
time, but barges were in great demand, for as yet the first wharf (known as 
Long wharf) had not been built. All things considered, Mr. Williams always 
believed this to be the most successful venture of his life, and yet he was then 
scarcely twenty-one years of age. His first full day in San Francisco, March 2. 
1849, had been the twenty-first anniversary of his birth. Many more years 
of usefulness were given-him in the city he loved so well and when he passed 
away March 16, 1911, it was shortly after he had celebrated his eighty-third an- 
niversary. 

W bile in the main the career of Mr. Williams was very prosperous and he 
accumulated large holdings, yet he was not without his reverses, the most 
serious of which was connected with the contract for the building of the Second 
street cut. Through a technicality he lost $250,000 and was left a bankrupt. 
However, to a man of his indomitable determination and great faith in San 
Francisco, continued disappointment was impossible and in time he retrieved 
those losses. As agent for the Pacific Improvement Company he came to 
Kern county and laid out the town site of Sumner, which later was known as 
Kern and eventually was made a part of Bakersfield. With headquarters in 
San Francisco, he had the exclusive agency for property owned by that con- 
cert! throughout the state. Through his efforts and as a result of the donation 
of part of his commission, he induced the Southern Pacific Railroad to build 
a depot at Sumner. Acquiring property at Kern, he aided in building up the 
town, although he continued to reside in San Francisco, where in the early 
days he was associated in enterprises with Huntington, Crocker and other 
pioneer magnates. For many years he served as secretary of the state Demo- 
cratic central committee and for a considerable period he was a school director 
in San Francisco. After coming west he was made a Mason, being the first 
to enter the order in the state, where later he rose to the Knight Templar 
degree. On the organization of the Society of California Pioneers he became 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1289 

one of its first members and ever afterward retained a warm interest in its 
reunions. While his holdings suffered temporarily from the great fire in San 
Francisco, that disaster did not diminish his faith in his beloved city and he 
always cherished the optimistic belief that after the completion of the Panama 
canal his own city would rank in population and importance close to London 
and New York. 

During the pioneer period of California's history Catherine E. Duval, a 
native of Florida, came to the west via Panama and settled in San Francisco, 
where she still makes her home. In young womanhood she became the wife 
of Mr. Williams. Five sons and five daughters blessed their union, of whom the 
sixth in order of birth, John Richard, was born in San Francisco October 13, 
1875. After graduating from Heald's Business College he became an assistant 
in his father's office. In order to manage the family holdings in Kern county 
he came here February 22, 1899, and embarked in the real-estate business, 
also bought lands and improved farms for alfalfa. With his father and C. J. 
Lindgren he built a private sewer system, which has been extended until now 
there are about six miles of sewer in Kern. The system is now owned bv 
Williams Brothers, the interests of Mr. Lindgren having been bought, and 
about 1909 the firm of Williams Brothers was established by John Richard, 
Thomas C, Fairfax and Duval. Besides engaging in business as contractors 
and builders, they carry on a general real-estate business, also build up their 
own holdings, and own one hundred and sixty acres adjacent to Kern or East 
Bakersfield, suitable for addition purposes. At least nine residences have been 
built by them in this part of town. They maintain an office at No. 410 Hum- 
boldt street and control interests of great value and importance. In the fall 
of 1911 they with others organized the Bakersfield Water Company, which 
purchased and rebuilt the old Sumner Water Company's system. The com- 
pany sunk three new wells and installed a new pumping plant. This is now a 
modern and up-to-date water system with ample capacity to care for the 
needs of the community. Mr. Williams is president of the company. 

Besides his other activities John Richard Williams still devotes consid- 
erable time to his large farm, which is now under irrigation and in part is 
devoted to alfalfa, although he also makes a specialty of horses and cattle. 
In national politics he favors Democratic principles. Chosen a trustee of the 
Kern library, he had served as its secretary for four years when the consoli- 
dation with Bakersfield merged the insitution into that owned by the laro-er 
city. For one year he served as city marshal, during wdiich time he succeeded 
m straightening out vexatious matters relating to the collection of licenses. 
Upon the consolidation of Bakersfield and Kern in July, 1910, he became a 
member of the board of trustees and at the regular election held in April of 
1911 he was re-elected for a term of four years, since which time he has acted 
as chairman of the public safety and light committee and has promoted many 
measures for the permanent upbuilding of the city. The Bakersfield Club 
numbers him among its interested adherents. 

CHRISTIAN P. LARSEN.— Recollections of his boyhood home take Mr. 
Larsen back in memory to the fertile farm occupied by his parents in Laaland, 
Denmark. The father, Hans, who was a well-to-do farmer, died when his son, 
C. P., was six years old, and the mother, Martha, passed away when he was 
eighteen. Four children were born of their marriage and C. P. was born July 9. 
1861. After the death of his father he was taken into the home of an uncle, 
who sent him to school and taught him to be useful and self-reliant. The little 
island of Laaland, where he was born, is one of the most productive of Den- 
mark's holdings; as land w^as held at a high figure and wages were small Mr. 
Larsen gave up the hope of becoming a landowner there and came to the 
United States. During 1879 he made the voyage and found employment in 
Cleveland, where he learned brick-making and follow^ed the occupation for a 



1290 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

considerable period. As early as 1888 he came to California and became a 
worker in one of the brickyards of Los Angeles, but from there in 1891 he 
came to Bakersfield, his present home. 

After a brief experience in the brickyard owned by H. A. Jastro Mr. 
Larsen was promoted to the position of foreman. When the yard was closed 
down two years later he was given the foremanship of Curran's brickyard, 
where he continued for nine years, finally resigning in order to take up con- 
tract work for himself. For a time he worked alone as a cement contractor, 
but more recently he has been a member of the firm of Weitzel & Larsen, 
manufacturers of woodstone for floors, builders of cement walks and curbs, and 
contractors for foundations and basements of buildings of all kinds. The 
firm conducts a large business. 

Upon the organization of the Builders' Exchange Mr. Larsen became one 
of its members and still maintains a warm interest in the organization. Fra- 
ternally he has been a member for years of the Ancient Order of United Work- 
men. When he came to Bakersfield he was a single man, but on September 22, 
1892. he was married to Miss Emma Agnes Tibbet, a native of this city and a 
daughter of Edward and Rebecca (Callahan) Tibbet, the former born in 
Ohio and the latter in Indiana. Many years ago Mr. Tibbet became a pioneer of 
Kern county, where he took up land, developed a ranch and engaged in 
general farming. Since his death Mrs. Tibbet has continued to reside at the 
old homestead situated on the Kern Island road. There are three daughters in 
the family of Mr. and Mrs. Larsen, namely: Clara Belle, Julia May and Frances 
Arline, of whom the eldest, a graduate of the Kern county high school, class of 
1913. is now a student at the Fresno Normal. 

ISAAC DENTON STOCKTON, M.D.— The association of the Stockton 
family with America dates back to the colonial period of our history. During 
the war of 1812 a young Kentucky physician and planter, Robert Stockton, 
served as an aide-de-camp to General Jackson and participated in the memor- 
able battle of New Orleans. Although a southerner by birth and education, 
he became an abolitionist and his desire to remove from an environment where 
slavery was practiced caused him to settle in Illinois shortly after his return 
from the war. Southern Illinois had very few settlers when he established a 
frontier home in one of its counties. The slaves he had inherited were freed 
by his voluntary act. So kind had he been to them always that they had no 
desire to leave him, so they built cabins near him and ministered to his needs 
as he did also to theirs, forming an harmonious little settlement of frontier 
farmers. In the struggle to establish a comfortable home he had the wise and 
constant co-operation of his wife, who was Phoebe Whiteside, a native of 
Kentucky and a niece of Gen. Samuel Whiteside, the pioneer Indian fighter 
in whose honor a well-known valley of Kentucky received its name. 

Born in Southern Illinois in 1815 shortly after his father had removed 
thither, Isaac Denton Stockton grew to manhood on the frontier. During the 
Black Hawk war he served under Captain Gates and although but a lad he had 
the unique distinction of bringing in the last prisoner of that struggle, an 
Indian who had sought his life. Being a splendid shot, he was sent out on 
reconnoitering expeditions and many a narrow escape he experienced during 
those perilous times. Participation in frontier warfare did not lesson his am- 
bition to secure an education. After he had graduated from Shurtlefif College 
at Upper Alton, 111., with the degree of A.B., he entered the Jefiferson Medical 
College of Philadelphia, where "he took the complete course of lectures and 
received the degree of M.D. Later he received the same degree from a New 
York city institution. His first professional experiences were difficult and try- 
ing, for they kept him in the south during long epidemics of yellow fever and 
smallpox. In recognition of his services the government tendered him a 
certificate that entitled him to practice medicine in every part of the United 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1291 

States. Settling- in Williamson county, 111., and opening an office, he soon 
became prominent in the profession. In addition to a large practice he oper- 
ated a coal mine and also established a wagon factory and Ijlacksmith shop, 
where he made wagons for use on the Santa Fe trail. As he kept fourteen fires 
in constant use, it is evident that his business was extensive. 

Accompanied b}^ his family and driving a herd of cattle. Dr. Stockton 
traveled by wagon and ox-teams from Illincjis to Kansas during 1854 and set- 
tled in Linn county, where he founded Mound City. There he took up land 
and also practiced his profession, besides taking a prominent part in public 
alTairs. One of his closest neighbors. Dr. James Montgomery, later became a 
very desperate character during the border troubles and even at that time was 
so notorious that only Dr. Stockton's intervention prevented a duel between 
him and John Goodall. About 1855 the Doctor and "Gabe" Sutherland took 
three wagonloads of bells from Kansas to Texas and sold them at a fair profit. 
With a large sum of money they started to return to Kansas, but soon were 
held up by two desperadoes. Their lives were saved by their promptness in 
hiding behind trees, from which refuge they used their pistols to such good 
effect that the robbers were finally routed. However. Dr. Stockton received 
seven wounds, one of these passing through the lungs and forming the imme- 
diate cause of his death in 1897. Three physicians ministered to him in a hotel 
at Austin, Tex., and after weeks of sulTering he was able to return home. The 
sympathy for him Avas great and neither the hotel authorities nor the phy- 
sicians would accept a cent from him. although they had been untiring in their 
kindnesses. 

Resigning as a member of the Kansas territorial legislature early in 1856, 
Dr. Stockton started for California at the head of a large expedition of neigh- 
bors and friends, outfitted with three wagons with three yoke of good oxen 
to each wagon, also a large bunch of loose cattle which he had purchased 
at $12.50 per head. The route took the party via Forts Laramie and Bridges. 
The grass was excellent and when California was reached the cattle were in 
such good condition that they brought $60 per head. Being an old Indian 
fighter and understanding many of the Indian dialects. Dr. Stockton was 
placed in charge of the entire train and w^ent w^ell-armed, prepared for any 
emergency, but his train was not molested, although those ahead and behind 
suffered from the depredations of the savages. When he landed at Santa Rosa 
he found only one store, a blacksmith shop and a saloon. Seeing the place, 
Rebecca, a little daughter of the family, queried, "Mother, don't you think 
this will make a town some day?" Her optimistic prophecy has seen its ful- 
fillment. 

One and three-fourths miles from Santa Rosa on the Guerneville road Dr. 
Stockton purchased one hundred and sixty acres at $1.25 per acre. AVhile he 
practiced medicine he also began to improve the land. Forty acres were 
planted to fruit trees or vineyard. Twelve and one-half acres were put in 
grapes of sixty different varieties. The balance of the forty was planted to 
Gravenstein, Pippin and Russet apples, and he thus became one of the pioneer 
apple-growers of Sonoma county, now justly celebrated for its splendid out- 
put of that fruit. Eventually the land was sold for $200 per acre, but its value is 
now far beyond that figure. Coming to Kern county in the fall of 1872 he 
entered one hundred and sixty acres in the center of w'hat is now the Lake- 
side ranch. He became the leader in the organization of the Farmers Canal 
Association and was one of the three directors. They perfected a ditch from the 
Kern river known as the Panama canal, taking its name from the Panama 
slough, the latter being used in part as a ditch. When completed it was a 
success and was the largest ditch in the county up to that time. Its operation 
interested capitalists, who took up the irrigation project on a more extensive 
scale. This has resulted in Kern county having the largest irrigation system in 



1292 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the world. Here Dr. Stockton eng-aged in raising sweet potatoes, often clearing 
$100 per acre. Exhibited at Philadelphia during the Centennial Exposition of 
1876 was a sweet potato from his farm. It weighed twenty-five and one-half 
pounds and is supposed to be the largest ever grown. Five of such tubers 
would fill a barrel. In addition he sold alfalfa seed that brought him about 
$40 an acre. Eventually he sold the farm to his son, C. C, who in turn sold it 
and adjacent property, the whole forming a part of what is now known as the 
Lakeside ranch. 

During the period of his residence in Williamson county, 111., Dr. Stockton 
married Louisa Marion Spiller, a native of Tennessee and a daughter of Ben- 
jamin Spiller, an abolitionist who freed his slaves and settled among the pio- 
neers of Williamson county. Dr. and Mrs. Stockton were the parents of nine- 
teen children, sixteen of whom reached maturity and thirteen are now living". 
After the sale of their Kern county ranch the Doctor and his wife removed to 
Florence, Los Angeles county, where occurred the death of Airs. Stockton. 
He then spent some time in the northern part of the state, after which he 
becam.e a member of the household of his daughter, Mrs. Rebecca Chubb, 
on Kern Island. There he died in 1897, at the age of eighty-two years. In the 
days of the slavery agitation he had been stanch in his advocacy of the freedom 
of the slaves, believing their enslaved condition to be a blight upon the honor 
of our great country. From early manhood he aided in the work of the Chris- 
tian Church and while living at Santa Rosa he contributed generously toward 
the establishment of the Christian College there, assisted in founding the 
institution and gave it the benefit of his timely aid and practical counsel, as 
indeed he did with many other movements for the religious, educational and 
material upbuilding of his adopted commonwealth. 

SOLOMON JEWETT.— The Jewett family traces its lineage to Edward 
Jewett of Lincolnshire, England, and has been represented in America since 
the year 1638, when the founder of the name in the new world crossed the 
ocean to Plymouth, Mass. Later generations removed to Connecticut. Sam- 
uel, son of Thomas and Eunice (Shafter) Jewett, left Connecticut for Vermont 
and out of the forests near Weybridge, Addison county, cleared a place for a 
home. During the pioneer era of the sheep industry in Vermont their son, 
Solomon Wright Jewett, was one of its leading men. While Wisconsin still 
remained a part of the great undeveloped wilderness he removed thither and 
settled at Racine. When advanced in years he came to California and died at 
Summerland, Santa Barbara county. He was born at Weybridge, Vt., in 
1808, and died in 1892. His only sister married Peter Saxe and became the 
mother of John Godfrey Saxe, the illustrious poet. 

The name of Solomon Wright Jewett acquired national prominence 
through his association with the sheep industry. The stock journals of his 
day frequently contained articles from his pen concerning the sheep business, 
these usually being accompanied with drawings which he made for the 
purpose of illustrating the form of animals, peculiarities in their constitu- 
tions or conditions of fleece. As early as 1834, when only twenty-six years 
of age, he was known as the largest flockmaster in Vermont and during that 
year his ram, Fortune, took the first prize at the New York state fair. He 
was the first importer of French merino sheep into the United States and 
those that he imported in 1859 cost him $9,000 in freight alone. To him 
belongs the distinction of establishing the breed all through this country 
and in South America and so high was the reputation of his stock that at 
times he sold rams of his own raising for $5,000 each. To California he 
brovight some of the first and finest merinos ever seen in the state, where his 
sons, Philo and Solomon, had succeeded him as the leading sheep-breeders of 
their day- In addition he brought the first bees to California and sold them in 
Sacramento at a fair price. 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1293 

Twice married, Solomon Wright Jewett was the father of three children 
by his first wife, who bore the maiden name of Fidelia Bell. The only daughter 
of that union, Louesa M., is now Mrs. A. M. Crites, of Bakersfield. The 
older son, Solomon, who forms the subject of this review, was born at 
Weybridge, Vt., March 13, 1835, and died at Bakersfield, Cal., December 26, 
1905. The younger son, Philo D., removed from Bakersfield to San Francisco 
in 1881 and there died. By his second wife, who was Mary Catherine Jewett, 
Solomon Wright Jewett was the father of six children. Of these Mrs. Mary 
Kendrick, of Alton, 111., is the wife of Algernon Kendrick, at one time presi- 
dent of Shurtlefif College. Susan died at St. Helena, Napa county. Charles E-, 
who served in a Wisconsin regiment during the Civil war, later came to Cali- 
fornia and acted as cashier of the Kern V'alley Bank until his death, May 30, 
1892. While attempting to rescue two children, who while picnicking had 
fallen into the Kern river, he met a tragic death by drowning. Mrs. Martha C. 
Nash lives in Vermont; Fidelia has been a teacher in the San Francisco schools 
for forty years ; and "Sirs. Kate W. Swett makes Cambridge, Mass., her home. 

From the age of eight years, at which time he drove a fiock of sheep from 
Vermont to Albany, N. Y., Solomon Jewett engaged in the sheep industry. 
After leaving Vermont he taught school for a time at Racine, Wis., and from 
there in 1858 went to Nebraska, where he ran a ferry-boat on the Missouri 
river. During 1859 he started for Pike's Peak, but on the journey he met so 
many discouraged men returning to their eastern homes that he changed 
his plans, proceeded to Nevada, and in 1860 landed in the San Joaquin valley 
of California. Soon he came to Kern county and engaged in raising sheep 
on the Tejon ranch, securing a start by going shares with Colonel Vineyard. 
Soon afterward Philo D- Jewett crossed' the plains. The two brothers formed a 
partnership in the sheep business at Rio Bravo (Brave river) ranch above 
the village of Kern. When they sold their lands and flocks in 1874 to the 
Wool Growers' Association, Solomon Jewett bought land just north of Ba- 
kersfield at Jewett's lane. Prospered in his undertakings, he acquired large 
flocks of sheep that ranged on the plains and among the foot-hills. It was 
not until 1899 that he sold his sheep and turned his attention exclusively to 
cattle. Meanwhile he had become the owner of six hundred and forty acres 
irrigated by the Beardsley canal, six hundred and forty acres under the Mc- 
Cafifery canal and three hundred and twenty acres under the Emory ditch. 
The admirable irrigation facilities enabled him to raise any desired crops, but 
he made alfalfa his specialty. 

To create an impression that the sheep industry and agriculture repre- 
sented the limit of the activities of Mr. Jewett would be to do an injustice to a 
man of extensive interests, progressive spirit and unusual faculty for the 
management of diversified affairs. To him belongs the distinction of having 
built the first store in Bakersfield. During 1874 he organized and became 
president of the Kern Valley Bank, opening for business in a frame building on 
the corner of Eighteenth street and Chester avenue. During 1869 he erected 
a very substantial building of brick which was destroyed by fire on the day 
of its completion. Undismayed by the calamity, he immediately rebuilt, this 
time with excellent results and for years he retained the management of the 
bank after it had been removed to the new building, continuing indeed to act 
as president until he died. Among the very first workers in the oil fields, 
during the 70s he discovered oil in the ]\IcKittrick field and organized the' 
Buena Vista Oil Company, later the firm of Jewett & Blodget, which secured 
the rights of way for the railroads to McKittrick and to Maricopa. As presi- 
dent of the Jewett Oil Company he was a pioneer in the McKittrick field and 
later mined for asphalt. When the county-seat was removed from Havilah to 
Bakersfield in 1872 he was serving as chairman of the board of supervisors 
and had charge of the removal of the county records to the new quarters. In 



1294 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

politics he steadfastly supported Republican principles. Fraternally he was a 
Mason of the Kni<:^hts Templar degree and also held membership with the 
Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. 

In every respect Mr. Jewett was a man of large affairs. Beginning to 
learn the sheep business at an age when the majority of boys are not yet out 
of the primary department in the public schools, he worked his way forward 
steadily, surely and tirelessly- When finally he reached his goal of success he 
did not forget other strugglers ujion life's vast highway, but cheerfully 
aided those less fortunate than himself. A man of broad sympathies, no cause 
that had for its object the good of men appealed to him in vain. The impress 
of his sturdy character, his rugged honesty, his public-spirited helpfulness 
and kindly nature is indelibly fixed upon Kern county, which he honored with 
his high-minded citizenship and which in turn honored him with an affectionate 
regard. As measured by results, civic, educational and financial, he was one 
of the greatest men the county has produced and an active force of vital 
importance in its upbuilding. In his home and in his children he was sigJially 
blessed. His first wife, who died in 1879 in Bakersfield, was Emma Landon, a 
native of Vermont and daughter of Philo Landon, a farmer. Four children 
survived her and three of these are living, viz. : Philo Landon, a prosperous 
agriculturist of Kern county; Mrs. Kate Moncure, of Berkeley; and S. Wright, 
a business man of Bakersfield. The second wife of Mr. Jewett was Aliss Lois 
Rice, a school teacher, who died eight years after their marriage. In San 
Diego in 1889 he married Mrs. Catherine A. McConkey, who survived him. 

FREDERICK BEVAN TOUGH.— The resident geologist of the Kern 
Trading and Oil Company in the Sunset and Midway fields was born in 
Baltimore, Md., December 3, 1885, and is a son of L. M. and Elizabeth C- 
(Bevan) Tough, the latter still a resident of Baltimore. The father, now de- 
ceased, was at one time manager of an ice and cold-storage plant in Baltimore 
and later had charge of a similar business at Detroit, still later going to 
Kansas City in a similar capacity. There were three children in the family, 
namely: Littleton M.. of Columbus, Ohio, now engaged as civil engineer with 
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company; Elizabeth B., a resident of New York 
City ; and Frederick Bevan, who was primarily educated in the Baltimore 
public schools and at the age of nineteen entered the Johns Hopkins Univers- 
ity. Excellent advantages for the study of mathematics and physics Were af- 
forded him in that institution. A foundation for engineering skill was laid in 
those years of study. During the fall of 1907 he entered Columbia University 
at New York City and continued there until his graduation in 1910 with the 
degree of E.M. While studying that course he also became proficient in 
geology. Coming to California in July of 1910, he engaged with the Kern 
Trading and Oil Company in the Kern river field. November of the same year 
found him at Coalinga as resident geologist, but in July of 1912 he was trans- 
ferred from that station to the Midway-Sunset district, where he has since 
given efficient service to the corporation in the capacity of resident geologist. 
One daughter, Edith Lyttleton, has been born of his union with ^liss Edith 
Wells Sioussat, daughter of L. M. Sioussat, of Baltimore county, Md., an old 
and prominent family of that locality. 

ROBERT W. WITHINGTON.— A member of an old family of the east, 
Mr. Withington was born in 1838 at Apollo, Armstrong county. Pa., a short 
distance northeast of Pittsburg. The schools of his boyhood were few in 
number and crude in instruction, hence he had little education save what he 
acquired by reading and observation. The trip around Cape Horn in 1853 
was in itself a liberal education and gave to him a comprehensive knowledge 
of the western hemisphere. Upon his arrival in San Francisco he proceeded 
at once to the mining regions of the Sierras and for years engaged in mining 
in Calaveras, Tuolumne and .Mari])()sa counties, alternating the occupation 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1295 

with work as a teamster. Drifting about from place to place, he landed at 
Havilah in the early days before it was the county-seat. There he established 
headquarters and engaged in freighting to Los Angeles. 

When Bakersfield was still a new town and before it had been granted 
the county court-house, Mr. Withington came to the town and became a large 
purchaser of property. After his death, which occurred in February, 1897, at 
the age of fifty-eight years, his estate improved the corner of Nineteenth and 
K streets and they also continue to own a corner on Eighteenth and K streets, 
both of these properties having been purchased by him prior to the rise in land 
values. In politics he was a Democrat. In California he married Rachel Free- 
man, who was born in Austin, Tex., and died in Bakersfield in 1902 at the age 
of fifty two years. As a young girl she had crossed the plains with her father, 
Rev. John A. Freeman, a pioneer Baptist preacher, still living and now a 
resident of Los Angeles. Of the union nine children were born, but three of 
the family, John W-, Robert W. and Claude, are deceased, the two first- 
named having died in Bakersfield at the ages of thirty-eight and thirty years 
respectively. The surviving members of the family are Mrs. Harriet LeMay, 
Mrs Callie Sweitzer, Carl, Lester, Norma and Lysle W., all residents of 
Bakersfield. 

JAMES ALBERT MORGAN.— Among the men who are aiding in ad- 
vancing the efficiency of the Bakersfield lire department is James Albert 
Morgan, who has charge of Engine House No. 4. He was born in Chicago, 
111., April 22, 1891, the son of Paul and Louise (Morton) Morgan. The father 
was for many years an engineer on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Rail- 
road, running out from Chicago until he met his death in a head-on collision in 
the Chicago yards. The mother is still residing in Chicago. Of their union 
there were three children, J. A. being the second oldest and the only son. 
After completing the grammar schools he entered the employ of Montgomery 
Ward as messenger boy, being later advanced to shipping clerk. After two 
years and three months with the firm he resigned and became express 
messenger for the Great Northern Express Company between St. Paul and 
Duluth, a position he filled for three years, when he accepted a place in the 
St. Paul office of the Adams Express Company as trailer for two years- 

In 1910 Mr. Morgan came to San Francisco, Cal., where for about a year 
he was employed in the shipping department of the Fuller Paint Company. 
It was in 1911 that he came to Bakersfield and January 7, 1913, he joined the 
fire department as driver of the big gray team at Engine House No. 2 and 
in July of the same year he was transferred to No. 1 engine house as hose- 
man. As in all positions he filled the trust with conscientious ability which in 
turn led him to his promotion, October 10, 1913, to lieutenant, when he was 
transferred to Engine Company No. 4 on Pacific street, East Bakersfield. 

JESSE STARK. — One of the pioneers of Kern county was Jesse Stark, 
who was born May 10, 1832, in Bowling Green, Ky., the son of Robert Edward 
and Mary Virginia (Reed) Stark, natives of Kentucky and Virginia respec- 
tively. They were planters in Kentucky, whence they removed to Texas and in 
April, 1853, started across the plains with their family in a train of a hundred 
wagons, arriving in Los Angeles in November, 1853. In the same wagon 
train was a little girl of nine years who was destined to play a very important 
part in the life of Jesse Stark. The little girl was Permelia Brown, who was 
born in Texas in 1844, the daughter of W^illiam Harrison Brown, a native of 
North Carolina, who was bringing his family overland to California from 
Texas. The wife and mother was Elizabeth Stowell, a native of Ohio. In 
January, 1862, in Los Angeles occurred the marriage of Jesse Stark and Per- 
melia Brown, after which they removed to the ranch in the Ft. Tejon country 
which he had located and on which he had engaged in the stock business 
soon after his arrival in the state- He purchased land and in time became 



1296 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

an extensive land owner and stockman. In 1874 he located with his family 
in Bakersfield, where his death occurred in 1876. 

After his death Mrs. Stark continued to make her home at the old family 
residence at the corner of Chester and Fourteenth street, from which place 
she has all these years been directing and looking after her many interests. 
Here. too. she reared and educated her five daughters, all of whom reside in 
Bakersfield, as follows: Ella, wife, of A. F. Stoner ; Virginia, Mrs. Ben L. 
Brundage; Frances, Mrs. H. L. Packard; Lida, Mrs. S. N. Reed; and May, 
wife of Charles P. Fox. Mrs. Stark is a member of the Christian Church. 
Jesse Stark is affectionately remembered by all who knew him for his moral 
worth, integrity and high regard for honor. 

MRS. CATHERINE A. JEWETT.— A useful, contented and prosperous 
existence marked the life of Mrs. Catherine A. Jewett, one filled with duty 
well done, with a never-failing interest in her fellowmen. a generous and 
helpful attitude toward every unfortunate individual who crossed her path, 
and a sympathetic understanding which brought with it comfort and blessing. 
Naturally endowed with unusual mental faculties, she was a perfect leader in 
the circles in which she moved, imparting of her intellect with such ingenious 
judgment as to aid the less advanced in a quiet yet forceful manner. Her 
artistic taste and splendid ability won her the admiration of many friends 
and she was prominent in the work of the Eastern Star, in which she was a 
member of the local chapter at Bakersfield for a number of years. It was 
through her that the woman's club house was built in that city. 

In her youth Mrs. Jewett was surrounded with many incentives to large 
accomplishment- She was born in Chicago, 111., the daughter of Thomas S. 
and Statira (Brooks) Parker, who were natives of New York state and pioneers 
of Chicago. After Mr. Parker had engaged in mercantile pursuits in Chicago 
for a considerable period he disposed of his interests in that city and came 
to California on account of ill health, in 1887 settling at San Diego, where both 
he and his wife spent their last days and passed away. Catherine A. was the 
only child of their union who lived to maturity, and to her were afforded the 
privileges of a thorough education in the public schools and a select seminary 
at Chicago, where she married David E. McConkey, a member of the Chicago 
Board of Trade. Some years after the death of Mr. McConkey, w^hich oc- 
curred in San Diego, she was married to Solomon Jewett, whose death oc- 
curred in Bakersfield, Cal., December 26, 1905. 

Mrs. Jewett had taken up her home with Mrs. L. H. Stevens in Los Ang- 
eles, with whom she lived until her death, and where she became 
prominent in fraternal and social circles and surrounded herself with many 
loving friends. In religious faith a member of the Episcopal Church, she took 
an active part in all of its departments, giving her most unselfish aid and inter- 
est. To touch upon all that enlists the sympathy and tenderness of woman, 
to note a splendid breadth of mind and a conscientious and joyous spirit, would 
in a brief manner picture the character study of Mrs. Jewett, whose death, No- 
vember 13, 1912, removed from this sphere a stanch, straightforward woman, 
whose left hand knew not what the right hand did, yet whose unswerving 
judgment was the lever which brought soothing and sweet relief to many a 
troubled mind, and whose soft and gentle ways were a peace and comfort to all. 
THOMAS WILEY PINNELL.— The men who hold responsible posi- 
tions in the fire de])artment must be endowed by nature with keenness of per- 
ception and decision and also a natural coolness under excitement in order to 
accomplish the results that are not only expected but demanded of them. A 
young man having these qualifications is Thomas Wiley Pinnell, a native son 
of California, born at White River, Kings county. June 13, 1891. the son of 
W. E. and Addie (Montgomery) Pinnell. born in Stanislaus county and Iowa 
respectively. The father from early life followed the range and excelled as a 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1297 

rider and roper, becoming known as one of the most efficient in California 
and Texas. For some years he was cattle foreman for the Sharon estate in the 
San Joaquin Valley. He finally gave that up and followed blacksmithing 
and now holds a position with the Monte Cristo Oil Company at Oil Center. 

Of the family of eight children Thomas Wiley Pinnell is the second oldest. 
From boyhood he rode the range with his father in Madera county, meanwhile 
attending the public schools. In 1905 he came to Bakersfield and after leaving 
school he was appointed a mail carrier, serving about three years. December 
18, 1912, he entered the fire department as a call man and September 9, 1912, 
he became a regular. After the completion of Engine House No. 3 he was pro- 
moted to lieutenant in the department and placed in charge of the house, to 
which he gives all of his time and best efforts. Fraternally he is a member of 
Bakersfield Camp No. 460, W. O. W., and Kern Lodge No. 202, I. O. O. F. 

JOSEPH BRESSON. — Among the Frenchmen who have made a success 
iri Kern county is Joseph Bresson, proprietor of the Universal Hotel in East 
Bakersfield, who was born in Orciere, Hautes-Alpes, France, October 29, 1883. 
He grew to young manhood on his father's farm, receiving a good education 
in the local public schools. In November, 1900, he left his home and friends 
and about a month later arrived in Delano, Kern county, where he immediately 
found employment with a sheep man. After continuing in the occupation 
about four years he purchased a flock of sheep and herded them in the moun- 
tains and on the plains for a few years, or until he sold the bunch and located 
in Kern, now East Bakersfield. Here he purchased the bakery on Humboldt 
street from M. M. Espetallier and continued the business for two and one-half 
years, when he sold out. For over five years he was employed at the Plantier 
Hotel, and in May, 1913, he bought the Universal Hotel, which he conducted 
with splendid success until he sold it in February, 1914- He is now confining 
his attention to looking after his investments. Besides other property he owns 
a comfortable home at No. 508 Humboldt street. 

Mr. Bresson was married in East Bakersfield November 30, 1907. being 
united with Mary Roux, who was also born in France. Her father, Joseph 
Roux, was at one time a pioneer sheep raiser in Kerr county but later sold his 
interests and returned to France, where he now resides. To Mr. and Mrs. 
Bresson were born three children : Irene. Louise and Ernest. In politics Mr. 
Bresson is a Republican. 

GEORGE THOMAS NIGHBERT.— The history of Kern county would 
not be complete without a mention of the life history of the pioneer of Lost 
Hills. George Thomas Nighbert, who aided in the survey of the town site 
in September, 1910, built the first building and opened the first eating house 
and later built the first hotel and has continued in business ever since. He 
came to California in April, 1871, remaining in Gait, Sacramento county, until 
1884. when he removed to Visalia, where for seven years he was proprietor of 
the Millwood Hotel. During this time he was nominated by the Republican 
convention as the party's candidate for sherifif of Tulare county, but being of 
the minority party was defeated. In 1901 he located in Bakersfield and became 
proprietor of the Gait House at the Santa Fe station for a year and then 
the Cosmopolitan Hotel for four years and the Princeton for two years. 
During this time he purchased his home at No. 2115 Nineteenth street, where 
he and his family still reside- 

On the discovery of oil at Lost Hills he came immediately and was the 
leading factor in building the first buildings in the place. 

George Thomas Nighbert was born at Palmyrna, Macoupin county. 111., 
February 13, 1849, the son of Joseph A. and Hannah (Wiser) Nighbert. He 
was reared on the farm and educated in the public schools until he was four- 
teen years of age, when his father died, after which he made his living by 
working on farms in that vicinity. In 1871 he came to California. 



1298 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

In Lodi, Cal., occurred the marriage of Mr. Nighbert with Miss Josephine 
Smith, a native of San Joaquin county, the daughter of Andrew and 
Mary (Doyle) Smith, pioneers of California who crossed the plains with ox 
teams in 1849. Mr. and Mrs. Nighbert have four children : Fred Wright, 
superintendent of streets of Bakersfield ; Fred A., also of Bakersfield, engaged 
in the real estate business ; Clyde A., a music teacher now studying at the 
Shepherd School of Music, New York City ; and ]\Iaude E.. Mrs. Irwin Tup- 
man of Globe, Ariz. 

Mr. Nighbert has always been greatly interested in the growth of Kern 
county and is liberal in his efforts to advance the importance of this section- 
Fraternallv he is a member of the Odd Fellows and Encampment and of the 
Bakersfield Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E. 

OSCAR RICHARD OCHS.— Among the enterprising business men of 
Wasco is Oscar Richard Ochs, who has taken an active part in the building 
business in Kern county. He was born in Okawville, 111., August 9, 1878, the 
son of George and Josephine (Ferguson') Ochs. The father served in an 
Illinois regiment in the. Civil war. In 1883 he brought his family to Fresno, 
"fterwards locating in Coalinga. where he followed contracting and building 
and still continues to make that his home. 

Oscar Richard Ochs was the youngest of seven children, receiving his 
education in the public schools of Fresno. From boyhood he began to learn the 
carpenter's trade. After spending three years in the Hollenbeck and Bush 
planing mill in Fresno he spent two years in a sash and door factory at Sea- 
side, Ore. Returning to Fresno he engaged in contracting and building in 
partnership with his brother, Walter J- 

In 1906, after the fire in San Francisco, Mr. Ochs engaged in the same 
line of business there until 1908, when he located in Coalinga and while there 
did a large business. Among some of the buildings he erected are the follow- 
ing: The Sullivan Hotel, Bennett. Phelps, Cheney, May, Amy, Wells-Fargo 
and Rockwell buildings, the Union High and Polk schools. Southern Pacific 
depot and numerous residences. In 1910 located in Taft, where he was 
very active in the building up of the town. Among his contracts were the 
Smith, First National Bank, Axelson Machine Company, and Telephone build- 
ings and the Bank apartment house, also the Realty building in Maricopa. 
During this time he also carried on building in Wasco, where he now resides, 
doing a general contracting business. He built the Bank of Wasco building, 
Wasco Mercantile Company store, McCausland, Beck with, Gordon and other 
residences. 

In San Francisco occurred the marriage of Mr. Ochs to Madeline Mc- 
intosh, a native daughter of San Francisco, and to them have been born three 
children: Herbert (who died when three years old), Allen and Gertrude. Fra- 
ternally he is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Improved Order of 
Red M'en. 

CAPT. FRED N. SCOFIELD.— One of the most active workers in the 
oil field has been Capt. Fred N. Scofield, who was one of the organizers of the 
Independent Oil Producers Agency, serving as an active director of same from 
its inception imtil the spring of 1912, when it had grown to such proportions 
^.hat it handles one-third of the production of oil in the state of California. 
In this agency Captain Scofield represented the East Puente Oil Co., in 
which he held interests and it was at the time of disposing of these interests 
that he withdrew from the aforesaid agency of which he had been prominently 
connected on its executive committee. 

Descended from an old family of New York state, Capt. F. N- Scofield 
was born at Paw Paw, Mich., December 5, 1858, and was given a common 
school training. During early life he lived in Chicago, but in 1876 he made his 
way to California and settled at San Diego. For many years he engaged in 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1299 

the mining business and the oil industry, which latter proved a source of such 
attraction to him that he afterward became one of the prime movers in its 
production. Meanwhile he had his headquarters successively in Arizona, Col- 
orado and California, but made his home most of the time at Phoenix, Ariz., 
whence he had moved in 1880 and where he was leading- citizen and influential 
man. Years ago he held a prominent place in the Arizona National Guard 
and having received a commission as captain, thus acquired the title by which 
he since has been known. Since he removed to Bakersfield in 1901 he has been 
interested principally in the oil industry and in addition he managed his large 
and valuable stock ranch in Humboldt county, this state. It is said that few 
men in Kern county are more familiar than he with the condition and prospects 
of its oil industry and the heavy investments which he has made in the Kern 
river, McKittrick and Midway fields prove his deep faith in the growing pros- 
perity of these districts. 

The Scofield home on the corner of Third and D streets is one of the 
most attractive in Bakersfield, four acres of ground providing an appropriate 
setting for the modern residence. Besides his residence Mr. Scofield has erected 
a three-story brick apartment house on Chester avenue, which is known as the 
Chester Apartments, and the Pioneer Mercantile building. 

While making his home in Arizona Captain Scofield was united in mar- 
riage, at Phoenix, with Miss Margaret Fogal, a native of Los Angeles, by 
whom he has five children, George, Vera, Frederick, Addie and Edna. Politic- 
ally he is a Republican. When the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks estab- 
lished a camp at Phoenix he became one of the charter members of the or- 
ganization and maintained a warm interest in lodge afifairs as long as he re- 
mained a resident of that city, and he still retains his membership. 

FORD ALEXANDER.— As a member of the Allison & Berry Company, 
Incorporated, and manager of their Taft branch, Mr. Alexander has been of 
the utmost practical aid in the expert well-shooting which has given to the 
firm the appropriate name of "The Dynamiters." From the main ofifice at 
Glendale, Los Angeles county, and from the branches at Coalinga and Taft, 
the company transacts a business covering all the oil fields of California and 
influencing in large degree the results obtained in production work. The 
three members of the firm. Messrs. Allison, Berry and Alexander, are practical 
oil operators, familiar with every department of production and supply, and 
identified with the industry in different districts prior to their organi- 
zation into the present concern. About 1910 Mr. Allison conceived the 
idea of the practical efficacy of dynamiting the wells, for the purpose of open- 
ing up the cavities in the sand, releasing the oil and increasing the produc- 
tion. The idea proved to be feasible. A company was formed and after Mr. 
Alexander was admitted as a third partner, papers of incorporation were filed 
and a -close corporation formed. At the present time patents have been 
applied for on the invention of cap protectors and on single electric wire- 
shooting appliances. The claim is that the electrical processes of exploding 
the dynamite insure absolute safety. Large magazines are maintained at 
Glendale, Taft and Coalinga. 

The junior member of the firm, Ford Alexander, was born in Washington 
county, Ohio, near the county-seat town of ^Marietta, April 20, 1886, and is a 
son of James Alexander, a pioneer oil operator in the Marietta field. He was 
the eldest of three children, the others being Laura Hope Alexander (now^ a 
school teacher in Washington county), and James Glenn Alexander. After 
completing the studies of public schools and a local academy. Ford Alexander 
began to earn a livelihood in the oil business. At the age of eighteen he took 
charge of the estate of James D. Lehmer, who had owned one of the principal 
oil properties in southeastern Ohio. For eight years he continued in the 
capacity of general foreman. LTpon resigning that position he came to Cali- 
fornia. On Christmas eve of 1911 he arrived in Taft. The following dav he 



1300 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

exploded two -shots for the Allison & Berry Company, and in May of 1912 he 
purchased a one-third interest in the concern, which later was incorporated. 
While still living in Ohio he married Miss Nellie E. Hendershot, of Washing- 
ton county, and they are the parents of two children, Garnet and J. Boyd. 
In politics he is a Republican of progressive sentiments. Since coming to 
Taft he has been an active worker in Taft Lodge No. 426, I. O. O. P., in which 
he now officiates as chaplain. 

ASA ADDISON CROSS.— A native of the state, Asa Addison Cross was 
born near Glennville. Kern county, April 17, 1867, and has lived in Kern 
county all of his life. He was the son of Joel and Julia (Whistman) Cross, 
natives of Illinois and Missouri respectively, His father crossed the plains 
when a young man and after a residence for a time in Mountain View, in 1846 
located in Linns Valley, where he followed the vocation of stockman until 
his death. His mother was brought across the plains by her parents in 1846, 
her father, J. W. Whistman, running the first stage line in Santa Clara county ; 
she is now Mrs. Grant of Weldon. To her union with Joel Cross there were 
four children, three of whom survive. 

Asa A. Cross attended the public schools in Linns Valley and at Weldon 
until he was twelve years old, from which time he looked out for himself. His 
first employment was with W. W. Sanders in the cattle business on his ranch 
and then with Andrew Brown, ranching for four years. It was not until 1894 
that he was in business for himself as the lessee of the Wallace ranch of six 
hundred and forty acres, on South Fork, which he operated four years. Then 
for two years he worked a tract of the A. Brown land, and after that he leased 
the Palmer ranch in Hot Springs valley. During all these years he was gen- 
erally successful, gradually but surely acquiring capital, and in 1908 he was 
enabled to buy his present ranch of two hundred and fort}' acres. He has 
devoted the place to general farming and stock-raising, giving attention to 
hogs, cattle and horses, and has one hundred and five acres of his land under 
cultivation. This is under irrigation and used for raising alfalfa and grain. 
His brand is the capital O. 

Mr. Cross married Olla Beaty. who was born in Kernville, April 9, 1883, 
and she has borne him eight children: Lola (deceased in infancy), Eula (de- 
ceased at three years), Dell C, Claude and Clifford (twins), ]\Turiel, Nell and 
James Kenneth. As a citizen Mr. Cross is progressive and public-spirited, 
and for five years has been a member of the board of trustees of Weldon 
school district. A Democrat in politics, he is not without a recognized politi- 
cal influence which he exerts uniformly for the good of the community. 

Mrs. Cross was the fourth child born to John and Elvina (Peniberton) 
Beaty, the former a native of Pulaski county, Ky., and the latter of Missouri. 
Mr. Beaty came across the plains in 1858 with ox-teams, finally making his 
way to Kern county, where he mined on Greenhorn mountain for, a time, 
afterward for four years in Oregon, and then returning to Kern county, 
engaged in teaming until he retired. He now resides in Los Angeles. His 
marriage occurred in Visalia in 1859 and to this union a family of nine chil- 
dren were born, of whom six are living. The mother died in Kernville. 

P. J. McCUTCHEN.— To battle against ill health in youth is to face tre- 
mendous odds in life's unending struggle for advancement. That Mr. Mc- 
Cutchen, while yet a young man, should not only overcome invalidism and 
reach a condition of excellent health, but in addition should establish a busi- 
ness of growing volume, testifies much concerning his force of will and 
energy of character. 

Although not himself a native of California, Mr. McCutchen is a member 
of one of the old families of Kern county, and his father, J. B. McCutchen, 
still has charge of the old home ranch about twelve miles southwest of Bakers- 
field in the Old River district. During a sojourn in Arizona in young man- 
hood he married Margaret Dixon, who was there born in Skull valley ; her 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1301 

mother was the first white woman ever married in Arizona and the Dixons 
also were very early settlers of that part of the country. Born in Arizona 
February 3, 1889, P. J. McCutchen was brought to Kern county by his par- 
ents in 1892 and grew to manhood on the Old River farm, meanwhile attend- 
ing the school in that district. For a time he also studied in a commercial 
college in Fresno and in 1909 he was graduated from Heald's Business Col- 
lege at Santa Cruz. In spite of ill health he has been a worker from his 
youth up and steadfast persistence in the performance of each duty, together 
with practical care of the body, has restored him to strength and given him 
the promise of a useful life. For three years he worked on the ranch for his 
father and received one cow a month for his wages. In this way he laid the 
foundation of a herd of fine milch cows and at the present time he owns thirty- 
nine head, the majority being pure-bred Jerseys, although in the bunch there 
are to be seen a number of Durhams and Holsteins. In 1912 he bought the 
Jersey dairy milk route and has since supplied customers at Taft with the 
best quality of milk, delivered twice a day from the Old River ranch. 

CHARLES A. DAILEY.— From an elevation at Taft the stranger is in- 
terested in observing the derricks that extend in every direction as far as the 
eye can see. To the northeast and southwest for a distance of fifteen miles, 
and six miles across the main range of hills to the Buena Vista and Elk range, 
probably every section of land contains from half a dozen to half a hundred 
oil rigs, not all of course representing producing oil wells, but indicative of the 
great activity of the region. To the north of Taft and adjacent to the city 
lie the holdings of the Standard Oil Company, in whose interests Charles A. 
Dailey is engaged as cable-tool foreman. 

Mr. Dailey was born in Wells county, Ind., January 2, 1880, and is the son 
of Michael Dailey, a lifelong worker in the oil fields of the east and middle 
west. Trained early in boyhood to a knowledge of the industry, he became 
self-supporting at the age of seventeen, when he secured a position in the oil 
field at Montpelier, Ind., working as an assistant to his father and learning 
the details of the occupation. At one time and another he worked in a num- 
ber of the best-known Indiana fields. Coming to California in 1908, he spent 
five months in the Los Angeles fields, and in 1909 became a pioneer at Moron 
(now Taft), where he has since been connected with the Standard, first as a 
driller, then as a driller foreman and now as cable-tool foreman. So closely 
has his attention been given to occupative duties that, aside from identifica- 
tion with the Elks at Bakersfield, he has formed no fraternal ties nor has he 
taken any part whatever in public or political affairs. The Standard employs 
two systems of drilling, namely : the old-time cable-tool standard drilling 
system and the newer rotary system. 

LINDSEY B. LITTLE. — Trustworthiness and intelligence have been 
the keynote to the gradual rise of L. B. Little, recently appointed superin- 
tendent for the Standard Oil Company in the Midway field as successor to 
Cyrus Bell. In turn the latter has been promoted to the place held by F. M. 
Atwell, of Bakersfield, while Mr. Atwell has been transferred to San Fran- 
cisco to fill a post of great trust for the Standard in that city. Mr. Little re- 
flects credit upon his family and upon South Carolina, his native common- 
wealth. Attending strictly to business, unmarried, not connected with politi- 
cal affairs and caring little for social functions, with no fraternal associations 
aside from membership with the Elks when living at Jennings, La., and identi- 
fication with the Masons of the thirty-second degree and Nobles of the Mystic 
Shrine, he has given practically all of his mature existence to the oil industry. 

In Gaffney, S. C, where he was born May 16, 1881, L. B. Little attended 
the public schools and had his first experience of business while clerking in a 
store. For a year he was employed as fireman on the Southern Railroad 
in South Carolina. Upon attaining his majority he went to Jennings, La., 
and secured work as a roustabout. For six vears he remained in the same 



1302 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

field and during" four years of that time he was employed as a driller. While 
in Louisiana he entered the service of the Standard, and when he came to 
California in 1908 he drilled at Altaniont as an employe of the same corpora- 
tion. In the summer of 1909 he came to the Midway field, where at first he 
worked as a driller and then as tool foreman, from which position in July, 
1913, he was promoted to be division superintendent in the Standard's produc- 
tion department. 

OTTO P. LINDGREN.— The village of Norkoping in Ostergotland, 
Sweden, on the shores of the Baltic sea, formed the environment familiar to 
the childhood of Otto P. Lindgren, who was born there July 20, 1873, being 
among the youngest in a family of twelve children, seven of whom are now 
living, all but one of them in the United States. The parents, John and 
Marie (Johnson) Lindgren, died respectively in 1905 and 1893 at Norkoping, 
where the father had engaged extensively in building and general contracting. 
The surviving members of the family are named as follows : Mrs. Mathilda 
Lindstrom, of Norkoping, Sweden ; Charles J., president of the Lindgren 
Construction Company, of San Francisco; Mrs. Annie Excell, of Kansas City, 
Mo. ; A. Frederick, of San Francisco ; Hilma. Mrs. Manley, of Bakersfield ; 
Otto P. ; and Ellen, now living at Merrick, Long Island, N. Y. When only 
twelve years of age Otto P. Lindgren was brought to the United States by his 
older brother, Charles J., who settled in Chicago. Two years later they came 
to California and settled in Los Angeles, where the lad of fourteen years 
served an apprenticeship to the trade of a bricklayer. September 9, 1889, he 
came to Bakersfield and worked at his trade in the rebuilding of structures 
ruined by the disastrous conflagration of two months before. Later he be- 
came foreman for his brother, who was the most extensive contractor in the 
city at that time. W'ith full charge of all the brick work for the Lindgren 
Construction Company, he continued in active employment until July, 1911, 
when the firm disposed of their Bakersfield interests, and since then he has 
engaged as foreman for different contractors. He is now conducting the 
Union Cigar Store at Chester and Twenty-first streets. 

Of recent years Mr. Lindgren has erected four brick houses in East 
Bakersfield and one of these, built in 1910, is owned by himself and occupied 
by his family, this residence occupying an attractive location at No. 818 Ore- 
gon street. April 20, 1899, occurred the marriage of Mr. Lindgren and Aliss 
Myrtle Carter, who was born at Santa Ana. Cal., being the youngest daughter 
of David Carter, an honored pioneer now residing at No. 1600 Kern street, 
East Bakersfield. When a mere youth Mr. Carter left Illinois for Utah, but 
finding little inducement to remain there he came to California. At the time 
of his arrival in Bakersfield the place was a very insignificant hamlet, and he 
frequently hunted wild game on the present site of the Southern hotel and 
also where stand other buildings of permanent and substantial construction. 
Mrs. Lindgren has spent the larger part of her life in East Bakersfield or in 
Bakersfield, and received an excellent education in the local schools. Of her 
marriage there is an only child. Otto Frederick. In politics Mr. Lindgren is 
a Democrat and fraternally he belongs to the Woodmen of the World. Upon 
the organization of the Bricklayers' International Union Local No. 3, Septem- 
ber 10, 1901, he became one of its charter members and from that time to the 
present he has l)een very influential in its activities. Formerly he was hon- 
ored with the ofifice of president and at another time he was elected secretary, 
while at this writing he is filling the office of treasurer. He also holds the 
position of first vice-president of the California State Conference of Brick- 
layers, Masons and Plasterers' Union of America, and has been called upon at 
different times to proceed to different cities on the Pacific Coast as far north 
as Vancouver, British Columbia, to settle labor disputes. In May. 1898. he 
volunteered for the Spanish-American war, enlisting in the Hospital Corps of 
the Fourth Army Corps, with the expectation of going to the Philippines, but 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1303 

the corps was not ordered there. He was mustered out and honorably dis- 
charged December 18th, 1898. He is a member of Shafter Camp No. 3, 
Spanish-American ^^^'^r. \"eterans, and is a member of its board of trustees. 

JOHN A. RAYMOND.— The Raymond ancestry is of old French lineage, 
represented for generations in Hautcs-Alpes, and John A. Raymond is a 
native of the vicinity of Gap, born August 2, 1881. During boyhood he 
learned the essentials of agriculture at home and the three R's in school, so 
that he was qualified for the responsibilities of maturity. As early as 1887 
his father, August, had left the little farm for America and had settled in 
California, where he became interested in the raising of sheep. For a con- 
siderable period the length of his sojourn in the west was uncertain, but 
eventually he decided to remain and therefore sent for his wife and children, 
who joined him in Kern county in 1898. The mother, Rosalie (Martin) Ray- 
mond, died in this county, and here in 1904 also occurred the death of the 
father. Of their four children, Mrs. Rosie Rambaud lives in Kern, Peter is 
engaged in the sheep business with our subject, and Louise is the wife of Eli 
Blanc, of Kern. 

The second in order of birth among the four children was Jean (or John) 
August, who on his arrival in California in December, 1898, found work with 
Jean Escallier, known as "Fourteen," who was a sheepman in Delano, and 
later had employment with others in the same line of work. At the end of 
about five years he formed a partnership with his father and brother, the 
three buying a flock of sheep to range on Poso creek. Upon the death of the 
father, the two brothers succeeded to his interests and since then they have 
worked together, ranging their flocks on the plains or in the Tehachapi 
mountains as abundance of pasturage and water render advisable. The com- 
fortable home of John A. Raymond at No. 924 Humboldt street. East Bakers- 
field, is presided over by Mrs. Raymond, formerly Miss Rose Eyraud, who 
was born in Hautes-Alpes and by whose marriage there are two children, 
Marcelle and Jean. 

WALTER E. DAVIS. — The City meat market under the capable owner- 
ship and management of the two partners, Messrs. Venator and Davis, has 
risen to a prominent rank among the business enterprises of Tehachapi, where 
since August of 1908, ]\Ir. Davis has made his home and business headquar- 
ters. The establishment in town has been equipped with every modern 
convenience to be found in model city markets, while at some distance from 
tow^h the partners own and operate a slaughter house. To supply their whole- 
sale and retail trade, they ship in cattle by the train-load from Arizona and 
their operations reach an aggregate of many thousands of dollars every 
month. A modern cold-storage and ice plant has been added to their equip- 
ment and as the machinery has a capacity of three thousand pounds daily they 
are able not only to keep their own refrigerators supplied with an abundance 
of ice, but in addition they sell to consumers throughout the town. Besides 
their other operations they sell water for city consumption, having a deep 
well and pumping plant that furnishes more water than is needed for the use 
of their own business. 

The youngest among four children, Walter E. Davis was born at Lowell, 
Washington county, Ohio, September 11, 1879, and is a son of Walter and 
Elizabeth (Trapp) Davis, natives respectively of Ohio and Pennsylvania. 
The latter, at the age of seventy-three years, is still living at the old Wash- 
ington county homestead. The former, who served in the Thirty-seventh 
Ohio Infantry during the Civil War. took up mercantile pursuits at an early 
age and rose from a clerkship to the management of a general store of his 
own. Later he engaged in farming near the town of Lowell, and there he 
died about 1892. At the time of his death his youngest child, Walter E., 
was a boy of thirteen and from that time he became self-supporting. With 
characteristic energy he determined to work his way through school and so 

53 



1304 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

learned the butcher's trade, from which he earned enough to pay his expenses 
in the Lowell high school and Marietta College. After he had completed the 
studies of the freshman class he left the institution at Marietta and matricu- 
lated in the Ohio Valle}^ Business College, where he remained until gradua- 
tion. During 1898 he came west as far as Colorado and started a butcher 
shop on Nineteenth and Curtis streets, Denver. From 1899 to 1901 he en- 
gaged in mining in New Mexico and Arizona, after which he embarked in the 
meat business in Prescott, where he remained for about six years. Coming 
to California during April of 1908 he settled in Tehachapi four months after- 
ward and since then by energy, intelligence and business acumen he has de- 
veloped a valuable trade. The Tehachapi Board of Trade has had the benefit 
of his services as a progressive citizen and an upbuilder of the town. Al- 
though a stanch Republican, he has not been active in politics nor has he 
displayed a partisan spirit in his support of public measures. Fraternally he 
holds membership with the Modern Woodmen of America. While engaged 
in business at Prescott he met and married Mrs. Susie (Merrill) Robbins, who 
was born and reared in that Arizona city and who by her first marriage had 
one daughter, Maude. Her education was secured in the Prescott schools 
and in that city she was an active worker in the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
to which she has belonged since early life. 

CHRIS CAYORI. — A native of Switzerland. Chris Cayori, who now 
lives fourteen miles southw^est of Bakersfield, was born in Zillas, Graubunden, 
July 2, 1878, and has been a citizen of Kern county, Cal., since 1896. His 
father, George Cayori, was a native of the same place, and followed farming 
in the Alps. He married Menga Catrina, and both are still living on the old 
home place. Of their five children Chris was the third in order of birth. He 
attended public school in his native land until he was fifteen years old, and 
during the succeeding three years was employed by his father. He had 
heard much of the opportunities offered in America to honest, industrious men 
of enterprise and upon coming to the United States, made his way direct to 
Kern county, Cal. For ten years, or until 1906, he worked at dairying, then 
leased one hundred and sixty, acres of alfalfa land, the old Chubb place, which 
he has operated to the present time. In 1912 with his partners, Peter and 
Hill G. Mattly, he bought the old Chris Mattly place of five hundred and sixty 
acres, upon which their efforts are concentrated.' All the land is under the 
Stine canal and planted to alfalfa. This property they are developing into a 
good dairy plant, and they are raising cows with a view to the early establish- 
ment of what they confidently expect to make one of the best producing milk 
and butter establishments in the county. In connection with these prepara- 
tions, they have also given their attention quite successfully to the breeding 
of mules. Politically he is a Republican. 

EUGENE VERDIER.— Since 1878 Eugene Verdier has been a resident 
of California, and since 1883 has made his home in Kern county, having in the 
meantime figured prominently in the upbuilding of Kern, now East Bakers- 
field. He was born in the department of Gers, Hautes-Pyrenees, July 4, 1863, 
and attended the schools of his native place until fifteen, when he came to 
San Francisco with friends, there attending public school for two years, 
when he began working in a restaurant. In 1883 he came to Sumner, after- 
wards Kern, and now East Bakersfield, where he engaged in the sheep busi- 
ness, ranging his flocks on the plains and in the mountains until 1886, when 
he sold out and returned to .San Francisco, but in 1889 he again returned to 
Kern and purchased two separate corners on Humboldt and Baker streets, 
afterwards selling one corner to the First Bank of Kern for the purpose of 
erecting their bank building. On account of their making this permanent 
improvement, Mr. A^erdier reduced the price of the lot $500. He afterwards 
built a concrete hotel building on the other corner, 75x75, two stories, which 
he leases and which is known as the Imperial Hotel. In February, 1908, he 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1305 

located at Granite Station, where he is the proprietor of the hotel and store 
and is the postmaster at Elmer, as the postoffice is named. In connection he 
owns and operates a stock ranch located six miles above Granite. 

Mr. Verdier was married in San Francisco to Miss Marie Laborde, also 
a native of Basses-Pyrenees, France, and they have two children : George, 
who has charge of the ranch, and Eugene, who is in charge of the store, and 
is assistant postmaster. Fraternally Mr. Verdier is a member of the Eagles 
and Owls, while politically he is a Protectionist and Republican. In 1911 he 
made a trip back to France, visiting the place of his childhood after thirty- 
four years' absence. 

FLOYD H. BARNETT. — Prior to the Revolutionary war the Barnett 
family became established in Virginia, where successive generations lived and 
jabored and where they bore themselves courageously alike in war and peace. 
One of the brave soldiers of the Revolution was Isaac Barnett, who partici- 
pated in a number of memorable engagements with his comrades of the Vir- 
ginian troops. A son and namesake of this Revolutionary hero left the Old 
Dominion for the then primeval forests of Tennessee and his son, Frank, 
was a native of Washington county, that state, while the next generation 
is represented by Floyd H. Barnett, a great-grandson of the Virginian 
patriot- In his marriage to Emily Randolph, a native of Tennessee, Frank 
Barnett became allied with a very prominent and patriotic family originally 
connected with the settlement at Jamestown. The most distinguished 
representative of the name was Payton Randolph, who two times served as 
president of the continental congress. 

At the old homestead near Sparta, White county, Tenn., Floyd H. 
Barnett was born August 25, 1876, and from there he accompanied the 
family to a cattle ranch near Ranger, Tex., where he learned the stock 
business and also received a high-school education. At the age of twenty 
he went to Colorado and found work in the Cripple Creek mines. Next he 
went to the eastern part of Oregon and engaged in mining in Baker county, 
besides running a stage line out of that town. A later tour of inspection 
took him to Idaho, where he became acquainted with the Thunder moun- 
tain and other central districts in that state. He made a special study of 
the development of mines, assaying and mining geology and became well 
posted in his line of work. At the time of the famous strike in Nevada he 
was early on the ground and later he devoted himself to promoting mining 
enterprises and managing properties. A visit to Bakersfield in 1910 con- 
vinced him of the possibilities of the place and caused him to establish a 
real-estate office here for the handling of city and country properties as well 
as oil lands, his headquarters being at No. 1917 I street. AVith the Bakers- 
field Realty Board he has become prominently associated and has added 
to its meetings the benefit of his sagacious judgment and hopeful spirit. 
The Fraternal Brotherhood and Ancient Order of United Workmen number 
him among their well-known members. 

HARRY C. BUSBY. — The Busby family is of old Virginian ancestry. 
During the Civil war William V. Busby, a young Virginian who was born 
and reared at Hampton Roads, entered the' Confederate service and re- 
mained at the front until the surrender of arms and the defeat of his cause. 
Returning to the old neighborhood he resumed the trade of a brick mason 
and under the adverse conditions incident to the reconstruction period 
patiently endeavored to gain a foothold in the industrial growth of the 
country- In the belief that better opportunities awaited him elsewhere, 
he removed to Indiana and engaged in the manufacture of brick at Indian- 
apolis. From 1878 until 1884 he aided in the material upbuilding of Kansas 
City, where he was a member of the firm of Sibley & Busby, contractors 
and builders and brick manufacturers. Next he engaged in the manufacture 



1306 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

of brick at Rich Hill, Mo., whence he removed to Denver, Colo., to take up 
contracting. From 1893 until 1900 he followed contracting and building 
in St. Louis, but in the latter year he retired to Dallas, Tex., where his 
last days were passed. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Louise Clark, 
was born at Asbury, Miss., and died in Los Angeles. 

The youngest of the three children comprising the family of the Virgin- 
ian soldier, Harry C. Busby was born in Indianapolis, Ind., June 26, 1877. 
On the conclusion of a grammar-school course, when he was sixteen, he 
became an apprentice to the trade of brick-layer in Denver, Colo., but in the 
same year accompanied his parents to St. Louis, where he completed the 
trade under his father. Returning to Denver in 1899 he spent a year at 
the trade in that city, whence in 1900 he came to Los Angeles. As an 
employe of Carl Leonardt he had steady work and an important experience 
m every department of brick contracting, so that when he came to Bakers- 
field in 1911 he was well qualified to engage in the contracting business 
lor himself. At first he engaged in business with A. C. Silver under the 
firm title of Silver & Busby and among their contracts were those for the 
Quincey and Ochavich buildings, the Citizens laundry and the addition to the 
Eagles Hotel. Since the spring of 1913, when the partnership was dis- 
solved, he has had the contracts for the Presbyterian Church, the raised 
gardens of the court-house square, the Bakersfield Club and the Amour 
building. In national elections he votes the Republican ticket. Fraternally 
he is a member of the Woodmen of the World. Since coming to Bakersfield 
he has established his residence at No. 827 Nile street, where with his two 
children, Harry Gilmore and Clara Elizabeth, and his wife, formerly Miss 
Clara A. Gilmore, whom he married in Denver and who is a native of Iowa, 
he has a comfortable home. 

ARCHIBALD EDWIN DALTON.— The Dalton family comes of old 
English lineage. The founder of the name in the new world was Capt. 
George W. Dalton, a native of England, who at the age of eleven ran away 
from home and became a sailor. Ultimately he was made captain of a 
vessel in the English merchant-marine service. When finally he retired from 
a sea-faring life he came to the United States and settled in Ohio at Cir- 
cleville, and there occurred the birth of his son, Edwin Henry. 

The excitement caused by the discovery of gold in California directed 
the attention of Captain Dalton toward the then unknown west. Accom- 
panied by his family he boarded a sailing vessel bound for the Pacific coast 
via Cape Horn. The ship cast anchor in the harbor of San Pedro October 
29, 1851, and on the same day the newcomers arrived in Los Angeles, where 
they made permanent settlement. The old sea captain found great pleasure 
in developing a tract of land. His death occurred at the family home on 
Washington and Central avenues and the surrounding tracts were left to his 
heirs. Edwin H. owns a home at No. 1436 East Washington street and 
Archibald Edwin owns a house at No- 1420, on the same street. The father 
served with efficiency for twenty-eight years as water overseer for the city 
of Los Angeles, but more recently he has given attention largely to the 
sale of city realty and in addition he now serves as vice-president of the 
Industrial Oil Company of Los Angeles, owning large holdings at Olinda. 

The marriage of Edwin Henry Dalton united him with Hattie E. Dye, 
who was born in Missouri and is now living in Los Angeles. At an early 
age she came to California with her father, George W. Dye, crossing the 
plains with oxen and settling on what is now Figueroa street and Slauson 
avenue, Los Angeles. The Dalton family numbered eleven children and all are 
still living. The next to the oldest, Archibald Edwin, was born at the 
Los Angeles homestead December 20, 1875, and received a high-school 
education, after which he worked for several years in the city water 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1307 

department. In 1899 -he began an apprenticeship to the trade of sheet-metal 
worker with the Consolidated Pipe Company of Los Angeles. On the com- 
pletion of his time he remained with the company as a paid employe. In 
December of 1911, when they started the works in I>akersfield, they assigned 
him to this point for the purpose of installing the machinery. Working 
with great energy and expedition, he enabled the company to open the plant 
January 10, 1912. Since then two buildings have been added and additional 
machinery installed, all of this work being done under his supervision as 
foreman of the plant. Aside from voting the Republican ticket he gives no 
attention to politics. Fraternally he holds membership with the Maccabees. 
In Santa Ana he married Miss Josephine McDonald, who was born in 
Los Angeles and is a graduate of the high school of that city. The eldest 
in a family of twelve children, she is a daughter of A. S. McDonald, one 
of the pioneer shoe merchants of Los Angeles and now a well-known 
retired business man of that city. Mr. and Mrs. Dalton are the parents of 
four children, Edison, Naudine, Douglas and Juanita- 

JOHN M. DUNN. — A year before the first great rush of gold-seekers 
across the plains to California a father and three sons started on the long 
journey from the east. It proved to be the last journey which the father 
was destined to make, for ere they had reached the mountains a fatal illness 
run its course and the three sons laid his body in a last resting-place in the 
Flint hill region of Kansas along the old Santa Fe trail. One of these three 
brothers, W^illiam T., was born in Pennsylvania in 1832 and at the time of 
the death of the parent he was a youth of sixteen. In disposition he was 
courageous, aspiring and his absolute disregard of precaution or fear 
amounted at times almost to recklessness, yet a kind destiny seemed to 
guard his steps and he passed through countless dangers unscathed. For 
many years he acted as a guide with Kit Carson on the plains, the latter 
being his tutor as a scout, and he also had many experiences with Buffalo 
Bill and Wild Bill as companions. When Wild Bill finally was fatally shot 
he fell back into the arms of the young scout. 

After some years of dangerous experiences on the plains William T. 
Dunn tried mining in California and it was not long before he was able to 
return east with a fortune. Going via Cape Horn to New York City, he 
there purchased a seat on the stock exchange, where in less than two years 
he lost $250,000. Coming to California once more he again took up mining 
and though less successful than on the first trip, he made enough to start 
in farming. Later he went to Missouri, bought land in Chariton county and 
remained there until his death at the age of sixty-eight years. His wife, 
who bore the maiden name of Ann Lingo and was born in Missouri of 
Pennsylvanian parentage, had passed away when her children were small. 
Of the children, five are still living: Cyrus, of Texas; Mrs. Maggie Allen, 
of Arkansas; Mrs. May Heavilin, of Bakersfield ; John M. and J. F., of 
Bakersfield. John M. was born April 8, 1880, at the old home farm in Chari- 
ton county. Mo., near Marceline. From an early age he was self-supporting. 
Employment with the Little Pittsburg Coal Company enabled him to pay 
his expenses through school. Leaving school he traveled in Illinois and 
Iowa for Snyder, Buell & Lavin of the Chicago stockyards and for Eubank 
& Hutton of the Kansas City stockyards. Later the buying of stock took 
him into Oklahoma, Indian Territory, California and Texas. As a cowboy 
on the range in the round-ups of cattle he was considered to be unexcelled in 
the management of horses and cattle, but this was not to his liking as a 
permanent means of livelihood, so he changed to carpentering and served 
an apprenticeship of two years at the trade. For two years he worked in 
the oil and gas fields near Elk City, Kan., and at the opening of Lawton, 
Okla., he engaged in carpentering and building in the new town. 



1308 . HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

The year 1901 found Mr. Dunn in California and Kern county, where he 
followed rig-building and contracting in the Kern river and west side fields. 
At the time of the great fire in San Francisco in 1906 he went to that city 
to fill a position as superintendent for Carroll Bros., contractors. Returning 
to Kern county in July of 1907, he engaged in contracting and rig-building 
in the Maricopa district. Soon afterward he became interested in oil lands 
with Parker Barrett and located several claims. It was this firm who located 
all of section 34 and fractional 25 that gave the Lakeview gusher to the 
world. When they located the property it was a wild-cat proposition and 
the people declared the two partners were insane and that their rig in 
two years would be sold for kindling wood. Undaunted by such dire pre- 
dictions they developed the property and the remarkable success is well 
known. In other fields that looked more promising they lost money, but 
here they made a large sum. They located the Consolidated Midway gusher 
on fractional section 30, section 8 at Pentland Junction where good wells 
were struck and the great Matson tract in the Buena Vista hills, also a 
success. In each location they did the first work, but in order to hold the 
properties from jumpers they have been obliged to spend as much as eleven 
days and nights on the spot without rest or change of clothes. Mr. Dunn 
is still interested in lands in different oil territories and during the winter 
of 1910 he spent several months in Washington, D. C, aiding to put through 
the Sixty-first congress the celebrated Smith bill, which afforded temporary 
relief to oil operators. 

The M. and F. garage in Bakersfield, said to be one of the largest and 
most complete in all of Kern county, was purchased during June of 1912 
by Mr. Dunn, the business being conducted under the name of the J. M. 
Dunn Auto Company. The company was incorporated June 22, 1912, with 
himself as president, Parker Barrett, vice-president, and Mrs. J. M. Dunn, 
secretary. The company is agent for the Knox automobile, Knox truck 
and fire apparatus, also the Moreland truck, and the Stutz and Overland 
automobiles. The first-class location of the garage and the business-like 
methods pursued by the proprietors are bringing a high class of patronage 
to the place, which has proved very popular among owners and drivers of 
machines. The partnership of Mr. Dunn and Mr. Barrett which was so 
successful in the oil lands has continued very agreeably and profitably in 
other enterprises, notably in the M. and F. garage. In addition to the 
enterprises mentioned Mr. Dunn manages the Dunsmuir ranch eleven miles 
south of Bakersfield and adjoining the Alameda farm, and here he raises 
alfalfa and grains. He also owns other valuable property in Bakersfield, 
including his residence, Panorama Heights, situated on the heights above 
the city. Mr. Dunn is a member of the Bakersfield Club and the Sierra 
Madre Club of Los Angeles. In Bakersfield he was united in marriage 
with Miss Selena Ritter, who was born in Helena, Mont., and by whom 
he has two children, William H. and Marjorie T. 

GEORGE W. CALL. — The association of the Call family with the agri- 
cultural development of the new world began with the arrival in this country 
of seven brothers from the north of Ireland. In the old country they had 
been known by the surname of MacCall, but they dropped the prefix upon 
their immigration to America and ever since their descendants have borne 
the name of Call. The lineage of the ancestors is traced to Scotland, but 
a religious persecution forced them to flee from their country and they found 
refuge in the north of Ireland. Prior to the Revolution the seven brothers 
became pioneers of our own land, where several of them served with patri- 
otic spirit and great bravery in the first struggle with England. From one 
of the Revolutionary soldiers the line is traced down to Hiram H. Call, a 
native of Ausable Forks, Essex county, N. Y., and a machinist by trade. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1309 

During- early manhood he was employed in a rolling-mill and later he became 
a locomotive engineer. He helped to build some of the first engines ever 
used on the Erie Railroad. Afterward he took his family to Illinois and 
settled in Belleville, St- Clair county, where from that time until his death 
he was employed in a nail-mill. His wife, who bore the maiden name of 
Mary Jerome, was born at Keyesville, Essex county, N. Y., and died in 
St. Louis, Mo. Only two of their six children are now living. 

The youngest member of the family was George W., born at Kingston, 
Luzerne county. Pa., July 4, 1860, and educated in the public schools of 
Lancaster, Pa.,' and Oxford, Warren county, N. J. After he had accom- 
panied other members of the family to Illinois he learned the trade of nailer 
at Belleville, where he completed an apprenticeship of four years. At 
Belleville, during 1884, he married Miss Nannie E. Smart, a graduate of 
the Emporia (Kan.) State Normal School and a woman of fine mental endow- 
ments. An only child blessed their union, Joel, now a skilled and expert 
machinist, connected with the San Joaquin & Eastern Railroad. 

Removing from Illinois to Missouri in September of 1885, Mr. Call 
entered the employ of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company. 
At first he engaged as passenger brakeman running from Kansas City (where 
he made his home) to Nickerson, Reno county, Kan., and later he was 
employed as baggageman between Kansas City and Pueblo, Colo. In 1888 
he resigned and became an apprentice machinist in the roundhouse of the 
Missouri Pacific Railroad in Kansas City and there completed the trade- 
Seven years later he was promoted to be foreman of the roundhouse and 
continued in the position until his removal from the city. August 16, 1898, 
he and his family arrived in Bakersfield. On the 17th he entered the employ 
of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company as foreman of the truck depart- 
ment in the roundhouse. December 27, 1900, he was promoted to be night 
roundhouse foreman. 

Since coming to Bakersfield Mr. and Mrs. Call have erected their resi- 
dence at No. 808 Monterey street and they also have purchased the Haber- 
felde apartments on Nineteenth and I streets, which Mrs. Call manages. 
In addition for a time they owned a ranch of fifteen acres nine miles from 
Bakersfield and improved the property with a pumping plant and a fine 
stand of alfalfa, after w^hich they disposed of the place to advantage. In 
social circles they have made many friends and they also are prominent and 
popular in various fraternities, Mrs. Call being a leading member of the 
Royal Neighbors and the Degree of Honor, while he has identified himself with 
the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Modern Woodmen of 
America. 

WILLIAM HENRY DEAN TAYLOR.— The genealogy of the Taylor 
family as far back as the records can be traced indicates an intimate identi- 
fication with England and an association with the commercial development 
of Lancashire. The first to establish a business in the new world was 
John Taylor, who left his native shire to establish a manufacturing industry 
in New York City, thereafter maintaining a high position among the manu- 
facturers of the metropolis of the western world, but at the same time con- 
tinuing his business and social relations with Lancaster. Indeed, for a 
number of years his family residence was maintained in Lancashire and 
thus it happened that his son, William, was a native of that English shire, 
although reared for the most part in New York City, where in due time 
he joined his father in the manufacturing business. Frequent visits to 
England gave him a large circle of acquaintances in Lancashire, where he 
married Aliss Mary Dean, daughter of Samuel Dean, a farmer in the shire. 
It was at Failsworth, Lancashire, that William Henry Dean, son of William, 
and grandson of John Taylor, was born, although like his father he was 



1310 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

reared almost wholly in New York City. In addition to attending the 
schools there he was for a time a student in the College of the City of 
New York. 

Mr. Taylor set sail from New York in 1867 on a vessel bound for the 
Isthmus of Panama- There he was employed for one year as a freight clerk 
with the Panama Railroad Company. During the fall of 1868 he secured a 
position as purser with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company on the steam- 
ship Colima, plying between Panama and San Francisco. Until 1871 he con- 
tinued with the same company and then resigned in order to take up ranch- 
ing in California. He first purchased a tract of ranch land near Clayton, 
Contra Costa county, where he engaged in general farming and stock-raising 
until 1893, meanwhile enduring the hardships incident to the bringing under 
cultivation of a large tract of raw land. After disposing of his interests in 
Contra Costa county in 1893 he came to Kern county, where ever since he 
has been an efficient and trusted employe of the Kern County Land Com- 
pany. Until 1897 he engaged as a clerk at the Poso ranch and then was 
transferred to Bakersfield to act as clerk in the cattle department of the 
company. During 1899 he was appointed bookkeeper for the company at the 
Stockdale ranch, where he has since remained. From early life he has been 
an Episcopalian and since coming to Kern county he has been a com- 
municant in St. Paul's Episcopal Church, in which he has officiated for two 
terms as vestryman. On the organization of the Bakersfield Club he 
became a charter member. In addition he holds membership with Bakers- 
field Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E., and Kern Lodge No. 76, K. of P. While 
making his home in Contra Costa county he became interested in political 
problems and espoused the principles of the Democratic party. 

E. J. THOMPSON.— Although a resident of the west throughout the 
greater part of his life (having moved with the family to Montana when 
fourteen years of age), Mr. Thompson claims Canada -as his native country, 
his birth having occurred January 25, 1874, at Brantford, in the province of 
Ontario. During early childhood he lived in Syracuse, N. Y., where his 
father, Joseph, followed the trade of a saddler and harness-maker. Remov- 
ing to Montana in 1888 the father established himself in business at Missoula, 
and there continued until his death, the mother, Jennie (Lee) Thompson, 
later coming to Bakersfield and making her home here with her son, E. J., 
until death ended her labors. There were five children in the family and 
three of these are now living. The youngest of the number. E. J., was 
only sixteen when he became self-supporting and even before that he had 
earned a little during vacation months. Being of a resolute, independent 
spirit, he was anxious to earn his own livelihood at as early an age as possi- 
ble. His first steady employment was as call-boy with the Northern Pacific 
Railroad Company at Missoula. Step by step he worked his way from one 
position to another. Merit won his promotion in the face of rivalry and 
competition. Eventually he was made a conductor on the North Coast 
limited and the Burlington limited, overland passenger trains of the Northern 
Pacific. 

A visit to Kern county during June of 1911 convinced Mr. Thompson 
that there was an opening for an auto stage line between Bakersfield and 
Oil Center. With him decisions have been made with promptness through- 
out his entire life and this instance was no exception to the usual rule. 
W^ithout delay he ordered a three thousand pound White gas truck, removed 
his family to Bakersfield, established a home in the city and began business 
as proprietor of the Oil Center stage. During June of 1912 he admitted 
Fred L. Smith into partnership and they added another White truck of 
one and one-half tons. The third truck was secured in November, 1912, 
and was another White of three thousand pounds, with a new body, built 



HTSTOKY OF KF.RX COUNTY 1311 

by C. N. Johnston, of Bakersfield. This last car has the advantage of 
greater convenience and larger capacity. In 1913 they purchased four 
more White trucks, one of them one and a half tons, and the others fifteen 
hundred pounds, to be used for a rapid auto stage line to the different towns 
in the west side oil fields, making the forty miles in two hours and two 
round trips a day. Sixteen round trips are made daily to the Kern river 
oil fields and at times of great rushes seventy passengers have been carried 
in one car, but this, although not beyond the power of the car itself, is 
far beyond the seating capacity of the trucks. It is estimated that since the 
first stage was started to the Kern river field more than two hundred 
thousand passengers have been carried, yet never has one of them been 
injured in the least nor has any accident ever occurred- While living in 
Montana he was a prominent local worker in the Order of Railway Con- 
ductors, but took no part in politics or in any of the fraternal activities of 
his locality. His marriage in Minneapolis, Minn., united him with Miss 
Edna Ordella Lee, who was born in Seaforth, Huron county, province of 
Ontario, and by the union there is one daughter, Laura Blanche. 

THOMAS CHARLES COPPIN.— The two confectionery establishments 
known as Copj)in's Bon Bon on Nineteenth street and Coppin's Cupid's 
Palace on Chester avenue in Theatre row stand as an evidence of the 
ability and superior business judgment of their promoter and proprietor, 
Thomas Charles Coppin, who came to Bakersfield in 1902- The more recent 
of his two shops, Cupid's Palace, established during February of 1911 at 
No. 2028 Chester avenue, occupying a space 26x120 feet with a balcony, 
is said to be the finest confectionery establishment between Los Angeles 
and San Francisco. In the rear of the building a manufacturing equipment 
has been provided, where under strictly sanitary conditions are manufactured 
all varieties of sweetmeats and ice-cream for the wholesale and retail trade. 

The family of which Mr. Coppin is a member belongs to Cornwall, 
England, and his father, Edward, after an adventurous existence in different 
parts of the world, has returned to Land's End to spend his last days. 
In early life Edward Coppin was allured to the gold mines of Australia, 
but found there little opportunity to gain the hoped-for wealth of the mines. 
After his marriage to Miss Elizabeth Riddles, a native of Cornwall, he set- 
tled in Ontario, Canada, where he held an ofBcial position under the domin- 
ion government. Coming to the United States he took up a homestead in 
Richland county, N. Dak., at the same time entering land and locating a tree 
claim from the government. The utmost difficulty was experienced in im- 
proving his three-quarter section and transforming it into a remunerative 
farm. After the death of his wife, which occurred on the farm, he sold 
his Dakota property and returned to England to establish his home. Of 
his ten children all but two are still living. The eighth in order of birth 
and the only one to settle in California is Thomas Charles, whose birth 
occurred at INIitchell, Ontario, Canada, June 4, 1879, and whose educa- 
tion was secured in Dakota country schools. When only twelve years of age 
he began to work in a store at Hankinson, N. Dak. During vacation times 
and after fifteen he gave his entire time to a clerkship, but resigned in 
January of 1899 and came to California. 

In San Francisco Mr. Coppin learned his trade under Confectioner 
Schafer, a man of skill and originality. Coming to Bakersfield in 1902 he 
bought a small confectionery owned by Mrs. Hartzel on Nineteenth street 
near Chester avenue, where he remained for eighteen months- Removal 
took him to No. 1524 Nineteenth street, where he built up the substantial 
business known as Coppin's Bon Bon, following this with Cupid's Palace. 
In addition to the management of his large business interests he owns inter- 
ests in the Jerome Verde Copper Company at Jerome, Ariz., has become prom- 



1312 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

inently connected with the board of trade in Bakersfield and has further identi- 
fied himself with many civic enterprises of note. Since coming to this city he 
has married Miss Alta Graham, a native of Selma, Cal., and at this writing 
they, with their daughter, Thelma Corease, make their home at No. 2224 
Nineteenth street, where he owns a substantial residence situated only five 
blocks from the heart of the city. Reared in the faith of the Church of 
England, he has been stanch in his allegiance to the Episcopal Church and 
fraternally he holds membership with the Woodmen of the World and the 
Modern Woodmen of America. 

SAMUEL J. DUNLOP.— The oil interests of Taft have an exceptionally 
capable representative in the manager of the Dunlop Oil Company. Since 
the formation of the company and its acquisition of forty acres lying on 
section 26, it has been officered by the following capitalists : C. H. Holbrook, 
Jr., president; W. L. Maguire, secretary; John D. Spreckels, Jr., and Samuel 
J. Dunlop, directors, the last-named also acting in the capacity of manager. 
As the resident executive head of the company's interests he has drilled 
five producing wells and during the year 1912 has superintended the putting 
down of four more wells. It was during 1909 that the manager located 
permanently in Taft bringing to the new home in the oil fields his wife and 
daughter, Lela, the former having been Miss Ellen Tombs prior to their 
marriage in 1892 in Fresno, this state. At the time of his arrival Taft was 
a mere hamlet. 

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 2, 1867, Samuel J. Dunlop began 
to earn his own livelihood at a very early age and was only sixteen when 
employed at railroading in Michigan. Two years later he went to Chicago, 
where he remained for eighteen months- From 1885 until 1902 he was in the 
employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and his long retention in 
positions of increasing importance by the same company indicates his fidelity 
and energy. From Chicago he was transferred to California and made 
Needles his headquarters. Meanwhile, upon the discovery of oil in Kern 
county, he had come here in 1899 and had purchased location rights to 
section 26 for $15 per acre. The following year he promoted and became the 
first president of the Mount Diablo Oil Company, but later transferred his 
capital and energies to the development of the interests with which he now 
is identified. After he had established his headquarters in Taft he joined 
with George Barr in starting and conducting a hay, grain and feed busi- 
ness under the firm title of Dunlop & Barr, and this barn has .since been 
carried on under the same management. The people of Taft elected him 
a trustee of the city April 8, 1912, and since then he has been a helpful 
factor in promoting civic development. He still retains his connection with 
the Order of Railway Conductors, although no longer identified with the 
railroad service. In addition he retains membership in Camp No. 99, 
B. P. O. E., of Los Angeles. 

JOHN F. BENNETT.— A few miles from Warsaw, the county-seat of 
Kosciusko county, Ind., John F. Bennett was born September 19, 1845, being 
a son of Benjamin Bennett, a Pennsylvanian by birth and the son of German 
parents who became immigrants in the new world. The mother bore the 
maiden name of Susan Irwin and was born in Kentucky of Irish ancestry. 
The family had little means and the struggle for a livelihood was unceasing, 
so that John F., instead of attending school, devoted his attention principally 
to aiding in the family maintenance- When the Civil war opened he was 
less than sixteen years of age, and consequently was not eligible for service. 
After a time, however, he was accepted as a private in Company E, One 
Hundred and Thirty-eighth Indiana Infantry, assigned to the front under 
General Rosecrans. Having enlisted for ninety days only, at the expiration 
of that time he was honorably discharged at Indianapolis, Ind., in September 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1313 

of 1864. Again he enlisted, this time for one year, as a private in the One 
Hundred and Fifty-second Indiana Infantry, serving with Company D. 
He received his second honorable discharge at Charleston, W. Va., August 
30, 1865. 

Not long after the close of the Rebellion Mr. Bennett went to Michigan 
and embarked in the lumber business as a sawyer. Much of his work 
was done in Kent, Montcahn and Newaygo counties and at Big Rapids, 
Mich., and the lumber was rafted down the Flat, Grand and other rivers. 
After he had worked almost ten years in the forests of Michigan he came to 
California in 1875, settling in Eureka, which was the headquarters of his 
lumbering business for nine years. November 10, 1875, he lost an eye 
through an accident in a sawmill. November 10, 1884, exactly nine years 
after the first catastrophe, he lost three fingers of the left hand through 
another sawmill accident. The second accident completely incapacitated 
him as a sawyer and proved a serious misfortune. 

Obliged to seek another occupation, Mr. Bennett removed to Orange 
county, this state, and embarked in business as a vineyardist. The twenty- 
five acres which he purchased had been planted to grapes of a fine quality, 
but unfortunately a mysterious blight fell upon the vineyard and nothing 
could be found to stay the progress of the disease. The entire vineyard 
finally died and he was left practically bankrupted. Looking around for 
another location he came to Kern county in 1892 and took up a home- 
stead of one hundred and sixty acres in the Tejon country, living on that 
place for five years and then proving up on the claim. His home place com- 
prises twenty acres, and he also has forty acres one and one-half miles north 
of it. During his residence at Eureka he married Miss Ella Roterman, of 
that place. They have a son, Leland, now a driller in the oil fields. Ever 
since giving his support to Abraham Lincoln during the war Mr. Bennett 
has supported Republican principles. 

A. M. KIDD.— Born at Reynoldsville. Pa., May 19, 1875, A. M. Kidd 
is a son of the last Benjamin B. and Nancy Kidd, likewise natives of the 
Ke3^stone state, where the father, a skilled mechanic and carpenter, built 
the first house in Oil City. About 1878 he took the family to Kansas and 
pre-empted a homestead in Ottawa county, where he devoted a number of 
years to the most arduous work of transforming a tract of raw prairie into 
a productive farm. During 1892 he moved to Missouri and settled at Joplin, 
where his wife died in 1896 at the age of forty-six years and where 
occurred his demise in 1903 at the age of fifty-five years. In the parental 
family there were seven children, namely: Archie M., of the Midway field; 
Mattie, Mrs. Marion Warren, and Annie, Mrs- Robert Conover, both the 
wives of grocerymen in Seattle, Wash. ; Onna C, employed as a tool-dresser 
in the Midway field ; Benjamin C. and Nancy, residents of Seattle ; and James, 
who died at an early age. The paternal grandfather, the well-known Wil- 
liam Kidd, now about eighty-eight years of age, retired about ten years 
ago to Verona, a suburb of Pittsburg, where he is highly respected and 
lives in affluence. He owned a farm just outside of Milltown (now a part 
of Pittsburg) and on his property drilled a well and struck a strong flow of 
gas. He was one of the pioneer men in the natural-gas industry in Pittsburg 
and built one of the first (if not the first) natural-gas lines ever run into 
iTiat city. 

Immediately after the removal of the family to Missouri A. M. Kidd 
began as an apprentice in a machine shop at Joplin, where he served for 
three years. In that term of service he laid the foundation of his present 
comprehensive knowledge of machinery. Afterward he was employed as a 
journeyman machinist. During 1898 he enlisted in Company G, Second 
Missouri Infantry, and served as sergeant-major until the expiration of his 



1314 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

lime, when he was honorably discharged. Returning to Joplin he became 
foreman in the machine shop of McNeal & Co., and continued in the same 
place until 1902. ]\Ieanwhile he had married, March 8, 1899, at Lexington, 
Ky., Miss Maud M. Kidd, a descendant of Scotch ancestry and a native of 
Kentucky. .Although having the same family name the young couple were 
not related. They are the parents of three living sons, Kay Kelso, Albert 
Collins and Cecil William, and lost another son, Archie H., at the age of 
fourteen months. 

Upon leaving Missouri, after three months in Colorado Mr. Kidd went 
to New Mexico and for a year followed his trade at Alamogordo, Otero 
county. A year was also passed in work at Tucson, Ariz., whence he came 
to California and found employment in Los Angeles. Two years later he 
came to Bakersfield and at the expiration of another two years he removed 
to Coalinga, where he was employed as a machinist for four years. Since 
December of 1911 he has engaged as foreman of the machine shop of the 
Honolulu Consolidated Oil Company and has eight men working under him. 
He is affiliated with the blue lodge of Masonry at Taft, the Scottish Rite 
Consistory at Fresno and the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine at San Francisco. 

FRANK C. JEWETT.— The manager of the Wasco hotel, who is like- 
wise the owner of extensive interests in the oil fields at Maricopa and Lost 
Hills, has been identified with business affairs in Kern county since 1900 
and particularly has been active in his association with the oil industry. 
During boyhood he lived in Kansas City, Kan., where his birth had occurred 
September 30, 1882, and where his brief period of schooling was received. 
When a small lad he began to work at odd jobs and do chores for neigh- 
bors. Coming across the country to California in 1900 he landed in Bakers- 
field and from there proceeded to Maricopa, where he secured work in the 
oil fields. For seven years he followed this occupation, then opened a 
hotel and saloon at Maricopa, owning and occupying the first two-story 
building erected in that oil town. In 1910 he sold out the business at 
Maricopa and the next year he became a resident of Wasco, where he 
bought and still owns a part interest in the Wasco hotel. Since coming 
west he has identified himself with the Eagles. W^ith the discovery of the 
Lost Hills oil field, some twenty-five miles west, he became an investor in 
the new district and has appreciated the impetus given by the valuable 
discovery to all lines of business. 

The marriage of Frank C. Jewett took place in Los Angeles October 1, 
1911, and united him with Pearl Pickering, who was born in Kansas and 
during girlhood came to California with her parents, settling at FuUerton. 
Orange county. The family represented by Mr. Jewett originally 
comprised six children, three of whom are living, he being the. youngest. 
His father, Lorenzo, was born in Ashtabula county, Ohio, February 12, 
1842, and attended school between the years of six and eleven, then stopped 
in order to help in the work on the home farm. After a number of years in 
that state he removed to Missouri and resumed agricultural pursuits. The 
next move took him to Illinois, where he engaged in farming for eight 
years. Later he moved to Johnson county, Kan., where he placed under 
cultivation a large tract of land which he had taken up from the government. 
Although he engaged in farming in Kansas for thirty-six years he was not 
particularly successful, for he lost his crops often through droughts and 
ether calamities impossible to overcome. Meanwhile in 1885 he had visited 
California and had been favorably impressed with the country, especially 
with Kern county, so that in 1901 he' came to the west as a permanent 
resident. \\'hile living in Kansas he had taken a warm interest in politics 
and had served as constable. The year 1902 was spent in Bakersfield. 
whence in 1903 he moved to Maricopa and found employment in the oil 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1315 

fields. From Maricopa he came to Wasco and is now living with his son, 
retired from farming and from all business cares. During 1878 he married 
Miss Nancy Squires, who was born in Athens county, Ohio, and died in 
Kansas January 6, 1888, while still a young woman, leaving a family of 
small children. 

LE ROY RANKIN. — A native son of the state, Le Roy Rankin was 
born June 17, 1873, in Walker's Basin, Kern county, and is the son of 
Walker Rankin, a pioneer represented elsewhere in this volume. As soon as 
he was old enough he began the acquisition of an education in the public 
schools. At eighteen he entered the Kern County High School, where he 
was a student two years. For some years afterward he was employed by 
his father, obtaining a practical knowledge of the cattle business. In 1901, 
in partnership with his brothers, he leased eight hundred and fifty acres of 
land, and together they operated this successfully. In 1908 he located on 
what is now his homestead, a ranch of two hundred and forty acres, formerly 
a part of the old Wirth property, near Weldon on the south fork of Kern 
river, and engaged in cattle-raising and in the growing of grain and alfalfa. 
His land is irrigated from south fork, and he has one hundred and eighty 
acres in alfalfa. He owns a goodly number of horses and five hundred head 
of cattle and his ranch is well improved and thoroughly modern- For his 
brand he uses the capital R. Fraternally he is a member of Bakersfield 
Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E. He married. May 17, 1911, Miss Marie Wake- 
man, who was born in Michigan in 1888, and they have a son named Le Roy, 
Jr. Mr. Rankin operates successfully not only the fine property above 
referred to, but four hundred and twenty acres of leased land. 

E. J. ERB. — The surname of Erb indicates the Teutonic origin of the 
family, which for several generations has had representation in America 
and as early as 1849 became established temporarily in California through 
the removal hither of Peter Erb, a native of Pennsylvania. After he had 
engaged in mining for a few years with fair success he returned to Pennsyl- 
vania via Panama. Later he followed farming in Ohio and then in Indiana, 
after which he migrated to Minnesota, took up land from the government 
and improved a farm. The last six years of his life were passed in North 
Dakota, where his death occurred. Surviving him is his wife, Catherine 
(Ferciott) Erb, who was born in Washington, D. C, of French descent, and 
now, at the age of eighty-six, makes her home with her son, E. J., in 
Bakersfield- There were eleven children born of her marriage and nine 
of these are still living. The seventh, E. J., was born at the home farm 
near Lewiston, Winona county, Minn., October 9, 1866, and received his 
early education in his native county, but later had the privilege of attending 
Battle Creek (Mich.) College. At the age of sixteen years he accompanied 
his parents to North Dakota and there assisted in the development of a fron- 
tier farm. 

Upon attaining his majority and starting out to make his own way in 
the world, Mr. Erb came to California and settled in San Diego during 1887. 
Shortly after his arrival, having meantime learned the trade of carriage- 
maker, he bought one-half interest in the largest shop in San Diego. For 
six years the business was conducted under the title of Parrott & Erb. As a 
salaried employe he remained there until 1899 and then came to Bakersfield, 
where with William Drury he started the Pacific iron works on Twenty- 
fourth and M streets. Later the plant was removed to McKittrick and 
established in the first building completed in the new oil town. For a 
time they prospered, but when the price of oil dropped to ten cents and 
hard times ensued his partner sold out to him and later he was obliged to 
close the shop in 1905, eventually finding a buyer for the plant. Meanwhile 
for two years he was justice of the peace and deputy county coroner. 



1316 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

After a brief period of work as superintendent of the shops of the 
Southern Pacific Oil Company in the Kern river field, in 1906 Mr. Erb 
resigned that position to open the Bakersfield garage on the corner of Nine- 
teenth and G streets. During 1907 his old friend and former partner, Wil- 
liam Drury, became associated with him as partner and in the same year 
{hey incorporated the Bakersfield Garage and Auto Supply Company, with 
Mr. Erb as president and Mr. Drury as secretary and treasurer. Soon out- 
growing their quarters, in 1908 they purchased the corner of Twentieth and 
G streets, where they built a one-story garage, 115x122 feet in dimensions- 
In a brief period the new space became too small for the growing trade. 
During 1909 they erected a second story with an elevator and on this upper 
floor they placed their machine and repair shop with a complete and up-to- 
date equipment. In 1913-14, finding it necessary to still further enlarge 
their building, they purchased the corner of Twentieth and H streets adjoin- 
ing their garage. Here they erected a two-story building 62x149, making a 
frontage of an entire block on Twentieth street. The second floor of the 
new building is devoted to manufacturing, while the first floor of the same 
is used for offices and supply store. The latter is arranged so that auto- 
mobiles may be driven through the center of the store, thus enabling cus- 
tomers to make their purchases without leaving their cars. In addition to 
a complete vulcanizing department, there is a charging and repair department 
for storage batteries and electric automobiles. The firm acts as agents 
for the Oakland car and the White automobiles and trucks, also fire 
apparatus. About 1906 Mr. Erb started the first car used in the rent 
service in Bakersfield. There was constant demand for the machine and it 
soon became necessary to keep three cars on hand for rent, but eventually 
he sold out in order to devote his entire attention to the agency and the 
garage. Besides owning one-half interest in this substantial business he 
has real estate in Bakersfield and Kern county and is a stockholder in the 
First National Bank of Bakersfield. In politics he votes the Republican 
ticket. Fraternally he is connected with Bakersfield Lodge No. 266, 
B. P. O. E-, while along civic, business and occupative lines, he holds mem- 
bership with the board of trade, the Bakersfield Merchants' Association and 
the Southern California Automobile Association. 

E. C. SMITH. — From the age of seventeen years up to the present time 
Mr. Smith has been associated with the oil industry in Kern county and 
meanwhile he has occupied practically every position from roustabout up 
to general foreman. He is now general lease foreman for the Section 25 
Oil Company, commonly known as the 25 Hill Oil Company, whose holdings 
include three hundred and twenty acres lying on section 25, 32-23, and whose 
oil wells, thirty-five in number, average a monthly production of fifty thou- 
sand barrels. The stock of the comoany is held principally in Bakersfield 
by the wealthy oil firm of Barlow & Hill. 

Clinton, Summit county, near Akron, Ohio, is the native place of E. C. 
Smith, and February 24, 1883, the date of his birth. The family was 
founded in Clinton by his grandfather, William Smith, a typical pioneer of 
the period and locality, and for many years intimately identified with the 
material growth of Summit county, where he died at ninety years of age. 
Among his children was a son, Charles, who prospered as a farmer, acquired 
the title to three valuable country estates in Ohio and became the owner 
of three boats on the Ohio canal. When a stroke of paralysis ended his 
career in 1910 at the age of seventy-two years he left a large estate that 
still remains intact, under the personal supervision of his wife, Adeline 
(Young) Smith, a capable woman who at sixty-five years retains much of 
her earlier strength of body and mind. Of her twelve children five are 
now living and it was largely through the efforts of her youngest child, E- C., 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1317 

that the estate will not be divided during her lifetime. The Young family 
were contemporaries of the Smiths in the early development of Summit 
county, where the father of Mrs. Smith, John Young, arrived with all of 
his worldly goods in a wagon. Attracted by the then "small town of Akron, 
he chose a home in the place and ever afterward remained in the same 
location. His death occurred whea he lacked only .five years of having 
rounded out a full century. 

Between the years of six and seventeen E. C. Smith was a pupil in 
the grammar and high schools of Clinton. Starting out to earn his own 
way in the world, he arrived at Bakersfield in March, 1900. Here he found 
public interest centered in the Kern river oil field. Joining the early devel- 
opers of that district, he found employment as a roustabout on the 33 and 
Imperial leases. It was not long before he had learned to do expert work 
as a tool-dresser. After two and one-half years he went to the Monte Cristo 
lease, where he was employed for five years. During a later period of 
work on the Associated lease he became a driller and for perhaps a year 
he engaged in drilling on the C^nfield division. Next he was sent to 
McKittrick by Superintendent Bruce. In that field he engaged as produc- 
tion foreman and later as drilling foreman for the Associated. He accepted 
an important position as a superintendent of the Reward, one of the McKit- 
trick leases, but owing to the ill health of his wife and his desire to take 
her to Ohio for a change of climate he resigned after holding it one and 
one-half years- Mrs. Smith had been Miss Mabel Church, of Bakersfield, 
and her death occurred in 1912. After an absence of nine months, Mr, 
Smith returned to Kern county, where he took a position under Ed Gillette 
and after two years he engaged as a driller on Syndicate No. 2, 
from which place he came to his present position February 10, 1913, and 
since then has devoted his attention closely to the responsibilities of general 
lease foreman. Fraternally he holds membership with the Woodmen of the 
World. 

GEORGE C. KELLEY. — From boyhood associated with the oil indus- 
try, it has no phase with which Mr. Kelley is unfamiliar and he has filled 
practically every position from roustabout to superintendent. At the present 
time he fills a responsible place as production foreman on section 22 division 
of the North American Oil Consolidated, whose holdings on section 22, 
32-23, comprise one hundred and seventy-five acres. Entering upon these 
duties in 1910, he since has witnessed a remarkable development in the 
company's properties. The lease has been developed with such rapidity 
that it contains fifty-five oil wells and from the fifty-three now active there 
is an average monthly production of seventy thousand barrels. 

Although his earliest memories are associated with Ohio, George C. 
Kelley is a native of Kansas and was born in a sod-house in Lane county, 
June 2, 1887. His parents, John A. and Emma (Severns) Kelley, are now 
living on a rented farm in Allen county, Ohioj but the father has worked 
perhaps more in the oil fields than on a farm, and he is well posted in 
every detail of the oil business. The family comprised five sons and two 
daughters and the eldest of these, George C, attended the common schools 
in Ohio. In early youth he worked on a farm during the summer months, 
but later he gave all of his time to the oil business, which he learned in 
every detail. His father being employed as a pumper on a lease at Spen- 
cerville, Ohio, he was taken on the same lease and taught to be useful in 
many ways- From a roustabout he worked up to be a well-puller. From 
the age of fifteen until nineteen he continued in the Spencerville district, 
thence going to Oklahoma, where he worked at Tulsa during much of the 
next two years. Besides his experience in the Oklahoma oil fields he was 
employed for a time in the Muncie oil fields in Indiana and the Robinson 



1318 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

oil fields in Illinois. For six months before coming to California he made 
his headquarters in Ohio and at Spencerville he was united in marriage 
with Miss Myrtle Hogue, daughter of W. M. Hogue, formerly of Spencer- 
ville, but now employed on section 16 of the North American. Mr. and Mrs. 
Kelley have one son, Paul, born in 1910. By correspondence with Mr. Kurtz 
of the North American, Mr. Kelley had secured a position as tool-dresser in 
the Midway field, so he left his eastern home and came to Bakersfield, arriv- 
mg at his destination November 1, 1909, ready to begin work without delay. 
There was then only one well on the lease that was making oil, but since 
then the development has been remarkable and the upbuilding of the 
division has been constant, much of this progress being attributable to the 
energy of Mr. Kelley in his capacity of production foreman. Since coming 
to the west he has bought a ranch of thirty acres in Merced county. 

FRANKLIN C. KELLEY.— At Mendon, Mercer county, Ohio, Franklin 
C. Kelley was born November 15, 1875. The name in America was 
established by his great-grandfather. After a voyage of six months on 
a sailing-vessel this original immigrant, who came from Dublin, Ireland, 
landed in New York during 1760 and eventually became a pioneer of Knox 
county, Ohio. In young manhood he married Henrietta Shritchfield, who 
lived to be ninety-eight years of age. Among their descendants was a 
grandson, Caleb A. Kelley, who now at the age of seventy-seven years is 
living, retired from agricultural labors, at his home in St. Marys, Auglaize 
county, Ohio. All of his children were born of his first marriage, which 
united him with Eunice Griffin, a native of the vicinity of Mendon, Ohio. 
The children are as follows: Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Murlin, a farmer 
near Mendon, Ohio; John, formerly an oil man, but now farming near 
Spencerville, Ohio; Francis, a farmer near St. Marys, Ohio; Lenora, who 
married Edgar Hawkins, a farmer near Celina, Ohio ; Foster, who is engaged 
in farming near Mendon, Ohio; Joseph, formerly a farmer, but now engaged 
in the oil industry in the Robinson fields of Illinois ; and Franklin C, the 
youngest member of the family and the only one to settle in California. 
The family, however, has another representative in the Midway field, for 
George C, son of John Kelley and nephew of Franklin C, is now engaged 
as production foreman on the section 22 division of the North American 
Oil Consolidated. 

When eighteen years of age Franklin C. Kelley began as a roustabout in 
the St. Marys (Ohio) oil field. In that district the average depth of the 
wells was from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred feet and, as old-fashioned 
methods of well-pulling were still in vogue, he was assigned to the task 
of driving a horse for such work. For seventeen years he continued with 
the J. H. Van Wormer Oil Company at St. Marys and meantime he rose 
from one position to another- AMien eventually he resigned it was for the 
purpose of coming to California and joining the force of the North American, 
in accordance with an agreement made with Mr. Kurtz. November of 1909 
found him at Moron, from which point he immediately went to section 22 
division and began his duties as a roustabout. After seven weeks he was 
transferred to the section 16 division. Since then he has come to the 
front as a production man. The two leases, sections 16 and 22, produce an 
average of one hundred and fifteen thousand barrels per month and this 
places him among the foremost production superintendents of California. 
On section 22 there are fifty-three and on section 16 twenty-six producing 
wejls with George C. Kelley as production foreman with the former lease 
and Keith LeGar as production foreman with the latter division, the general 
superintendent being William C. McDuffie. a resident on section 16 division. 
President Titus resides in San Francisco, which .city is also the place of 
residence of the vice-president, Duncan McDuflfie, and the secretary-treasurer, 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1319 

C. L. Nance. While living in Ohio Mr. Kelley married Miss Josephine 
Lewis, by whom he has two children, Lenore May and Guy A. Since com- 
ing to the west he has invested in farm property and now owns a tract 
of twenty acres in Merced county. 

CHARLES E. ALLEN.— The Allen family has been identified with 
horticultural activities in the Santa Clara valley from the very infancy of 
the fruit industry in that locality. As early as 1862 L. S. Allen, a native 
of New York stale, settled among the pioneers of the valley and put out 
one of the first prune orchards planted in this entire valley- In the ensuing 
years he had his share of discouragements and successes, but no adverse 
circumstance has lessened his deep affection for the valley and its people, 
and he is still living on the old homestead, hale and hearty, notwithstanding 
seventy-three years of life with its struggle and hardships. His wife, now 
deceased, was Miss Emma Meeks, a native of Iowa. A brother-in-law, E. L. 
Bradley, had the distinction of planting the first prune orchard ever set out 
in the Santa Clara valley and the entire connection of the family with that 
part of the state has been long and honorable. 

Out of eight children who attained maturity and who formed the family 
of L. S. Allen, seven are still living, the fourth, Charles E., being the only 
one to engage in the oil business. The others live in or near San Jose and 
have devoted themselves to ranching. Near San Jose, where he was born 
September 15, 1880, Charles E. Allen passed the years of boyhood upon 
the home ranch. Fair educational advantages were given to him and he 
was graduated from the San Jose high school with the class of 1900. For 
a time thereafter he assisted his father in horticultural work. The excite- 
ment caused by the discovery of oil attracted him to the Kern river field 
during May of 1902, at which time he secured employment with the Standard 
Oil Company and was detailed to a pipe gang engaged in the construction 
of the line from this field to Richmond. In a short time his ability was 
recognized by his promotion to the position of foreman and as such he had 
the supervision of a gang numbering one hundred men. The company sent 
him to Coalinga in 1904 to take charge of field work and to assist in the 
construction of pipe lines. Returning to the Kern river field during 1906 
he engaged for a year as ganger and then became general foreman for the 
Standard, in charge of the construction of pipe lines and the building of 
stations. In the next few years he worked at all the stations along the line 
to Point Richmond and had charge of the building of the station at McKit- 
trick, returning in 1909 to the Kern river field, where since he has been 
retained as chief ganger for the company. During 1909 he married at 
Oakdale, Stanislaus county. Miss Jessie Johnson, by whom he has one 
daughter, Margaret Dorothy. Coming to the west from Nebraska, where 
her father. Dr. W. H. Johnson, had been a well-known practitioner in the 
city of Lincoln, Mrs. Allen had received in that place excellent educational 
advantages and had been identified with the Christian Church, while since 
coming to Bakersfield she has also been a member of that church. 

FRANCIS M. POWELL.— The Missouri division of the Associated Oil 
Company, under the field foremanship of Mr. Powell, has reached an_ 
average monthly production of approximately eighteen thousand barrels net 
and thus ranks among the important organizations doing business in the 
Kern river fields. The holdings of the company lying on section 29, town- 
ship 28, range 28, consist of the following: Alva, ten acres with four produc- 
ing wells ; Hecla, ten acres with three producing wells ; Bolena, ten acres 
with six producing wells ; Gillellen, ten acres, four wells ; Vernon, twenty 
acres and six wells; Missouri, twenty acres, seven wells; and Richmond, 
ten acres with three wells, making a total of thirty-three producing wells. 
The field superintendent, who moved into the Kern river fields January 22, 

54 



1320 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

1909, became identified with the 7\ssociated three days after his arrival, at 
first filling a position as well-puller and after six months being promoted 
to the well foremanship. A year later he was made field superintendent, 
which post he has since filled with recognized efficiency. 

At Newhall, Los Angeles county, Cal, "Sir. Powell was born April 10, 
1883, being the son of John F. and Dora (Lake) Powell. The mother died 
April 29, 1^901, at the age of forty-seven. The father, a Bostonian by birth, 
came to the Pacific coast in 1873 and settled at Los Angeles. Although now 
seventy-three years of age, he is active physically and mentally, maintains 
a warm interest in the development of Los Angeles county and in his home 
town of Newhall serves as a justice of the peace as well as mining recorder. 
Since the death of his wiie his comfortable home at Newhall has been 
presided over by his daughter, Florence Marie, besides whom he has two 
other children, Francis Matthias and Alfred Clyburn. The elder son com- 
pleted the studies of the Newhall grammar school when about fourteen 
and then began to earn his own way in the world. March 17, 1897, he 
became a roustabout for the Pacific Coast Oil Company in the Newhall field, 
and he continued at that work until November 1 of the same year. An 
uncle, Alexander Mentry, being superintendent of the Pacific Coast Oil 
Company, gave him a position in a minor capacity at the water station 
pumping plant. In a short time he was given charge of the engines, pumps 
and general water system- 

On New Year's of 1901 the Pacific Coast Company sold out to the 
Standard and on the 15th of April of that year, Mr. Powell was transferred 
to the production department. For one year he remained in the general 
production department of the Standard, which transferred him April 15, 1902, 
to the Kern river fields in order that he might assist in putting in the eight- 
inch pipe laid by that organization from the Kern river fields to Point Rich- 
mond on the bay. December 13, 1902, the Standard transferred him to 
Newhall, where he was assigned to work in the production department and 
there he remained until August 31, 1906. Meanwhile he had felt the need 
of better educational advantages and when he resigned his position he 
entered the Southern California Business College as a student in the com- 
mercial department, graduating August 2, 1907. In addition to this course 
of instruction he had taken an English course in the International Corre- 
spondence Schools at Scranton. 

While working in the Newhall field Mr. Powell formed the acquaint- 
ance of Miss Reath Prall and they were married August 14, 1904, in Santa 
Paula, Ventura county, her home town. They are the parents of one child, 
Florence Helen. During her residence in Santa Paula Mrs. Powell was 
an active worker in the Methodist Episcopal Church. After his marriage 
Mr. Powell was employed as field foreman with the Union Oil Company 
in the Santa Paula fields, but that position he resigned December 31, 1908, 
and a few weeks afterward came to the Kern river fields, where he has since 
been connected with the Associated and where he and his family occupy the 
foreman's house on the Alva lease, on section 29, township 28, range 28. 

E. D. HIGLEY. — Continuous application has marked the activities of 
Mr. Higley from early life. When yet a mere lad he became self-supporting 
and at the age of eighteen he had gained a skill in carpentering such as is 
not always possessed by those having years of experience in the occupation. 
Starting out with scanty education and no money, assuming domestic obli- 
irations at an early age, he was handicapped in his first efforts- A native 
of Nebraska, born in Lincoln county March 7, 1880, he was familiar from 
his earliest recollections with the isolated frontier, the broad ranges lying 
beyond the then confines of civilization. Nor did removal to North Dakota 
broaden his outlook upon the world, for the homestead there stood aloof 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1321 

■•> - - 

from the great markets of the country and had little to offer in comfort 
or opportunity. At the age of eighteen he married Miss Ella Ree McKay, a 
young lady living in Wells county, which adjoined his home county of 
Kidder. The little home started upon the plains of North Dakota was 
barren of comforts, yet within its walls there was much of joy and con- 
tented work. As the land was brought under cultivation and ere it had 
become a source .of income, the young homesteader earned his livelihood as 
a carpenter. 

Believing he could better his condition in California Mr. Higley brought 
his family to the coast in 1906 and has since been employed in the oil 
fields. It is his intention to soon establish the family home at Waits, Kern 
county, so that his work may not take him far distant from his wife and 
four children, Eunice, Gurdon H., Lois Amy and Elberta. After coming 
to this locality he worked with different companies, including the Southern 
Pacific (six months), Canfield (five months) and Merrill Crude (two 
months), after which he was employed by Captain Black for eighteen 
months in the building of oil derricks. For two months he worked in the 
Sunset and Midway fields, but with that exception he has limited his labors 
largely to the Kern river fields. For a time he conducted a livery business, 
located upon the lease of the Bald Eagle Oil Company in the Kern river 
fields, but recently he sold out his interest to his partner, W. B. Austin, 
who continues the business at the same location, while Mr. Higley gives his 
entire time and attention to contracting and building. His specialty is the 
building of derricks, in which he has become so expert that his services are 
in constant requisition. In fraternal relations he hold membership with 
the Woodmen of the World and the Modern Woodmen of America. 

S. H. MARTIN. — The foreman of the Sterling division of the Asso- 
ciated Oil Company, who likewise holds a position as superintendent of the 
Sovereign Oil Company on section 31, township 28, range 28, has been 
familiar with the oil industry from his very earliest memories- The incum- 
bent of his present responsible positions since 1907, he meanwhile has pro- 
moted the financial welfare of both organizations and has guided every detail 
with a careful eye and keen discrimination. The Sterling owns one hun- 
dred and sixt}^ acres, but leases forty acres to the Vesta Oil Company and 
twenty acres to the Sovereign, the balance of their tract containing forty- 
one producing wells. The Sovereign shows ten producing wells. Both 
companies are equipped with every modern convenience for the prosecution 
of the work and conduct all affairs in a model and business-like manner. 

Born in Venango county. Pa., July 14, 1880, Mr. Martin is a son of 
David E. Martin, now of Kern county, the present superintendent of the 
Oakland Midway Oil Company on the west side. Business changes took 
the family from one point to another and the son, primarily educated in 
Pennsylvania, later had excellent advantages in the Los Angeles high school 
and in a commercial college of the same city. After he had graduated from 
the business college he devoted himself wholly to the oil business, of 
which he previously had gained an expert knowledge. His father, who had 
come from Pennsylvania to take charge of the department of drilling for 
the Union Oil Company at Santa Paula, Cal., went to Missouri, where he 
became superintendent of the Whitney Water Supply Company at St. 
Louis. During 1896 he came again to California and settled in Los Angeles, 
where his son, who previously had assisted him in his work with the St. 
Louis organization, became yet more helpful to him in the work of dressing 
tools for drilling. 

When only nineteen years of age S. H. Martin engaged as a driller 
with the Central Oil Company of Whittier, Cal., and for four 3^ears he con- 
tinued in the same place. From there he went to the lower part of Old 



1322 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Mexico near the Pacific ocean and engaged in drilling for oil at Pochutla, 
state of Oaxaca, where he was employed for eight months. Meantime he 
acted as geologist for the Pacific Coast Oil Company of Mexico. From 
Mexico he transferred his labors to Lower California, where he drilled a well 
for a company capitalized at Birmingham, Ala. Returning to the United 
States he engaged in drilling with the California Oilfields, Limited, at 
Coalinga, and later had similiar work at McKittrick, Kern county, where 
he drilled on the Reward lease. After having held a position as driller with 
the Union Oil Company in Ventura county, he went to Los Angeles county 
and started work on the Oilman property at Sherman. Having engaged in 
the oil industry in so many different places and with so many varied com- 
panies, he was well prepared for successful effort when finally he came to 
Kern river fields in 1905. After two years as a driller in 1907 he became 
superintendent of the Sterling and Sovereign, which he since has managed 
with success. Since coming to Kern- county he was married at Bakersfield 
to Miss Ethel Fall, of Globe, Ariz., by whom he has two sons, David and 
Joe. In fraternal relations he holds membership with the Elks at Bakersfield. 

HENRY ERICKSON.— The superintendent of the Junction Oil Com- 
pany in the Kern river fields is of Pennsylvanian birth and Scandinavian 
descent. Born at Oil City, Venango county. Pa., June 19, 1880, he was sixth 
in order of birth among the nine children comprising the family of John and 
Caroline Erickson, both of whom were born in Sweden, but at early ages 
became residents of Pennsylvania. The family lived upon a farm near 
Venango and the son began to assist in the tilling of the soil as soon as 
old enough to handle machinery and horses. Scanty educational privileges 
came his way, for from boyhood his was a struggle for self-support. In spite 
of the handicap of lack of schooling he has become a man of broad general 
information. When twenty-one years of age he left the farm for the oil 
fields near his home and ever since then he has been connected with the 
oil industry. After a brief experience as a pumper he was promoted to be 
a tool-dresser, in which he soon became quite skilled. After a year at Oil 
City he went to Indiana and soon became field foreman for the Ohio Oil 
Company at Marion, where he continued for three years. 

The next district that attracted the young man was the oil fields of 
Illinois, where for thirteen months he engaged as foreman and pumper with 
the Campbell Oil Company at Casey- From Illinois he came to California 
and settled in the Kern river oil fields, where he secured work as a foreman 
with the West Shore Oil Company. A year later he was made foreman for 
the Section 5 Oil Company, remaining with them for eight months and then 
resigning in order to return to Pennsylvania, where he worked at Oil City 
lor six months. Upon his return to the western oil regions he secured employ- 
ment in the Santa Maria fields in Ventura county, where he had charge of the 
installation of gas engines for the Union Oil Company. Eight months later 
he returned to the Kern river fields, where for a short time he served as 
foreman of the Capital City Oil Company. September 15, 1910, he was chosen 
superintendent of the Junction Oil Company, a corporation composed prin- 
cipally of San Francisco capitalists. Eighty acres of land are owned by the 
company and the work of development has only begun. Of the eight pro- 
ducing wells six have been redrillecl and the average net production is between 
five thousand and six thousand barrels per month. Having given his atten- 
tion to the details of the oil industry and to his own particular responsibilities, 
Mr. Erickson has not had leisure for participating in public affairs or local 
enterprises, but he aims to keep posted concerning all enterprises of worth to 
community or county. While living in Santa Maria he became identified with 
the Knights of Pythias at that place and since coming to Kern county he 
has joined the Loyal Order of Moose at Bakersfield. By his marriage to 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1323 

}Aiss PTattie Irwin of Oil City, Pa., he has two children, Lawrence and 
Mary. 

J. A. C. MILES. — Although a resident of California during the greater 
part of his life and since December of 1910 identified with the Kern river oil 
fields, Mr. Miles was born November 16, 1887, on a large sugar plantation of 
Hawaii. The death of his father, G. W. Miles, who had been a traveling sales- 
man, caused a breaking up of family ties and resulted in the fatherless boy 
being taken into the home of an uncle. William E. Miles, in San Francisco, 
where he was reared and educated. There were two younger children in the 
family and both of these still reside in Honolulu, Fannie Isabel being the 
wife of Paul Burns, of that city, while William E. conducts a dairy and 
stock ranch and a banana plantation in the same district. The mother, who 
bore the maiden name of Jennie K. Harvey and who at the age of forty-seven 
(1914), is still a resident of Hawaii, is a sister of the late senator, Hon. Frank 
Harvey, from the territory of Hawaii. 

A thorough education secured in the San Francisco high school was 
supplemented by specialized work through correspondence courses in elec- 
tricity and electrical engineering, and in that way Mr. Miles laid the founda- 
tion of a broad expert knowledge inestimable in its value to subsequent 
endeavors. During early youth he became an apprentice with the Pacific 
Telephone and Telegraph Company of San Francisco and Oakland. From a 
very humble position he worked his way rapidly to a post of importance, and 
before he was twenty-three years of age he had been appointed chief installer. 
Through the influence of his uncle, William E. Miles, who is a man of prom- 
inence in the oil fields and now serving as secretary of the Apollo, 4-Oil and 
Amaurot Oil Companies, he secured a position as bookkeeper for these organi- 
zations in December of 1910, since which time he has been identified with 
the Kern river district, and here, at Oil Center, he was united in marriage 
with Miss Hazel Long, daughter of John Long, of Missouri. 

M. J. PEARL — Since the acquisition of its great holdings by the Kern 
River Oilfields of California, Limited, in 1910, as well as prior to that date 
with the old Imperial and 33 organizations, Mr. Pearl has been one of the 
trusted employes. Not content to be merely a good workman, he has always 
tried to do whatever came to his department better than he ever had wrought 
before. Not only is he active, alert and industrious, but in addition he has a 
genial temperament and his kindly spirit radiates cheer and carries encour- 
agement to other workers around him. He was the son of poor parents and 
was born at Williamsport, Pa., May 5, 1864, removing with the family to 
Kansas at the age of seven years and receiving a limited education in Topeka 
schools. Later through his own efforts he paid his way through St. Mary's 
College in Kansas. In the town of St. Mary's he married Miss Blanche San- 
nier and six years later moved to Flagstafif, Ariz., where he found employment 
with the Arizona Lumber and Timber Company. 

For two years engaged as a plumber with that concern, Mr. Pearl later 
spent six years with the same company in the capacity of stationary engineer. 
From Arizona he came to California in 1907 and settled in Kern county, where 
immediately he secured work as a plumber and steamfitter on the Imperial 
and 33 leases, being retained in the same department when the firm of Keith, 
Mack & Guggenheim in 1910 was overtaken by the Kern River Oilfields of 
California, Limited. Since coming to this county he and his family have been 
members of St. Francis' Roman Catholic Church of Bakersfield, while frater- 
nally he is connected with the Eagles, Woodmen of the World and Modern 
Woodmen of America. The family home is a cottage on the company prop- 
erty and the family comprises six children, Irene, Edmund, Clement, Joseph, 
John and Clarence, of whom the eldest sons are now employed in the oil fields. 

PHILIP BACH.^ — ^Philip Bach is of German extraction, his grandfather 



1324 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

having been born in Baden-Baden, Germany- His father, Philip Bach, was 
engaged in the dry goods business at Ann Arbor, Mich., being a member of 
the firm of Bach & Able there. He married Nancy Royce, whose people came 
to Michigan from Massachusetts, and they were the parents of Philip, Jr. 
The father died in 1895, and the mother in 1871. 

Born in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw county, Mich., October 20, 1863, Philip 
Bach was there reared to manhood, attending the public schools, and finally 
becoming a student in the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Ill health, 
however, compelled Mr. Bach to relinquish his studies and he went to New 
Mexico to regain his strength. He began in the store-keeping business at 
Alma, Socorro county, then at Cooney, going from there to Magdalena, whence 
he found his way to Silver City, Grant county, at which latter place he kept a 
general store and also became interested in silver mining. Having in the 
meantime gained his former good health, in 1897 he came to Los Angeles, CaL, 
to engage in the securities brokerage business, but after a year and a half at 
this line of work he gave it up and went to Portland, Ore., where he secured 
a position in a dry goods store. After a year and a half there he returned to 
Los Angeles, and when oil was struck in Kern county, he came here and was 
employed by J. A. Chancellor and C. A. Canfield to take charge of the twelve 
wells belonging to the Canfield Company. As superintendent of this com- 
pany Mr. Bach increased this property to fifty-seven wells, and so successful 
was he in the conduct of it that, in 1902, when it was taken over by the Asso- 
ciated Oil Company, he was retained by the latter as foreman of the Canfield 
division, which position he has since held. The Canfield produces thirty thou- 
sand barrels of oil per month and is numbered among the best producers in 
the oil fields. 

Mr. Bach makes his home on the Canfield properties, where he and his 
wife, who before her marriage in 1905, to Mr. Bach, was a Mrs. Page, give 
hearty welcome to their numerous friends and acquaintances. Mrs. Bach is a 
daughter of John R. Matlack, of Philadelphia, and sister of William V. 
Matlack, mayor of Bakersfield, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this 
publication. 

MARTIN COYNE.— A native of Ireland, Martin Coyne was born at 
Castleray, County Roscommon, in 1860, a son of John and Mary (Rourke) 
Coyne. His father died when the son was about four years old, and the mother 
passed away at Avon, Livingston county, N. Y., in 1875. Of their twelve 
children Martin was the third youngest. Six of them preceded their mother 
to the United States, and she brought over the remaining six in 1870. He 
was a student for a time in the public school at Avon, N. Y., but early went 
to work on farms in the vicinity. Accompanied by an older brother, James 
Coyne, he came to California in 1876 and joined their brother, Bartley, in the 
Santa Clara valley. They engaged in farming there and in Yuba county more 
than a year- James and Bartley went back to New York state. Martin 
remained at Smartsville for a time, mining in the winter months and herding 
cattle during the balance of the year, then went to Nevada county and mined 
at Bloomfield until he met with an accident caused by a cave-in, by which he 
was buried up to his head in a heavy mass of gravel for more than half an 
hour. When he was dug out it was found that his arms and legs were crushed 
and he was laid up two years, during which he completely exhausted his little 
supply of money. His first employment after the accident was as a clerk in 
the Derbeck hotel, where he remained two years gradually improving in health. 
Then for three years he engaged in the liquor business in Nevada City. In 
1886 he established a liquor store at Fifth and D streets, San Diego, which he 
operated until 1892. Early in that year he came to Bakersfield and was 
employed in the Hermitage saloon until 1904, when he bought the establish- 
ment which he has since managed and which is now the property of the firm 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1325 

of Coyne & Hewitt. In 1909 the business was removed to its present location 
on Chester avenue. Air. Coyne erected his beautiful residence at Eighteenth 
and D streets at an expense of $10,000. He was one of the organizers of 
the Par^ffine Oil Company, was a member of its first board of directors, has 
been one of its directors ever since and was for a time its vice-president. The 
company put down two wells in the Templor country without success, but 
later operations on 25 Hill were productive of l)cttcr results. It now has six 
wells which produce about twenty thousand barrels of oil per month. He is 
also interested in the U. S. Oil & Mining Company, of which he is a director 
and vice-president and which has sunk four producing wells at IMcKittrick. 
He is a director and vice-president also of the Bakersfield Six Oil Company, 
which owns one hundred acres at McKittrick, and in numerous other cor- 
porations engaged in the development of the California oil fields. 

At San Diego Mr. Coyne married Miss Nellie Hewitt, a native of 
Schenectady, N. Y., who has borne him five children, Marguerite, George, 
Helen, Esther and Mary. Marguerite is a graduate of Notre Dame College, 
San Jose, and George is a senior in Kern county high school- Mr. Coyne 
served as an officer in the Royal Arch, is a member of the Elks, and as a 
member of the Board of Trade and otherwise he has demonstrated a public 
spirit wdiich has placed him in the foremost ranks of citizens of Bakersfield. 

ALVA HUNTER. — Among those self-reliant, self-made citizens of Kern 
county who have solved the vital problem of achieving success in spite of the 
many impediments which have crossed their paths in the new country is Alva 
Hunter, the efficient and well-known superintendent of the Nevada Oil Com- 
pany, which is known as one of the most i^rofitable producers in the region. 

Alva Hunter is the son of Aaron and Charlotte (Grant) Hunter, 
born in Indiana in 1872. He was twenty years old when he came 
wnth his parents to Bakersfield, Cal., and he immediately began to work for 
the Kern County Land Company. Subsequently he farmecLKi San Luis Obispo 
county, this state, and it was here that he became interested in the oil business, 
obtaining employment at Rio Grande as tool-dresser for L. D. Heine. A year 
later, in 1902, he came to the Kern River field and secured a position as driller 
for the Nevada Oil Company, at which he worked for a year and a half. He 
remained with this company from that time on and proving himself to be so 
well-grounded in the details of the work, that in 1910 he was made superin- 
tendent of the company- 
Some idea of the company may be obtained from the information that it 
has twenty-two wells, and produces about ten thousand barrels monthly. Mr. 
Hunter fills the office of superintendent of this company and enjoys the con- 
fidence of his employers and the respect of all with whom he has business 
relations. 

In 1909 Mr. Hunter was married to Miss Efiie Walker, of Arkansas, and 
they have two children, Nellia A. and William Grant. Mr. Hunter takes no 
part in public afliairs, holding no offices, but he is actively interested in the 
Republican party, and votes that ticket. His home is on the Nevada holdings. 

C. L. GIBONEY. — At an early age the obligation of self-support de- 
volved upon Mr. Giboney. who assumed such responsibilities with the cheerful 
aptitude that has marked every step of his busy existence. When only fifteen 
years of age he began to hustle for himself, yet he did not abandon all efl-'orts 
toward securing an education ; on the other hand, side by side with his 
energetic devotion to material affairs was a persistence in educational work, 
so that he not only was able to graduate from the Kern county public schools 
but in addition lie took a commercial course in the business college at 
Bakersfield. A native son of California, he was born December 23, 1885, and 
at the age of sixteen years he entered upon an apprenticeship to the trade of 
a machinist at Needles, at the same time learning the blacksmith trade. Later 



1326 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

he engaged as a horse-shoer at a railroad camp in Arizona. When the Edison 
plant was installed on the Kern river he went to Havilah in Kern county, 
where he worked under the contractor, J. B. Reed. It was the latter who had 
induced him to locate in the town. Besides doing general work in the black- 
smith shop he did the greater part of the horse-shoeing in the Kingman 
blacksmith shop. 

An opening for a bookkeeper occurred in the department store of Hoch- 
heimer & Co., at Bakersfield, where Mr. Giboney found employment for which 
his talents qualified him in an admirable degree. So well did he succeed as 
bookkeeper for the concern that at the expiration of eighteen months he was 
made cashier and was given charge of the entire office force in the store, where 
he remained through a period aggregating five and one-half years. On May 4, 
1908, he became bookkeeper for the Associated Oil Company. In a short 
time he was made chief clerk. After two years of ofilice labor he was given 
a position as outside man and since then he has acted as foreman in the oil 
department- In every respect he has given satisfaction to the company and 
his work has reflected credit upon himself. In addition to handling the oil 
produced by the Associated, he also handles all that is bought by the company 
in the Sunset, A'Tidway and McKittrick fields. Fraternally he is a member 
of the Ancient Order of United Workmen at Bakersfield. His marriage at 
Fresno united him with Miss Rose Basye and they have an adopted child. 

E. A. GROGG.— The Fellows Mercantile Company, although one of the 
recent institutions of Kern county, is unsurpassed in the character of its 
establishment and in the appreciation of its patrons. June, 1910, the company 
was incorporated with a capitalization of $10,000, and on the 1st of August 
their house of business was opened, with E. A. Grogg as treasurer and 
manager, C. W. Dickinson as president and John Patterson as vice-president. 
In every respect the store would do credit to a city far larger than Fellows. 

The son of Samuel J. Grogg, an Ohio farmer, E. A. Grogg was born in 
Fayette county, that state, January 15, 1863, and became inured to the hard 
loil of the farm at a very early age. Leaving the country at the age of nineteen 
he turned his attention to mercantile pursuits. When twenty he became a 
clerk in a country store at Balbec, Jay county, Ind., and continued there for 
eight years, after which he clerked at Pennville for four years- Continuing in 
Jay county, he established himself as proprietor of a general store at Bryant, 
where he remained until 1903. The complete failure of his health forced him 
to sell out and seek a difl:'erent climate. Going to Florida, he bought a small 
ranch near the town of Ripley and there engaged in the poultry industry. 
The illness of a brother caused him to leave Florida to be with the invalid 
during an operation at Mobile and later he sold the Florida place, returned 
with the brother to Indiana and cared for the sufiferer until the end came 
after an illness of six months. The management of a store at Dunkirk, Jay 
county, kept him in that town for a time, but later he availed himself of a 
better opening in the county-seat town, Portland, where he was connected 
with the department store of Cartwright & Haddington. 

A desire to see the west caused Mr. Grogg to relinquish his interests at 
Portland, Ind., from which place he went to Portland, Ore., in October of 1907. 
In 1908 he came to California, settled in Tulare county and became manager 
of the Rochdale store at Orosi. After one year he embarked in the gent's 
furnishing business. At first there was every indication of success, but a 
panic resulted from the depreciated values of raisins, the principal crop of the 
locality, and he was forced to retire from business at a considerable loss. 
Thereupon he sought a new location and was led to establish himself in 
Fellows, where he has a business that is solid, growing and substantial and 
that merits and receives an excellent patronage from the community. 

JAMES LOWELL ANNETTE.— The founder of his name in the new 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1327 

world, J. Wyatt Annette, led an eventful existence from the time that he left 
his native France and crossed the ocean to America, settled in Missouri and 
engaged in coal mining near St. Louis, until he was impelled to join an 
expedition of Argonauts who crossed the plains with wagons and ox-teams 
early in the '50s. Upon arriving at his destination he began to mine on the 
Feather river. At first fortune seemed to favor him, for he struck gold and 
with seven partners developed a profitable mine. After they had taken out 
as much gold as they were able to carry, in buckskin bags fastened to their 
bodies, they left the mine and started with their treasure for a place to market 
the gold, but as they were crossing Feather river all were drowned- On- 
lookers were powerless to aid them, for the weight of the gold caused them 
to sink before help could reach them. 

The unfortunate gold-miner left a son, James William, a native of the 
vicinity of St. Louis, Mo., and from young manhood a resident of California, 
where he planted an orchard of Bartlett pears in Lake county. By his mar- 
riage to Fannie Baker, who was born in Missouri and died in California, 
there was only one child, James Lowell, born at Kelseyville, Lake county, 
Cal, November 14, 1880. and reared on the home farm, meanwhile attending 
local schools and the Kelseyville academy. At the age of nineteen he became 
an apprentice under ]\Ir. Kemper in the old Star mills at South Vallejo. Three 
years later he left the mill temporarily in order to take a course of study in 
the Oakland Polytechnic Business College, but after his graduation^ in 1904 
he returned to the mill to resume his trade. Two years later he resigned as 
second miller there to accept a position as head miller with the Dixon Milling 
Company, but stayed there only five months, resigning in order to become 
head miller of the Kern river mills with the Kern County Land Company, 
coming December 27, 1906, to the plant where he has continued ever since. 

In addition to acting as head miller of this mill Mr. Annette started and 
for one year operated the Annette bakery, where he put in the first dough 
mixed in Bakersfield. After selling the bakery he started on Nineteenth 
street the A. & L. sweet shop, which he sold about 1910. He now owns twenty- 
seven acres near Lakeport which he set out to Bartlett pears. 

Mr. Annette is a Republican. While at Vallejo he was made a Mason in 
Solano Lodge No. 229, F- & A. M., is a member of Bakersfield Chapter No. 
75, R. A. M., Bakersfield Commandery No. 39, K. T., and Al Malaikah Temple. 
N. M. S.. of Los Angeles. In Vallejo occurred his marriage to Miss Lillian 
Steffan, a native of that city and a graduate of the high school there. For 
many years her father, Philip Stefifan, has been engaged in the wholesale and 
retail meat business in Vallejo. The family of Mr. and Mrs. Annette com- 
I)rises two daughters. Madelyn Beth and Doris. 

FREDERICK E. MANNEL.— The youngest in a family of four children 
and the only one of the number to establish himself in the United States, 
Frederick E. Mannel was born in Dresden, Saxony, Germany, November 30, 
1864, and was named after his father, the manager of the zoological gardens 
in Dresden. An excellent education was afiforded him through attendance 
upon grammar and high schools in Dresden and he was educated with a view 
to becoming a medical practitioner, but the profession did not appeal to him 
and he emigrated to the United States in 1880. With him he brought letters 
of introduction to William Conklin, manager of the zoo in Central park, New 
York City, and that gentleman gave him employment for a year. During 1881 
he shipped to Montevideo, South America, impelled by a desire to see some- 
thing of that part oi the world. Upon his return to New York he proceeded 
west to Montana in 1882 and secured work in the government employ. Some 
time later he went back to Dresden to visit friends. 

It was during 1885 that Mr. Mannel saw California for the first time. 
After a brief sojourn in San Francisco he proceeded to Sonoma county and 



1328 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

bought a small vineyard near Mark West Springs, later locating near Colfax, 
Placer county, where he planted vines and developed a valuable vineyard. 
Upon the sale of that property he removed to San Jose and became a retailer 
of oil and gasoline, continuing the business until 1896, when he sold out and 
started upon a trip around the world. The beginning of his journey took him 
to the old German home and gave him an opportunity again to renew the 
associations of childhood. Traveling through Germany and Denmark, he 
went thence to Norway and Sweden and as far north as Spitzbergen, after 
after which he returned to Germany and from there traveled through Austria 
and Russia, next back to France and from there to England. A long voyage 
from London took him to Cape Town, Africa, and after debarking he traveled 
with a hunting expedition to Fort Salisbury. The trip was made with wagons 
and oxen and enabled the men to prospect and hunt in leisurely manner.^ Upon 
leaving the party he traveled on foot across the Zambesi river into the interior 
of Africa, where he passed six months in exciting explorations among the 
natives. From there he traveled back south to Transvaal, Orange Free State 
and Cape Colony. 

Australia was the next country visited, where he made a study of the pearl 
fisheries on Thursday Island, later visiting Port Darwin at the extreme 
northern end of the continent. Next he went to the island of Timook, his 
intention being to investigate some oil formations, but the natives were on 
the warpath and rendered personal investigations impossible. He next sailed 
for the Philippines and made a sojourn in Manila. In China he visited 
Shanghai, Hong-Kong and other points. En route to the United States he 
stopped at Yokohama, Japan, and Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, landing in 
1899 at San Francisco, whence he came to Bakersfield. With friends he 
secured a tract of oil land on section 11-29-21. His associates having been 
misinformed, decided to abandon the work at a depth of five hundred feet, 
but afterward this was found to be excellent oil territory. Next he prospected 
at McKittrick and in the Sunset and Midway fields, after which he went to 
Coalinga, bought a lease and extended the field three miles toward the north. 
On coming back to Kern county he developed his property in the Midway 
field and afterward as manager of the Mountain Girl lease put down several 
Avells that became good producers. With others he secured the building of 
the Standard pipe line into the Midway field- During 1908 he started the 
Bakersfield soap works, which he developed into a plant of considerable size 
and importance. As the organizer of the St. Lawrence Oil Company operating 
on section 5 in the Midway field, for some time he held a large number of 
shares in the concern, but later sold his interest. Further he organized the 
Successus Oil Company now operating on the McKittrick front. 

The marriage of Mr. Mannel and Miss Elsinore Hutton took place in 
San Francisco. Although a native of Indianapolis, Ind., Mrs. Mannel was 
reared in Alameda, Cal., where her father, Edward L. Hutton, was at the 
head of a mercantile establishment. After coming to Bakersfield Mr. Mannel 
built the residence which he now occupies at No. 2116 B street and which is 
brightened by the presence of his two children, Elsie Hutton and Frederick 
E., |r. Since 1912 he has been manager of the Mannel-Minor Petroleum 
Company operating on the Balridge lease of two hundred acres. The com- 
pany was organized that year by himself and F. F. Minor and he is vice- 
president and manager. Two wells have been completed and a third started. 
One of these at a depth of two thousand feet, has a capacity of two hundred 
barrels per day of twenty-five gravity oil- Politically he is a Republican. 

J. G. EDWARDS. — The farming element of Kern county has a note- 
worthy representative in the person of J. G. Edwards, who after having fol- 
lowed the ( ccupation of a millwright for years in Missouri finally met with 
reverses that took from him the fruits of his long toil, forcing him to start 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1329 

anew at an age when he might have been justified in anticipating ease and 
comfort. It was his good fortune, in choosing a new location, to select Kern 
county for a home and here he has retrieved the losses of the past, so that he 
and his capable wife are now surrounded by every comfort. Their success has 
been made possible by the possession and ownership of a fertile farm in the 
Weed Patch. Working contentedly and happily and enjoying life to the ut- 
most, they do not shut themselves out from the sorrows uf the world and are 
especially in sympathy with the anxieties of the laboring man in his efifort 
to provide food and raiment for his family. Mr. Edwards is a Socialist. 

As a soldier in the Civil war he fought for the Union and in times of 
peace he has been equally loyal to the nation. Although himself of American 
birth, he is a descendant of Scotch progenitors. His father, Hugh Edwards, 
was born in Scotland, but crossed into Ireland during boyhood and as a young 
man became an immigrant to the United States, where he spent his remaining 
years in Pennsylvania. In that state he married Miss Catherine Cantwell, a 
member of a Welsh family. By trade a wagonmaker, he engaged in the manu- 
facture of vehicles in Pennsylvania throughout the balance of his life. When 
gold was discovered in California he was employed to build wagons for the 
trip to the coast. 

Born near Johnstown, Pa., February 8, 1839, J. G. Edwards was one of 
three children who attained mature years. A brother, Charles G., twelve 
years older than himself, died in the army during the Civil war. His younger 
sister, Catherine, Mrs. McKnight, died in Philadelphia. At the age of twelve 
years he went to Coshocton county, Ohio, joining an uncle, Guy Edwards, 
a millwright and farmer. In that community the uncle had a reputation as an 
expert mechanic. The most intricate jobs were taken to him. It was under 
such excellent direction that the lad took up the occupation of mill-building. 
While thus engaged he enlisted in the Union army as a substitute. Becoming 
a member of Company F, One Hundred and Seventy-eighth Ohio Infantry, 
he engaged in guard duty below Baltimore, was stationed for some time in 
Virginia and West Virginia, and later was assigned to the secret service for 
duty in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Pennsylvania. At the expiration of two 
years and eight months at the front he received an honorable discharge. 

A period of activity as a millwright in Ohio was followed by the removal 
of Mr. Edwards to Missouri, where he took up his trade in Greene county. 
There in 1872 he married Miss Torinda \\ Tuttle, who was born in Indiana 
and at the age of twelve years accompanied relatives to Missouri. Until 
1892 Mr. Edwards continued to live in Missouri and meanwhile he built 
or bought and sold mills in about six of the leading counties of 
southeastern Missouri. At first he was prospered, but reverses began to 
fall upon him and eventually he was obliged to give up the business. It was 
then that he came to California and secured work as a ranch-hand for Blodgett, 
Fish & Daggett. Next he spent a year in the employ of Captain McKittrick. 
Meanwhile he had saved his earnings and thus was enabled to buy twenty 
acres in 1895, three years after his arrival in Kern county. The place cost him 
$1,000 including the water right from the east side canal. From that invest- 
ment he has been able to earn a livelihood from year to year. The older son, 
Charles, is a mechanic and farmer living at Salem, Ore. The yovmger son, 
Arthur, is an oil-well driller, now following his trade at Vera Cruz, Mexico. 
The only daughter, Katie V., is the wife of A. E. Wilson and lives on a ranch 
in Kern county. 

H. J. HATH. — Considerations of health brought Mr. Hath to California 
when twenty-four years of age and since then he has lived in Kern county. 
A native of Michigan, he was born September 1, 1878, in Clinton county, 
seven miles north of Lansing and seventy miles east of Grand Rapids. His 
father, James M., for years a farmer in Clinton county, died there in 1900. 



1330 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

and the mother, Lovina (Burdy) Hath, still remains at the old homestead. The 
parental family included eight children and of these H. J. was next to the 
youngest. Like the other children, he was early taught to aid in the work on 
the home farm and during winter months attended a country school. Later 
he had the advantage of a course of study in a business college at Lansing. 
During 1901 he was united in marriage with Miss Stella M. Dunn, of Shia- 
wassee county, Mich., and they have two children, Elno and Thelma. 

Realizing that he could not hope to live long if he remained in Michigan 
he came to California in 1902 and here he has had the satisfaction of com- 
pletely regaining his strength and has done well from a business standpoint, 
so that he has had no reason to regret his removal to the west. After coming 
to this county he worked in the Southern Pacific shops at Kern for seven 
months and then came to the Kern river oil fields, where ever since he has 
been employed, at first as a day laborer and since August 1, 1911, as fore- 
man of the machine shop on the lease of the Kern Trading and Oil Com- 
pany. Ever since boyhood he has displayed mechanical ability and has pre- 
ferred work with machinery to other forms of labor, so that he finds his 
present position congenial and suited to his abilities. In political affiliation Mr. 
Hath is a Republican and fraternally he is identified with the Woodmen of 
the World. In 1912 he was elected trustee of the Petroleum school district, in 
the Kern river field, where is being erected an elegant $10,000 school house, 
the finest structure of its kind in the field. 

MRS. SARAH GLENN. — One of the early pioneers of California, whose 
many experiences of untold hardship and deprivation are often retold to the 
many friends and relatives who now surround her, is Mrs. Sarah Glenn, 
now making her home with her daughter, Mrs. Morris Borgwardt, of Bakers- 
field. She was born November 21, 1835, near Nashville, Tenn., daughter of 
Neal and Charity (Hall) Dennis. She was the fifth of her parents' family 
of eight children born in Tennessee, three others being born in Texas, and 
she was twelve years old when brought to Texas, ox-teams and horses fur- 
nishing the means of transportation and travel, and a settlement was made 
at Belton, Bell county, that state, where the father followed farming. Mrs. 
Glenn was but fourteen when she was married to James Madison Glenn, 
who was born in the southwest February 22, 1821. The couple crossed the 
plains in wagons drawn by ox-teams to California and her eldest son, John 
Glenn, a cattle man at White River, Tulare county, was born on the journey, 
which took seven months and three weeks. In this company crossing the 
plains, which took place in 1854, were the Dunlap, Arnold and Brite families 
and they shared in many exciting and terrible encounters. At the head of 
the Gila river, the Glenn band was overtaken by Apache Indians, and it was 
only through the kind intervention of Adolph Moore that bloodshed was 
averted. However, a member of the band, by name Jim Houston, brother 
of Mrs. Dunlap, was shot by the Indians in trying to recover twenty-three 
head of horses which had been stolen. The first stop was made at Los 
Angeles, where the Glenns remained during 1854-55 and then went to 
Visalia, where the year 1856-57 was spent, and later they lived at the upper 
crossing of the San Joaquin river. Then returning to Tulare county, they 
lived for a year on the Kings river, whence they went to Linn's valley and 
later moved to Havilah. Upon their return to Linn's valley they settled 
here and Glennville was named after Mr. Glenn, who followed his trade of 
blacksmith, building the first shop of that kind in the vicinity. He con- 
tinued to follow this trade and conduct the blacksmith shop at Glennville 
until his death, which occurred in 1883, and at his death there passed away 
one of the most sturdy and energetic pioneers California has ever known. 
Six children survived him. John A. is a cattleman at White River, Cal. 
Charity became the wife of William Melburne, and now resides at Terra 
Bella. William is at Oxnard. Ventura countv. Virginia Lee is the wife of 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1331 

Frank C. Beale, of Visalia. Neal is a ijardener of Los Angeles. Etta is the 
wife of Morris Borgwardt, of Bakersfield, who is the custodian of the Emer- 
son school. Mr. and Mrs. Borgwardt have two children, Sibyl, who is a 
freshman in the Bakersfield high school ; and Henry Lawton, who is in the 
Bakersfield grammar school. 

JOHN BRECKENRIDGE BRITE.— The Brite family, of which John 
Breckenridge Brite is a member, has been so closely identified with Kern 
county, as to give its name to one of that county's fertile valleys, and Brites 
Valley has been the center of their industries for many years. While his 
parents were in Southern California, whither they had gone because of ill- 
ness in the family, John B. Brite's birth occurred in El Monte, Los Angeles 
county, December 20, 1866. He is the son of John M. Brite, the pioneer 
settler of the Tehachapi region, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this 
publication. John B. Brite received the education afforded by the local 
public schools of his vicinity, attending until he was sixteen, when he went 
to work for his father, continuing thus until he was twenty-one. For four 
years in partnership with his three brothers, he ran the home ranch, and it 
was finally divided among them, John B. becoming owner of three hundred 
and twenty acres, which he has since cultivated and where he has made his 
home. Aside from ranching, Mr. Brite was in the livery and blacksmithing 
business in the town of Tehachapi in 1902, but his large land interests 
engaged most of his time and he found it necessary to give them his entire 
attention. Consequently he disposed of the business and returned to his farm. 

Mr. Brite at present is owner of twelve hundred and eighty acres of 
land and has about seven hundred acres of it under cultivation, the produc- 
tion of which finds a ready market. It has been proved that the land under 
cultivation is well adapted for fruit, vieing with any in the Tehachapi region, 
but the chief production on Mr. Brite's land is wheat and barley. He owns 
a combined harvester and in connection with his tilling the soil he raises 
thoroughbred Poland China hogs, having about four hundred head on his 
place. He has some fine cattle, using his father's old brand, the half moon 
and capital J. 

In January, 1909, Mr. Brite was married to Belle Smith, a native of 
Pennsylvania, and they have made a pleasant and hospitable home in the 
valley. 

HENRY SANGUINETTL— One of the oldest superintendents now op- 
erating in the Kern river fields, and one who has seen great changes take 
place in this locality, is Henry Sanguinetti, who at present superintends the 
works of the Linda Vista, Piedmont and Sesnon Oil Companies, and is man- 
ager of the Oakland Water Company, being also superintendent of the 
Broadway Oil Company. 

Mr. Sanguinetti was born in Vallicita, Calaveras county, Cal., where 
his father, John Sanguinetti, settled upon coming to America. The latter 
was one of the "forty-niners" who were attracted to this part of the world 
by the report of the discovery of gold. Reaching this state, he worked in 
the mines and later took up farming, and here he and his estimable wife, 
Rosa (Campa) Sanguinetti, lived and raised their family of five children, 
four sons and one daughter. The mother is now living, at the age of eighty- 
three years, on the old homestead of Calaveras county, where Mr. Sanguin- 
etti's three brothers and sister also reside. 

Henry Sanguinetti was born August 16, 1867, and his public school 
education was supplemented by a course at the Stockton Business College, 
from which he was graduated. He worked with a construction gang in 
Calaveras and Amador counties, building stamp mills, flumes, hoists and all 
structures pertaining to mine operations. In 1886 he came to Kern county 
and did repair work on the Long Tom Mine about twenty-five miles north of 
Bakersfiel-d, and in 1889 came to Bakersfield to engage as a contractor and 



1332 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

builder. It was in the spring- of 1900 that he decided to go to Alaska, where 
he was employed in building the Snattesham stamp mill, situated about 
thirty miles northeast from Juneau. This took him a year, after which he 
returned to California, coming direct to the Kern river oil field, having been 
sent hither by Frank Littlefield, who operated the Snattesham stamp mill, 
and here he has since remained. Mr. Sanguinetti has drilled about thirty- 
six wells, and in his work has proven himself a man of great constructive 
genius and a capable draftsman. 

Before going to Alaska, in 1900, Mr. Sanguinetti was married to Miss 
Marie Meinecke, of Vallicita, Cal., whose parents were pioneers of Cala- 
veras county, of German descent. Before her marriage she was a teacher 
in the schools in her native county, and with her husband has always taken 
a deep interest in school afifairs. He helped to organize the Toltic school 
district, and now serves as clerk of the board of trustees. Mr. and Mrs. 
Sanguinetti have three children, Marie, Dorris and Henry, Jr. 

Mr. Sanguinetti is a stockholder in the Linda Vista, Piedmont and 
Broadway companies, and he now reaps the benefit of his stanch integrity 
and unfailing effort in their conduct. 

JOHN H. AUGSBURGER.— Born and reared in Ohio, John J. Augs- 
burger, the father of our subject removed to Indiana, devoted his active 
life to agricultural pursuits and died July 8, 1911, at the old homestead. 
Surviving him are the widow and six children. The former, who bore the 
maiden name of Fannie Hirschy, was born in Indiana, descended from Swiss 
forebears, and is still living on the old home farm in her native common- 
wealth. The place lies near the eastern Indiana oil fields in the vicinity of 
Geneva. The six children are as follows : Rebecca, wife of Charles Tremp, 
of Woodburn, Allen county, Ind. ; Noah, a farmer near Linn Grove, Adams 
county, Ind. ; Albert, who is engaged in farming near Bern, Adams 
county, Ind.; Ella, who resides with her mother; John H., who was born 
near Linn Grove, Ind., December 11, 1884, and is the only member of the 
family to remove from the old home state ; and Elmer, who now has charge 
of the homestead near Linn Grove. The next to the youngest son com- 
pleted his education in the Linn Grove high school, where he took a course of 
three years. At the age of seventeen he engaged as a roustabout with the 
Standard Oil Company in the Geneva district. After two weeks as a roust- 
about he began pumping. From that he rose to be a tool-dresser and then 
a driller. Two years were spent in the Casey field, where he worked suc- 
cessively for several different companies. For the next two years he worked 
in the Glenn Pool field in Oklahoma, and during 1909 came from there to 
California, where he worked at Orcutt in the Santa Maria field. A year 
later, in 1910, he came to Kern county and for two years drilled in the 
vicinity of Maricopa. July 16, 1912, he became connected with the Kern 
Trading & Oil Company in the North INIidway division of the Sunset field 
near Fellows. As lease foreman, with headquarters on section 23, 31-22, he 
holds a very responsible position with one of the greatest concerns operat- 
ing in this county, and has won the confidence, not only of higher offfcials 
of the corporation, but also of co-workers and other employes, all of whom 
unite in testifving as to his ability, intelligence and devotion to duty. 

DAN McDonald.— The birth of Mr. McDonald occurred in Boston, 
Alass., January 1, 1870, and he received a public-school education in 
his native city. During 1893 he became an employe in the shipyards at 
Newport News, Va., and later he drifted to the Southwest to identify himself 
with the vast region that was drawing on the east for men of energy and 
intelligence. For nearly a year, he rode the range in Oklahoma and Indian 
Territory for different cattle outfits. After leaving there he drifted into 
Montana and followed the same occupation with John Murphy on the 
Seventy-Nine Horse Ranch near Billings, but resigned at the time of the 
discovery of gold in the Klondike, intending to accompany an expedition to 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1333 

Nome. However, he had gone no further than Seattle, when he was taken 
seriously ill with pneumonia. When finally he had recovered his health he 
went to Butte, Mont., and engaged in mining. Next he engaged in mining at 
Brigham, Utah, and from that point proceeded to San Juan, Colo.; thence 
to Bland, N. Mex., from which place he went to Jerome and Bisbee, Arizona. 

Employment in Los Angeles filled the years between 1898 and 1902. 
During April of the year last named Mr. McDonald came to Mojave, where 
ever since he has made his home. For six years he followed mining with 
the Exposed Treasury Company and the Queen Esther Company, after which 
he embarked in the liquor business, becoming proprietor of the Los Angeles 
House, since which time he has built an annex to the house. In addition he 
has erected a cottage in the same block, which he used in connection with the 
hotel. In Los Angeles he married Miss Lillie E. Taylor, a native of Eng- 
land. By the union he is the father of four children, Lillie, Mabel and ]\Iary, 
twins, and Joseph. In politics he always has been stanch in his allegiance to 
the Democratic party. Fraternallv he is connected wich Bakersfield Lodge 
No. 473, L. O. O. M., and also with the Los Angeles Aerie No. 202, F. O. E. 

NICK BRITZ is the son of John and Gertrude (Salm) Britz, both 
of whom were natives of Germany and are now^ deceased. The father was a 
farmer and a member of an old and much respected family in that country. 
Six children came to their marriage, four having survived the parents, and 
Nick, who was the youngest and only one to come to America, was born 
June 29, 1860, near Sarbruchen or Treves, in Rhenish-Prussia. He was 
brought up in his native place and sent to the schools there, meanwhile 
aiding his father on the home farm. In 1881 he came to the United States 
and after stopping in Pennsylvania for a while he went to Pueblo, Colo., at 
the time of the building of the Bessemer Steel Works there, being employed 
on the construction of the blast furnace. In December, 1882, he came to Cali- 
fornia and secured employment in the Hills Ferry hotel, later doing farm 
work, and in 1884 he came to Bakersfield, where he entered the employ of the 
Southern Pacific Railroad Co. Not long afterward he was transferred to 
Los Angeles by that company and worked in the roundhouse at Colton and 
Lancaster. In 1889, he returned to Bakersfield, first entering the employ of 
the German hotel, then the Walters hotel, after which he decided to start in 
business for himself. He opened up a liquor business on the corner of K and 
Nineteenth streets in 1892, and later added the French Cafe, but this he later 
sold and has since continued the original business, in which Gaudenz W'ei- 
chelt also -has an interest. Besides this business Mr. Britz is interested in the 
Los Angeles Fire Insurance Company. 

Nick Britz was married in Santa Cruz, Cal., to Miss Josephine ]\Iatske, 
who was born in Berlin, Germany. He is a member of the Knights of 
Pythias, Order of Eagles and the Order of Royal Arch. He is a Democrat. 

J. R. LOCK. — An identification with the Associated Oil Company that 
began in November of 1909 and that kept him at the McKittrick holdings of 
the corporation for a considerable period, has since brought Mr. Lock to the 
company properties at Fellows, where he is now employed as head machinist, 
having charge of all outside work pertaining to the machinery at the com- 
pany properties one and one-half miles northeast of the town. Long experience 
as a machinist qualifies him for expert work in this important department of 
the devolopment work of the concern. 

A Missourian by birth, Mr. Lock was born near Darlington, Gentry 
county, December 18, 1877. The farm where uneventfully were passed the 
years of boyhood and youth had been occupied by his father since 1856, when 
that hardy pioneer took up the land and began the transformation of the raw 
prairie into a remunerative, productive estate. Now unable to continue the 
heavy agricultural labors of his younger days, he has leased his farm of three 
hundred and eighty acres and is enjoying the comforts of old age. By his 



1334 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

marriage to Eliza Williams, who died in 1894 at the age of forty-four years, 
he had a family of five sons and one daughter. All are still living with the 
exception of one of the sons. The youngest soh and next to the youngest 
child, J. R. Lock, was reared at the old homestead and received a common- 
school education. Upon starting out to make his own way in the west, he 
left Missouri in February, 1898, and removed to Colorado. For a short time 
he remained at Pueblo. Afterward he foimd employment in the mines at Crip- 
ple Creek, where his first employment was that of fireman for the hoisting 
engine. Within one year he was promoted to be hoisting engineer, which 
responsible task he continued most successfully for a few years. 

Upon coming to California in February, 1909, Mr. Lock proceeded to 
Fresno and for two years was employed in running the pumps at the St. George 
winery. From there he removed to San Joaquin county and secured work as 
foreman of the R. C. Sargent estate on a ranch comprising one hundred and 
fifty thousand acres. During three and one-half years he filled the position and 
had charge of a herd of five thousand head of cattle. In order to prepare so 
large a drove for the markets it was necessary to raise large amounts of alfalfa 
and grain and all of such work was placed under his charge. 

While engaged as foreman on this ranch he met and married Miss Emma 
A. Blohm and they and their three sons, James S., Arthur R. and John H., 
now occupy a comfortable cottage on the property of the Associated near 
Fellows. From the ranch in San Joaquin county Mr. Lock came to Kern 
county and engaged with the old Amalie gold and silver mine near Caliente, 
where he had charge of the hoist for four years, and since giving up that work 
he has been continuously with the Associated. His attention is given wholly to 
the duties of his position. He is a member of Taft Lodge No. 593, L. O. O. M. 

L. A. HIRSCH. — Merit and persistence are the qualities that have con- 
tributed to the rapid rise of Mr. Hirsch in the oil industry. Although still a 
young man, scarcely yet in the prime of manhood and with years of possible 
continued usefulness stretching before him, his knowledge of the oil business 
is not surpassed by that of men many years older than he and his intelligent 
application to the work forecasts increased results for the future. As lease fore- 
man of the American Oilfields Company, with headquarters on section ^6, 
31-22, he is identified with production work on one of the greatest properties 
in the state. 

Descended from an old eastern family, L. A. Hirsch was born at St. 
Marys, Auglaize county, Ohio, March 22, 1887, received a fair education in 
the grammar and high schools of his native town, and at the age of eighteen 
years became a pumper in the employ of the Standard Oil Company. Ever 
since that time he has continued in the same occupation. Upon leaving Ohio 
he went to Illinois, still as an employe of the Standard, and for a time he 
worked in the oil fields at Westfield, twelve miles north of Casey. A later 
position with the Silurian Oil Company at Bridgeport occupied him for two 
years and four months, after which he came to California in September, 1910, 
and found employment on section 22 division of the North American Con- 
solidated. After a short period with that company, on May 6, 1911, he became 
lease foreman with the American Oilfields Company, and has since filled this 
responsible position with creditable efficiency. With his wife, whom he mar- 
ried in Bakersfield and who was formerly Miss Blanche Worman, of St. 
Marys, Ohio, he has established a comfortable home on section 36 in a com- 
pany residence. 

HERMAN AUGUSTUS WEFERLING.— The organization of the Te- 
hachapi Hay and Grain Company, effected in 1909 through the efforts of a 
number of progressive local men, has added another enterprise to the com- 
mercial activities of Tehachapi and has been pushed forward to a gratif3''ing 
degree of financial importance through the capable management of Mr. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1335 

Weferling, who assisted in the starting of the concern and has since acted as 
its superintendent. While Mr. Weferling is ably and efficiently conducting- the 
large interests of the company his wife, formerly Mrs. Luella (Duty) Wiggins 
and a native of Texas, is devoting her attention to the management of her 
millinery store in Tehachapi. 

Of German birth, a native of Braunsweich, Prussia, born August 21, 1867, 
Herman Augustus Weferling was next to the oldest in a family consisting of 
two sons and three daughters (all still living.) The parents, William and 
Louise (Bressel) Weferling, were born in Prussia and the father engaged in 
the sugar manufacturing business at Magdeburg on the Elbe. During 1868 he 
brought his family to America, proceeded as far west as Wisconsin and in 
Black Hawk county built one of the first sugar mills in the state. Coming to 
California in 1871 he worked for a time in a sugar factory, but soon went to 
Santa Cruz and near Soquel began to cultivate a farm. During 1880 he re- 
moved to Monterey county and bought a farm in Lockwood valley, where 
he remained until his death and where his widow still makes her home. 

Reared in California and educated in the public schools of the state, 
Herman Augustus Weferling holds in highest honor the institutions of this 
commonwealth and is loyal to every movement fur the permanent upbuilding 
of the state. At the age of twenty-one he left home to make his own livelihood. 
Coming direct to Kern county he located land in the W^eed Patch and took up a 
claim under the homestead laws. Unfortunately a season of prolonged drought 
destroyed all of his crops and discouraged him to such an extent that he gave 
up the claim after two years. During 1890 he came to Tehachapi and secured 
a clerkship with Isidore Asher. Later he worked in the quartz mills. Since 
1909 he has devoted his time wholly to the Tehachapi Hay and Grain Com- 
pany. In politics he is a Republican. The development of Kern county inter- 
ests him deeply. A firm believer in the opportunities ofifered by this section 
of the state, he adds another to the list of the progressive, liberal and public- 
spirited men whose citizenship has been of inestimable value to the county. 

JEAN BURUBELTZ.— The death of Jean Burubeltz, on June 7, 1911, 
removed from East Bakersfield one of its oldest and best-known citizens, who 
had been identified with the interests of Kern county fcr thirty-five years, and 
who since 1901 had been the proprietor of the Hotel d'Europe of East Bakers- 
field. He was born in Lasse, Basses-Pyrenees, France, in January, 1852, and 
he grew up on the farm of his father, gaining the rudiments of his agricultural 
training under him. Coming to Kern county, Cal., at the age of twenty-one 
he engaged in the sheep business until 1890, when he sold out and went to 
Los Angeles, where he became interested in the hotel business. In 1901 he 
returned to Kern county and opened the hotel in East Bakersfield which he 
ever afterward conducted, and which his widow still continues with success. 
His death was a severe blow to many in his city, and he was mourned by a 
large circle of intimate friends. In politics he was a Republican. 

On August 5, 1890, occurred the wedding of Jean Burubeltz and Miss 
Jeanne Erreca, who was born in Urapel, Basses-Pyrenees, France. She is the 
daughter of Pierre and Catherine (Mariluch) Erreca, the former now farming 
in France, while the mother is deceased. Pierre Erreca was engaged for some 
time in the stock business in Buenos Ayres, South America, but returned to 
France, where he purchased a farm and is now residing. He was the father of 
nine children, all living, of whom Mrs. Burubeltz is the eldest. 

Mrs. Jeanne (Erreca) Burubeltz came to the United States in 1883 and 
was married to Mr. Burubeltz in Los Angeles, whence they came to East 
Bakersfield in 1901. She has five children, Michel, Carmen, Paul, Lawrence 
and Helen. 

CHARLES RICHARD BRITE.— The name of Brite's Valley shall serve 
as a monument to the memory of John Moore Brite, a pioneer of '59 in this 

55 



1336 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

part of the state and in whose honor Brite's valley was named and a sketch of 
whom appears in this work. 

Charles R. Brite was born at El Monte, Los Angeles county, October 20, 
1868, during the temporary residence of the family there and six months later 
they returned to Kern county and as he grew up he was sent to school in the 
valley. Compelled to go to work at only twelve years of age, he drove an ox- 
team at his father's sawmill. For six years he was employed in the mill and 
then worked on his father's ranch, remaining with him until he reached his 
twenty-third year. In partnership with his three brothers he conducted the 
ranch for about four years, and then the estate was divided, and each started 
out for himself. At this time he had acquired three hundred acres of land, 
also owning a hundred and sixty of the home place, and he engaged in general 
farming and stockraising, at various times buying land, until he now owns 
five thousand acres in all. Four hundred acres are under cultivation, the re- 
mainder being utilized for the ranging cf his stock, as he has about five hun- 
dred head in all. In addition to this Mr. Brite owns forty acres of land planted 
to alfalfa on Union avenue near Bakersfield, under the Kern Island Canal, 
and he has found this a most profitable investment. 

Mr. Brite, like his brothers, has become prosperous in his undertakings. 

On January 25, 1901, Mr. Brite married Ella Buhn, who was born in 
Tehachapi, January 28, 1885, and died June 22, 1908, leaving two children, 
Richard G. and John E., bcth of whojn are attending public school. Subse- 
quently Mr. Brite married Delia Merwin, a native of Pennsylvania. He is 
much interested in educational work and at present is serving as trustee of 
the Brite's valley school district. Politically he is a Democrat. 

CALVIN HALL HOLMES.— Three generations of the Holmes family 
have lived and labored in California, and the present representatives feel a 
merited pride in the long and honorable identification of their name with this 
section of the country. When news was received in Arkansas concerning the 
discovery of gold at Sutter's camp three brothers, Calvin, Henderson and 
William Hclmes, at once began to make preparation for the long journey to 
the west. The summer of 1849 found them traveling overland towards Cali- 
fornia. It was the brother first-named who became the ancestor of C. H. 
Holmes, of Taft. Following the example of the majority of early settlers, he 
tried his luck at mining and even after he had taken up land in Sonoma county 
he helped to devek p the Yellow Jacket quicksilver mines on his ranch. Three 
different times he traveled back to Arkansas and to Kentucky for the purpose 
of buying horses and cattle to drive overland to California and on one of these 
trips to Kentucky he married Miss Elvira Hofifman, who accompanied him 
on the long journey across the plains to the new home. To an unusual degree 
he identified himself with the upbuilding of California, where he was widely 
known. On the site of the new mint in San Francisco he built one of the 
first slaughter-houses in that city. To aid in building the railroad from San 
Francisco to Calistoga, Napa county, he donated $10,000, and many other 
public improvements of early days felt the impetus of his generosity. Finan- 
cially and politically he was a man of influence. When finally his earth life 
came to an end friends and family mourned the passing of one whose existence 
had counted in the world's work and whose patriotic services placed him high 
in the citizenship of his adopted state. 

There were three children in the family of this pioneer and of these 
Edward, whose death occurred in 1902, was the youngest. By his marriage 
to Miss Emily John six children were born, viz: Edward, who is engaged 
in farming a part of the old homestead ; Calvin Hall ; Anna L. wife of Egbert 
Smith, a farmer of Napa county; Herman -and Ovid, who are ranching on a 
part of the old homestead ; and Kate, a student in the Berkeley high school 
who resides with her mother, now Mrs. Fred Emerson Brooks. Born at Kel- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1337 

\ogg, Sonoma county, Cal., March 20, 1888, C. H. Holmes began to help on the 
ranch when he was only seven years of age. By the time he was fourteen he 
did a man's work on the farm and earned $20 per month as wages during the 
busy season. His father was a college graduate and desired that his children 
should also have good advantages, so he benight a residence in Berkeley and 
sent the children to the splendid educational institution in that city. 

During an attendance of three years and six months in the Berkeley 
high school C. H. Holmes became an athlete and still holds the records on 
one-quarter mile run, accomplished in 52 2-5 seconds, in the spring of 1907. 
For a time he was business manager of the high school paoer. On returning 
to the ranch he acted as assistant foreman. Later he spent six months as 
manager of the Jewett fruit ranch. Going back to Berkeley, he became official 
coach for the Berkeley high school track team and remained for a year. In 
April of 1910 he left Berkeley and proceeded to Maricopa where he secured a 
position as stock clerk with J. F. Lucey Co., continuing in their employ for 
two and one-half years. During the last year of his association with the firm 
he served as manager. May 15, 1912, he entered the service of the Axelson 
Machine Co., and since February of 1913 he has been their manager at Taft. 
The company is a Bakersfield concern, but now has its headquarters in Los 
Angeles, although retaining the store at Bakersfield, besides the branches at 
Coalinga and Taft. Giving his time and attention closely to the interests of the 
company, he has had little leisure for identification with outside activities, 
but he and his wife, who was formerly Miss Cleta Lamb Hickerson, of Bakers- 
field, have a large circle of friends in Kern county. Politically he favors the 
principles of the Democratic party. 

A. M. WEAVER. — A son of C. Weaver, who had conducted a cooper shop 
and lampblack factory in Pennsylvania, A. M. Weaver was born at Oil City, 
Pa., July 6, 1884, became an employe of the Oil Well Supply Company when he 
was only fifteen years of age, since which time he has been connected contin- 
uously with the same firm. A long, successful and honorable record with t'ne 
same concern stands to his credit and testifies as to his ability. 

As a clerk in the store of the Oil Well Supply Company at Oil City. ^^Ir. 
Weaver gained his first practical knowledge of business in general and the oil 
suppl}^ business in particular. Transferred from one Pennsylvania town to 
another in the interests of the same concern, he became proficient as a sales- 
man, and April 28, 1905, opened up the company's store at Bullion, that state, 
where he was the first manager. His selection for such a position attested to 
his high standing with officials of the corporation. . During 1909 he came to 
California and spent nine months in the Los Angeles salesroom, from which 
he was sent to Kern county in April, 1910, in order to open the company's 
store at Shale, two miles northwest of Fellows. Here he has since continued 
as manager of the Shale branch of the R. H. Herron Co., affiliated with the Oil 
Well Supply Company. While living in Pennsylvania he was connected with 
the Elks at Franklin. In Los Angeles he was united in marriage with Miss 
Eva Eakin, daughter of Alonzo Eakin, at one time a prominent oil operator in 
Pennsylvania fields. Mrs. Weaver met her death in a runaway accident ]\Iarch 
5, 1913, leaving a small child. May, who since has made her home wnth the 
maternal grandmother, Mrs. Eakin, in Los Angeles. A woman of culture 
and charming social graces, Mrs. Weaver was much beloved in the circle of her 
intimate friends and her death was an irreparable bereavement to the imme- 
diate family. 

FRED B. VAUGHN. — The selection of the oil business as his life occu- 
pation was the natural outcome of the early environment of Mr. Vaughn, who 
as a boy became familiar with the sights and scenes in the great oil fields of 
Colorado lying near the city of Florence. Himself a native of that state, born 
at Rosita, Custer county, January 14, 1883, he is the son of Bridd and Clara 



1338 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

(Blakesley) Vaughn, the latter deceased in 1903, and the former, a gold-miner 
by occupation, still a resident of Florence, Colo., and quite active notwithstand- 
ing his sixty-three years. In remote and isolated communities, far from the 
commercial centers, he has lived his life in patient toil, and much of the remark- 
able energy displayed by his son, Fred B., is an inheritance from this pioneer 
miner of the Rocky mountain region. Of the five children in the family, Fred 
B. was the fourth in order of birth and the second son. During boyhood he 
spent the winter months in school and the summer seasons at work in the 
oil fields of Colorado. 

When he had advanced so that he could fill the position of a tool-dresser 
Mr. Vaughn came to California in 1905 and for a year worked in the Los 
Angeles field, from which he came to the Kern river field to work as a pro- 
duction man on the Associated lease. After four years there he began as a 
tool-dresser for the same company on the west side, where later he drilled 
on the Bear Creek lease. After eight months as superintendent of the Stock- 
ton Midway Oil Company he came into the service of the M. & M. Oil Com- 
pany as a driller, from which he was promoted, June 23, 1913, being made 
superintendent of the company's holdings on section 15, 31-22. Ten active 
wells on the tract of eighty acres now average a monthly production of seven- 
teen th(;usand barrels, and it is the ambition of the superintendent to not only 
maintain, but also increase the output of the lease. His time is given closely 
to the work and his advancement has been made wholly on merit. He is a 
member of the Woodmen of the World. With his wife, who was formerly 
Miss Fannie Westfall, of Florence, Colo., he has established a comfortable 
home in the superintendent's residence on the M. & M. lease. 

CHRISTIAN W. CLINE.— Perseverance in the face of obstacles which 
to many another man would have been insurmountable has been the chief 
factor in the success of C. W. Cline. He was born in Franklin, Ohio, May 25, 
1864, and was educated in schools in different parts of his native state. After 
leaving school he made his home with his parents and was employed on 
farms until he was twenty-four years old, then coming to California and 
settling in Orange county, where he worked two years. From there he went 
to Redlands, where he spent a year. In 1890 he came to Delano and found em- 
ployment in the store of M. Swartz & Son, where for three years he filled the 
position of head salesman. By this time he had a thorough knowledge of 
merchandising and sufficient capital to engage in trade on his own accoimt 
in a modest way. He opened a general store in Tehachapi, but his health 
soon became so greatly impaired that he was obliged to close out his interests 
there and seek a more favorable location. This for a time he thought he 
had found at Sumner (East Bakersfield). He established a store there and 
soon worked up a business which promised great success ; but again ill health 
interefered with his plans and he was obliged to find out-door employment. 
This he found on Senator Cox's ranch, where he engaged as a laborer and later 
was made superintendent of the ranch. Eventually he resigned that position 
to take charge of the W. H. Harrelson ranch in Tulare county, which he 
managed until 1908. Then, going to Bakersfield, he was assistant postmaster 
under Postmaster Edmonds for six months, at the end of this time resigning 
his position as he was unable to longer continue indoor work. He then came 
to Delano, leased land of the Kern County Land Company and began a career 
as a grain farmer which has been almost uniformly successful to the present 
time. The acreage which he operates under lease varies from year to year from 
three hundred to eight hundred acres. 

As a farmer Mr. Cline has won distinction among the leaders in his vicin- 
ity. The family residence is in Delano, where Mr. Cline owns a comfortable 
home. As a Republican he is active in politics, as a citizen is public spirited 
and fraternally belongs to Delano Lodge No. 309, F. & A. M., Tulare Chapter 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1339 

No. 71, R. A. j\I.. Visalia Commandery No. 26, K. T., and Al Malaikah Tem- 
ple, N. M. S. in Los Angeles. December 26, 1905, Mr. Cline married Miss 
Edna McCutchen, a native of Augusta county, Va., and they have two chil- 
dren, Harry T. and Virginia M. 

STAR SODA WORKS was started on a small scale in Sumner (now 
East Bakersfield) in 1888 by G. Galli, who was born on a farm near Lucca, 
Italy, May 8, 1856. He came to San Francisco in 1871 and on October 1, 1879, 
he arrived in Bakersfield, following farming in this county until he started the 
Star Soda Works. The enterprise was the first of its kind in the village and 
for a time its success was problematical, but eventually the energy of the 
owner brought a merited measure of financial success and business standing. 

The incorporation of the Star Soda Works occurred in 1905 with Mr. 
Galli as president and he still fills the same office, having entire supervision 
of the plant en Grove street in East Bakersfield, where he is engaged in the 
manufacture of soda and soft drinks, also acts as agent for the products of the 
Mathie Brewing Company in Los Angeles. While the main business of his 
company is in Bakersfield he also makes shipments to different parts of Kern 
county and has built up an important trade through efficiency and energy. 
Besides owning the location of his plant he also owns three houses in East 
Bakersfield, including the residence which he built and now occupies. Since 
becoming a citizen of the United States he has affiliated with the Republican 
party. In fraternal relations he holds membership with the Druids. 

A, B. GREEN. — Although the association of Mr. Green with business 
interests in California has been of but brief duration as counted by years, 
already he has risen to a position of distinct importance along the line of his 
chosen occupation and at Taft, where he has engaged in business since 
April of 1910, he is known as a man of tireless energy and shrewd business 
judgment. Prior to his removal to the west he resided in Kentucky, of 
which commonwealth he is a native, having been born at Bowling 
Green, June 4, 1878, and having received a common-school educa- 
tion in that town. His studies, with the exception of a subsequent commercial 
course, were cut short at a very early age and he turned his attention to the 
sheet-metal work and to drafting, along which lines he acquired efficiency. 
With the exception of a visit to California during 1906 he devoted his atten- 
tion steadily to occupative labors in Kentucky until 1908, when he relinquished 
associations with the Blue Grass state and became a citizen of California. 
In coming here he had the advantage of a previous experience of fourteen 
years at his trade and therefore possessed every qualification for a successful 
continuance in the same or kindred pursuits. For one year after his arrival 
in Bakersfield he held a salaried position with Max Gundlach, Jr. 

One year was sufficient to convince the employer of the value of the 
clerk, therefore a partnership was proposed and inaugurated, the firm con- 
sisting of Max Gundlach, Jr., George A. JNIorris and A. B. Green, associated 
under the title of the Gundlach Tank Company, with places of business at 
Bakersfield, Maricopa and Taft. March 1, 1913, George A Morris sold out 
his interest to the two other partners, who have since conducted the business. 
Mr. Green was sent to Taft in April, 1910, to open the branch house at this 
point and to erect the necessary buildings. He has established a home at Taft, 
having been married in 1911 to Miss Jessie Balderson, a native of Illinois and a 
daughter of a pioneer of that state. With the exception of an active associa- 
tion with the Knights of Pythias, Woodmen of the World and Improved Order 
of Red Men, he gives his time and attention wholly to business affairs and 
takes just pride in the large trade he is building up through the whole field 
extending from Maricopa to McKittrick. Sheet-metal work of every descrip- 
tion is conducted along modern lines. 

VALENTIN LAFONT.— A gentleman well and favorablv known in 



1340 ■ HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Kern county is Valentin Lafont, who was born in St. Laurent, Hautes-Alpes, 
France, August 27, 1876, the son of Xavier and Josephine (Borel) Lafont, 
who were progressive farmers of that community and whose family comprised 
four children. Valentin, the third in order of birth, from a youth attended 
the local schools during the winters, while in summers he made himself useful 
on the home farm learning the mode of agriculture as it is accomplished 
in the South cif France. At the age of seventeen he went to the adjoining 
department, Bouche du Rhone, where for three years he was employed on 
a farm at teaming until he enlisted in the Twenty-second Regiment of Infantry 
in the French army. At the expiration of three years of service he was 
honorably discharged with the rank of corporal. After spending a year in 
St. Laurent he came to Bakersfield, Cal., in 1901 and immediately entered the 
employ of the Kern County Land Company. Later placed in charge of 
the tallow-rendering department of their Bellevue packing house, he continued 
in that capacity until 1908, when he accepted a position in the Bakersfield 
ice plant but after eighteen months resigned to re-enter the employ of the 
Kern County Land Company as fence rider on the Poso ranch. Desiring to 
engage in farming for himself in 1911 he leased the present ranch, which 
he has since operated and devotes his time to raising grain, alfalfa hay 
and corn. 

The marriage of Mr. Lafont occurred in East Bakersfield, Alarch 21, 1903, 
when he was united with Miss Marie Pauline Achin (also a native of St. 
Laurent, France), who is his able helpmate and assists him in his eflforts 
towards success. 

A. RODONI.- — The Vineland cheese factory, which is being conducted 
in Kern county by A. Rodoni and Peter Cattani, was the first factory of its 
kind in this part of the country. It has a daily capacity of three hundred 
pc unds of cheese, the quality of which is excellent and bears wide reputa- 
tion the country round. The fact that both these men have had a long experi- 
ence in the dairy business, and were brought up to learn the secrets of the 
making of this product in Italy explains their success. 

A. Rodoni is a native of Switzerland, having been born in December, 
1853, at Biasca, in Canton Ticino. There he was sent to school and reared 
to the life common in that country. He had early evinced a desire to see 
America, and when he had reached eighteen he started out, July 24, 1871, to 
make his way hither. From his home place he went to Liverpool, from there 
taking passage to New York, and he arrived in that port in early September, 
a few weeks later reaching San Francisco, Cal. He immediately went to 
San Mateo county, where he worked at dairying for a long period, later 
being engaged in farming, and for a short period in the saw mills. Before 
his marriage in 1894 he rented a dairy farm, and at this event he renewed 
his efforts in this direction, with the aid of his. efiicient wife building up a 
fine business in the manufacture of cheese, which he conducted for about 
fourteen years. In Merced county, he had bought a dairy ranch and started 
a creamery, and he is now the owner of one hundred and twenty-six acres 
in that county. 

In November, 1911, in partnership with Peter Cattani, Mr. Rodoni pur- 
chased one hundred and sixty acres, on section 20, 31-29, and later two hun- 
dred acres adjoining, making a total of three hundred and sixty acres for 
their dairy farm. They are milking a hundred cows, and their product is 
a full cream cheese which is classed among the best produced in the factories. 
A large barn was built by the partners which is well equipped, the aim being 
to procure the best results witli the best methods. In 1894 he married Flor- 
enda Mattei, who was born in the same canton of Switzerland as was her 
husband. She came to this country in company with her brother, Victor 
Mattei, who settled at Pescadero, San Mateo county. Four children were 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1341 

born to Mr. and Mrs. Rodoni as follows : Roy, Henry, Theodora and Florence. 
Mrs. Rodoni is an intelligent, sturdy woman, whose aid has been no small 
element in her husband's success. 

LESS CLOTFELTER.— Since coming to Bakersfield in 1901 and to 
McKittrick in 1904 Mr. Clotfelter has watched the development of the oil 
industry in this section of the country with the deepest interest and the 
keenest intelligence. While not participating actively in the strenuous tasks 
of oil development, like the majority of men living in the locality, he has 
invested in organizations devoted lo such work and offering considerable 
promise of future returns. At this writing he owns shares in different 
oil companies now operating in the vicinity of McKittrick and the North 
Midway field. All of his life has been passed within the" boundaries of Cali- 
fornia and from the age of nineteen he has lived in Kern county. Born at 
Visalia in 1882, he is a son of Daniel L. and Sophia (Grove) Clotfelter, who 
still reside in Visalia, the father having been identified for years with mer- 
cantile interests and the stock industry in that locality. 

The parental family numbered eleven children. All of these attained 
mature years and are still living. Less Clotfelter being the fifth in order of 
birth. After he had graduated from the Visalia high school in 1898, he 
secured employment in a fruit-packing house and also engaged in buying 
fruit for the packers. Different fruit companies in the San Joaquin valley 
secured his services in these capacities for brief periods, but at the age of 
nineteen he gave up that work and came to Kern county, where he since 
has engaged in the liquor business. Fraternally he is a member of the Eagles 
and the Moose. His marriage took place in San Francisco and united him 
with Miss Abigail Hock, a native of that city. By this marriage he has two 
daughters, Ruth and Hazel. Interested in educational matters, he has aided 
the development of the McKittrick school and has served as a member of 
the board, in which for one term he officiated as clerk. Through his valuable 
oil holdings in the McKittrick and North Midway fields he has enjoyed the 
prosperity resulting from investments in this highly favored district. 

JOSEPH P. STIER is a member of an ancient German family whose 
successive generations have been represented by specialists in the brewing 
of beer and whose name in certain localities became a synonym for skill in 
the business. The first to immigrate to the United States was Leo Stier, 
whose education and training in the old country proved of the utmost assist- 
ance to him in Chicago, where he followed the brewing industry and reared 
his family. Among his children was a son, Joseph P., born in Chicago in 
1880, educated in the public schools of that city, trained to the trade of 
brewer by the father and apprenticed to the bottling business with the 
Godfrey Brewing Company, of Chicago. On the conclusion of his time he 
remained with the same company as a paid employe. After working at the 
bottling business for some time, he took a course in the Siebel Brewing 
Academy, Chicago, from which he was graduated in 1910, upon the comple- 
tion of the regular course of study and practical work. 

Coming to California and settling in Bakersfield in April, 1912, J\Ir. Stier 
has since filled the position of brewmaster with the Bakersfield Brewing 
Company. Understanding the work thoroughly, he superintends the manu- 
facturing with intelligence and is not only an able brewer, but also a resource- 
ful business man. Fraternally he holds membership with the Hermann Sons. 

EMILIO C. CASTRO.— A native son of Kern county, Emilio C. Castro 
was born August 5, 1873. His elementary training was obtained in the 
local public schools, and at the age of fourteen years he began to work, 
procuring a position with the Kern County Land Company, where he remained 
for nine years. Then he became employed by the Miller & Lux Company, 
working for them for a period of seven years. It is proof of Mr. Castro's 



1342 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

ability that his employers held him as long as he would remain with them 
and reluctantly gave him up. However, he was ambitious to be doing for 
himself, and accordingly, in 1907, he bought twenty acres of land two and 
one-half miles south of Bakersfield and started farming, putting his land in 
alfalfa. He has also interested himself in stock-raising and runs cattle in 
the Breckenridge mountains, where recently he has expanded his interests, 
giving much of his time to this enterprise. He is a Democrat in political 
principles and takes a deep interest in the progress of his country. 

Mr. Castro was married May 28, 1907, in Bakersfield, to Mrs. Mary Pink 
CClark) May, who was born in Lake county. Ore., June 15, 1874. She came 
with her parents, William and Martha (Robinson) Clark, to Kern county 
in 1887, and they settled in Cummings valley, Tehachapi, where they lived 
for some years; her father died there and the mother in Iowa. She then 
returned east to Iowa, but came back to Kern county in 1907 and was mar- 
ried to Mr. Castro. By her former marriage she had two children. Pink and 
Clark Allen. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Castro there is one daughter, 
Frances Leonora. 

CHARLES A. MAY, — The May Transfer and Storage Company, Incor- 
porated, farms one of the stable business concerns of Bakersfield, where under 
the enterprising management of the brothers, Charles A. and George S. May, 
the business has been developed from a very unimportant afifair to a concern 
of large transactions. To meet the demands of the business the proprietors 
have erected a substanti-al and commodious transfer building and their stor- 
age capacity is equal to every demand that can be made upon it. Other 
activities have engaged their attention at different periods. Like their 
father, they have tried their luck in the mines and have gained little from 
them excepting experience. Like him, also, they have had identification 
with stock-ranching, but of recent years they have found it profitable to 
concentrate their energies upon the transfer and storage business, which 
now receives all of their time and intelligent supervision. 

The secretary and treasurer of the company, Charles A. May, was 
born in Placer county, Cal., May 27 , 1873, and at the age of one year was 
brought by his parents to Bakersfield, where he has lived much of the 
time since infancy. His father, George May, a California pioneer in 1850, 
became a mining partner of George A. Hearst during the early days and 
while thus associated he sank the Yellow Jacket shaft, the first in the now 
famous Comstock mine. For a time he had mining interests in connection 
with Senator Jones of Nevada. During the era of gold mining in Kern 
county he prospected here and did work in connection with the Big Blue 
gold mine at Kernville. Although a man of great energy and an excellent 
judge of mines, they brought him no success financially and eventually 
he abandoned the occupation for that of agriculture, taking up a home- 
stead sixteen miles south of Bakersfield at the old Tracy Crossing. There 
he built and for some years maintained a ferry. Next he operated a cattle 
ranch in the mountains at Walker's Basin and until his death, which 
occurred in 1898, he devoted his attention wholly to stock-raising and 
farming. 

From an early age Charles A. May earned his own livelihood, for his 
father was unable to aid him in securing a start in the world. Any occu- 
pation that ofifered honorable work and fair wages became an object of 
interest to him. For some years he engaged in teaming to the oil fields 
and mines and during 1896 he tried his luck at mining near Randsburg in 
the eastern part of Kern county, but the goddess of fortune did not smile 
upon his efforts. As early in 1896 he and his brother, George S., embarked 
in the transfer business at Bakersfield, where they built a warehouse on 
the corner of Union avenue and Humboldt street. After his first marriage, 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1343 

which occurred in 1900 and united him with Miss Alice Yost, of Montana, 
he removed to that state and for four years lived at Red Lodge, Carbon 
county. During the four years of his residence in Montana he filled numer- 
ous important contracts, including the sinking of a three-compartment shaft 
one thousand feet deep for the Anaconda Mining Company. Upon return- 
ing to Bakersfield he became a teaming contractor for the Southern Pacific 
Railroad Company, but more recently has devoted his entire attention to 
the transfer and storage business. In 1907 his first wife died leaving two 
children, Halcyon and Marshall. During December of 1911 he- was united in 
marriage with Mrs. Florence Bradley, of Salt Lake City, and they established 
their home at No. 127 Humboldt street, Bakersfield. In politics he votes 
the Republican ticket. Fraternally he holds membership with the Modern 
Woodmen of America. Having passed so much of his life in Bakersfield, 
he feels an especially deep interest in this city and in the surrounding 
country, and patriotism and loyalty have characterized his citizenship. 

CLINTON BUFFUM CRAWFORD.— The founder of the Crawford 
family in California was Daniel Peers, who was born at Spring Hill, Nova 
Scotia, November 10, 1847, and came to the United States as soon as he 
became old enough to earn a livelihood. After his arrival in Boston during 
1865 he found employment in factories in and near that city. In 1868 he 
came to California, spending the first year in San Francisco, where he 
held a position as cashier in a bank. While making his headquarters in 
that city he met and married Miss Anna Carter Taylor, who was born in 
Indianapolis, Ind., September 15, 1850, and at the age of four years was 
brought to the west by her parents. The family traveled via Panama and 
the four-year-old girl was carried across the isthmus on the backs of 
natives. Her education was received in the schools of San Francisco and 
she made her home in that city until her marriage. During 1872 she accom- 
panied her husband to San Luis Obispo, where their son, Clinton B., was 
born May 30, 1873. Some years later the family removed to the southern 
part of the state and bought land at Olive, then in Los Angeles county, 
but now a part of Orange county. The father still owns business interests, 
also an orange grove, at Olive, where he is a well-known and honored 
citizen. 

After he had graduated from the schools of Olive, June 30, 1890, Clinton 
B. Crawford remained at the old homestead and worked for his father 
until 1895, when he came to Kern county. Near Rosel station, on what 
then was the Toolwass district, he took up a homestead claim of one hun- 
dred and sixty acres, where he experimented with dry farming for a few 
years. The chief drawback was the lack of irrigation facilities. He was 
obliged to haul water from a distance of eight miles for domestic use. The 
hard work and lack of success incident to dry farming led him to move 
to a new location, but he still retains his farm in that district. Since 1899 
he has lived on a farm in the old Goose Lake channel of Kern river, where 
at first he bought eighty acres and later purchased an adjacent tract of 
one hundred and twenty acres, thus giving him a farm of two hundred 
acres, five miles northeast of Button Willow. The land was in the primeval 
condition of nature at the time of his settlement here. The most difficult 
exertion was required in order to transform it into a productive condi- 
tion. The task has been attended with many discouragements, his heaviest 
losses being caused by the floods of 1906 and 1908. In 1903 he determined 
to specialize in the dairy industry and in order to secure the desired stock 
with which to start his herd he drove to Orange county and bought six 
head of thoroughbred Jerseys, which he hauled back by wagon, a distance 
of two hundred miles, being nine days en route. This was the first pure- 
bred Jersey stock brought into his locality, and he now has ninety head of 



1344 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

pure Jerseys. The success of the dairy business proves that the industry 
can be made profitable in this part of the county, while the modern improve- 
ments on the farm indicate that he is a man of thrift, intelligence and pro- 
gressive agricultural spirit. The place is one of the best cared for in the 
entire district. 

The Republican party has received the vote of Mr. Crawford in national 
as well as local elections and he has served as a delegate to local conventions.- 
He favors educational movements and served most acceptably as trustee of 
the Wild wood, school district. His marriage took place in Bakersfield October 
26, 1895, and united him with Miss Alpha Helen Sisson, by whom he is the 
father of four children, Naomi H., Daniel M., Roy M. and Bruce M. Mrs 
Crawford was born in Muscatine, Iowa, February 1, 1875, and at the age of 
ten years accompanied her parents to California, settling at Santa Ana, where 
she attended the public schools. She is the daughter of Martin H. Sisson, who 
for many years was a farmer in Kern county and now lives retired in Bakers- 
field. During the Civil war he served in a Wisconsin regiment. With her 
husband Mrs. Crawford has labored tirelessly to secure the development of 
their farms and to promote the welfare of their children, and in the com- 
munity she shares with him the regard of a large circle of acquaintances. 

LYNN WILLIAM BAKER.— His father, J. K. Baker, was born in 
Indianapolis, Ind., where he was reared and educated. His first experience in 
the stock business was at Keokuk, Iowa, where he had located, and he became 
a breeder of standard and thoroughbred horses, which proved a successful 
venture from the start. In 1902 he located in San Jose, Cal., where he now 
is living retired,- enjoying the fruits of his earlier labors. His wife was 
Rebecca Campbell, born in Ohio, and they became the parents of three sons, 
Lynn W. being the second oldest. 

L. W. Baker was born June 23, 1885, in Keokuk, where he attended 
the common school until he reached the age of thirteen. In 1899 he 
went to Shoshone, Idaho, where he entered the employ of the Stockgrowers 
Mercantile Company, which position he filled for eleven months. For thir- 
teen months following he followed mining in Inkum, Bannock county, Idaho, 
working in the old Wildhorse mine there, and he then removed to Quincy, 
111., where he was enabled to take a course at the high school and also at 
the Gem City Business College, from which latter he was graduated in 1903. 
Returning to Keokuk he was an employe of a clothing firm for some time, in 
1905 coming to San Francisco to enter the employ of the wholesale grocery 
firm of Garretson & Company. He remained with the latter company until 
1910 when they sold out, and in February of that year he came to Kern county 
where he has since made his home in Bakersfield. Buying out the cigar busi- 
ness of which he is now proprietor he built up a flourishing trade. In 1912 with 
W. C. Taylor he built the Dreamland Rink, on Nineteenth and R streets, 62x 
116, the largest pleasure hall in the county and a venture that has been a 
decided success. Methodical and painstaking he has proved himself an apt 
business man. 

As one of the organizers of Bakersfield Lodge No. 473, L. O. O. M., Mr. 
Baker was most prominent, putting forth every effort to procure their charter 
and establish the lodge on a firm basis. At the first election he was elected 
as secretary and was installed at the first meeting February 4, 1911, when 
there were a hundred and seventy-five members in the lodge. It grew to 
large proportions and numbered over eleven hundred in its membership 
when he resigned the position in September, 1912, in order to devote his time to 
his varidus interests, as, the duties of his secretaryship demanded more of his 
time and attention than he could spare from his business. Mr. Baker is also a 
member of the Eagles. He takes no active part in politics other than to vote 
independently for the local men whom he deems best fitted for oflfice. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1345 

JOSEPH CUDA. — In point of years of actual residence, it is doubtful 
if the celebrated Weed Patch of Kern county can boast an older settler than 
Joseph Cuda, who for a long period of useful activity has been a leading 
horticulturist of the locality and owns a finely improved ranch of eighty acres. 
The property and an adjacent tract of equal size were taken up by him as a 
homestead. Born near the city of Prague, Bohemia, June 28, 1864, Joseph 
Cuda was brought to America in infancy by his parents, John and Catherine 
(Pracil) Cuda. The parents settled in Nebraska between Omaha and Lincoln 
and there two sons and a daughter were born. Having no means, the children 
were obliged to become self-supporting as soon as old enough and therefore 
had no educational advantages. The information Josejih Cuda now possesses 
has been acquired by observation, experience and reading. Upon arriving in 
this state he settled on a farm in Kings county near Hanford, but a year later, 
in 1888, he came with his family to Kern county, where he took up a home- 
stead of one hundred and sixty acres in the Weed Patch. At the end of seven 
years he proved up on the land, one-half of which he sold, retaining eighty 
acres for his own homestead. There are two children, Frank and Helen. The 
son is engaged as a driller of oil wells. 

To have seen the Cuda farm in 1888 and not again until 1912, a stranger 
might have considered that a miracle had been wrought. But the only miracle 
is that of hard work, which has transformed the sage brush into a fine fruit 
farm. Besides the valuable vineyard of four acres there is a tract of eight 
acres in figs now twenty years old, while during 1910 Mr. Cuda planted 
ten acres in the same fruit. Twenty acres have been planted to peaches of the 
finest varieties. Of this peach orchard five acres were put out in 1907 and fif- 
teen acres in 1908, the whole being now in thrifty bearing condition. The bal- 
ance of the farm is in corn and alfalfa. 

JOSEPH F. MAREK.— The president of Horn & Co., of Bakersfield, 
J. F. Marek, is an lowan by birth, but his earliest memories are associated with 
the frontier of Nebraska, where his father, John Marek, settled in 1876 and 
acquired a tract of raw land with the intention of converting it into a pro- 
ductive farm. The tract was situated in Platte county near Columbus, at the 
edge of the then confines of agricultural development and until his death he 
continued at that place. It was impossible to give to the large family of ten 
children any special educational advantages and each was obliged to become 
self-supporting at as early an age as practicable. The youngest of the ten, 
Joseph F., was born February 10, 1873, during the residence of the famih^ 
in Chickasaw county, Iowa, and in boyhood attended country schools in 
Nebraska, but his present broad fund of information has been obtained 
principally by habits of close observation and reading and by his long identi- 
fication with the printer's trade. When only fifteen he began as printer's devil 
to serve an apprenticeship in the pressroom of the Humphrey (Neb.) Dem- 
ocrat and continued in the same place until he had mastered the trade. During 
1891 he left Nebraska and came to California, where he followed his trade 
in a commercial printing office at Los Angeles. For twelve years he con- 
tinued in that city and during a brief part of that time he engaged in the 
printing business for himself. Coming to Baker seld in 1903, he was for three 
years a type-setter on the Daily Californian. 

After many years of active identification with the printing business Mr. 
Marek, believing that he would be profited financially by a change, in 1906 
bought a cigar stand at No. 1308 Nineteenth street, where he remained until 
1909. Next he purchased the stand at No. 1511 Nineteenth street, where he 
established Marek's Smoke House. Meanwhile he had embarked in the 
wholesale business, which had developed beyond his quarters and the limits 
of his capital. During August of 1912, associated with Messrs. B. H. Pendleton 
and T. J. Brooke, of Horn & Co., of San Francisco, he organized and incor- 



1346 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

porated Horn & Co., of Bakersfield, to which new concern he sold the 
wholesale business, retaining, however, one-half interest in the company, 
of which he now is president and manager. The warehouse and office are 
located at No. 1513 Twenty-first street, from which point shipments are made. 
The distinction of being the first exclusive wholesale tobacco business to be 
established in Kern county belongs to the house of Horn & Co., of Bakers- 
field, and the credit for the rapid growth of the concern belongs to the man- 
ager, Mr. Marek. Since coming to this city he has established a home of his 
own, being united in marriage with Miss Edith Myers, a native of Kern 
county. Fraternally he holds membership with the Eagles and Woodmen of 
the World, while in politics he stanchly upholds Democratic principles and 
serves as a member of the Democratic county central committee. 

GEORGE W. HATFIELD.— Since 1911 Mr. Hatfield has had charge of 
the staticm at Fellows and has had included, under his own field of super- 
vision, the station at Shale and Suplico, the end of the line. His eldest son, 
George E., has entered the railroad service as clerk in the freight department 
at Fellows. 

The eldest in a family of eight children, seven of whom are still living, 
George William Hatfield was born at Ripley, Brown county, Ohio, February 
24, 1862, and is a son of Dr. George E. and Minerva W. (Mefiford) Hatfield, 
natives of that same Ohio county. Throughout active life Dr. Hatfield suc- 
cessfully followed the medical profession. Prior to his graduation from the 
Louisville Medical College and while he earned a livelihood by teaching school, 
he gave up educational work in order to serve in the Union army, becoming 
a member of the Sixty-third Ohio Infantry. With his regiment he went to the 
front and gave active service until the expiration of the term of enlistment, 
after which he resumed the work of a teacher. When he had completed his 
medical education and received the degree of M.D., he gave his whole 
attention to practice and from 1868 until the present day, at seventy-four years 
of age, he carried on professional work in Kansas City, Mo. There his wife 
passed away April 9, 1899, her remains being buried at Parkville, Mo. 

From the age of five years George William Hatfield lived in Kansas City, 
where he received a public-school education. For some years afterward he 
was a student in Park College at Parkville, Mo., and in that same town he 
gained his first knowledge of telegraphy. For four years he was employed as 
agent and operator in Missouri, from which state he went to New Mexico. 
Beginning as brakeman on the run from Albuquerque to Winslow he worked 
his way to the position of conductor through merit and fidelity to duty. After 
he had been connected with the railroad work in New Mexico from 1885 until 
the fall of 1890, he removed to the state of Washington and, making Seattle 
his headquarters, engaged as brakeman and then as conductor for the North- 
ern Pacific and Great Northern Railroads successively. Later he was appointed 
agent at Lowell, the same state. During 1903 he came to California and re- 
entered the service of the Santa Fe, becoming cashier at Pasadena, which 
responsible position he filled for four years and ten months. Next he was as- 
signed to various places on the Valley division as agent and in 1911 came to 
Fellows to enter upon the duties which he has since discharged with the 
greatest capability. While still living in Missouri he was married at Union 
Star, that state, to Miss Ida Mary Harman, a native of Marion, Grant county, 
Ind., and a woman of education and ability, a devoted member of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, now afTectionately ministering to the welfare of the 
family. Six of the seven children are now living, namely : Helen M., George E., 
Milton, David, Richard and Byron. In the suburbs of Fresno Mr. Hatfield 
bought a tract of five acres and built a residence which he still owns. In 
politics he has always voted with the Democratic party. Fraternally he holds 
membership with the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1347 

GEORGE OSCAR CALDWELL.— The eld Caldwell homestead at Gas- 
breaiix, Kin^^s county, Nova Scotia, has been in possession of successive gen- 
erations of the same family for more than two hundred years, having been 
purchased and improved by the remote ancestors who crossed the ocean to 
America from England and founded the name upon the bleak shores of the 
northern Atlantic. At that place occurred the birth of George Oscar Caldwell 
January 18, 1847, there also were born his father, Hibbert, and grandfather, 
William, and there too had occurred the birth of his great-grandfather, who 
lived to be one hundred and eight years of age. The family had representa- 
tives in the Revolutionary war, but Mr. Caldwell is descended only in a col- 
lateral line from those soldiers of a day long past. Hibbert Caldwell married 
Miss Helen Church, who was born in Lunenburg county, Nova Scotia, and 
died on the peninsula that had been her lifelong home. At the same place 
occurred the death of the father when he had attained the age of seventy-four 
years. The Church lineage is not only interesting, but also indicates the valor 
of the family and the antiquity of the race. It was one of that name who 
crossed the ocean from Kingston, England, and settled in Rhode Island, 
there founding a village that in loyal afifection for his old home he called 
Kingston. Each of his nine sons was taught to love their land and to exhibit 
toward colonial institutions a patriotic reverence. When the Revolutionary 
war began seven of the nine offered their services to the struggling band of 
patriots, were accepted and throughout the struggle fought with ardor, hero- 
ism and devotion. The branch of the family that settled in Nova Scotia has 
exhibited the same loyal fidelity to their Canadian country and their talents 
have been called into service on various occasions for the good of their province. 
The father of Mrs. Caldwell, Hon. Lot Church, served for twenty years as a 
member of the house of assembly at Halifax and during that long period 
aided materially in promoting and passing measures for the advancement of 
Nova Scotia. One of his grandsons, Hon. Charles E. Church, a man of dis- 
tinguished attainments and fine mental endowment, was a member of the 
senate at Ottawa for many years. 

The eldest ( f the six surviving members of a family that originally num- 
bered seven, George Oscar Caldwell passed his early years upon a farm and 
aided, as best he could, in the struggle to maintain the younger children of the 
iamily. September 4, 1864, he was apprenticed to the trade of blacksmith, 
which he has since followed and in which he has acquired exceptional efficiency. 
The apprenticeship of four years was served at Lower Horton, Kings county. 
At its expiration in 1868 he came to the United States and for five years fol- 
lowed the trade in Boston. Returning to Nova Scotia in 1873, he established a 
shop at Great Village, Colchester county, and conducted a business at that 
place until 1879, when he sold out and came to the Pacific coast. From San 
Francisco he proceeded to Santa Rosa and established a shop on Mendocino 
street, where he continued for six years. From 1886 until 1892 he engaged 
in business at Cloverdale, Sonoma county, after which he spent seven years 
as a blacksmith in Neenach, Los Angeles county, and there built up a trade 
extending throughout the entire Antelope valley. A desire to see something 
of the great northwest caused him to drive through California and Oregon as 
far as Salem, in the latter state, where he followed his trade for two months 
and spent his leisure hours in investigating the country. However, Oregon 
did not impress him favorably and he was glad to return to California, where 
in 1899 he chose Kern county as the center of his future activities. Excitement 
over oil discoveries was then at its height and he spent two years on the west 
side field as an employe of Jewett & Blodgett, after which he worked for the 
Edison Power Company. Since the spring of 1903 he has been engaged in the 
shops of the Kern County Land Company, being in point of years of associa- 
tion with the business the oldest blacksmith in their employ. 



1348 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Since coming to this county Mr. Caldwell has erected the residence which 
he now owns and occupies at No. 2315 Palm street, Bakersfield. The com- 
fortable home is presided over by his wife, whom he married at Newton, Mass., 
and who was Miss Susan Findlay, a native of Colchester county, Nova Scotia, 
and a daughter of William and Isabella (Thompson) Findlay, representatives 
of old families of that province. Eight children w^ere born of the marriage, but 
three daughters. Helen, Isabella and Margaret, died in infancy, and a son, 
Sylvester, died in Bakersfield at the age of thirty-five years. Of the four 
survivors Oscar lives in Los Angeles county and William in Colton, Mrs. Julia 
Woods makes Bakersfield her home and Mrs. Bessie White is a resident of 
Wasco, Kern county. In national politics Mr. Caldwell supports the Repub- 
lican party. Wfiile living in Santa Rosa he became v€ry prominent in the 
activities of Santa Rosa Lodge No. 54, I. O. O. F. Before leaving Nova Scotia 
he was made a Mason in Corinthian Lodge No. 63, F. & A. M., at Great Village, 
and after he came to California he identified himself with Curtis Lodge No. 
140, F. & A. M., at Cloverdale. He is a stanch believer in the growth and 
prosoerity of Bakersfield and is an ally of all measures for civic advancement 
and local upbuilding. 

WILLIAM C. PERRY.— From the organization of the Mammoth Oil 
Company Mr. Perry has been a stockholder and since June 1, 1913, he has 
engaged as superintendent of the lease. There are four producing wells of 
23 gravity oil on the lease. Besides the connection with this growing con- 
cern he has been a stockholder in the August Oil Company from the time of 
its organization and for two years or more he engaged as superintendent of the 
company's lease at Maricopa. Although still a young man, he has had an 
extended experience in the oil industry and has acquired a thorough acquaint- 
ance with many of the western fields. 

A resident of California since 1899, William C. Perry was born in Chanute, 
Kan., October 2, 1876, and was fifth in order of birth among ten children, all 
of whom are still living. The parents, John and Lucinda (Bradley) Perry, 
natives respectively of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and for years engaged in 
farming in Kansas, now make their home in Venice, Cal. Reared on a farm 
in the Sunflower state and engaged in agricultural pursuits on the completion 
of a public-school education, Mr. Perry decided in 1899 to seek another occupa- 
tion and a new location. Accordingly he became a worker in the Olinda oil 
fields in California, where he rose from roustabout to tool-dresser. During a 
later experience in the Los Angeles oil field he gained his first exoerience as a 
driller. From that place he came to the Kern river field. Still later he spent 
two and one-half years as a driller in a Wyoming oil field at Spring Valley, 
Uinta county, after which he returned to California and resumed work in 
Kern county. Since then he has worked steadily in the west side districts. For 
two years he held an important position as head driller on the Dabney lease, 
in the McKittrick field, while for a considerable period he has been employed 
in Maricopa and Fellows districts. Meanwhile he established domestic ties 
through his marriage in Los Angeles to Miss Edith Bush, who was born near 
Selma, Fresno county, this state, and died at Los Angeles June 19, 1912, leav- 
ing to her relatives and friends the memory of a gracious womanhood and 
cultured mentality. Aside from voting the Republican ticket Mr. Perry takes 
no part in political contests, yet he is progressive and may be relied upon to 
promote by time, influence and co-operation all measures for the general 
welfare and especially all projects for the development of the oil industry in 
Kern county. 

EMIL T. LUTZ.— Born at Monroe, Monroe county, Mich., E. T. Lutz 
went to Philadelphia while a mere lad and there grew to young manhood. 
When about eighteen years old he went on the road as a commercial traveler 
for the firm of Palidini & Cappale, importers and wholesale manufacturers of 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1349 

silk. While still very young he became a member of a Philadelphia company of 
the Pennsylvania National Guard. Going to Chicago he secured employment 
in a restaurant. For some years he acted as steward of the Stock Exchange 
restaurant on the corner of Washington and LaSalle streets and later he held 
the position of steward in the American oyster house for several years. 

Arriving in Bakersfield April 29, 1500, led hither by the recent oil dis- 
coveries in Kern county, Air. Lutz embarked in the liquor business and for 
some years was a part owner of the Turf on Nineteenth street, but now in 
company with J. B. McKinley he is conducting the Commercial at No. 1129 
Nineteenth street. Fond of sports and particularly interested in baseball, 
during 1909 he consented to take the management of the Bakersfield base- 
ball nine and his leadership brought victory to the organization. A lover of 
fine horses, he has trained some of the finest horses exhibited on the turf in 
Southern California and his reputation as a judge of equine flesh is unex- 
celled. During the streetcar strike in San Francisco he was assigned to duty at 
that place, serving as first lieutenant of a company in the Second regiment 
National Guards of California. He has purchased and now occupies a resi- 
dence at No. 2228 Nineteenth street, this being presided over by Mrs. Lutz, 
formerly Miss Susie Hill, a daughter of W. W. Hill, the first county treasurer 
of Fresno county. Reared and educated in that county, Mrs. Lutz is a mem- 
ber of one of its old families. 

LYMAN C. ROSS. — A native son of the state Mr. Ross was born in 
Santa Clara ccunty March 15, 1865, his father having been James Ross, a 
•California pioneer of 1852. Educated in the local schools, he has been self- 
supporting from an early age and about 1895 came to Bakersfield, where he has 
since made his home. For a time he engaged in business as a member of the 
firm of Anderson & Ross, but about 1905 he bought the interest of his partner 
and since then has conducted the business under the title of L. C. Ross. United 
in marriage with Anna D. McBain, he has enjoyed the advantage of the co- 
operation and companionship of a woman of culture, education and gentle 
character and who shares with him the faculty of winning and retaining warrn 
friends. There are five children in the family, Edna, Harold, Stuart, Donald 
and Margaret. 

Concerning the business established and built up by L. C. Ross we quote 
the following from "Bakersfield and Kern County, 1912, A Half Century of 
Progress:" "Never were the people of the United States more in earnest 
regarding the strict enforcement of the laws prohibiting adulteration and the 
misbranding of foods, drugs and liquors than they are today. Out of the 
smoke and the fog of controversy has come a better understanding of the 
conditions under which the upright manufacturers are laboring, and the 
spirit of unscrupulous greed animating their competitors, who seek to foist 
upon the public impure and adulterated products. A concern in Bakersfield 
handling the products of manufacturers known to live up to the very spirit 
and letter of the pure food law is L. C. Ross, wholesale liquor dealer. Ad- 
herence to strict business methods has enabled him to grow from a compara- 
tively small beginning to a position of prominence in Bakersfield's commer- 
cial life. At his up-to-date establishment, No. 1521 Nineteenth street, he has 
every facility for the proper handling and storage of his immense stock, and 
his specialties are fine old straight Kentucky bourbons, Pennsylvania ryes, 
California invalids' ports and sherries, imported sherry from Puerto Sta 
Maria, Spain ; imported port, old and tawny from O'Porto ; the leading brands 
of eastern beer, also the famous Rainier, the best beer made west of St. Louis, 
and various mineral waters. Mr. Ross caters particularly to the family trade of 
Bakersfield and vicinity, and personally guarantees the purity of everything 
carried in his stock." 

In addition to the wholesale business on Nineteenth street Mr. Ross 



1350 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

is a member of the firm of Hoagland & Ross, proprietors of the bottling works 
on the corner of Fifteenth street and Chester avenue. Since about 1909 the 
firm has acted as distributors of Rainier beer. The proprietors give much time 
to the development of the business, as they also do to outside movements for 
the general upbuilding of Bakersfield and they are known as optimistic be- 
lievers in the continued prosperity of their city. 

P. MULL. — One of the progressive farmers of Kern county, and an 
original homesteader, is P. Mull, who is well informed on all matters pertain- 
ing to his chosen work. He was born in Keosauqua, Van Buren county, Iowa, 
July 12, 1852, son of Nathan and Eliza Mull, who removed from Iowa when he 
was a boy of two years. They came directly to California and settled in So- 
noma county, where they were pioneers in the farming industry. 

P. Mull grew to manhood in Sonoma county, experiencing the hardships 
and vicissitudes of the early life in this part of the country, and his first work 
for himself was in the vineyards for a number of years. In 1881 he went to 
Hanford and engaged in raising alfalfa and following stockraising to some 
extent. As the years came and went he added to his property and became 
independently well-to-do, reaping good results from his toil and being most 
fortunate in his crops. While there he was married to Mrs. Mary E. Bartlett, 
of Kings county, and they became the parents of four children, Leland E., 
Nathan H., and Alice and Eva. 

In 1887 Mr. Mull came to Kern county, where he bought from Judge 
Brundage his present tract of land. The latter has a desert filing of this prop- 
erty, and Mr. Mull bought a relinquishment from him, it being located at 
section twelve, township thirty, range twenty-eight. About three-quarters of 
this Mr. Mull sold off to other parties who filed homesteads. He has proved 
up on about a hundred and sixty acres of this, eighty of which he has sold, 
and the remainder is the property he now holds and operates. He has fifty acres 
planted to alfalfa, has some fruit and is continually improving his property to 
make it one of the most modern in the vicinity. 

Mr. Mull has taken a deep interest in the development of his community, 
and has helped to organize the Fairfax public school, which was so much 
needed there. He is a stanch Republican, thoroughly familiar with all its 
principles, and is conversant on all subjects of the day. He has a fine family 
to which he is much devoted, and his life is lived on an even, conscientious 
plane, being a most fitting example for his children to follow. 

JEAN PIERRE MARTINTO.— Near Osses, Basses-Pyrenees, toward 
the southern border of France, stood the old family home where he was 
born January 22, 1871. That neighborhood remained the abiding place 
of his father, Michael, a stone-mason and contractor, his business activi- 
ties continuing until his demise in 1907. The mother, who remains at the old 
home, bore the maiden name of Mary Peyrot and was born in Canton St. 
Jean-Pied-de-Port, Basses-Pyrenees, not far distant from the native place 
of the senior Martinto. Their family numbered five sons and three daughters 
and of these six attained mature years, namely J. F., now living in Fresno, 
Cal. ; Mrs. Lafifargue, who died at Tehachapi, Kern county ; Jean Pierre ; 
Mrs. Molle, living at San Pedro, this state ; Dominick, of Fresno ; and Mrs. 
Chalias, who resides at the old home in France. In order of birth Jean Pierre 
was fourth among the eight and he was educated in the schools near his 
early home. At the age of sixteen he left France and crossed the ocean to 
the United States, proceeding direct to Los Angeles where he' found employ- 
ment on a ranch near by. 

Upon coming to Kern county in 1888 Mr. Martinto was employed to 
herd sheep for his older brother, J. F., and later he did similar work for other 
parties in Kern and Fresno counties, continuing in the sheep industry until 
he determined to embark in the hotel business at Tehachapi. Purchasing six 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1351 

uiliniproved lots on Main street in 1895, he built a substantial structure which 
he named the Basses-Pyrenees hotel. On the same lots he put up a large 
livery barn. Another improvement on the same property was that of a hand- 
ball court constructed of stone and cement, as substantial and complete as 
good workmen and good material could make it and said to be the best in 
the county. P>om the first the hotel proved popular. Not only was it the 
largest hotel in Tehachapi, but it acquired a patronage surpassed by none. 
When finally in 1908 he retired from the business and leased the building, 
the new tenants changed the name to Martinto's hotel and as such it still 
is known. After leaving the hotel business he purchased a ranch of forty- 
five acres near Bakersfield. The property was wholly unimproved. The 
fertility of the soil convinced him as to the wisdom of buying the land and 
results justified his investment. The ranch is under the Kern county ditch 
and is devoted to alfalfa and vegetable gardens. The neat house which he 
erected on the land was occupied by his family for two years, but he then 
leased the place and built the residence at No. 1223 California avenue. Bakers- 
field, where he has since resided. Since becoming a citizen of our country and 
attaining his majority he has supported Republican principles. At Tehachapi 
in 1896 he was united in marriage with Miss Veronica Borda, who was born 
and reared at Cambo Basses-Pyrenees, France, and came from that country 
in 1894, settling in Bakersfield. Four children were born of their union and 
three are now living, Elizabeth, Jean Baptiste and Lyda. 

ALBERT L. WANGENHEIM.— To assure success in the conduct of an 
up-to-date store it is necessary that the of^cials in charge of the various 
departments are thoroughly acquainted with all the details, quick to see the 
necessity for improvement, and able to cope with other like enterprises in 
the best selection of their goods. The firm of Hochheimer & Co., the largest 
department store in Bakersfield, has such a man in its employ in the person 
of Albert L. Wangenheim, whose varied experience has made him the practical 
manager he is today. 

Mr. Wangenheim was born October 31, 1874, in San Francisco, the son 
of Henry Wangenheim, who makes his home in San Francisco. The latter 
was one of the founders of the business of Hochheimer & Co. at Willows, 
and also at Bakersfield. He was also interested in the starting of stores in 
Germantown and Orland, and is at present a large stockholder in the com- 
pany. Albert L. grew to manhood in his native city, where he attended the 
public schools and was graduated from the Cogswell College, which covers 
a high school course, normal training and business course. From school he 
went to work in the shops of Porter Schlessinger & Co., manufacturers of 
boots and shoes, then worked in the wholesale store of that firm, and later 
became traveling salesman for them, his territory being the Sacramento and 
San Joaquin valleys. In order to thoroughly learn the retail business, he 
then took positions in the following stores of Hochheimer & Co., located 
respectively, at Willows, Germantown and Orland, Cal., serving as clerk at 
each place, after which he became sales manager in the large wholesale 
furnishing business of Greenebaum, Weill & Michaels, located at San 
Francisco. 

In 1908, at the death of his brother, Melville H., Mr. Wangenheim was 
called to Bakersfield, to take his position of manager of the men's furnish- 
ings, boots and shoes and clothing department of Hochheimer & Co. Mr. 
Wangenheim fills his position with that ability which has marked him a 
progressive, capable business man from the start of his career. 

Mr. Wangenheim was married in 1903, in Oakland. He has a com- 
modious residence, which he built in 1909 and wherein is dispensed a warm 
hospitality. Mr. Wangenheim affiliates with the Native Sons, the Woodmen 
of the World, the Eagles and the Loyal Order of the Moose. 

56 



1352 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

H. H. SPEARS. — The distinction of being the first to locate on the 
town site of Fellows belong-s to H. H. Spears, who arrived here March 23, 
1910, having moved up from Bakersfield with his entire stock of horses and 
necessary equipment, including a cook-house. Since then he has witnessed 
the rapid growth of the place and its transformation from an uninhabited 
waste to a progressive little town whose residents work unitedly and harmon- 
iously for the general welfare and civic advancement. He has been connected 
personally with almost every measure for the benefit of the place and the 
people. As proprietor of the Fellows livery stable he engages about ten 
head of livery stock and fifty head of work stock and these he hires out by the 
month or uses in the filling of contracts for jobs where the heaviest of 
machinery is to be hauled to the fields. Through personal oversight given to 
his farm of three hundred and twenty acres near Button Willow (one hundred 
acres of which are in alfalfa) he secures large crops of hay and grain and 
thus is in a position to sell feed, besides having an abundance of grain and 
hay for his own teams. Primarily for the purpose of attending to his own 
work he has established a blacksmith shop, where two blacksmiths are steadily 
employed. 

The life of Mr. Spears has been filled with adventure. He was born 
at the family home a short distance from Detroit, Mich., August 10, 1862, and 
is a son of Henry Spears, who was a butcher by trade and conducted a 
meat market in- Detroit. Of a roving disposition, with little fondness for 
school, but with a love for travel and a desire to see the world, the lad 
became self-supporting in early years and drifted from one place to another 
as work could be found. Always he loved horses and showed an aptitude in 
their care. His skill in breaking colts was remarkable even when he was 
verv young. After a short period of employment in Chicago he drifted out 
to Idaho and became a cowboy on the plains. Similar work took him to 
Eastern Oregon and from the V\^hite Horse ranch in that country he came 
down into California, bringing a drove of cattle to San Francisco. Next 
he worked in Fresno county, after which he spent four years in Inyo county 
as a teaming contractor, and engaged in freighting from the railroad at 
Mojave up to Bishop and Independence for four years. Meanwhile he 
had never lost his interest in horses, but had maintained a drove and had also 
done much work in breaking colts for others. The fall of 1889 found him 
in Bakersfield with his horses and wagons. With that town as headquarters 
he teamed in different parts of the surrounding country, also bought and 
sold horses and broke colts. After coming to Bakersfield he married Miss 
Alice Dickinson, by whom he has one child now living, Elizabeth G. The 
family has been identified with the Episcopal Church of Bakersfield and fra- 
ternallv he holds membership with the Woodmen of the World in that city, 
while "since coming to Fellows he has assisted in the organization of the 
Chamber of Commerce. Throughout this part of the oil district he is well 
known. His work has brought him into personal relations with many oil 
men and in every instance he has won their confidence as a business man of 
honoral)le methods and distinct efficiency. 

CHRISTIAN NELSON. — One of the most recent accessions to the indus- 
trial life of East Bakersfield is the East Bakersfield Garage and Machine 
Company, organized in January of 1913 by Christian Nelson, who has since 
engaged in the automobile repair business, also a general repair and machine 
trade, and in addition is acting as agent for the Warren and Hupmobile cars. 
The fact that he is a first-class machinist contributes to his success and enables 
him to carry out the most difficult tasks with ease and promptness. 

The Nelson family comes from Norway. For generations its members 
lived on the rockbound coast of that bleak country, earning a livelihood by 
the most arduous exertion. Seeking something better than his own land 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1353 

afforded, Lewis A. Nelson, who was born and reared at Bergen on the Atlantic 
ocean in 1848, left Norway in 1865 for the United States and followed the 
trade of machinist in Chicago, 111., where he married March 16, 1870, Sorine 
Skarning, a native of Christiana, Norway. From Chicago he moved to 
Kansas and secured employment as a machinist in the Santa Fe shops in 
Topeka. After having followed the trade at various points in the central west 
he came to California in 1904 and now makes his home in Bakerstield. His 
wife passed away April 1, 1913. Her seven living children are: Edward, of 
Fairbury, Nebr., Walter A., of El Paso, Texas, Jennie, Mrs. Sornborger, 
Christian, Lewis, of Lincoln, Nebr., Andrew, of San Francisco, and Martha. 
The last named was a pioneer teacher in Lost Hills, opening the first school 
there. 

Christian Nelson was born at Topeka, Kans., October 30, 1881, and 
received his education in public schools in Kansas and Nebraska. At the age 
of seventeen he entered upon an apprenticeship to the trade of machinist in 
the Santa Fe shops at Albuquerque, N. M., where he completed his trade. 
Thereafter he worked as a journeyman in New Mexico and Arizona and while 
living in Arizona he joined Douglas Lodge No. 955, B. P. O. E. From Arizona 
he came to California in 1904 and settled at Bakersfield, where for some time 
he was employed as a machinist with the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. 
Work at his trade kept him in the Kern river oil field for a time and later he 
gained further valuable experience as a machinist in the west side field. On 
leaving the oil fields and coming to East Bakersfield he became interested in 
the establishment of the business to which he now devotes time, attention and 
his splendid skill as a machinist. 

BERT E. GOULD.— The first manufacturing establishment started in 
Fellows and the fifth business house to be erected in the town, the Fellows 
Tank and Job shop, dates its history from the year 1910, when Mr. Gould 
took advantage of the opportunities offered by the new town in the heart of 
the oil fields and built the present plant. 

Prior to his removal to the west Mr. Gould had been a resident of Water- 
loo, Iowa, where he was born June 12, 1875, and where his parents, George E. 
and Ella M. (Wolfe) Gould, natives respectively of Wisconsin and Pennsyl- 
vania, still make their home, the father being engaged in the building business 
in that city. The second among four children and the only member of the 
family to locate in California, Bert E. Gould received educational advantages 
in the Waterloo public schools and found employment during the summer 
months on farms near town. At the age of twenty years he became an employe 
of the Tallarday Steel and Pipe Company in Waterloo. That he was a steady 
worker and faithful employee is evidenced by the eleven years of continuous 
service with the same firm. During the latter part of the pericd he acted 
as foreman of the pipe department. Resigning in 1906 and coming to Cali- 
fornia, he engaged at Alhambra with Tallarday's Steel-pipe and Tank Com- 
pany. Later he traveled for the company, erecting tanks for parties who had 
ordered them. Leaving the employ of the Alhambra firm for an important 
position in the Los Angeles plant of the ^^'estern Pipe and Steel Ctinpany, 
he continued there until 1910, the year of his removal to Fellows. In this 
city he has since been engaged in building vip a trade along the line of his 
specialties and also has acted as the local representative for the J. McDonald 
Gas Company of Taft. 

The Chamber of Commerce and other organizations for the material and 
commercial upbuilding of Fellows have in Mr. Gould an able and intelligent 
member. He is stanchly Republican in his opinions and at national elections 
votes the straight ticket. Besides his interests at Fellows he owns some 
valuable oil land in the Cuyama valley. One daughter, Murel, was born of 
his first marriage, which united him with Miss Luella M. Marquis, a life- 



1354 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

long resident of Waterloo, Iowa. Her demise occurred in young womanhood 
and afterward he was united with Miss Mabel Shields, a native of Wisconsin, 
their union being blessed by a son, Howard M. 

W, PERRY WILKES. — An identification with the west covering a period 
of more than fifty-five years has given to Mr. Wilkes a comprehensive knowl- 
edge of the resources and possibilities of this promising region. At the time 
of his arrival, during the fall of 1856, mining was still the principal occu- 
pation of the country. The possibilities of the land for agriculture and horti- 
culture were dimly grasped by only a few far-seeing optimists ; by far the 
larger number of the people still considered that mining for gold offered the 
only opportunity for material prosperity. One of the shrewd, keen-sighted 
pioneers whose vision of the future evinced a wise judgment was Albert G. 
Wilkes, who brought a large herd of cattle to California at the time of his 
migration hither in 1856 from Missouri. He had come to California in 
1849 from the same state, arriving in Eldorado county (Georgetown) October 
1 of that year. For a while he carried on placer mining, but later established 
a bakery and store in Georgetown which he operated three years. He then 
returned to Missouri for his family, and brought them with him when he 
came west in 1856. 

With the expedition of immigrants traveling with ox-teams and wagons 
came the boy of thirteen years, W. Perry Wilkes, who was born March 21, 
1843. at the home farm thirty miles south of Jefferson City, Mo. He did 
not allow the fact of his extreme youth to deter him from doing a man's 
work during the long journey. To his charge was given the driving of the 
one hundred head of dairy cows and he maintained considerable pride in his 
success with the herd, for he lost only one cow during the long and difficult 
journey across the plains. Among the drove there were sixteen head of 
Durham cows, these being the first thoroughbred Durhams ever brought 
into California and from them as foundation stock a large business was 
established in that now popular breed. A dairy ranch was established on 
the Tassejara, in Contra Costa county, and the successful prosecution of 
dairy interests through a considerable period of years brought wealth 
to the family, enabling the father eventually to retire with ample means 
to Stockton, where his death occurred in 1880. He was a brother of Col. 
P. S. Wilkes and also of Rev. L. B. Wilkes, for years a leading minister 
in the Christian Church. 

After having completed the studies of the common schools of Contra 
Costa county and also spent one term as a student in Union academy, in 
1863 W. Perry Wilkes went to Arizona to aid in develoning the Vulture 
mine, but the following year he returned to California and settled in Kern 
county, of which he now is among the oldest living pioneers. During the 
winter of 1864-65 he taught the first public school ever held in the county at 
Linn's Valley. After his marriage in 1866 he engaged in the livery busi- 
ness at Havilah, then the county seat and a town of considerable promise. 
The discovery of gold had caused a boom at Havilah and within eighteen 
months it had grown from nothing to a population of fifteen hundred, but 
that represented the height of its prosperity, for many of the mines failed 
to pay, the miners sought other locations and then the county seat was 
removed to Bakersfield. 

Removing from Havilah to Glennville in 1869, during that year Mr. Wilkes 
was appointed the first postmaster of the village and at the same time he 
built the first hotel there. For years he acted as postmaster and as landlord 
of the hotel, also carried on a general mercantile store, and besides he pur- 
chased and improved a tract of eight hundred acres, where he engaged in 
raising cattle, sheep and hogs. For years the buying and selling of cattle 
formed his principal business and in it he was prospered greatly. Mean- 
while his father had died in 1880 and upon the settlement of the estate he 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1355 

had received $11,000, which aided him in the development of his ranch and 
the carrying on of a stock business. The inheritance was greatly increased 
through wise management, so that he in turn was able to assist his children 
financially and yet retain a sufficient amount to provide all c( mforts for his 
old age. While his investments were almost wholly in California, there were 
occasional exceptions, chief among these being the purchase of Lookout 
Springs ranch, thirty miles east of Hackberry, Mohave county, Ariz., and 
that property he developed frotn a raw tract into an improved stock ranch. 
The location on the Santa Fe Railroad and the presence of water on the 
ranch rendered it a desirable place for the stock industry. 

In the midst of varied business activities Mr. Wilkes found the time to 
keep posted concerning public affairs and national issues. Politically he has 
always voted the Democratic ticket. He served as county auditor (1880-82) 
and deputy county assessor (1880-90). For a number of years he has 
owned and occupied a finely-improved tract of twenty acres on Union avenue, 
which he purchased from Ben L. Brundage and which combines the advant- 
ages of a country home with those offered by close proximity to the city 
of Bakersfield. During 1885 he was bereaved by the death of his wife, who' 
was Ann, daughter of Col. John C. Reid, a former sherifT of Tulare county. 
Of his four children now living the eldest, Albert R., who married Miss Lizzie 
Preston of Kern county, is an extensive rancher, a successful oil operator and 
a merchant at Linn's valley. The younger son, Carl, who married Miss Ida 
Shackleford of Bakersfield, is now^ proprietor of the Pioneer gun store in 
this city. The third child, Irene, married Robert B. McGee, who is employed 
as a foreman with Kern River Oil Company, and the youngest daughter, 
Austie, is the wife of George W. Leonard, a teaming contractor living in 
Bakersfield. 

JOHN TYRER.— In coming to California from England Mr. Tyrer feels 
that he made no mistake, for he has met with success. There had been con- 
siderable uncertainty on his part as to the merits of California compared with 
those of New Zealand and he had read much concerning both regions. Finally 
he cast his decision in favor of California, came to the west and made his 
permanent home in the region whose subsequent growth he has witnessed. 

Born in Manchester, England, April 7, 1846, John Tyrer is a son of Thomas 
Tyrer, who lived and died near Manchester, and that locality also remained 
the lifelong home of the mother. There were four children in the parental 
family and of these Mary is now deceased, Hannah is living at Windsor, 
Canada, and Thomas is employed as a plumber near Liverpool, England, so 
that John is the sole representative of the name in the United States. After 
he had completed his education in a school conducted under the auspices of 
the Church of England he became an apprentice to the trades of painter and 
plumber, at which he served from fifteen until twenty-one years of age. Upon 
starting out for himself as a journeyman he went to Yorkshire, England, and 
secured a position with the firm of George Walsh & Sons, of Halifax. By 
dint of hard work and intelligence he rose to be manager of the firm, with 
which he continued for eight years. Meanwhile at the age of twenty-seven 
years he married ]\Iiss Isabella Bradley, of Halifax, England. 

After having conducted a plumbing business at Liverpool for a time Mr. 
Tyrer determined to seek a home in another part of the world. California was 
his choice for a location and with his wife and two children he took passage 
on the National line. During the fall of 1887 he arrived in Los Angeles and 
immediately afterward he secured a position under W. C. Furry, who con- 
ducted a hardware and plumbing establishment. For three years he continued 
with Mr. Furry, but in the fall of 1889, resigning the position, he started 
out independently. After fourteen years of independent work in plumbing. 



1356 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

during 1904 he retired from the business and now gives his attention to the 
management of his ranch of twenty acres south of Bakersfield, in addition 
to which he owns other property in town, including a lot on the corner of O 
street and Truxtun avenue. After he had been in this country a few years 
he decided to remain permanently and accordingly took out naturalization 
papers, since which time he has maintained a warm interest in all move- 
ments for the national welfare. In politics he aims to vote for principles and 
to give his support to men of high character and recognized public spirit. 
For years his wife has been one of the most earnest and helpful members of 
the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Bakersfield and his contributions to 
the church maintenance have been generous. One of his daughters, Miss 
Lucy, resides with her parents on the ranch, while the other, Mary, is the wife 
of Charles E. Hallett, postmaster of Graton, Sonoma county, Cal., and pro- 
prietor of a general mercantile business in that village, which is the home of 
himself and wife and their daughter, Lucile. 

CHARLES M. HART.— The father of the immediate subject of this 
sketch, Moses Hart, was born in Chickasaw, Indian Territory, December 1, 
1833, and in 1850 started across the plains with ox teams, arriving in San 
Jose. Cal., in 1852. From there he soon moved to Mariposa county, where he 
mined until in 1856. Later he lived for a time in Los Angeles county whence 
he came in 1857 to Kern county. Locating in Oak creek two years later he 
became the owner of a ranch of one hundred and sixty acres and of a quarter 
section of railroad land. It is a matter of record that he was one of the 
petitioners, in 1865, for the organization of Kern county. In 1863 he was in 
the Indian fight in Kelsey Canon, Kern county, where he was waylaid by the 
Indians; his brother Martin and his step-brother Oliver were both killed 
July 3, 1863. The father organized a posse and followed the Indians to Owens 
River, where they attacked the Indians eighteen days later. Nineteen of the 
Indians were killed in the battle, the remainder escaping. Mr. Hart married 
July 15, 1859, Miss Julia Ann Findley, who bore him twelve children. She 
passed away January 21, 1907, and his death occurred December 21, 1903. 

It was at Old Town, Tehachaoi, that Charles M. Hart was born March 19, 
1870. He attended public school at Tehachapi and in Bear Valley until he 
was seventeen years old, when he bravely took up the battle of life on his 
own account. He entered the employ of the Santa Fe and learned the machin- 
ist trade at Needles. From 1891 to 1894 he had a market and butcher busmess 
at Jerome, Ariz. In the year last mentioned he sold out and returned to Kern 
county and for a time lived at Bakersfield. In 1896 he established himself in 
the meat business at Tehachapi but soon sold his market and homesteaded 
land in the Weed Patch and for some time he farmed seventeen hundred acres 
of land, the greater part of which he leased. Eventually he disposed of his 
ranch, moved to Mojave county, Ariz., and established a meat market at 
Chloride which he conducted successfully three years. During the ensuing 
two years he was in the same business at Needles, San Bernardino county, 
Cal. Then, disposing of his interests at Needles, he went to Nevada, where 
he was employed as master mechanic for the Green Water Death Valley 
Mining Company. After eleven months' experience there he came back to 
Kern county and became the owner and lessee of mining land in the Caliente 
Valley which he operated a short time. In November, 1907, he took charge 
of the department distributing all the meat along the Los Angeles aqueduct 
for the butcher trade of the Bressler Meat Company of Los Angeles and 
for a year and a half filled the position of general manager. Then, removing 
to Lost Hills, Kern county, he opened a meat market there, of which he has 
since been proprietor. He owns the hotel and general merchandise store at 
Hart station, on the stage line two miles east of Lost Hills and also gives 
considerable attention to teaming and contracting, and the buying and selling 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1357 

of stock, hay and grain. He has interests in the oil fields, has invested in land 
in Lost Hills, but still maintains his home at Wasco. As a Democrat Mr. 
Hart has been active in local politics and as a delegate he has taken part in the 
deliberations of a number of Democratic county conventions and is serving as 
deputy sheriff. I*>aternally he affiliates with the Fraternal Order of Eagles. 

On April 3, 1900, he married Katherine Watchman, a native of Pennsyl- 
vania, who had come west with her parents, who located at Cripple Creek, 
Colo., where her father was chief clerk of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Com- 
pany at Walsenburg, Colo., for fourteen years. From there Mr. Watchman 
removed to Cripple Creek, where he remained until 1896, at which time he 
located at White Hill, Mohave county, where for several years he success- 
fully operated a mine. Thence he removed to Chloride, Ariz., where he bought 
mining property which he operated until in 1907, when he sold it and removed 
to Tonopah, Nev. After living there a year and a half he came to Kern county 
and leased a mine near Tehachapi. In 1908 he lived for eight months at Rands- 
burg, where he operated the Butte mine with satisfactory results. He then 
leased the King Solomon mine which he has since handled with success. Mrs. 
Hart has borne her husband four children, Laura J., Daniel C, Thomas M. 
and Frank M. 

THOMAS H. FOGARTY.— Through a lifelong identification with Cali- 
fornia, of which his parents were pioneers, Mr. Fogarty gained a compre- 
hensive knowledge of the resources and possibilities of the commonwealth 
and became an enthusiastic advocate of its interests. Born in San Fran- 
cisco, educated in the schools and in St. Ignatius College, within the brief 
span of his useful existence (1861-1907) he witnessed the remarkable develop- 
ment of that city and saw it become the metropolis of the Pacific coast. For 
many years his parents, James F. and Nora (English) Fogarty, were numbered 
among the industrious working element of that growing city, where the 
former died and where the latter, advanced in years, still makes her home. 

An early location at Lompoc, Santa Barbara county, and an association of 
several years with the hotel business in that village, gave Mr. Fogarty 
the experience and information that proved valuable to him when in March. 
1900, he came to Bakersfield and bought the Arlington hotel in partnership 
with M. A. Lindberg, the two continuing together until 1906, when the 
present proprietor, j\Ir. Lindberg, acquired the ownership of the building. 
Turning his attention to other matters, Mr. Fogarty bought a farm one mile 
south of Kern and there until his death he engaged in raising standard thor- 
oughbred and full-bl( oded Percheron draft horses. The Arlington stock farm 
acquired a wide reputation for the fine quality of its stock and the keen business 
ability of its manager and owner. Joining with others, he had an interest in 
the building of the Hudnut driving track for race horses, in which he was a 
prime factor, creating interest in the raising of fine horses and also in starting 
a county fair and races. His starting of the county fair in the fall of 1900 was 
the beginning of a series of fairs which have proved an important factor in the 
county. Among ]\Ir. Fogarty's finest animals was Richmond Chief, which had 
a reputation as one of the most perfect specimens of its class in the west. 

The marriage of Mr. Fogarty took place at San Luis Obispo, Cal., and 
united him with Mrs. Nettie (Overholtz) Hoover, who was born in Santa 
Rosa and holds membership with the Native Daughters. The Overholtz family 
was represented in the east through several generations and her father, 
William, was born and reared in Pennsylvania, but came across the plains 
in young manhood and settled at Santa Rosa, Cal., where he followed the 
trade of a cabinet-maker. While still in the prime of manhood death ended 
his activities and later his widow, Elizabeth (Mankins) Overholtz, a native of 
Missouri, removed to San Benito county, where she now makes her home. 
Of their family only two children are now living, Mrs. Fogarty being the 



1358 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

younger of these. Her education was received in the schools of San Benito 
and Santa Barbara counties and she was well qualified by natural endowments 
as well as school training- to fill all the responsibilities of life. Two children 
blessed her marriage, James English and Norrine Elizabeth. Subsequent to 
the death of Mr. Fogarty she sold the ranch and the stock and removed to 
Bakersfield, where she has invested in city property. She built a comfortable 
residence at No. 2322 Eighteenth street, which she herself designed, and she 
also improved two residences on K street which she has since sold. On 
Beale avenue and Jackson street. East Bakersfield, there is a large residence 
built by her, which she leases. She has been very fortunate in investments 
and owns other valuable real estate in Bakersfield and throughout Kern 
county, as well as in Monterey, Oakland and Richmond. She is truly optimistic 
for California and believes the next decade will show wonderful results as to 
increase in values to the investor. 

ALBERT WEEDALL. — England has furnished to the western country an 
especiallv high class of citizens whose thorough understanding of the work to 
which they are attracted and whose painstaking effort in their every under- 
taking have caused them to be recognized as a distinct value to their various 
communities. Among those who have made California their adopted common- 
wealth are James and Albert Weedall, father and son, who were both natives 
of Northwich, Cheshire, England. The elder followed the trade of florist and 
horticulturist in Cheshire, England, until 1892, when he brought his family to 
the United States and settled in Bakersfield, Cal. In Rosedale he engaged in 
general farming and remained at this work until 1909 when he retired from 
active work and now makes his home in Bakersfield. His wife was Susanna 
Penny and was also born in Northwich, England. 

Albert Weedall was born December 19, 1870, and was reared in his native 
land, attending the public school. Upon completing his studies he entered 
into the employ of his uncle, who was a stock-dealer and butcher, but in 1892 
left there to accompany his parents to Bakersfield, Cal. He there procured 
employment with H. A. Blodgett as a landscape gardener, working at garden- 
ing and nursery work for six years, at the end of which time he started out for 
himself, and he is now the proprietor of the oldest and finest nursery and 
florist business in Bakersfield. This is located at No. 603 Chester avenue, 
where Mr. Weedall has built three greenhouses, growing plants of all kinds, 
trees and shrubs. 

Mr. Weedall was married (first) in Los Angeles, to Ida Florence Capper, 
born in Northwich, England, whose death occurred in Bakersfield. Two of 
their children are now living, Newton and Florence. Mr. Weedall's second 
marriage was in Bakersfield, to Nellie Straker Shields, who was born in New- 
castle-upcn-Tyne, England, and they have one child, Albert William. 

Mr. Weedall and family are members of St. John Episcopal Church in 
Bakersfield. In political questions he unites with the Democratic party, and 
fraternally he is affiliated with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, 
Woodmen of the AA'orld, Order of Eagles, and the Order of Moose. 

MARTIN NEELY PETTUS.— During the early part of the nineteenth 
century James E. Pettus, of Virginian birth, accompanied his widowed mother 
to Arkansas and settled in Sevier, where later he conducted a general store in 
the small hamlet of Paraclifta. At the outbreak of the Mexican war he of- 
fered his services to his country, was accepted and sent to the front, where he 
took part in the battles of Vera Cruz and Buena Vista. LTpon the ending 
of the war he received an honorable discharge and returned to his Arkansas 
home, whence during 1850 he came via Panama to California. A brief ex- 
perience at the mines was followed by identification with the hotel business, 
first in Vallejo and later at Petaluma. Next he went to Calpella, a small town 
eight miles north of Ukiah, Mendocino county, where he had charge of the 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1359 

Indian agency and also engaged in general merchandising. During the period 
of his residence in that small village his son, Martin Neely Pettus, was born 
November 22, 1861. Removing to Kern county in 1869 the father located a 
homestead and developed and improved a tract of one hundred and sixty acres 
on the old Buena Vista slough. Being able to secure water from the slough 
for irrigation he raised alfalfa with profit and made a success of the stock 
business. When eventually he retired from agricultural pursuits he lived his 
last days with a daughter, Mrs. Leonora Cross, in Bakersfield on the present 
site of the Producers' Bank and here, in July of 1899, he passed away, at the 
age of seventy years. 

A few years after his arrival in the west James E. Pettus married Cornelia 
Veader, who was born in Minden, La., and died in Kern county, Cal., at the 
age of forty years. Her father. Col. Charles H. Veader, a native of Schenec- 
tady, N. Y., came south during the war of 1812 and after the engagement at 
New Orleans, in which he bore an active part, he received an honorable dis- 
charge from the army. Remaining in Louisiana, he engaged in mercantile 
pursuits and also practiced law. During the memorable year of 1849 he and 
his family crossed the plains in a wagon drawn by oxen. For a time he prac- 
ticed law in Vallejo, where his daughter became the wife of Mr. Pettus. Later 
he became an attorney at Petaluma. Next he followed his profession at Ukiah. 
Coming to Kern county in 1868, he practiced law at Havilah and did much of 
the early surveying in this part of the state. When the county-seat was 
brought to Bakersfield he established his home and ofifice in this city, but 
finally entered land near Stockdale and there passed his last days. 

There were five children in the Pettus family. The following survive: 
Mrs. Leonora Cross, a widow residing in Bakersfield ; Martin Neely, of this 
review; Carrie, wife of William H. Davis, of Rosamond, Kern county; and 
Howard, who is living in the state of Washington. From the age of seven 
years Martin N. Pettus has been familiar with conditions in Kern county, 
where he attended school and learned general farming. At the age of sixteen 
he became an employe of Carr & Haggin. A desire to see the old home of his 
father in Arkansas induced him to visit Sevier county, that state, and for 
thirteen years he raised cotton in that county. Meanwhile he met and married 
Miss Lucettie Davies, who was born near Washington, Ark. Their union was 
blessed with three daughters, the eldest of whom. Ruby, is now the wife of 
F. M. Clark, of Stockton, Cal. The younger daughters, Alice and Thelma, 
reside with their parents. During December of 1890 Mr. Pettus brought his 
family to California and became a rider for the Kern County Land Company. 
After five years in the same position he turned his attention to farming and 
three years later came to East Bakersfield, where he owns a residence at No. 
502 Pacific street. During 1898 he became janitor of the old H school, next 
was with the Emerson school, later was transferred to the Washington school 
in East Bakersfield and since 1910 has acted as janitor of the Kern county 
high school. He maintains a warm interest in national issues and votes the 
Democratic ticket. The Fraternal Brotherhood has his name enrolled upon its 
list of members, while in religious faith he is in sympathy with the doctrines 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church South and has served for some years as a 
member of the oflficial board in the local congregation. 

GEORGE H. PIPPITT.— With the exception of the first eight years of 
his life, which were spent in New Jersey, Mr. Pippitt has always been identified 
with the west. Born at Birmingham, Burlington county, N. J., June 6, 1869, 
George H. Pippitt is a son of Joseph M. and Hannah A. (Akins) Pippitt, na- 
tives of New Jersey, the latter now a resident of Sacramento, Cal. The 
father, after coming to the west about 1875, secured employment as a mill- 
wright with a large lumber company in the redwood district of San Mateo 
county. In the region made famous by reason of its great forests he worked 



1360 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

for some time and meanwhile had his family join him in 1877 but in 1881 he 
took his wife and children to a ranch in Sutter county, where he engaged in 
general farming. October of 1885 found them residents of Oakland and in 
that city he died during February of the following year. There were two sons 
and two daughters in his family and the youngest of these, George H., received 
his education in the public schools of California. After having taken a com- 
mercial course in the Pacific Business College of San Francisco he became a 
bookkeeper in Oakland with a large wholesale house. 

Railroading has engrossed the time and attention of Mr. Pippitt since 
the year 1890, "when he became a tallyman in the lumber department of the 
Southern Pacific Railroad at Sacramento. Afterward he was transferred to the 
car-repair department and by promotion rose to be foreman. From 1893 until 
1898 he had charge of the station at Winnemucca, Nev., but in the latter year 
he was transferred to Bakersfield, Cal., to fill temporarily the position of 
general car foreman. At the expiration of three months he was assigned to 
Sacramento, but in July of 1899 he was returned to Bakersfield as chief inter- 
change inspector and assistant foreman. December of the same year found 
him in Mojave as general foreman of the car and locomotive department and 
wrecking foreman, from which position in May, 1900, he was promoted to be 
joint general foreman of the same department for the Southern Pacific and 
Santa Fe Railroads. For more than a decade he continued in the same post. 
Meanwhile the work became very heavy and the duties exceedingly exacting. 
Finally it became necessary to divide the work. In April of 1911 the depart- 
ment was changed so that his responsibilities were lessened and since then he 
has been round-house and wrecking foreman for both companies. 

Being a man of thrift and a believer in the future of the state Mr. Pippitt 
has invested in real estate from time to time and now owns a ranch of ten 
acres near Downey, also residence property in Sherman. While making his 
headquarters in Nevada he married Miss Jeannette E. Webb, a native of 
Sacramento, a lady of excellent education and an earnest member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. Her father, Edwin Webb, who had served in 
the Black Hawk war, crossed the plains with wagon and ox-team during the 
early '50's. For a time he lived on a farm of one hundred and sixty acres 
situated in the vicinity of W^estlake park, Los Angeles. WHien one hundred 
and four years of age he died in Sacramento. There are three children in the 
family of Mr. Pippitt, namely: Otis N., who is in the naval training school in 
San Francisco; Irene E., and Gordon D. In Tehachapi Lodge No. 313, F. & 
A. M., of which he is past master, Mr. Pippitt was made a Mason, and he is 
also past patron of Tehachapi Chapter No. 188, O. E. S. Mrs. Pippitt is past 
matron of the local chapter and a leader in the work of the order. 

GAUDENZ WEICHELT.— Born July 26, 1873, at Cillis, Canton Grau- 
bunden, upon the farm occupied by his parents, Gottleib and Katherina 
(Wald) AVeichelt, G. Weichelt passed the years of early life in an industrious 
but uneventful manner and at the age of fifteen was confirmed in the Lutheran 
Church. The parental family comprised seven children and all are still living, 
namely: Christian, the only one of the seven to remain in Switzerland; Gott- 
leib, a farmer in the Panama district; Gaudenz, of Bakersfield; John, who is 
engaged in farming in the Old River district ; Katherina, Mrs. Christian 
Mattly, of Bakersfield ; Mary, Mrs. John Koch, who lives on a farm in the 
Panama district; and Carl, of Bakersfield. The first member of the family to 
come to America was Gaudenz and the reports he sent back encouraged the 
others to follow- him, the father and mother also coming to California to spend 
their last days in Kern county. 

After having worked as a day laborer in l\ilermo. Italy, from the age of 
fifteen until he was seventeen, Gaudenz Weichelt then returned to his native 
place at Graubunden. Switzerland, and in a short time started for the new 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1361 

world. April 1, 1891. he arrived in Bakersfield. The following day he secured 
employment as a day laborer on a dairy farm situated on Union avenue, 
remaining there about a year. Later he was employed on two other dairy 
farms, the last one that of Chris Mattley. Meanwhile he had saved his wages 
with frugal care. His next venture was the renting of land two and one-half 
miles southwest of Bakersfield, where he started a dairy farm and engaged 
also in stock-raising. With his savings he bought twenty acres three miles 
southwest of Bakersfield. Moving to the new farm, he embarked in the dairy 
business. Later he added to the tract and now owns sixty-six acres in one 
body, under the Stine canal, well adapted for an alfalfa and dairy farm. 
From that farm he drove a retail milk wagon through the city and built up 
patronage that proved profitable although requiring constant attention. Dur- 
ing January, 1908, he closed out the dairy business, leased the land and 
moved into Bakersfield tq engage in business on the corner of Nineteenth 
and K streets. Of recent years he has been financially interested in the Sun- 
shine Oil Company and also in the Seabreeze Oil Company. 

In 1896 he married Miss Martha Ruefenacht, a native of J aide, Russia, 
and a daughter of Gottleib and Freda (Metzger) Ruefenacht, born in Bern, 
Switzerland, and near Heilbronn, Wurtemberg, Germany, respectively. Dur- 
ing the year 1893 Mrs. Ruefenacht brought the family to California and settled 
in Bakersfield. Mrs. Weichelt died August 30. 1904, leaving four children, 
Walter, Freda, Elsie and Martha, and with them Mr. Weichelt makes his 
home on the corner of Nineteenth and Myrtle streets. Politically Mr. Weichelt 
has been stanch in his allegiance to Republican principles, while in fraternal 
relations he is identified with the Eagles and the Hermann Sons, and he and 
his family are members of St. Johns Lutheran Church. Deeply interested in 
the free-schocl system, he served for some years as school trustee in the Stine 
district and during the term of his official service the site for a school was 
selected and a new building erected. Of industrious and persevering tem- 
perament, he has found in California an opportunity for material advancement 
which his native land could not offer. 

JOSEPH VACCARO.— Born July 25, 1868, in San Francisco, Cal., Joseph 
Vaccaro is the son of early settlers in Kern county, who upon coming to this 
country first settled in San Francisco, thence moving to this county. In 1885 
he also came here and procured work with the Miller & Lux Land Company, 
working for them in all parts of the country, and learning the many par- 
ticulars concerning the tilling of the soil and the conduct of a productive farm. 
He familiarized himself with these details and his ability was soon recognized. 
In 1901 he was called to become superintendent of the Alameda ranch, 
owned by R. E. Houghton of San Francisco. During the summers he has 
from twenty to twenty-five men working under him on the ranch, in the 
winters having from six to ten, and so systematically is the arrangement that 
the work moves quickly and smoothly to the ultimate gain of the owner and 
the complete satisfaction of all concerned. 

Mr. Vaccaro is unmarried and devotes all of his time and attention to his 
duties. Fraternally he is a member of Bakersfield Aerie No. 93, Order of 
Eagles. He takes no active part in public afifairs, but his interest is ever for the 
promotion of better conditions in his community. 

JESSE DECATURE BRITE.— x\mong the native sons who have risen to 
prominence and have been appointed to fill responsible positions is Jesse D. 
Brite, who was born in Brites Valley, Kern county, February 27, 1885, the 
son of James M., and grandson of John Moore Brite, the pioneer settler of the 
Tehachapi region and from whom Brites valley receives its name. His 
father is an old and honored settler and stock-raiser of the valley. Jesse was 
brought up on the farm and learned the stock business, receiving his education 
in the local schools and Brownsberger's Business College in Los Angeles, 



1362 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

where he completed the course in typewriting and stenography. He then 
entered Heald's Business College at Stockton and after completing the course 
entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad at Tehachapi as a clerk, 
which position he held about four years. 

On being appointed postmaster at Tehachapi by President Wilson July 
10, 1913, ]\Ir. Brite resigned his clerkship and assumed the duties of his ofifice 
August 30, 1913. With his usual tact he is filling the position to the satisfac- 
tion of the citizens. 

In Plackberry, Mohave county, Arizona, occurred the marriage of Jesse 
Brite and INIiss Eva Cofer, who was born there and is the daughter of A. F. 
Cofer, a large cattle man of Hackberry. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Brite 
have been born two children, Chester C. and Viola. Fraternally he holds 
membership with the Arroyo Grande Lodge, M. W^ A. He has always been 
much interested in and an active local worker of the Democratic party. 

MRS. ADELINE PESANTE.— Among the pioneer residents of Old River 
who have contributed to the material upbuilding of the community and raised 
a large family to be men and women of credit to the county we find Mrs. 
Pesante, who was born in the town of Andeer, Canton Graubunden, Switzer- 
land, the daughter of Christian and Katherina (Engle) Lehner. The father 
was a contractor and farmer. The daughter, Adeline, was reared in the beau- 
tiful Alps region, receiving her education in the public schools of that vicinity, 
and there she was married April 4, 1880, to Peter Pesante, who was born in the 
same village July 18, 1858, the son of a farmer. Naturally he learned that pur- 
suit, which he followed in that country until 1883, when he came to California 
to select and establish a home for his family in the region of which they had 
heard such good reports. The family joined him in 1885. They resided in 
Salinas until 1886, when they moved into Kern county and he entered the 
employ of the Kern County Land Company on the Lakeside ranch, remaining 
there until his death in 1889. Mrs. Pesante, left with four children, continued 
to reside at Lakeside and was employed there until her second marriage to a 
brother of her former husband, John Pesante, born in 1863. Soon afterwards 
the}' purchased the twenty acres near Old River, where he farmed until his 
death in 1907. Since then she continues to reside on her ranch, which is well 
improved and is run under the supervision of her son. 

By her first marriage she had four children, as follows : Christian, who is 
a farmer in this county; Peter, an employe on the Southern Pacific Railroad; 
Lena, Mrs. Small, who resides in San Francisco ; and Dina, in the employ of 
the San Joaquin Light & Power Corporation in Bakersfield. Of the second 
marriage there were six children, namely: Adeline, Mrs. Christian Ruedy, of 
Panama; Mary, Mrs. Zillig, residing in Arizona; John, Everett, Florence and 
Irving, who are still at home. Mrs. Pesante takes much pleasure in having 
been able to care for and train her children to habits of industry and self- 
reliance. Having been reared in the Protestant faith, she is a member of St. 
John's Lutheran Church in Bakersfield. 

PETER TUCULET was born in Spelet near Bayonne, Basses Pyrenees, 
France, May 12, 1875. His father, also named Peter Tuculet, has been a 
farmer and stockman all these years and still resides on his little farm in 
the lofty Pyrenees with his wife, Frances. To them were born ten children, 
nine of whom are living, Peter being the fifth in the order of birth. From a 
lad he made himself useful on the farm and learned the stock business as it 
was done in the Pyrenees of France. Two of his brothers having located in 
Kern county, Cal., he also determined to see the land of which he had heard 
such glowing reports and setting out at the age of seventeen he arrived in 
Kern county in 1892. Immediately he found employment with a sheepman 
herding the flocks in Kern, Inyo and Mono counties for eight years, when he 
purchased a band. A year later he sold his flock to engage in mining in the 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1363 

Amelia district, being employed in the Gold Pick and also the Amelia mine 
until 1907. From that time until 1909 he was foreman of stone quarries at 
Victorville, and then returned to Bakersfield, since which time he has been 
foreman of the Noriega ranch, a position he is filling with his customary zeal. 
Mr. Tuculet was married in East Bakersfield in 1900 to Miss Joanna 
Mier, a native of Spain, and to them have been born six children, as follows : 
Peter, Manuel, Joseph, Marie, Dominic and Frank. Both Mr. and Mrs. 
Tuculet are members of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in East Bakersfield. 

G. J, ALDRICH.— A resident of California since 1909, Mr. Aldrich claims 
Ohio as his native commonwealth and was born at Weston, Wood county, 
November 21, 1888, being a son of the late D. L. Aldrich, for years a druggist 
at Cygnet, Ohio, but deceased in 1909. The mother, who bore the maiden name 
of Flora A. Hoover, was born in Weston, Ohio, and now makes her home at 
Lima, that state. The family comprises three sons, the eldest of whom, 
Harry F., is employed as a drug clerk at Toledo, O., while the youngest, Rob- 
ert Lloyd, is engaged as a tool-dresser with the Syndicate Oil Company in the 
Midway field. The second son, George J., attended school as a boy, helped 
his father in the drug store during vacations, and at the age of seventeen left 
school and store in order to engage in the oil industry in the Lima fields for 
the Standard Oil Company. From the pipe-line gang he was raised to be 
a ganger, which position he filled about eighteen months. Meanwhile he was 
married at Adrian, Mich., to Miss Mina Clark, of Cygnet, Ohio, and soon 
after his marriage he moved to California, where he has since engaged in the 
oil business. For ten months he worked on the pipe line of the Standard at 
Orcutt in the Santa Maria field. When the Producers Transportation Com- 
pany built their line through to the coast he was employed in the capacity of 
engineer for three months, after which he became an engineer for the iVsso- 
ciated Oil Company. A short visit at the old Ohio home was followed by his 
return to the west and the resumption of work with the Standard, in whose 
employ he came to the Signa station as a fireman and during September of 
1912 received a merited promotion to be engineer. In his work he has had 
the cheerful and wise counsel of his wife, who is a woman of gentle Christian 
character, a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a house- 
keeper whose attractive home radiates good cheer, as does also her kindly 
hospitality and amiable disposition. 

L. D COULTER. — Born in McKean county. Pa., September 25, 1884, 
he was reared in the oil fields of his native commonwealth and received a com- 
mon-school education, supplemented by attendance at the academy in West 
S.unbury, Butler county. The beginnings of the oil work became familiar 
to him while he was yet a boy. From the first he gave indication of special 
aptitude for the occupation. At the age of twenty he was doing work of 
considerable responsibility in the Butler county fields. Much of his work in 
the east was done in West Virginia, where he was employed at St. Marys for 
some time as a tool-dresser and where he gained a reputation for skill and 
efficiency. After four and one-half years in West Virginia he sought a larger 
field for his activities and since 1909 has been connected with the industry in 
California, where for some eighteen months he worked at Coalinga before 
identifying himself with the Midway field. Merit alone caused the rise of Mr. 
Coulter from roustabout through the varying grades of work to the posi- 
tion of foreman with a concern of great prestige and large interests. Since 
coming to the Midway field he has engaged as production foreman on the 
Shale, Oakburn and Brunswick divisions of the General Petroleum Oil Com- 
pany. While in West Virginia he was identified with the Knights of Pythias 
at Glover Gap and since coming to the west he has been associated with the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Taft and the Eagles at Coalinga. In 
1912, a year after his marriage, he was deeply bereaved by the death of his 



1364 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

wife, who was Miss Sarah Robards, member of an old Kentucky family and a 
lady of such culture and gentleness as to win and retain the friendship of her 
larg^e circle of acquaintances. 

F. J. BURNS. — The oil industry in Kern county has an able representative 
in the person of F. J. Burns, superintendent tjf the Dominion Oil Company and 
identified with other organizations engaged in the business of development in 
this district. While the upbuilding of the Dominion's lease of forty acres on 
.section 15. 31-22, with its four wells averaging a monthly production of twelve 
thousand barrels, has been his principal task, it by no means represents the 
limit of his energies, for in addition he started the King George Oil Company 
in 191 1 and also drilled down two thousand feet on the Bobby Burns lease at 
McKittrick and has had other interests more or less successful. A resident 
of McKittrick, he served as justice of the peace from November, 1912, until 
April. 1913, when he resigned in order to devote his entire time to the oil 
business. 

Near Woodbridge, Suffolk county, England, F. J. Burns was born Feb- 
ruary 26, 1875, the son of John Franklin and Elizabeth Burns, the latter of 
whom died one week after the birth of her son, F. J., while the former died 
the following year. There was only one other child, a brother ten years older 
than F. J.; he became a surgeon in the British army and was sent to Egypt, 
where he was shot and killed while attending to wounded soldiers on the battle- 
field. The father was a country gentleman and owned Marleybone Court, an 
estate comprising about eighty acres. The family was both prominent and 
financially prosperous, and a nurse and governess were kept for the special 
care of the children, who after the death of their parents were the special 
chargQ of relatives holding the estate in trust for their use. 

In 1894 F. J. Burns sailed from Antwerp for Jersey City, landing in June 
of that year after an uneventful voyage. From the east he proceeded to 
Chicago and thence to Victoria, B. C., where he engaged to work as book- 
keeper in the office of the Pacific Coast Steamship Company. Later he be- 
came purser on the steamship Monmouthshire of the same line. For six 
months he filled that position, meanwhile visiting the ports of China and 
Japan, as well as many American ports on the Pacific coast. These voyages 
gave him a varied knowledge of much of the world, thus supplementing the 
information he had gained through his travels in England, Holland, Belgium 
and France, in company with his brother, Captain Burns, during the furloughs 
of the latter while acting as surgeon in the British army. Upon resigning as 
purser he came to the oil fields of California, bringing letters of introduction 
to leading oil operators in the Santa Maria field. For two years he engaged as 
superintendent of the Pinal and Brookshire Oil Companies and in 1909 came 
to McKittrick, where he has since organized the Bobby Burns Oil Company, 
the Scottish Oilfields Limited, the Carnegie Oilfields Limited and the Domin- 
ion Oil Company, the two last-named being in the North Midway field. After 
the Carnegie had been developed to a depth of thirty-nine hundred feet it 
was changed to a water well, then sold and is now being operated by a water 
company. The Scottish Oilfields developed a lease in the Elk 
Hills to a depth of forty-one hundred feet, but found no oil and 
therefore abandoned the holdings. The King George was organized and 
incorporated in 1911, but no attempt has as yet been made to drill and test the 
property. These various organizations have required much time and thought 
on the part of Mr. Burns, who entertains great hopes concerning the ultimate 
development and future value of the Dominion properties and believes this 
section of the county to be unsurpassed in its openings for oil operators. 
He is interested in public aifairs and votes the Democratic ticket. For some 
years he has been a member of the Democratic county central committee. In 
addition he is a member of the Bakersfield Club. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1365 

PETER MATTLY.— Many of the most enterprising men who have 
made a success of the dairy business in Kern county have come hither from 
the region of the Alps in Switzerland, and among them we find Peter Mattly, 
who was born in Zilles, Canton Graubunden, April 19, 1879. He was the son 
of John C. and Christene (Grischott ) Mattly, who were both descended from 
old families in Graubunden and were prosperous farmers, residing at their old 
home until they passed from earth. Of their four children three are living, 
as follows: Christian, who resides in Mono county; Peter, of this review, 
and Hill G., who is associated with Peter in the dairy business. 

Peter Alattly was reared in his native place and received his education 
in the public schools. From a youth he learned farming and was early set 
to work, thus learning habits of industry, carefulness and economy. Having 
become interested in reports from the United States he concluded to cast his 
lot in the land of the Stars and Stripes, and with that end in view came to 
Montana in 1901, remaining one year. Then he came to Mono county, Cal., 
where with his two brothers he bought out their uncle, Leo Mattly, who 
was in the stock business. They continued raising cattle there until 1912 
when he and his brother Hill sold their interest, and coming to Kern county 
formed a partnership with Chris Caycri and purchased the old Chris Mattly 
place of five hundred and sixty acres, where they are engaged in raising alfalfa 
and have a large dairy. To this business Mr. Mattly devotes all of his time. 
He was also interested in starting the Meadowland Creamery. In 1938 he 
made a visit to his old home in Zilles where he was married to Dora Cayori, 
the daughter of George and Menga Catrina Cayori. After their marriage he 
returned to California with his bride. Politically they espouse the Republican 
principles and in religious belief they are Lutherans. 

MILLARD D. BENSON.— Embarking in the trade of a blacksmith M. D. 
Benson with a partner purchased from W. F. Hubbard the blacksmith shop at 
McKittrick, where he now conducts a growing and profitable business, using 
a gas engine for power and having in his shop every modern equipment for 
efficient work in his line. 

The Benson family is of old eastern lineage. Dallas Benson, a native of 
Coudersport, Potter county. Pa., and a railroad contractor for some years 
during young manhood, established himself in Michigan for the purpose of 
pursuing his chosen business. While at St. Clair, that state, he married Miss 
Naydell Millward and established a home in that town. After the birth of a 
son, Millard D., which occurred at St. Clair, October 5, 1873, the family re- 
turned to Pennsylvania, the father establishing a home in his native town. 
After some years as a railroad contractor in that part of the country he took 
up agricultural pursuits and also engaged to some extent in lumbering. Until 
his death in 1892 he remained a resident of Pennsylvania. The widow after- 
ward became the wife of H. L. Holcomb, now a well-known resident of Bakers- 
field. 

Upon the completion of the regular course of study in the Coudersport 
high school Mr. Benson took up lumbering in Pennsylvania. There also he 
learned every phase of the oil business. As a driller he proved to be excep- 
tionally capable. The discovery of gold in Alaska attracted him to that coun- 
try. During the spring of 1898 he went by steamer to Skagway and from 
there, crossing the White pass, to Dawson. After six months in the mining 
regions of the Klondike he was taken ill with typhoid fever. As soon as he 
was able to travel he followed the trail westward to St. Michaels, where he 
boarded a steamer for Seattle and then entered a hospital for recuperation from 
the fever. As soon as able to travel he came to Tulare county, where he soon 
regained his health. In the fall of 1899, at the opening of the Kern river field, 
he engaged as a driller for the Peerless Oil Company. Two months later, in 
December of 1899 he came to McKittrick, where he secured employment as a 



1366 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

driller for the Grant Oil Company. Later tasks in drilling gave him a thorough 
acquaintance with the Midway, Sunset, Fellows and North Midway fields. 
Together with Mr. Iribarne in 1910 he bought the old Headquarters hotel 
and livery barn, but in 1911 he sold out to his partner. Later he bought a 
blacksmith shop, the largest in McKittrick, in which business he has Mr. 
Holcomb as a partner. After coming to Kern county he was married at 
Bakersfield to Miss Jennie Allen, a native of Kalamazoo, Mich. In fraternal 
lelatiuns he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the 
Improved Order of Red Men. 

ROBERT J. MULL. — It has been necessary for Mr. Mull to earn his own 
support from boyhood. Although still a young man (born in 1885) already 
he has established and developed an important business. After some time 
devoted to work around oil wells, in 1909 he embarked in the livery business 
at McKittrick, where he built a barn and corral, purchased driving horses 
and buggies, and opened a stable that he still conducts with fair profit. In 
addition he makes a specialty of auto livery and also owns and operates a 
blacksmith and horse-shoeing shop, so that in the varied lines of activity he 
keeps busily and profitably employed. 

When only one year old Robert J. Mull was left an orphan. During 1887 
he was brought from his birthplace, Newport, Ark., to California, where he 
was taken into the home of an uncle at Merced. Later he lived successively 
at Santa Barbara and Bakersfield and attended the schools of those cities. A 
course in Heald's Business College completed his education. Upon leaving 
school he secured work in the Coalinga oil field, where he was employed as a 
tool-dresser. Coming to the McKittrick field in 1906, he continued here as a 
tool-dresser until 1909, when he embarked in the business that since has 
engaged his time and attention. Since coming to McKittrick he has become 
a member of the Yoko Tribe No. 252, I. O. R. M. Politically he supports 
Democratic principles. His family consists of wife and daughter, Evelyn. 
Mrs. Mull, prior to their marriage in Tulare, was Miss Hattie Stevenson. 
and is a woman of culture and education, a native of Licking, Mo. 

FRED L. SMITH. — The tide of emigration that bore great multitudes of 
sturdy pioneers away from the shores of the Atlantic into the unknown 
regions of the interior found the Smith family transplanted from the east to the 
then undeveloped regions of Michigan, where William H. was born at Ply- 
mouth and where in youth he learned the trade of stonemason under his 
father. However, the young man was more fond of adventure and started 
cut to see something of the world. While in Louisiana he was induced to join 
the regular army and received an assignment to the Twenty-fourth United 
States Infantry, which was dispatched to Fort Missoula, Mont. Through the 
request of his mother he was honorably discharged, on account of being under 
age. He secured employment in Montana and after a brief period became 
manager of the grocery department of the Missoula Mercantile Company, 
continuing in the same position for fifteen years. Meanwhile he was elected 
county clerk and recorder of Missoula county and he won the election two 
terms, but during the last year of the second term he resigned in order to 
accept a position as chief of police of Missoula. Ten months later he gave up 
that post and embarked in the real-estate business, but soon afterward was 
appointed city clerk, which office he now holds. 

Mr. Smith married in Montana Miss Alice V. Amiraux, a native of 
Maine, who had accompanied her family across the plains in a "prairie 
schooner" drawn by oxen. Upon reaching Montana her father, Henry A. 
Amiraux, located near Missoula and embarked in stock-raising and ranching. 
Later he was chosen to serve in the territorial legislature of Montana. There 
were three children in the family of William H. and Alice V. Smith and two 
of these survive. Youngest of the three, Fred L., was born at Missoula, Mont., 
November 3, 1882, and received his elementary education in his native town. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1367 

After he had graduated from the Missoula high school in 1899 he entered 
All Hallow's College in Salt Lake City and continued in that institution for 
three years, receiving in 1902 a diploma from the commercial department. 
Upon his return to the old home town he entered the employ of the Missoula 
Mercantile Company as a bookkeeper. When his father was elected county 
clerk and recorder he was appointed chief deputy in the office and upon the 
resignation of the incumbent toward the close of the second term he was 
appointed to fill the vacancy. When a new incumbent had been elected he con- 
tinued as chief deputy for one year, after which for a similar period he man- 
aged a hotel in Missoula. Next he engaged in the cigar business in Wallace, 
Idaho. December 1, 1911, he came to Bakersfield, where he soon formed a 
partnership with E. J. Thompson in the running of the Oil Center stage 
between Bakersfield and Oil Center, a distance of seven miles. 

The marriage of Mr. Smith took place at Spokane, Wash., December 31, 
1904, and united him with Miss Julia Butler, who was born in Rush City, 
Minn... and was the youngest in a family that includes two daughters and two 
sons now living. Her parents, A. W. and Marie (Kelley) Butler, were natives 
respectively of Maine and Lake Eorest, 111., and the former, after many years 
as a builder in Minnesota, removed to Spokane, Wash., and took up the same 
line of business. The eldest child of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Billie, died at the 
age of three years. The others are Frederick, Jule and William H., to whom 
1;he parents hope to give the best educational advantages this city afifords. 
In politics Mr. Smith votes with the Democratic party. While living in 
Idaho he became identified with the Knights of Columbus at Wallace, also 
with the Improved Order of Red Men, while at Missoula he was a member 
of the* Eagles and Elks, and in addition he has maintained an active association 
with the Yeomen. 

N. M. GATES.— To engage in drilling for the La Belle Oil Company in 
March of 1910 Mr. Gates came to the Midway field. When he had completed 
the drilling of the first well he was chosen superintendent of the lease. 
Scarcely had well No. 1 been started when the concern sold out to the Cali- 
fornia Counties Oil Company, which has retained him in the position of super- 
intendent. The first two wells have been continuous producers and well No. 3, 
Avhich yields enough gas to run the entire lease, also came in as a gusher. At 
this writing well No. 4 is in process of drilling. 

Born at Pittsfield, Pike county. 111., September 11, 1859, he was ten years 
of age when his father, Joseph Gates, removed to Missouri and settled on a 
farm in Lafayette county. During 1876 he removed to Texas and settled on a 
farm in Callahan county, where the father died. Returning to the old home 
in Missouri in 1880, he began to earn his livelihood as a farmer, but the 
following years he temporarily abandoned such work and the year of 1882 
found him mining near Georgetown, Colo. Three different times he made the 
round trip between Missouri and Colorado, farming in the former state and 
mining in the latter. During 1886 he went to Idaho and found employment in 
mining, but at the expiration of fifteen months he left to make a tour of the 
Pacific coast country. Returning thence to a Missouri farm, in 1888 he again 
left home to try his luck with the pioneers of Oklahoma. However, when the 
famous run was made in April of 1889 he felt the chances to be so small that he 
withdrew from the race, afterward renting a farm at Lenapah, I. T., for four 
years. 

On coming to California in 1893 Mr. Gates engaged in farming in Tulare 
county for a year, but in 1894 he returned to the Indian Territory and 
resumed farm pursuits in that country. At Wagoner, I. T., occurred his mar- 
riage to Mrs. Jennie (Merchant) Young, a daughter of John Merchant, mem- 
ber of the firm of Merchant Bros., large cattle buyers in Texas. By her first 
marriage there were two sons, both later adopted by Mr. Gates, and there are 

57 



1368 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

also two sons of her second marriage, the four being- as follows : Howard, 
now employed as a driller at Brea, this state ; John, who is engaged with the 
California Counties Oil Company ; Joseph and Lee. The family are of the 
Presbyterian faith. During 1897 Mr. Gates removed from the Indian Terri- 
tory to Colorado and soon afterward he secured employment as a helper at 
Florence in the oil fields, where later he was promoted to be a driller. Coming 
to the California oil fields in 1905, he engaged as a driller with the Radium 
Oil Company at Santa Maria. In 1906 he became superintendent of the prop- 
erty. When he resigned that position early in 1910 he came to the Midway 
and has since been connected with the lease now operated by the California 
Counties Oil Company. Fraternally he holds membership with the Modern 
Woodmen of America and the Woodmen of the World. 

WILLIAM E. ARMSTRONG.— Upon attaining his majority in 1897 
he entered a claim to one hundred and sixty acres in Kern county, which he 
proved up on and then sold. Another early venture in Kern county took 
him into partnership with a brother, C. W. Armstrong, the two undertaking 
general agricultural pursuits in the Weed Patch, where two favorable years 
brought them excellent returns, but the third year, being dry, lost them all the 
profits of the preceding seasons. At another time he bought and subdivided a 
block in East Bakersfield, afterward selling a number of the lots for building 
purposes, the balance remaining in his possession. 

Of Virginian ancestry and lowan birth, Mr. Armstrong is a son of 
Thomas E. and Margaret (Walker) Armstrong, natives respectively of West 
Virginia and Illinois, the former a pioneer first of Illinois and then of Ringgold 
county, Iowa, where he died. The family consisted of six children,, all of 
whoni are living except C. W., late of Kern county. The third in order of 
birth, William E., was born in Ringgold county, Iowa, May 29, 1876, and 
received public-school education and farm training. At the age of about 
twenty he came to Bakersfield, arriving in March of 1896, after which he 
tried his luck as a farmer in the Weed Patch and next turned his attention to 
teaming between Bakersfield and the Kern river oil field. Becoming interested 
in the oil industry, he learned tool-dressing and general work aiound the wells. 
During 1907 he went to San Joaquin county and purchased property which 
is to be put in alfalfa. Returning to Kern county in 1910 after having rented 
the farm he resumed work in the Kern river oil field. In May, 1913, he became 
a member of the firm of Armstrong & Reynolds, proprietors of a general mer- 
cantile store at Reward, but August 20, 1913, he bought out his partner's 
interest, being now the sole owner. Recently he opened another store in Mc- 
Kittrick, which is conducted under the firm name of Armstrong & Co. 

Ever since casting his first ballot Mr. Armstrong has been a Republican. 
Fraternally he holds membership with the Woodmen of the World in Bakers- 
field. His first marriage united him with Miss- Anna Shackelford, who was 
born in Iowa and died at Bakersfield, Cal., leaving two daughters, Pearl and 
Ethel. Some years after the death of his first wife he married Aliss Sadie 
Jenkins, of Bakersfield, a native of Nodaway county. Mo., and a woman 
whcse capabilities are shown in her co-operation with Mr. Armstrong in 
movements for their own personal advancement as well as the general welfare. 
Some years ago she located a desert claim of three hundred and twenty acres 
at Rio Bravo, where an abundance of water was found at a depth of eighty 
feet. In order that the water might be utilized as needed, Mrs. Armstrong 
put in a pumping plant of one hundred and fifty inches capacity. 

JOSEPH PETER DOOLEY.— The junior member of the firm of James 
& Douley, dealers in clothing and men's furnishing goods, is a pioneer 
merchant of Taft. He arrived in Taft September 1, 1909, and that same month 
became a member of the firm of James & Dcoley, establishing the first clothing 
store in Taft on Siding No. 2. This was burned out October 22, 1909. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1369 

ANDREW NIXON. — One of the self-made, self-reliant men of Rands- 
burg, Kern county, is Andrew Nixon, who since the age of thirteen years has 
been earning his r)wn way and providing for himself, without the aid and 
comfort of a parent's guidance in the struggle. He is now the successful owner 
of several placer mines and one quartz mine in the county. 

Mr. Nixon came to Randsburg in 1895, after having numerous experiences 
elsewhere in the country between there and Nova Scotia, where his birth oc- 
curred January 22, 1865, in Anapolis county. He was sent to the public schools 
until he was thirteen, when, left an orphan, he found it incumbent upon him to 
look after his own interests and find a way to procure his livelihood. In 1884 
he came west to Butte City, Mont., where he started in the mining business, 
taking up his residence in that city, where he remained up to the time he came 
west to California. In 1902 he bought out a liquor business in Randsburg, 
which he is conducting at >he present time. He was one-third owner of the 
Stanford Gold Coin Mill, afWward called the Stanford Mining and Milling 
Company. He was the locator of the Blackhawk mine which he afterwards 
sold to a mining company. Mr. Nixon is a member of the Fraternal Order of 
Eagles. 

CHARLES EMERSON. — In the southwest corner of Kern county, run- 
ning up to within one mile of Ventura county and about three miles from the 
San Luis Obispo county line, lies the Paleto ranch of five thousand acres 
operated by Emerson Bros. The identification of the family with the ranch 
dates back to the year 1886, when Edward Simpson Emerson removed to 
Kern county and pre-empted and' homesteaded land twelve miles south of the 
present site of Maricopa. For years before coming to this locality he had lived 
in California and had engaged in ranching. By birth a Missourian, he had 
engaged in the government service in 1848 and as a teamster had hauled 
freight to the various government posts. During 1852 he sailed from Mexico 
to San Francisco, thence proceeded to Sonoma county and took up land. 
There he married Miss Julia Dunbar and in that county their five eldest chil- 
dren were born. Removing to San Luis Obispo county in 1868, he continued 
to engage in ranching and stock-raising. When he brought his family to 
Kern county in 1886 he and his seven sons engaged in ranching in the Paleto 
country. When his demise occurred in 1904 and that of his wife in 1908, both 
had attained to the age of seventy-one years. 

The family of Edward Simpson Emerson comprised nine children, all 
still living, as follows : Perry, on a ranch near Bakersfield ; Zaza, who is on the 
Paleto ranch ; Henry, who makes his home on a ranch eight miles south of 
Bakersfield ; Charles, who was born in Sonoma county July 6, 1865, and is 
still unmarried; Elbert T., a resident of Fillmore, Ventura county; Mollie L.. 
who married Clarence S. Green, of Maricopa (represented elsewhere in this 
volume) ; Edward E., on the Paleto ranch ; Robert, who makes his home at 
Fillmore, Ventura county; and Josephine, Mrs. M. T. Bush, who resides on 
the Paleto ranch. Since attaining his majority Charles Emerson has lived in 
Kern county and has engaged in ranching. With his brothers as partners 
he usually maintains a herd of about three hundred head of cattle, but at the 
present time they have reduced the bunch to one hundred head, these being 
mostly Durham and Hereford cattle of the finest beef grades. 

On account of a spring of water on the land taken up by Charles Emerson 
Messrs. Carr and Haggin entered suit against him and attempted to eject 
him from the holdings. He was enjoined from using the waters of the spring. 
Litigation followed. Defying the injunction of the superior court of Kern 
county, he spent thirty days in jail for contempt of court and in that Avay 
became well known in this section of the state. Through the purchase by him 
of three hundred and twenty acres and by his father of a similar amount from 
the Kern County Land Company, the successors of the original contestants, 



1370 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the matter was eventually settled and peace was restored. Since then he has 
continued his ranching enterprises and with his brothers operates five thou- 
sand acres forming what is known as the Paleto ranch, sit-uated twelve miles 
south of Maricopa. 

JOHN CROSS. — A pioneer in Kern county, John Cross was born in Santa 
Clara county, June 16, 1864, and was brought by his parents to a home within 
the present borders of Kern in 1866. He attended public schools in a school- 
house which stood near Weldon, on the South Fork of the Kern river, until 
he was seventeen years old, then devoted himself to farm work until he was 
twenty. His first venture for himself was in homesteading one hundred and 
sixty acres of government land on the North Fork about three miles above 
Kernville, which he began to improve and on which he prospered as a stock- 
raise*- and general farmer until 1897. Then he sold his land and became a mer- 
chant at Bodfish, where he built and started the first store and sold goods 
until 1906, when he took up his residence at Mojave. There he is the owner 
of a liquor store, at the same time owning a business place at Isabella, which 
he leases. For many years he gave his attention to farming and cattle raising 
on the South Fork of the Kern river, but has lately sold out his stock-raising 
interest. 

In nearly all his business ventures Mr. Cross has been successful. Be- 
sides the interests already mentioned he is the owner also of property in Los 
Angeles. Fraternally he affiliates with the Loyal Order of Moose. He mar- 
ried Aliss Clio B. Tilley, June 14, 1897. Mrs. Cross is a native daughter of 
Kern county, born in Kernville, and is the mother of five children, Louis, 
Raymond, Marion, John, J., and Clio Helen. 

L. A. McCALL. — What is known in the oil world to be the largest 
gusher in the United States, and indeed in the entire world, is situated on 
section 36, 31-23, in Kern county and owned, by the Standard Oil Company. 
This lease is the most important owned by the company and contains more 
gushers than any other lease in the Midway field, or in fact in any other 
lease in the world, and it was here that the celebrated oil gusher known as 
McNee No. 10 was brought in in the latter part of July, 1913; and the McNee 
No. 6 during the first part of September. No. 10 came in as a powerful gusher, 
breaking loose and destroying connections, and flowed uncontrolled for two 
weeks, it being estimated that twenty thousand barrels of oil were taken 
from it per day. The skill with which this well was controlled and the 
difficult and expert work of management are due entirely to the ability of 
L. A. McCall, the present foreman, who with the aid of thirty-five expe- 
rienced oil men worked night and day for five days, removing the broken 
casing and making a new connection with such success that the well was 
brought under perfect control and is making twelve thousand barrels per 
day, a record, so far as is known (1914), greater than any other gusher in the 
world. This section contains besides the No. 10 the following wells, which 
are all large gushers: Nos. 1, 4, 6, 12, 15 and 17. All the wells in the sec- 
tion with the exception of No. 1 and No. 4, which were already drilled before 
his appointment, have been brought in and drilled under the direction of 
Mr. ]\IcCall, who has been in the employ of the Standard Oil Company for 
four years, a year and a half as foreman of section 36. 

The son of a veteran oil man of Pennsylvania, Samuel McCall, he was 
born at Beaver City, Clarion county, Pa., April 2, 1878, and his father is 
now working with him on section 36. It was in McKane county, Pa., that 
L. A. IMcCall started as a tool dresser to learn the oil industry under his 
father. He was then sixteen, and three years later he went to West Vir- 
ginia to work in the oil fields, remaining three years. Next for a like period 
he worked in Ohio oil fields and then moved to Indiana, where he was 
employed by a contract driller, and did drilling for the first time. His next 
location was in Tilberry, Ontario, Canada, where he drilled for a year and 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1371 

then came to California in 1906 and engaged with the California Limited Oil 
Company, at Coalinga, for one year, six months of which he worked as a 
driller, and then returned east and drilled in Lawrenceville, Lawrence county, 
111., for a year. The west again attracted him, and in 1909 he came to Taft 
and found employment as driller for the Standard Oil Company. He is a 
cable as well as a rotary tool driller and his understanding of the work, his 
accuracy and good judgment earned him the promotion to lease foreman, in 
March, 1912. Since then he has continued to give his employers the utmost 
satisfaction in his work. Mr. McCall has the advantage of unusually fine 
physical and mental strength, Avhich have materially aided him in his upward 
striving. With his wife, who before her marriage in Lawrenceville, III., 
was Miss Sophronia Stanley, he resides on section 36, in the Standard house. 

C. A. BOSTAPH, — Dating his identification with the Kerto lease from 
March 17, 1911. he has since been connected with the concern as driller and 
as foreman, in which latter capacity he now has charge of nine strings of tools, 
one of these being rotary and eight cable. Not only dees he have a wide per- 
sonal acquaintance among oil operators in Kern county, but in addition he is 
actively connected with the Petroleum Club at Taft and is a trustee in the 
Kerto Club, which was founded in September of 1912 and is now under the 
care of H. H. Madern, president; F. B. Tough, vice-president; and J. D. 
Calder, secretary, together with the board of trustees including three gentle- 
men besides himself. 

A native of Clarion, Clarion county. Pa., C. A. Bostaph is a son of An- 
drew J. and Mary A. (Black) Bostaph, who still reside on the old Pennsylvania 
homestead. Besides being engaged in farming, the father has oil interests 
and the old farm contains six oil wells of considerable value. The family 
has been connected with the oil industry for years. He and his wife are the 
parents of five sons and three daughters. Three of the sons are working for 
the Standard Oil Company in the pipe-line department between West Vir- 
ginia and Philadelphia. The fourth son is also engaged in the oil industry 
in West Virginia, while C. A., the second in order of birth, is following 
the same business in California. Two of the daughters are wives of oil men 
working respectively in Pennsylvania and A¥est Virginia. The third daughter, 
who is unmarried, lives in Oklahoma and is a trained nurse. 

Born April 25, 1876, C. A. Bostaph was sixteen years of age when he 
began to work as a tool-dresser, going from the Clarion fields to those of 
Findlay, Ohio, and four years later removing from Ohio to West Virginia, 
where he drilled and had charge of tools. From 1896 until December, 1901, 
he continued in West Virginia, whence he came to California. Arriving at 
Whittier early in 1902, he continued in that field until June of the same year 
and then removed to Ventura county, to enter the employ of the Union Oil 
Company. Until 1908 he continued with the Union Oil Company. Meanwhile 
he engaged in drilling in the Fullerton and Lompoc fields and later put down 
some wells at Taft. Returning to Ventura county, he remained there for two 
months. Next he drilled on the Ethel D. lease, from which point he went to 
25 Hill and engaged in drilling for ten months. A short period of labor in 
Ventura county was followed by his arrival at Kerto and his association with 
the Kern Trading and Oil Company. Lifelong familiarity with the oil industry 
has made him acquainted with every phase of the work. When only a small 
boy he was put to work at pumping every day as soon as he reached home 
from school, and he found the oil business far more engrossing than any text- 
books, so that his education as an oil operator progressed even more rapidly 
than his high-school training. In the oil field of his present connection he 
is known as an expert driller and a man of wide general knowledge. 

E. L. BURNHAM. — With the exception of the first eighteen years of his 
life spent in Iowa, where he was born in October of 1865, Mr. Burnham has 



1372 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

been identified permanently with the interests of California and at the time 
that Taft began to attract wide attention as the center of a great oil industry- 
he came to this village. Upon coming to the west he made his first stop at 
Fresno and near that town in 1883 he secured employment on a ranch at day 
wages, while later he also found employment in the freighting business. From 
Fresno he removed to Madera county and engaged in general ranching during 
the next seven years. From there he removed to Stanislaus county and 
settled upon a farm. The ensuing three years were given to successful agri- 
cultural effort in that community. His marriage in 1888 united him with Miss 
Sadie Musick, a native of California. The residence of the family was estab- 
lished at Madera and the two children, Clarence and Lillie, have received the 
educational advantages offered by the schools of that city. 

The development of the oil industry in Kern county made Taft a new 
town of great importance. Business opportunities led Mr. Burnham to this 
place during March of 1910. Immediately after his arrival he embarked in 
the meat and produce business as the representative of a firm whose other 
members, besides himself, are H. L. Musick of Pasadena and Charles Musick 
of Fresno, the company thus formed being engaged in the maintenance of an 
important trade built up at this point. Their trade extends both into whole- 
sale and retail lines. While Mr. Burnham has given his time with assiduous 
devotion to the development of the business interests under control of his 
company, he has neglected none of the duties devolving upon progressive 
citizens solicitous for the advancement of the community. Regarding a 
public office as a public trust, he consented to serve as a member of the board 
of trustees of Taft, to which office he was elected in the fall of 1910 
scarcely six months after his removal to the town. At the expiration of 
the term he was again chosen, April 8, 1912, for the same office and is now 
filling the position with the energy and intelligence characteristic of him in 
every relation of life. His fraternal affiliations are with the Loyal Order of 
Moose at Taft and the Woodmen of the W^orld at Madera. 

BERNARD G. GREEN.— Mr. Green is the son of John W. and Sarah E. 
Green, who now make their home in Taft, where the former is employed as a 
roadmaster under Supervisor Bush. One of a family of nine children, Bernard 
G. Green was born December 19, 1880, in Santa Barbara county and was twelve 
years of age when in 1892 he came with his parents to Kern county, settling 
in Bakersfield. In the schools of this county he completed his education and 
on neighborhood farms he learned the rudiments of agriculture, which he 
has since followed as a renter of various tracts. After he had engaged for two 
years as a teamster in the west side oil fields he formed a business association 
with John J. Brinkman, whereby he agrees to level, check and break the 
land lying sixteen miles southeast of Bakersfield and put in an irrigation plant, 
receiving f;)ur crops free in return for his work. 

A well five hundred and twenty feet deep furnishes a steady flow of 
water, utilized by means of a centrifugal pump operated by a gasoline engine 
of forty horse-power. It is the intention to devote the one hundred and sixty 
acres to alfalfa and other staple crops of Kern county. The abundance of 
water supply and fertility of the soil argue in favor of gratifying results when 
the work of cultivation is well under way. 

With his family consisting of his wife and daughter, Margaret R., Mr. 
Green has established a home on the ranch and has entered upon his many 
responsibilities with energy and intelligence. Mrs. Green, who prior to their 
marriage in October of 1907 was Miss Margery L. Jenkins, is a daughter of 
J. E. Jenkins and a sister of Mrs. J. J. Brinkman, of Bakersfield. 

MARIUS MARTIN ESPITALLIER.— The first twenty years in the life 
of Marius Martin Espitallier were passed happily and uneventfully in the 
humble home of his father, Dominic, a farmer and shoemaker at Ancil, near 



HISTORY OF KRRN COUNTY 1373 

Gap, in the department of Hautes-Alpes, France. The most diligent applica- 
tion to the shoemaker's trade and the most unwearied cultivation of his few 
acres scarcely sufificed to gain for the father the means necessary for the 
support of the family, hence the son, whose birth had occurred March 16, 1854, 
was early put to work to earn his own way in the world. Not only did he 
itssist on the farm, but in addition he learned the trade of a baker and while not 
busy at some useful task he was allowed to attend school in order that he 
might acquire some knowledge. 

It was on the 15th of December, 1874, that Mr. Espitallier landed in San 
Francisco, a stranger in a strange land. Having a good knowledge of the 
bakery business he was enabled to secure employment in a shop in San 
Francisco, where he remained for a number of years. Coming to Kern county 
in 1880 he embarked in the sheep business, with headquarters at East Bakers- 
field, and for six years he experienced the reverses and successes incident to 
that industry. During December of 1886 he bought the French bakery in 
East Bakersfield on Humboldt street between Baker and King and there he 
conducted a thriving trade for twenty-four years. His patronage extended 
through every part of Bakersfield and East Bakersfield and into the sur- 
rounding country. When finally he sold the business in 1910, with his w'xie 
he enjoyed a delightful vacation, returning to his old home in the south of 
"France and also traveling through Switzerland, Italy and Belgium. After his 
return he engaged in the livery business at No. 615 Humboldt street, and has 
since been proprietor of the Espitallier stables. His marriage, in Los Angeles, 
August 14, 1887, united him with Miss Appoloni Eyraud, a native of Hautes- 
Alpes, and they have a comfortable home on Humboldt street, East Bakers- 
field. Fraternally he holds membership with the Druids. In politics he votes 
with the Democratic party. 

JOHN L. SWETT. — Mr. Swett has shown his deep interest in the wel- 
fare of Bakersfield by contributing of his means and time toward the further- 
ing of her development. He is the son of Dr. William K. Swett, who was born 
March 7, 1852, at Newport, N. H., and here he was reared and educated. In 
1873 he was married to Elizabeth A. Davis, and together they came to Kern 
county in 1875, settling at Havilah, where Dr. Swett practiced medicine. 
Although his career in this region was very brief he accomplished much good 
and his memory was much revered after his untimely death, at the early age 
of twenty-four years. Two children were born to Dr. Swett and his wife, 
John L., who is mentioned below, and William K., who married Edith Fugitt, 
of Bakersfield, and has one child, Gertrude. The latter now lives in South 
Fork valley. 

John L. Swett was born in San Francisco, August 17, 1874, and was but 
two years of age at the time his father passed away. Upon the removal of his 
parents to Kern county he was brought hither and here he has since made 
his home. He is at present the proprietor of the Monte Carlo saloon, which 
is located on Nineteenth street, Bakersfield. He married Miss Charlotte 
Reber, of Selma, Cal., and they are the parents of two children, Dorothy N. 
and Langdon. Their home is at No. 2210 Nineteenth street. Mr. Swett 
never loses an opportunity to co-operate with his fellow-citizens toward bene- 
fiting his city and county. Although not holding public office he interests 
himself with all civic movements, and is ready to give every aid in his power 
toward the public welfare. 

The mother of John L. Swett, who was, before her marriage to William K. 
Swett, Elizabeth A. Davis, was born at Wenham, IMass., where her first 
years were passed. At the age of nine she came with her parents via the 
isthmus of Panama to San Francisco, landing there in 1863. Her father settled 
at Visalia, and there she was reared and married in 1873 to Dr. William K. 
Swett, coming to Kern county with him in 1875, where his death occurred a 



1374 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

short time later. She later became the wife of N. P. Peterson, and resides at 
Isabella, Kern county, where Mr. Peterson is engaged in mining and stock- 
raising, owning a ranch there. By this marriage there were three children : 
Neal H. ; Walter C. ; and Addie E., now the wife of Dick Fugitt, and residing 
at Isabella. 

A proper regard for the pioneer history of the medical profession of 
Kern county imperatively demands a further mention of Dr. William K. 
Swett, the father of the subject of this sketch. He was born to his profession, 
being the son of Dr. John Langdon Swett, of Newport, N. H. Dr. William K. 
Swett received his earlier education at the New London academy and at the 
Kimball Union academy at Meriden, N. H. He came to California in 1870, 
settling in San Francisco at first. He then commenced the study of medicine, 
reading under the preceptorship of Dr. J. P. Whitney at the latter's office in 
San Francisco, and later completed the medical course at the Poland Medical 
College. His professional career at Havilah was marked by signal success. 

A. V, BENNETT. — Among the men who are making a success of the 
dairy business in Kern county is A. V. Bennett, a native of Illinois, born at 
Adair. McDonough county, February 6, 1880, the son of Jefferson and Sarah 
(Randolph) Bennett, natives of Indiana and Pennsylvania respectively. On 
his mother's side the Randolphs are traced back into England, records of the 
family showing the family extant in the ninth century. Mr. Randolph is a 
man of public spirit and is much interested and helpful in the development 
of the town of his adoption. 

Mr. Bennett was brought up on his father's farm, attending the public 
schools in the district. Having accumulated some money he invested it about 
1904 in some land at Alspaugh, Cal., which he still owns. He did not come to 
this state until 1906 and in 1907 he located in Wasco, where he has built up a 
growing business. As soon as he obtained water for irrigating his seven and 
one-half acres in town he sowed alfalfa and began the dairy business, serving 
bottled milk to the customers at Wasco and he also ships a supply of milk to 
Lost Hills. This necessarily takes a great deal of attention and his time is 
wholly occupied. 

In Adair, 111., occurred the marriage of Mr. Bennett, with INliss Carrie 
Hoyle, a native of Fulton county. 111., and they have two children. Gene and 
Gordon. 

WILLIAM H. ENGLE.— A native of Kern county, Mr. Engle was born 
near Woody and within three miles of his present ranch, November 10, 
1868. His father, David Engle, was born in Dayton, Ohio, and when a youth 
crossed the plains to California in 1849. He followed mining in different camps 
but later turned his attention to the cattle business and became one of the 
early settlers of Kern county. Locating land near the Five Dog ranch, he 
became a successful cattleman. He married in Kern county Miss Elvira Hig- 
gins, a native of Oregon, and both died in this county. Of their ten children, 
eight of whom are living, William is the second oldest, and from a boy he was 
brought up in the cattle business, receiving his education in the local schools. 
While working for his father Mr. Engle acquired a small herd of his own, 
running them on the open range with his father's cattle. He homesteaded one 
hundred and sixty acres three miles from Granite but later sold it and pur- 
chased nine hundred and thirteen acres in one body at the head of Rabbit 
Gulch about four miles above Granite station, where he now engages in the 
cattle business. 

The marriage of Mr. Engle occurred near Woody, uniting him with Miss 
Lulu Brown, who was born in Illinois but reared in Kern county, and to 
them were born six children as follows : Lee, Ella, Gladys, William, David and 
Harry. Mr. Engle began riding after cattle when eight years of age and so he 
is well and favorablv known throughout the county as one of the oldest 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1375 

among- the stock-growers. For many years he served as a school trustee, 
is a deputy sheriff and has served one term as constable. With his wife he is a 
member of the Christian church at Woody. Politically he is a Democrat. 

EDWARD WEIT.— Among the upbuilders of Wasco we find Edward 
Weit, who was born in Koenigsberg, Prussia. November 3, 1877. His child- 
hood, however, was spent in Braunsweig, Germany, where he was educated 
in the local schools, after which he was employed in the office of the salt 
works and became an experienced bookkeeper. Accepting a position with 
the North German Lloyd line of steamers it was his privilege to visit 
different parts of the old world touching all countries but Australia. In 1897 
he came to New York City, where for a time he was employed in hotels. Later 
he traveled throughout the United States, visiting nearly every city of import- 
ance, and he also made the trip to Alaska. 

In 1905 Mr. W^eit came to Los Angeles, where he was married to Miss 
Hedvig, also a native of Germany. For a time he was proprietor of a hotel 
and restaurant, and later had a grocery store in Ocean Park. In 1910 they 
came to Bakersfield and in November of the same year located in Wasco and 
took charge of the Wasco hotel. Later he also had a restaurant. Mr. Weit 
also started the first meat market in W^asco. Having purchased twelve and 
one-half acres in the town site he sunk a deep well, installed a pumping 
plant and laid the first pipes for furnishing citizens with water for domestic use. 
He has erected a tower house and reservoir, also a plunge, 20x40 feet, covered 
by a large building which is also equipped with tub and shower baths. Wasco 
plunge has become a very popular place. After completing the waterworks 
and plunge he sold his other interests in order to devote all of his time to 
the building up of his new enterprise. He believes in modern and up-to-date 
ideas and methods, and was the first citizeh in Wasco to use an electric fan. 
He installed the first private motor and also was the first to use electricity 
for cooking. Fraternally Mr. Weit is a member of the Woodmen of the 
World and with his wife is a member of the Fraternal Brotherhood. 

FRANCIS M. SNOW. — It was near Springfield, Greene county, Mo., 
that Francis 'SI. Snow, who now lives near Bakersfield, was born September 
24, 1860. He was the son of William S. and Virginia Edmonson, who were 
born in Tennessee and became farmers in Greene county. Mo. In 1868 they 
removed to Brownwood, Tex., where the mother died. In his old age the father 
removed to Roseburg, Ore., where he pasesd away. Of the seven children 
born to this couple two are living, and Francis M. is the third in order of 
birth. He was eight years old when he removed to Texas with his parents, 
and thereafter until he was seventeen he attended the public school near his 
home. During the four years following he worked for his father on the latter's 
farm. His first business venture for himself was as a buyer and seller of cattle 
in association with the Dublin Oil Mill Company of Texas, continuing thus 
employed until 1883, when he moved to California, and in Lake county engaged 
in farming and stock-raising. Locating at Santa Rosa in 1898. he was fore- 
man of a lumber yard there until 1907, when he came to Kern county, 
leasing one hundred acres two miles and a half north of Bakersfield where 
he raised grain. 

In 1912 Mr. Snow bought the eighty acres six miles northwest of Bakers- 
field which fs now his homestead, a tract of raw land which he has improved 
and put under cultivation and developed into one of the good farms in this 
vicinity. It is in alfalfa and is irrigated from the Beardsley canal. As a 
farmer Mr. Snow has brought to bear upon the problems presented to him an 
intimate knowledge of soils, crops and climate, which constitute a compre- 
hensive view of all conditions of production, and he has transacted his busi- 
ness with his fellow citizens on a high plane of honor that marks him as a 
man to be trusted. As a citizen he has proven himself public-spirited to a 



1376 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

remarkable degree, giving' his support to every worthy movement for the ad- 
vancement of the community. He affiliates fraternallywith the Odd Fellows 
and the Fraternal Brotherhood. August 2, 1898, he was married in Lake 
county to Miss Flora Hendricks, who was born in that county March 3, 1875, 
and they have two sons, Ellis and Roger. 

THOMAS SAMUEL KINGSTON. — At one time owning considerable 
stock in oil companies, which he has sold, Mr. Kingston has invested in a 
ranch of forty acres in the old River district, also twenty acres at Panama, 
Kern county. 

The only son and the second child in a family of three children, Thomas 
Samuel Kingston was born at Massena, St. Lawrence county, N. Y., in 1876, 
and from the age of ten years has lived in the northwest and the Pacific coast 
country. His parents, George A. and Emma (Benson) Kingston, were natives 
of St. Lawrence county, N. Y., where the former engaged in the practice of 
law at Massena. Eventually removing to Nevada, he practiced his profession 
in Elko county and at one time held the office of district attorney. After the 
death of his wife, which occurred in Nevada, he removed to Arizona and there 
spent his last days. As a cowboy on Dakota cattle ranches Thomas Samuel 
Kingston earned a livelihood at an age when many are in school. In early 
life he gained a knowledge of every phase of the oil industry. For a time 
he worked with a water well contract driller for the Government in the Chey- 
enne river agency. As a tool-dresser and driller he had employment in 
various artesian well belts of the Dakotas. On the outbreak of the Spanish- 
American war he enlisted as a private in Company A, First South Dakota" 
Infantry, which was ordered to San Francisco and from there to the Philip- 
pines. 

He served eighteen months oh the islands. When the native rebellion 
began he was appointed chief engineer on the gunboat Florida and continued 
to serve as chief engineer on that and other boats for more than one year. 
After he had been mustered out by special order No. 215 he remained as a 
civilian employe. Upon returning to the LInited States after his resignation 
he was attracted to Bakersfield by reason of recent oil discoveries in the Kern 
river field. Later he secured employment as a driller in the Sunset field and 
drilled the discovery well at the town of Maricopa, later spending three years 
as a driller on the Peerless lease in the Kern river field. Recognized as an oil 
operator of unusual capability, he was chosen superintendent of the Con- 
solidated Copper Oil Company on section 2 at Maricopa and later as super- 
intendent did the first development work on the Pioneer Midway at Fellows, 
after which he engaged as superintendent of the St. Lawrence Oil Company 
at Fellows and as superintendent of the Springfield Oil Company at 
North McKittrick, and he has "been foreman with the Honolulu since 191Q. 
He has given his attention very closely to the oil business and has taken no 
part whatever in politics, in which indeed he is decidedly independent in 
opinion. By his marriage in Bakersfield to Miss Clara Medill, who was born 
at Colorado Springs, Colo., and died at Fellows, Cal., he has two sons, Benson 
and Burns. During a temporary sojourn in New York state he was made a 
Mason in Massena Lodge No. 513. A. F. & A. M., and took the chapter degree 
in St. Lawrence Chapter No. 24, R. A. M., at Pottsdam, N. Y., while more re- 
cently he has been identified with Bakersfield Commandery No. 39, K. T., and 
Al Malaikah Temi)le, N. M. S., in Los Angeles. 

THOMAS WATSON ATKINSON.— For the past sixteen years there 
has been associated with the mining interests of Kern county a man whose ex- 
perience in the work in this and other fields covers a long period. 

Born in Fremont county, Iowa,- September 23, 1872, Mr. Atkinson was 
taken to Norton county. Kans., when he was a year old, and there he grew 
to manhood, attending the common schools and later the Normal, which he 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1377 

finished when sixteen years of age. He then went to Colorado and from there 
to various places until 1889, when he came to California and became interested 
in mining. In 1896 he landed in Ventura county, where he was employed 
for a time and later he came to Kern county, and with his father went to 
work in the development of mines here. These were the Sunshine, the Alerced 
and the Hatchet, and at present he is the sole owner of the Sunshine mine 
and stamp mill. His other interests are in the Hazleton Crude Oil Company in 
the Sunset field, where he also has other oil interests. 

Mr. Atkinson finds time outside of his business to take part in social 
affairs, and he is a member of the blue lodge of Masons, also affiliating with 
the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. His wife, who was Ola Pyles, was 
born in Texas, and they make their home in Randsburg. They have four chil- 
dren. Parrel, Gertrude, Thomas and Elizabeth. Though occupied with the 
rearing of their children, they find time to devote themselves to their large 
circle of friends who ever find a hearty welcome in their hospitable home. 

BENJAMIN MORRIS ATKINSON.— Educated in the public schools of 
Vanwert county, Ohio, R. M. Atkinson's birth occurred September 18, 1840. 
When fourteen years old he left school and a year later went to work for him- 
self, clearing land and farming. In 1858 he moved to Kansas, where he took 
up a claim, the following year going to Iowa and remaining for eighteen 
months. The spirit of travel by this time had caught him and he started for 
California, but he did not go further than Salt Lake City, deciding instead to 
go to Montana. He remained there frcm 1863 to the fall of 1867, when he 
returned to Iowa. In the spring of 1871 he moved to Nebraska, later returning 
to Kansas, where he took up a homestead in Norton county. Disposing of 
this he in 1878 moved to Colorado, stayed there until the fall of the next 
year, and then started to California by way of New Mexico with teams. Sick- 
ness, however, compelled them to remain during the winter in New Mexico, 
and then he came on to California, settling first in Ventura county, where 
he engaged in farming. 

On April 3, 1896, Mr. Atkinson came with a partner and two burros to 
Randsburg, Kern county, with the intention of going into the mining business. 
They prospered for a few months in what is now the Stringer district. 
In this district they first located Poor Man's mine, which is now operating, 
and on June 30, 1896, located Sunshine mine which they developed and 
which is now in a good state of production. This mine has a stamp mill on it, 
and Mr. Atkinson also has a cyanide plant there. He at present holds four 
claims, having recently bought the Bully Boy and Rose mines, all now in 
operation. Air. Atkinson's future seems well assured as he has been most 
successful in the choice of business undertakings, which have already proved 
most profitable. 

On December 18, 1868, the marriage of Benjamin M. Atkinson and Ma- 
linda E. Ferrel took place, she being a native of Lloyd county, Ind., born 
there in 1849. They became the parents of nine children, as follows : Elmira 
Caroline, Thomas W., Mary E., Jessie C. (died in New Mexico), Lindie J., 
Ina M., William M., Edward C. and Sylva Lenora. Mr. and Mrs. Atkinson 
have been tender, loving parents and have reared their children to become rep- 
resentative citizens and a credit to the name. They are well-known and 
highly respected by all who have acquaintance with the family. 

FRANCISCO APALATEA was born in 1850 in Tucson, Ariz., the birth- 
place also of his father Guadelupe, who brought his family to California in 1864, 
so that from a lad of fourteen Francisco has been a resident of this state. 
The year 1871 found him in Visalia and in 1873 he came to Kern county, 
where he has chiefly been engaged in mining, mostly on Piute mountain. 
He has opened many mines, some of which he has sold. He discovered and 
developed the Bryan mine, which he afterwards sold for five thousand dol- 



1378 HTSTOKY OF KERN COUNTY 

lars. Since 1902 he has resided with his family on a one hundred and sixty-acre 
ranch, three miles north of Kernville, but he still follows mining and has 
several good "claims. Mr. Apalatea has been three times married, his first 
two wives being deceased. His present wife was before her marriage Rosa 
Rice, and was a native of South Fork. Of their union have been born five 
children, and by his former unions there are eleven children living. Mr. 
Apalatea has had much experience in mining and is well posted concerning 
the mineralogy of the county. Politically he is a Republican. 

PETER BLAETTLER.— The Blaettler brothers, Melchoir and Peter, 
of the Town ranch in the Weed Patch of Kern county, have been closely iden- 
tified with the dairy interests in this section. The younger, Peter Blaettler, 
was born in Untervvalden, Switzerland, on September 6, 1872, and his life 
and career have been so closely interwoven with these of his brother Melchoir, 
who was also born in Unterwalden, in 1870, that their histories read almost 
alike, they having shared both hardship and success in all undertakings. 

In the year 1881 the brothers came to America and made their way to the 
state of Missouri, settling at St. Louis, where for several years they were 
engaged in a planing mill. After seven years in Missouri they decided to 
make their way west and accordingly in 1888 they came to Salinas, Monterey 
county, Cal.; where they engaged in dairying. For nine and a half years they 
ran the large dairy ranch known as the Cowell ranch of eighteen hundred and 
fifty acres. Their success here led to the offer of the management of the 
Mallerin ranch of a thousand acres, which extensive duties kept them closely 
occupied for a time until in July, 1911, when they came to the Town ranch, 
over which they today are supervisors and managers. In 1911 this ranch was 
subdivided and' sold off, the J. H. Menke Dairy Company becoming the pur- 
chasers of six hundred and forty acres, that being the particular section on 
which the buildings stand. 

The ranch has on it the buildings erected by INIr. Town, the former owner, 
and the general up-to-date appearance and the hygienic condition of its 
buildings evidence the unequalled management and the care taken by those 
who are handling the details. One hundred and fifty cows are daily milked 
here, the cream is separated by the modern method and sold to the Peacock 
Creamery at Bakersfield. The Blaettler brothers are Catholics. 

JEAN L. PHILIPP. — A native of the county which has been his life- 
time home, Jean L. Philipp was born in Bakersfield on July 27, 1891, the son 
of Jean Philipp of East Bakersfield, of whom a sketch appears elsewhere in 
this volume. In the city of his birth the son was reared and educated, com- 
pleting his studies by a course in the high school. The young man's first 
insight into business affairs was received while filling the position of assistant 
bookkeeper in the office of Fairbanks. Morse & Co., in 1909, and it was by the 
knowledge and experience there gained during three months that he paved 
the way and made possible the larger opportunities that came to him in the 
years that have intervened. 

It was in August, 1909, that a store was opened in Taft by G. P. Louthain, 
district manager of the Fairbanks, Morse & Co., the equipment consisting 
of oil well supplies, gas engines and electrical attachments and supplies. 
A local manager was found in Jean L. Philipp, who had come to Taft on 
November 1, 1909, and has been a resident here ever since. Genial and enter- 
prising, Mr. Philipp is well fitted for the position of local manager of this 
well-known enterprise, and has built up a patronage which is a credit to 
himself and is proving a stimulus to the growing town of Taft. 

FRED CLEMENT.— Identified with the oil industry for considerably 
more than a decade Mr. Clement has meanwhile risen from the humble 
capacity of a day laborer to the position of production foreman, having 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1379 

charge at the present time of the plant owned by the Colloma Oil Company, 
whose output averages about eleven thousand barrels per month. 

The son of a worthy pioneer couple in Illinois, himself a native of Spring- 
field, that state, born August 27, 1871, Fred Clement was third in order of 
birth among five children and was given such educational advantages as the 
means of his parents rendered possible. At the age of sixteen he became self- 
supporting and ever since then he has made his own way in the world unaided. 
Dififerent occupations engaged his attention prior to his first association with 
the oil industry. Until twenty years of age he worked in a box factory. 
Upon leaving the factory he went to Texas and secured employment on a 
railroad as brakeman. After two years he went north to Iowa and found 
work as a farm laborer, continuing as such until he was twenty-seven years 
of age. Next he secured employment with the Cudahy Packing Company in 
the smoke-house department and by gradual promotion rose to be a general 
manager with the company, having charge of the departments at McAllister, 
Okla., also at Colgate, Fort Smith and Arkansas City. 

Upon resigning the position with the packing house Mr. Clement came 
to California in 1900 and made a brief sojourn at Santa Ana. For six 
months he worked in the old Los Angeles oil fields and there gained his 
first insight into the oil industry. From that district he came to the Kern 
river field and engaged with the Independent Oil Company in a minor capacity. 
Going next to the west side he worked for three years in that field, meanwhile 
being successively with the Globe, Exploration, Associated and American Oil 
Companies, after which in September of 1912 he returned to the Kern river 
field and became foreman with the Colloma Oil Company. He owns forty acres 
in Tulare county and the family home in Bakersfield at 1715 Blanche street, 
which is presided over by Mrs. Clement, formerly Miss Lyda Jamieson. There 
is an only child, a son named Warren. While spending his week-ends at home 
in the society of his family and the enjoyment of intercourse with friends, Mr. 
Clement necessarily spends the larger part of his time on the field and may 
usually be found en section 31, township 28, range 28, where the Colloma Oil 
Company has its holdings and operates its valuable and productive wells. 

CHARLES BOWMAN. — Varied experiences have come to Mr. Bowman 
during his long association with the oil industry. Having worked in many of 
the oil regions of the country he is well posted concerning each, realizes their 
possibilities, understands their drawbacks and has faith in their future, 
especially in the future of the Kern river fields, where now he is stationed 
as superintendent of the Homer Oil Company, a position he fills with credit to 
himself and satisfaction to the employing company. 

The youngest of the four children of the late Henderson Bowman, a 
contractor in Ohio, Charles Bowman was born in Lima, Allen county, that 
state, August 31, 1880. The eldest of the family, Sylvia, is the wife of Kirby 
White, a grain dealer at Harrod, Allen county, Ohio. The second daughter, 
Ida, married W. M. Neely, an oil operator, and the older son. Homer, formerly 
an oil contractor, is now engaged in the furniture business. The youngest of 
the family, Charles, attended the public schools of Allen county between the 
ages of six and fourteen, after which, in July of 1894, he began to work for the 
Standard Oil Company as a pumper, running four wells. Later he spent 
eighteen months as a pumper with Pyle and Roberts and nine months with 
W. M. Neely, his brother-in-law. After a brief experience as tool-dresser he 
began to drill at the age of nineteen years and in the December after he had 
reached the age of twenty he became an independent operator in Allen county, 
where he drilled a large number of wells. Fortune smiled on him for a time, 
but later he met with reverses and sold his tools. 

Arriving in Los Angeles on the 7th of September, 1899, Mr. Bowman 
spent six weeks or more in the city. On Thanksgiving day of the same year he 



1380 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

visited the Kern river fields for the first time. The outlook interested him. 
Conditions seemed promising, therefore he decided to remain for a time. As 
an emplcye of W. W. Stephenson he completed the first well that produced on 
the Black Jack lease. When that task had been brought to a favorable con- 
clusion he returned to the oil fields near Lima, Ohio, but in October of 1901 
left that locality for Poplar Bluff, Mo., where he engaged with the Oil Well 
Supply Company for a brief period. When again he returned to the Ohio 
fields he continued there until 1904, when he tried his luck in the Indiana 
oil fields and later in Middle Tennessee. On his return to Lima, Ohio, he was 
united in marriage with Miss Lola E. Miller, of Elkhart, Ind., by whom he 
now has two sons, Robert L. and Wilbur D. For three years his main enter- 
prises were limited to the Lima field, although various interests took him 
elsewhere for brief intervals. For two years he was employed in the machine 
shops of the locomotive works at Lima, Ohio, and from July 12, 1907, until his 
return to California in 1910 he had charge of the property of the Missouri Min- 
ing Company at Chelsea, Okla., coming thence to the Kern river fields and 
re-entering the employ of Mr. Stephenson, February 26, 1912, he was made 
field foreman of the Black Jack Oil Company. February 17, 1913, he assumed 
his present position as superintendent of the Homer lease. The home of his 
family is on this lease, in a comfortable cottage owned by the company. Having 
been somewhat of a traveler and not identified with civic affairs in any 
place of residence, he has not mingled in politics, but is a member of the 
blue lodge of Masons at Bakersfield. He is not a member of any denomination, 
although interested in the work of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with 
which liis wife has been connected for some years. 

JAMES H. MANSFIELD. — Securing work with the Kern Trading and 
Oil Company during September of 1908, in a short time Mr. Mansfield had' 
become familiar with well-pulling, tool-dressing and other lines of labor. The 
next step made him a foreman and from production foreman he was promoted 
to be well foreman in 1909 and lease foreman in 1910, the last-named post 
being his present sphere of duty. Prior to coming to Kern county his expe- 
rience had been with railroad and street-car work, but he has proved exceptit.n- 
ally quick in acquiring a thorough knowledge of the oil industry and by 
capability and intelligence has made good with the company. 

Born in Macoupin county, 111., in 1879, and educated in the graded schools 
of Scottville, that county, Mr. Mansfield secured his first work in the round- 
house of the Illinois Central Railroad Company and later engaged as a brake- 
man on the same road. In 1902 he went with the Great Northern Railroad 
Company in Montana, where he remained for a considerable period. Upon 
resigning from the employ of that company he came to Southern California in 
1904 and found work as motorman with the Los Angeles and Redondo Beach 
Street Car Company, later holding similar positions at Napa and Stockton 
successively and then returning to Los Angeles to resume work with the car 
company. In September of 1908 he began to work with the Kern Trading and 
Oil Company on section 3, township 29, range 28, and on this property he 
has since had his home, with his wife and child, Jariies Wayne. Airs. Mans- 
field was formerly Miss Edna Belle Watson, of Santa Barbara, and their 
marriage was solemnized in San Bernardino. Fraternally he is a Scottish Rite 
Mason thirty-second degree. 

JAMES LOGAN BAKER.— Of Texan birth and southern ancestry, 
James Logan Baker was born August 30, 1880, at Stephen ville, the county- 
seat of Erath county, in the north central part of the Lone Star state. His 
parents, A. J. and Theresa Baker, for some years lived upon a large ranch in 
Texas, where the father engaged in the raising of cattle, and after the removal 
of the family to California he has followed the same line of work in Calaveras 
county. Of the children comprising the family the eldest, Jennie, became the 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1381 

wife of E. Trimble, a sheep ranchman in Coke county, Tex., and died there 
in 1886, leaving an only child, Jessie. The eldest son, Alexander, who en- 
gaged in ranching in Texas, died in that state in 1887, leaving a wife, May 
(Chambers) Baker, and an only child, Alexander, Jr. The third child and sec- 
ond son, Andrew, is now engaged in gold-mining in Calaveras county, Cal. 
The youngest member of the family circle, James Logan, was twenty years 
of age when the family came to California and settled in Calaveras county, 
where he had an experience of two years in placer mining. On leaving the 
mines he secured employment as a clerk with Pattee Bros., proprietors of a- 
general store at Valley Springs in the home county. 

Upon leaving the store Mr. Baker returned to Texas, but an experience 
of eighteen months as proprietor of a cattle ranch and various hardships 
associated with the work convinced him that California was to be preferred as 
a place of residence. Accordingly in 1907 he returned to the Pacific coast coun- 
try and sought employment in the Kern river fields, where he has since been 
employed with the Federated, first as an oiler, later as roustabout, tool dresser 
and extra man, advancing so rapidly that December 17 he was chosen superin- 
tendent. By attending strictly to the duties of the position and using intelli- 
gence and wise judgment in all matters he is making a success of the work. 
In the field his reputation is that of an expert oil man, while the officials of the 
company have been satisfied with his constant devotion to their interests. 
While still living in Texas and at the age of only nineteen years Mr. Baker 
established home ties, being married to "Mary Fisher, daughter of Jack Fisher, 
of Mullin. Mills county, that state. They are the parents of three children, 
Earl, Archie and Pearly. 

FREDRICK EHLERS.— The manager of the Pioneer meat market at 
McKittrick has a wide acquaintance among the oil men in this portion of the 
field as well as a high standing among the business men of the town, with 
whose interests he has been identified intimately since his arrival in October 
of 1909. Having previously been connected with the Miller & Lux corpora- 
tion, he was sent to this place in their interests and has since superintended 
the market which the firm established at this place. Besides attending to 
every detail connected with the business he has contributed to the material 
growth of McKittrick and was elected a member of its first board of trustees 
on the incorporation of the city in 1911. During the spring of 1912 he was 
re-elected to this important position and since then has acted as chairman 
of the health committee, also has been associated with Other movements for 
the welfare of the town. 

A native son of this state, Mr. Ehlers was born in Merced county, June 
16, 1880, and is a son of Fredrick and Annie Ehlers, being third in order of 
birth among five children, three daughters and two sons, all still living. The 
father, afiier having engaged for years as a foreman in the employ of Miller 
& Lux, finally bought a farm in Merced county and devoted the balance of 
his life to agricultural pursuits. His death occurred in 1895, since which 
time the widow has remained at the old homestead. Reared on that farm, 
Fredrick, Jr., was educated in country schools and later completed a com- 
mercial course in the Chestnutwood Business College. He learned the trade 
of a butcher, which he has since followed first at Santa Rita and then at 
McKittrick, in which latter place he also acts as agent for the Fresno Con- 
sumers' Ice Company. In San Francisco he was united in marriage with 
Miss Mabel Conrow, of Dos Palos, ISIerced county, and they are the parents 
of two children, Beatrice and Fredrick. Before leaving Merced county, Mr. 
Ehlers was an active worker in the Young Men's Institute, and he also has 
been connected prominently with the local work of the Improved Order of 
Red Men. 

JOHN NEILL. — Since the beginning of settlement throughout the West 
there has been a constant though never very large influx of settlers from the 



1382 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Canadian provinces, and throughout the entire period Canadians have come 
to the front in the United States in all the fields of industry, commerce and 
finance. This has been especially true in CaHfornia in connection with agri- 
cultural interests. An example very much to the point is John Neill of 
Bodfish, Kern county, who was born on Prince Edward Island, May 8, 1856. 
He attended public school there until he was fourteen years old, worked on 
the home farm until he was eighteen and during the succeeding year labored 
in a lumber yard at New Brunswick. In the fall of 1874 he came to Califor- 
nia and was employed for a short time in Stanislaus county. In January, 
1875, he settled in Kern county and found work in a sawmill in Green Horn 
mountains, where he remained twenty years, meanwhile acquiring property 
at Waggy Flat. Eventually he located in Hot Spring valley, where he owns 
and operates six hundred and forty acres, and he is at this time still the 
owner of the old Waggy ranch, a tract of one hundred and twenty acres. 
On his ranch in Hot Spring valley he is proprietor of the Hot Spring House, 
.appropriately named from a large hot spring 132°, which boils out of the 
ground with such strong pressure as to force it into any part of the house. 
Hot and cold baths, sulphur, magnesia, iron and borax baths may be had 
in this hotel. His homestead is well improved with a good residence and ample 
barns and other out-buildings and supplied with implements and appliances of 
every kind essential to diversified farming. 

Politically Mr. Neill is a staunch Republican and he has, as occasion 
has oft'ered, been active in political work. He affiliates with the Masons at 
Bakersfield. He married in April, 1881, Miss Annie Miller, a native of Nova 
Scotia, who came to California in 1873. They have two daughters, A^Iillie 
Ida, now Mrs. Fisher of Santa Barbara, and Dora Etta, now Mrs. Selicz, of 
Waggy Flat. 

CHARLES CROWELL TAYLOR.— Born in Smithfield, Somerset 
county. Me., October 18, 1862, C. C. Taylor is a son of David and Susan 
(Wakefield) Taylor, natives of Fryeburg and Smithfield, Me., respectively. 
His father was a farmer at Smithfield, later going to Aroostook county, where 
he died in 1887. The mother passed away in 1874. Of their four children 
Charles C, was the eldest. He attended public school near the family 
homestead until he was sixteen years of age. and then worked for his father 
for four years. He then engaged in teaching school for three years in Aroos- 
took county, and afterward clerked in a general store in Easton, and then 
in Houlton, Me., for some two years. The subsequent year he taught school 
and it was then that he concluded to come to California, and in March, 1887, 
he arrived in Kernville, Kern county. 

The first employment of Mr. Taylor in the Kernville neighborhood was 
on the Sumner ranch for Mr. Brown and two weeks later he was oft'ered a 
clerkship in the store of A. Brown, which was incorporated in 1901 as the 
A. Brown Company, and since then he has been a member of the firm and 
its secretary and general manager. These positions he has filled to the 
present time, having labored successfully for the advancement of the house, 
which carries a stock of general merchandise approximating $40,000, owns 
a sawmill in the Green Horn range, and has many thousand acres of land 
on the South Fork, with twenty-five hundred acres under cultivation. All 
of this is under irrigation, having four canals from the South Fork, and a 
large portion is producing alfalfa. They are extensively engaged in raising 
cattle, horses and hogs, which they ship to the Los Angeles markets. An 
adjunct to its store is the local -postoffice, Mr. Taylor having been postmaster 
since 1906. The company also has a branch store at Weldon, on the South 
Fork, where its farming lands are located. Here Mr. Brown built a flour 
mill of fifteen barrels capacity, which the company now owns and operates. 
Being large wheat growers, the company is engaged in manufacturing 
flour for local consumption and its sawmill furnishes lumber for the build- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1383 

ing and improvements in the valley. These varied interests occupy all ot 
Mr. Taylor's attention. 

Mr. Taylor is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
having joined the order in Easton, Me., and now belongs to Kernville Lodge 
No. 251, in which he is past noble grand. He also affiliates with the Fra- 
ternal Brotherhood. As a citizen he is public-spirited, useful and popular 
and as a Republican he has a recognized political influence. 

In Bakersfield, on June 7, 1894, Mr. Taylor married Miss Edith Vir- 
ginia Benne:t, who was born in Virginia City, Nev., the daughter of Rev. 
Jesse L. Bennett, one of the pioneer Methodist preachers on the Pacific 
coast, who spent his last days in Kernville, where ]\Irs. Taylor was reared 
and educated. Afterward he engaged in educational work, teaching in the 
Bakersfield schools for seven years, and for two terms he served as a member 
of the county board of education and was prominently identified with the 
bringing of the Kern County High School to its present high standard. 

STEPHEN W. MILLARD.— Living retired from active labors on his 
ranch near Bakersfield is Stephen W. Millard, one of the energetic citizens 
of Kern county who has contributed much to the development and mainte- 
nance of his adopted commonwealth. He is the fourth eldest in a family of 
eight children born to Thomas and Elizabeth (Stallard) Millard, natives of 
Somerset, England. Thomas Millard crossed the Atlantic in 1843 and settled 
at Fort Erie, Ontario, where he bought and exported grain until 1846, when 
he located at Black Rock, Erie county, N. Y., where he died. His wife also 
passed away in that state and but four of their children now survive. Ste- 
phen W. was born in Shepton-Mallet. County Somerset, England, on No- 
vember 5, 1824. He was privately educated, his principal teacher having 
been a clergyman of the Church of England. He was nineteen years of age 
when he came across the Atlantic with his parents, having spent the last 
two years in England working in a banking house. Upon reaching America 
he remained with his father in the grain business, raising that product on 
three thousand acres of land, until the 3^ear 1850, when he started for Cali- 
fornia. He sailed from New York on the Daniel Sharp around Cape Horn 
and landed in San Francisco June 13, 1851, the trip having consumed a hun- 
dred and sixty-three days. He at once engaged to do some work for the 
Fathers of the old mission at San Jose and cut one hundred acres of barley 
with a cradle in twenty-two days, built eleven miles of wire fence at $200 a 
mile and superintended the planting of one hundred acres of potatoes. In 
1852 he began farming on his own account in Santa Cruz and Alameda 
counties, and for a time raised more than half the grain grown in Santa 
Cruz county. Later he purchased a thousand acres of land near Pleasanton, 
which he devoted to grain raising. In the period 1884-86 he was superin- 
tendent of the Pleasant Valley mine in Eldorado county, eighty miles from 
Placerville, then returned to Alameda county' and continued raising grain 
until 1891, when he bought his present homestead. This consists of twenty 
acres, located two miles south of Bakersfield, and is devoted to the raising 
of strawberries. 

Mr. ^lillard's marriage occurred in Santa Cruz county, November 12, 
1861, uniting him with Rebecca Lively, a native of Kentucky and daughter 
of Dr. Joseph and Henrietta Lively, the latter natives of Virginia, who 
brought their family to California across the plains in 1849. The doctor prac- 
ticed medicine in Santa Cruz county, and there both the parents passed 
awav. Mr. and Mrs. Millard are the parents of eight children, as follows: 
William S., of Humboldt county, Cal. ; George, who died at twenty-four years 
of age; Joseph H., of San Francisco; Benjamin, of San Diego; Emma. Mrs. 
Keep of Berkeley ; Grace, ]\Irs. McCaron of Los Angeles ; Edward F.. of 
Bakersfield; and James, of Irvington, Cal. Mr. Millard is now living retired 
on his ranch, enjoymg the reward of his long and useful existence. He has 

S8 



1384 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

always evinced the greatest interest and faith in the commonwealth and has 
had the pleasure of seeing his ever-optimistic prophecy for the future of the 
Pacific coast region well fulfilled. 

WILHELM ADOLPH WIRTH.— The good influence of German blood 
in the upbuilding of our American institutions has long been recognized, for 
the German-American, wherever his lot may be cast, stands for prosperity 
and enlightenment. He is ready in war and in peace to defend the land he 
loves and by his industry and prudence is a potent factor in the advancement 
of all worthy interests as well as of the general prosperity of the community. 
Wilhelm Adolph Wirth, of German parentage, was born at Weldon, on the 
south fork of the Kern river, in Kern county, December 19, 1878, the son of 
Adam Christian Wirth, whose sketch also appears in this work. He at- 
tended public school until he was seventeen years old and worked for his 
father until he was twenty-one. Then he began on his own account, engag- 
ing in farming and acquiring real estate. In 1902 he opened a liquor store 
in Kernville, and has invested in property in Bakersfield. 

On May 5. 1905, Mr. Wirth married Aliss Millie Ross, a native of Kern- 
ville, Kern county, and they have a daughter Louise. Mr. Wirth is Re- 
publican in politics, and has been a member of the Republican County Central 
Committee. For five years he was deouty sheriff under Henry Borgawardt 
and J. W. Kelly, and he is now faithfully filling the office of deputy constable. 
For some years he was school trustee at Kernville. Fraternally he affiliates 
with the Fagles. 

GEORGE W. KING.— A resident of Isabella, Kern county, Cal., George 
W. King was born in Bedford county. Tenn., April 25, 1853. He attended the 
public school near his home until he was nineteen years old, and then until 
he was twenty-one assisted his father in the latter's business. Meanwhile 
he learned telegraphy and during the next two years he was employed as a 
telegraph operator at Normandv. He gave up that employment to become 
a general merchant and as such he prospered eight years. After that until 
1879 he was in the stock and lumber business. 

In the vear last mentioned INIr. King came to California and located in 
Hanford, Kings county, where for seven years he worked as a carpenter. 
Later he was otherwise employed and in 1894 he settled in Kern county, 
where for three years he devoted himself to mining He was one of the 
fathers of the thriving town of Isabella and was for eight years its post- 
master, being the first incumbent of that office. Lie built the first house in 
Isabella, also the first store buildings and put in the first stock of general 
merchandise. He is now the proprietor of a prosperous general store, and 
also owns a hundred and sixty-acre tract near Fairmont, in Los Angeles 
county. He owns the New Century and Colwell mines, which he opened up 
bv tunnels and cross-cuts, thus opening a big ledge of twenty-three feet in the 
New Century, where he built a five-stamp quartz mill. The Century mine is 
big body lew-grade ore, while the Colwell is high-grade free milling ore. Mr. 
King has forty acres of land on South Fork under irrigation, and he has 
acquired ten town lots and a residence. 

On February 19, 1908. Mr. King married INIiss Elizabeth Parker, who 
was born in Illinois in 1867 and was brought to California by her parents 
when she was six years old. One child, Elizabeth J., has been born to their 
union. The first marriage of Mr. King, which took place in Tennessee, w^as 
to Margaret J. Cully, who passed away there, leaving a child, Eustice L., now 
superintendent of S. W. & B. Oil Company, at Coalinga. Mr. King has been 
a leader in many things of public importance and his fellow townsmen have 
come to depend on him as a man of public spirit who will not fail them in any 
emereencv. 

CHARLES HENRY FRY.— The energy with which Mr. Frv prosecuted 
the teaming business when in partnership with his father until the death 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1385 

of the latter brought him the good wishes of those with whom he had busi- 
ness dealings and when he decided to remove to the country and take up 
agricultural operations on his ranch which he bought, located eleven miles 
south of Bakersfield, in the hope that his children might be benefited by his 
hard work and self-denial he had only words of praise and encouragement 
from all. It was necessary for himself and wife to give up many conveniences 
to which they had become accustomed in Bakersfield. The work on the 
farm was difficult and trying, but they are a persevering young couple 
and are cultivating the land with energy and perseverance. 

In the old river district of Kern county Mr. Fry was born February 
8, 1881, being a son of Joseph Benson Fry. a pioneer of Bakersfield. who 
came to California from Illinois in 1877 and died May 26, 1911, aged fifty-six 
years. His wife, who also was of Illinois birth, bore the maiden name of 
Johanna Evelyn Banks. Two sons and three daughters survive, namely: 
Arthur D., a bookkeeper in Bakersfield; Mrs. W. W. Ramage and Mrs. F. A. 
Nighbert, both of Bakersfield ; Lola, who resides with her mother in this 
city ; and Charles Henry, who received his education in Kern county, engaged 
in the team contracting business with his father and also for two years main- 
tained a grocery store in Bakersfield, whence he removed to the farm. In 
politics he votes with the Republican party, while fraternally he is con- 
nected with the Foresters. In 1901 he married Miss Florence Hix, a native 
of Missouri. They are the parents of three children, Lloyd O., Charles B. 
and Eunice F. 

S. C. BIRCHARD. — A record of the business activities of Mr. Birchard 
is to a large extent a recital of the history of Taft, with which he has been 
identified from its beginning and to which he has given freely of time and 
energies and intelligent co-operation. He is now associated with offtcial 
affairs, in the capacity of city recorder. Born in Cass county, Iowa, March 
2, 1882, and reared in Davenport, that state, Mr. Birchard received a high- 
school education and at the age of fourteen began to learn the butcher's 
trade with Robinson Bros., of Davenport. From that time to the present 
he has engaged in the meat business. When he decided to leave Davenport 
he resigned his position with Robinson Bros., proceeded at once to Cali- 
fornia and landed in Bakersfield during December of 1903. In this city 
he married Miss Carrie L. Sullivan, of Davenport, Iowa, in March of 1904, 
and for a time thereafter continued as an employe in the Opera market, 
after which he embarked in business at Hanford. At the time of the oil 
excitement of 1909 he drove across the country in a single buggy, landing 
at the Midway field in February and taking up work under Mr. Rogers. 
During June of 1909 he bought out his employer. On the 1st of November 
he begati to build the Pioneer market, which he opened about Thanks- 
giving and conducted until selling out to Musick & Burnham in May of 
1910. From that time he served as treasurer of the Taft Public Utilities 
Company until the stock of the concern was sold to the Consumers in Feb- 
ruary of 1912. In the soring of 1911 he was appointed city recorder. Since 
coming to this city he has affiliated with the Improved Order of Red Men. 
Any movement for the local upbuilding receives his stanch support. With 
cordial enthusiasm he gives of time and means and influence to promote 
such enterprises as make for the prosperity of the people and the advance- 
ment of the city. 

JAMES F. BROWN. — ^Various lines of business activity have engrossed 
the attention of Air. Brown since in early life he began the task of making 
his own way in the world and at this writing fills an important position 
as drilling foreman on the M. J. & M. & M. Consolidated Oil Company's 
lease. When he began with this concern, September 13, 1909, it was as a 
roustabout, but was soon made lease foreman, from which he worked up 



1386 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

to be drilling foreman and became a stockholder. Since he arrived in the 
Sunset field and entered the service of the Monte Cristo he has not lost a 
day from work, but persistently carries forward the duties of his department. 

Although the Browns are of an old American family, identified with 
the coloniaf history of our country, Gustav, father of James F., is a native 
of Germany, born during the temporary sojourn of his parents in that 
country. When one year old he was brought to the United States, the 
family settling in Maryland. For eight years prior to the Civil war he 
was in the United States army service under Major Carlton of the United 
States Dragoons. Much of the time he was stationed on the frontier and 
thus saw much of the western and southern country, principally New Mex- 
ico, Arizona, Texas and California. While stationed at Fort Tejon he was 
wounded in an Indian skirmish. Becoming a permanent settler of Cali- 
fornia he served as a deputy under Sheriff Adams in Santa Clara county and 
later engaged in farming in Santa Cruz county, but eventually retired from 
active work and is now making his home at Hollister. In Los Angeles he 
married Miss Lydia Morse, a native of Nebraska, who also survives at the 
present time. They became the parents of eight children, namely : James F., 
of Kern county; Mrs. Annie Yeager, wife of a hotel proprietor at Avalon, 
Catalina island ; Charles E., deceased ; Matilda, who married George Wright, 
a farmer of San Benito ccamty; Alice, who married Albert Donovan, a 
railroad man living at San Jose; Cora, wife of Albert Bell, an insurance 
adjuster in New York City; Robert A., an engineer whose home is in the 
northern part of California; and Alinnie, a trained nurse in San Francisco. 

During the residence of the family at Santa Cruz, this state, James F. 
Brown was born in that city August 15, 1865. In boyhood he was a pupil 
in the local schools. At the age of eighteen he removed from Santa Cruz 
to Hollister and secured employment on a farm. At an early age he learned 
the processes incident to well-drilling and soon after attaining his majority 
he became the owner of a new well-drilling machine. For a number of 
years he devoted his entire time to the drilling of wells in Santa Clara, San 
Benito, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. The principal objection to such 
employment was the necessity for being away from home much of the time, 
so after his marriage in 1899 he settled upon a farm in San Benito county. 
Meantime while still living at Hollister he had learned the trade of engineer 
and also has become familiar with bridge construction, following both occu- 
pations at intervals of other work. From 1900 until 1908 he operated a dairy 
near Hollister and kept a herd of forty milch cows, but the work proved too 
heavy for his strength and he turned his attention to different lines of labor. 
Going to San Francisco he engaged as shipping clerk for Bemis Brothers 
Bag Company, but resigned his ])osition and came to Kern county on the 
4th of July, 1909. At first he engaged as a carpenter on the ]Monte Cristo 
lease at Maricopa, but in little more than a year he began an association with 
the company that still has his time and attention. He makes his home on 
the company lease, his family consisting of a son, Richard F., born in 1900, 
and his wife, Mrs. Itha (Shore) Brown, daughter of Richard Shore, of 
Hollister. 

R. M. DODGE. — After years of successful identification with other in- 
terests during February of 1912 Mr. Dodge established his home on a 
ranch of sixty acres which he had purchased ten years before and which 
lies on Union avenue, section 18. nine miles south of Bakersfield. He expects 
to make a specialty of barred Plymouth Rock poultry and Mammoth Bronze 
turkeys and with this end in view he has secured a foundation stock that in 
breeding, pedigree and markings has no superior in this entire valley. In 
addition to this property he has also owned for a number of years two hun- 
dred and forty acres of redwood and tanbark timber in Mendocino county. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1387 

About ten miles west of Hagerstown, in Washington county, Md., stood 
the country home of William and Sarah E. (Mason) Dodge, and there 
occurred the birth of R. M. Dodge November 18, 1852. The father, a native 
of Georgetown, D. C, was a son of Francis Dodge, for years a very influ- 
ential business man of that city, while the mother was a daughter of Rich- 
ard Mason, a prominent resident of Alexandria, Va. It was natural that 
Mr. Dodge should develop ambitious longings for an education and had it 
not been for the disastrous efifects of the Civil war he would have remained 
in college until graduation ; as it was, he had fair advantages at St. John's 
College in Annapolis and the Shenandoah Valley Academy at Winchester, 
Va. When twenty-five years of age he came as far west as Colorado, where 
he secured employment on a sheep ranch near Colorado Springs. After four 
years in the same location he removed to Trego county, Kan., where he 
was interested in the sheep business for three years. February 14, 1886, 
he arrived at Auburn, Placer county, Cal., and from there proceeded to 
Salinas, Monterey county, where for three years he acted as superintendent 
of a ranch. 

It is as a trainer of bird dogs that Mr. Dodge has acquired a wide repu- 
tation throughout the west. His work in that line began while he had charge 
of the Harper ranch near Suisun City, Solano county. After three years on 
that ranch he resigned to superintend a kennel of his own at Kenwood. 
For three years he conducted the Kenwood kennels and then went to Ala- 
meda county, where for one year he had charge of the kennels owned by 
Mrs. Hearst. Meanwhile he had formed the acquaintance of W. S. Tevis, 
whose attention he had attracted through his manifest success in the train- 
ing of dogs and when he left the Hearst estate it was for the purpose of 
taking charge of the Stockdale kennels on the Tevis ranch. Until 1912 he 
continued in the same position and when he finally resigned it was with the 
object of retiring from the business and engaging in general farming. 
Since that time he has occupied and superintended his own country prop- 
erty, where he and his family have established a comfortable home. Prior 
to their marriage in 1892 Mrs. Dodge was Miss Elizabeth S. Stockton, her 
father having been a leading pioneer physician, while her brother is super- 
intendent of schools of Kern county. There are three children in the Dodge 
family, namely: Marion E., a student in the Los Angeles Normal School; 
Mary M., at home; and R. M., Jr., a bright boy of seven years, now attend- 
ing the country schools. In politics Mr. Dodge maintains an independent 
position, voting for those whom he considers best qualified to represent the 
people. As early as 1887 he became a member of La Salle Lodge, I. O. O. F., 
at Salinas. 

JOHN FLETCHER MORRIS.— Living on Bakersfield rural free de- 
liverv route No. 2, Kern county, Mr. Morris has a past of which he may 
well be proud and a future brilliant with promise of personal honor and 
substantial achievement. Born in Montgomery county. Mo., April 15, 1857, 
he had limited educational advantages, his parents' death making it neces- 
sary for him at an early age to assume the management of the home farm. 
He devoted himself to general farming in his native state till 1883. then 
emigrated to New Mexico, where he found employment as a fireman on the 
Santa Fe railroad. From New Mexico he came to California, following that 
occupation on the Southern Pacific lines between Los Angeles and Bakersfield. 

In 1887 Mr. Morris pre-empted a homestead of one hundred and sixty 
acres, a part of the property now known as Tejon ranch, which he improved 
and did dry farming for twenty-one years. The time he could spare from 
his land he devoted to teaming, hauling borax from the mines. He saved 
his money and from time to time purchased additional acreage, including 
one section of railroad land, owning eventually seventeen hundred acres 



1388 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

which he sold to the proprietors of the Tejon ranch in order to locate on 
what is his present home ranch of eighty acres. When he came to the 
place in 1908, only about half of it was under cultivation. He has put in 
a one-acre orchard and made other improvements and is now raising grain 
and alfalfa while devoting considerable area to pasturage. 

As a citizen Mr. Morris is public-spirited and supports every measure 
which in his judgment promises to benefit any considerable number of his fel- 
low citizens. He is an Odd Fellow and member of Woodmen of the World. 
He served as deputy assessor during the administration of Assessor J. M. 
Jameson. 

R. C. HUGHES. — The best gushers in Kern county for the year 1913 
were struck in the Maricopa flats in the Sunset field, with the sole exception 
of those on the celebrated McNee lease (section 36) in the Midway field 
operated by the Standard Oil Company. Of all the west side territory in 
the year named few claims attracted the attention bestowed upon the Mari- 
copa. Northern and Midway Northern Oil Companies, whose two leases each 
of eighty acres form a very valuable property and adjoin the famous Mari- 
copa Queen on the north. On these two holdings one rotary and two 
standard rigs are employed. As manager of a standard rig Mr. Hughes is 
proving a competent driller and exceptionally capable man for a position of 
responsibility. 

From his earliest memories Mr. Hughes has been familiar with the oil 
industry. His father, Samuel Hughes, a blacksmith at Franklin, Venango 
county, Pa., owned oil land five miles from that city and at his death in 
1910 left an estate of considerable value. Born at the family homestead in 
Franklin September 28, 1871, R. C. Hughes was one of fourteen children 
that attained mature years, his mother having been Anna (Campbell) Hughes, 
who died three months after the demise of her husband. Of the large fam- 
ily he was the youngest and it was thought advisable to train him to his 
father's trade. Hence he spent the years from fifteen to eighteen as an ap- 
prentice in the blacksmith shop, but as soon as his time had expired he struck 
out fur the oil fields. For three years he worked for the Fisher Oil Com- 
pany in Venango county. When twenty-one he went to Freeport, Ohio, 
and secured employment as a tool-dresser. At the expiration of two years 
he left Ohio for Indiana and at Greenfield had his first experience in drill- 
ing, being employed by Al Cole, a local oil man. From that time to the 
present he has engaged steadily in the drilling department of the oil indus- 
try and was successively employed at Greenfield, Ind., Gibsonburg, Ohio, 
Bay City, Mich, (where a wild-cat proposition engaged his time), and Cluryon 
Cross, Ontario, Canada. 

Following a period of employment as a driller at Peru, Kan., in 1906 
Mr. Hughes came to California and for a year engaged in drilling at McKit- 
trick. buring 1907 he went to Alaska to drill for the Alaska Coal Oil and 
Development Company at Ketella, where he struck oil. Returning to the 
United States in 1908 he became a driller for the American Oilfields, Con- 
solidated, at Fellows, where he and his family have since made their home, 
although since May of 1913 he has been employed as a driller with the 
Maricopa Midway and Northern Midway Oil Companies in the Sunset field. 
While living at Greenfield, Ind., he met and married Miss Susie Banks. 
They are the parents of three children. The son, Albert, is employed as 
a tool-dresser and assistant to his father. Wilda is the wife of William 
Wellman, of Fellows, and Ida is a student in the Fellows schools. 

HENRY J. BRANDT. — Several successive generations of the Brandt 
family were intimately identified with important enterprises in Denmark, 
one of the most influential of these representatives having been Christian J. 
Brandt, the owner of large tracts of land and also a ship-owner. The grain 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1389 

raised on his own lands as well as that purchased from other farmers he 
shipped on his own vessel to Germany and thus built up a large trade between 
the two countries. Fine mental endowments admirably qualified him for 
commercial affairs of magnitude. Such enterprises he conducted with signal 
success. Had he lived in a different country at a more modern era of the 
world's history he would have been denominated a captain of industry and 
a progressive promoter of great interests. As it was, his name did not 
penetrate into any localities remote from his immediate environment and 
the harbors where his ships cast anchor. Among his children was a son, 
Christian Jensen Brandt, who in youth shipped as seaman to Africa, left 
the vessel at one of the ports in that country and for seven years remained 
there, engaged in various occupations for the earning of a livelihood. Upon 
his return he assisted his father in business and managed a farm that he 
owned, later acquiring land for himself. Both he and his wife, who bore 
the maiden name of Anna M. Peterson, are still living in their native Denmark. 

The family of Christian Jensen Brandt comprises seven children now liv- 
ing and of these the third, Henry J., was born at Aerceskjobing, Aero, off the 
coast of the main land of Denmark, November 22, 1879. From that rock-bound 
coast the young man came to the new world in 1896, prepared for earn- 
ing a livelihood through an expert knowledge of horse-shoeing and the 
blacksmith's trade, to which he had been apprenticed at the age of fourteen 
years. Crossing the continent to San Francisco he proceeded to Mendocino 
county and entered the employ of the Gualala Lumber Company. At the 
expiration of two years, feeling the need of a better knowledge of the Eng- 
lish language, he returned to San Francisco and began to study in the city 
schools. A year later he went to Dinuba, Tulare county, to work at his 
trade and next he purchased a blacksmith's shop at Malaga, Fresno county. 
During 1901 he came to Kern county, where for two years he engaged in 
the oil industry and also owned an interest in the Kern County iron works 
at Maricopa. 

The business headquarters of Mr. Brandt have been at Bakersfield since 
1903, at which time he opened a horse-shoeing shop at No. 1414 Eighteenth 
street. At the expiration of eighteen months he bought an interest in the 
Panama livery stable and for a year managed that as well as his shop, but 
then sold the stable in order to devote his entire time to his trade. About 1906 
he began to rent out his teams. Finding a steady demand for teams, he 
bought other horses and mules from time to time until finally, instead of 
having only one team, he now owns one hundred and eighty head of work 
animals. At his shop, No. 210 Chester avenue, he does the horse-shoeing for 
his own teams as well as for the public. It is said that he never violated 
a contract nor broke his word when once given, and such a record justly gives 
him a high place in the citizenship of Bakersfield. While he has for several 
years engaged in general contracting, he has lately enlarged his business 
and entered into it on a broader scale. He has completed a sub-contract 
under Mahoney Bros, for the pipe-line and station work between Connor 
Station and Lobeck for the General Petroleum Company, which line trans- 
ports oil from the Westside oil fields to San Pedro. This line covers three 
miles and has five stations from the valley to the summit. His experience 
in the past and his large equipment for the purpose render it possible for Mr. 
Brandt to execute the heaviest work with efficiency and dispatch, and he is 
continually branching out on new projects. 

The marriage of Mr. Brandt took place in this city in 1903 and united 
him with Aliss Pearl C. Maynard, who was born at York, III., and by whom 
he has three children, Louis James, Cordelia Grace and Bernice. Besides his 
business holdings and his stock in the Security Trust Company of Bakers- 
field (of which he was one of the organizers) he is the owner of two ranches. 



1390 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Three and one-half miles to the southwest of the city lies his well-improved 
farm of eighty-five acres, where he makes his home. This is well-adapted for 
vegetables and contains soil as rich as may be found in the entire state. The 
family are adherents of the Lutheran Church. Politically Mr. Brandt votes 
with the Republican party, while fraternally he was made a Mason in Bakers- 
field Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M., and he also holds membership with the 
Woodmen of the World and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. 

MRS. ALICE A. GRAIN. — The possession of a high degree of business 
ability on the part of Mrs. Crain is indicated by the sagacious judgment which 
she exercises in the management of the Decatur hotel, a modern apartment 
house and hotel situated at No. 2027 Nineteenth street, Bakersfield. Besides 
being a member of and worker in the Methodist Episcopal Church, she is also 
identified with the Rebekahs, and on several occasions she has represented in 
the grand lodge her own local organization, Kern Lodge No. 47, in which 
she is a past officer. Politically she supports Democratic principles. 

Born and reared near Rochester, Fulton county, Ind., Mrs. Crain is a 
daughter of John Hay and a sister of George Hay, whose sketch appears 
elsev/here in this volume. The advantages of a high-school education were 
given to her and these she supplemented by reading and observation. In 
young womanhood she became the wife of George W. Batz, a native of Fulton 
county, Ind., and a farmer of capability and fine character. When very young 
he made himself useful in the tilling of the soil and care of the stock. Coming 
to California in 1892, he secured land near Kernville on the South fork and 
engaged in the stock industry with his brother, John B., as a partner. Three 
3'^ears later, disposing of his interests there, he removed to a farm near 
Bakersfield, where he made a specialty tf horticulture. His death occurred 
on that farm in 1901 when he was forty-one years of age, leaving to his 
bereaved wife the care of their two children, Orion A. and Grace Fay. About 
three years after the death of Mr. Batz she became Mrs. E. R. Crain. Fra- 
ternally Mr. Batz had been connected with the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows. His son, Orion A., after graduating from the Kern county high 
school, for five years continued in the employ of the Associated Oil Com- 
pany, but more recently has engaged in the real-estate business in San 
Francisco. The daughter, Grace Fay, a graduate of the University of Cali- 
fornia, with the degree of B.S., is now the wife of G. B. Guyles, of Tacoma. 

PAUL R. JONES. — A responsible position efficiently filled by a young 
man is an index of ability and the fact that Paul R. Jones is discharging the 
duties of foreman in the Green and Whittier division of the Associated Oil 
Company furnishes proof concerning his standing in the Kern river fields, 
where, although one of the youngest men connected with the oil industry, 
he ranks also as one of the most energetic and intelligent. While his identi- 
fication with this district does not cover a long peritd of activity, it being 
on New Year's of 1910 when he arrived here in search of employment, the 
brief interval has been one of great industry and intelligent activity and his 
recognized capability has brought him a promotion as merited as it is gratify- 
ing. It was as a roustabout that he began to work in the drilling department 
of the Associated Oil Company. For a time he was employed on the Flecla 
lease and also in the Green and Whittier division. After he had worked as 
tool-dresser for a short time he w^as made well foreman in June of 1911 and 
since then has given the most rigid oversight to the department under his 
foreman ship. 

For 3'ears the home of Paul and Clara (Meade) Jones was in Cedar Rapids, 
Boone county, Neb., and at that place their fifth child, Paul R., was bcirn 
November 9, 1887. When nine years of age he accompanied the family to 
California and settled in Fresno county, where his father is still engaged in 
viticulture. The mother is deceased. There are six children in the family, 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1391 

those besides Paul R. being as follows: Ross, a resident of Riverdale, Cal., 
where he is engaged in the dairy business; J. A., foreman of the San Joaquin 
division of the Associated Oil Company in the Kern river field ; Roy, of 
Fresno; Jesse, an employe in the Green and Whittier division of the Asso- 
ciated ; and Mary, living in Fresno county. After he had attended high school 
at Fresno for two years Paul R. Jones left school and entered the employ of 
the Wells Fargo Company, remaining with them for three years and then 
resigning in order to locate in the Kern river district. In 1909 he married 
Aliss Sybil Dupree, of Sacramento, and they and their little daughter, Maxine, 
make their home on the company property where a comfortable cottage is 
provided for them. 

L. PEYTON. — To mention the Tejon Oil Company is to give merited 
recognition to one of the leading organizations engaged in the oil business in 
the Kern river field, a concern whose prosperous history dates back to the 
start in 1908 and carries up to the present time with unabated profits. 
When the company was organized the stock was sold to residents of Bakers- 
field, who bought at $1 each the twenty thousand shares of stock forming 
the original capital of $20,000. The remarkable success of the concern may 
be attributed largely to the supervision of L. Peyton, superintendent, secre- 
tary and manager, in whom the utmost confidence is reposed by the other stock- 
holders, including the president, H. R. Peacock, and the vice-president, C. L. 
Taylor. The most intelligent consideration is given to every department of 
the work. While his education in the University of California and his special 
studies in political science have perhaps been of little direct benefit to him, 
the indirect advantage is apparent in his quick grasp of industrial conditions, 
his broad comprehension of business problems and his practical outlook upon 
life. 

Not a little of the patriotic interest exhibited by Mr. Peyton in every 
phase of western development is due to the fact that he has spent his entire 
life in this part of the world. Since he entered the oil industry during 1903 
he has risen steadily by dint of industry, perseverance and ability, and these 
qualities enable him now to manage the properties of the Tejon Oil Com- 
pany in such a manner that the stockholders are receiving ten per cent divi- 
dends each month on their investment. While of course this is primarily the 
result of having superior producers among their wells, it is also due in no 
small measure to his own careful oversight in expenditures. The holdings 
of the company include eighty acres located on section 28, township 28, range 
27, where there are eight producing wells and a ninth well now in process 
of drilling. The net production averages sixty barrels daily to a well. A 
full equipment of machinery and appliances has been secured for the lease, a 
boiler house and bunkhouse have been built, and there is also a superintend- 
ent's residence commodious in size and substantial in finish, the whole form- 
ing a property of recognized value and adding another to the list of profitable 
leases in the Kern river field. 

FRANCIS M. WATKINS.— An excellent type of the able and efficient 
American foreman of today is to be found in the person of Francis M. Wat- 
kins, foreman of the Central Point division of the Associated Oil Company, 
operating on section 4, township 29, range 28, in the Kern river oil fields. 

A farm in Chautauqua county, Kan., was the earliest home of Francis M. 
Watkins and January 13, 1881. the date of his birth. Although the only 
child in the immediate family, he has two half-brothers older than himself. 
From an early age it was necessary for him to help on the home farm and his 
attendance at school was therefore desultory through no fault of his own. 
During 1897 his father died on the Kansas farm and shortly afterward he 
came to California with his mother, Sarah Eugenia Watkins, settling in 
Bakersfield, where he endeavored to make up for lack of early advantages by 



1392 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

attending the grammar school. After two years they moved to Chino and 
there he attended the high school to the end of the first year. During his six 
years spent at Chino he was connected with the beet-sugar industry. Next 
he went to Calaveras county and worked in a quartz mine at Angel's 
camp, also in the Utica, a famous mine owned by Charles Lane. The work 
was exceedingly trying by reason of the fact that it was underground, yet 
he continued in the quartz and gold mines for five years. The wages being 
better there than elsewhere he was tempted to endanger health in order that 
he might have some earnings to save. However, in 1904 he abandoned such 
labor and returned to Bakersfield, where for a year he was employed as a 
housemover. During October of 1905 he married Miss Edith Adallah Mc- 
Cain, whose acquaintance he had formed while living in Chino. They have an 
only child, Francis Stanley, born in 1907 in Kern county. 

Coming to the Kern river oil fields during May of 1905 Mr. Watkins 
began to work with a pick and shovel on the San Joaquin division of the 
Associated Oil Company. His aptitude being soon proved by actual work, 
he was given a job as well puller. In addition he learned the work of a tool- 
dresser. Later he was promoted to be well foreman on the San Joaquin division, 
after which he was appointed general foreman of that division. April 1, 1908, 
he was tranfserred to the Central Point division under the title of foreman, 
but with the work of superintendent, as by the systematization of the Asso- 
ciated all positions formerly known by the title of superintendent are now 
called foremen. A very interesting fact in regard to the Central Point is that, 
while Mr. Watkins has sixteen men under his supervision, there are only 
three single men residing away from home, now employed o'n the lease, while 
ten families are making their homes here at the present time. The Central 
Point is composed of two leaseholds, for besides the one known by that name, 
with fifty acres and thirty-four producing wells, there is also the Red Bank, 
composed of thirty acres, with seventeen producing wells, and of the entire 
fifty-one wells all but four are operated by the jack pumping system. 

H. G. POWELL. — One of the most striking examples of that class of 
young men who have exhibited such capable and meritorious characteristics 
in the Kern River fields is H. G. Powell, the present foreman of the San 
Joaquin division of the Associated Oil Company. A young man who by sheer 
force of will, hard work and high ability has come to hold this responsible 
position, he has already evidenced a marked adaptability for this kind of 
work, and the fact that he is employed by one of the largest and most pros- 
perous oil companies on the Pacific coast proves his capacity in this direction. 

Mr. Powell was born May 15, 1883, in Bluefield, Mercer county, W. Va., 
where he grew to manhood. He is a nephew of N. C. Carrington the exten- 
sive fruit-grower of Fresno, whose ranch is situated sixteen miles south and 
west of the city of Fresno. In 1903 Mr. Powell came west to seek a field for 
his efforts, and for six years he was engaged on fruit farms. In April, 1909, 
he came to the Kern River field where he became employed in the San Joaquin 
division of the Associated Oil Company, in June, 1911, being given the respon- 
sible position of well foreman. With the exception of six months, when he 
engaged with the Adeline Oil Company, at Maricopa, Mr. Powell continued 
actively connected with this division, making rapid advancement, and the 
development of this new industry in this part of the country has taken all of 
his time and attention. Mr. Powell is unmarried. His future is bright before 
him and his exceptional character, fine sense of honor and brilliant mental and 
physical ability are the best assets the young man of today could wish for to 
form a basis of his life's career. 

CHARLES G. BECK.— The experience of Mr. Beck in the civil service 
has been one of slow but steady rise and in November of 1910 he was pro- 
moted to be superintendent of the Kern branch of the Bakersfield postoflfice. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1393 

To him belongs the distinction of being the first carrier of rural delivery in 
Kern county. It was in 1905 that he was appointed to the rural postal ser- 
vice, at which time he mapped out and opened route No. 1, and it still 
retains practically the same lines as established by him at that time. 

A resident of Kern county from the age of eleven years, Charles G. Beck 
was born at Lebanon, Boone county, Ind., March 24, 1879, being a son of 
E. F. and Mary (Cook) Beck, natives respectively of Kentucky and Indiana. 
Prior to the Civil war the father had gone north to Indiana and there he 
enlisted in Company G, One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Indiana Infantry, with 
which he went to the front and in which he served as corporal until the 
expiration of the struggle. Although he took part in many engagements 
he was wounded only once, that being in the battle of Lookout Mountain, 
where he was injured in the knee. After he had been honorably discharged 
from the army he returned to Indiana, settled on a farm in Boone county 
and devoted his time to the tilling of the soil. After many years he disposed 
of his interesLs in that county, came to California, and in 1890 settled in Kern 
county, where he identified himself with the Rosedale colony. Taking up a 
raw tract of land west of Bakersfield, he devoted time and attention closely 
to the improvement of the place. Meanwhile in 1897 he w'as bereaved by the 
death of his wife, but he continued at the old homestead until the fall of 1911, 
when he sold the property, retired from farm work and removed to Oakland. 

The eldest of four children, Charles G. Beck accompanied the other 
members of the family from Indiana to California and arrived in Kern 
county during December of 1890, after which he attended the public schools 
and then the Kern county high school. His schooling completed, he gave 
his entire time to the work of the home farm, until 1905, when he entered 
the government service. Meanwhile at Visalia, September 2, 1900, he had 
married Miss Dora Tellyer, who was born in Oregon and by whom he has 
one son, Harold. During the two years of his association with the rural 
free delivery he prepared for the examination for civil service, passed the 
same with credit, received a postoffice appointment and in February of 1907 
became a clerk in the Bakersfield office. For a time he served as general 
delivery clerk, but later he was promoted to be registry and money-order 
clerk, and from that position he was transferred to the superintendency of 
the Kern branch of the Bakersfield postoffice. Every department of his 
association has been benefited by his close attention, intelligent devotion to 
duty and painstaking care with even the smallest details. Since moving to 
Bakersfield he has bought residence property at No. 618 Monterey street and 
here he and his family have a comfortable home. 

JEAN B. RAYMOND. — A decided preference for stock-raising pursuits 
and particularly for the sheep industry doubtless results from the environ- 
ment of Mr. Raymond's early life, which was spent near the foothills of the 
snow-clad Alps mountains in the province of Hautes-Alpes, France. The 
village of Orcierre, where he was born October 4, 1867, was a small but thrifty 
community whose prosperity had its source in agriculture, and there his 
father, Jean, engaged in stock-raising until his death. The mother, who bore 
the maiden name of Judith Sarrzin, was likewise a native of Hautes-Alpes 
and a life-long resident of that part of France. There were five children in 
the family, but only two now survive. 

The eldest of the family and the only one to establish a home in the 
United States was Jean B., who at the time of attaining his majority in 1888 
bade farew'ell to the associations of the French farm and came to California 
to earn a livelihood. The village of Sumner (now East Bakersfield) was 
his first location and from here he went to Delano to work under a sheep- 
raiser. After two years in that locality he went to Fresno, where for a 
year he was employed by a sheepman. With his frugal savings he bought 
a bunch of sheep and started out for himself. For seven years he made his 



1394 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

headquarters in Fresno and meanwhile ranged his sheep in that county and 
in Tulare. Upon selling that flock in 1897 he came to Kern county, bought 
another flock of sheep, grazed them on the surrounding ranges and estab- 
lished his headquarters at East Bakersfield where subsequently he erected 
a residence at No. 518 Humboldt street. At this writing he owns a valuable 
flock of twenty-five hundred head of sheep, besides his residence and other 
property (mainly business) in East Bakersfield. 

Air. Raymond has given stanch allegiance to the Republican party, and 
fraternally he belongs to the Foresters. His marriage in East Bakersfield, 
April 24, 1905, united him with Miss Mary, daughter of Auguste and Mary 
(Bicais) Galvin, and they have two children, Bertha and Jean. Born and 
reared in Hautes-Alpes, Mrs. Raymond was third in order of birth among six 
children and passed the years of childhood upon a farm owned by her father, 
who in addition to being a capable farmer, also has served in the office of road 
supervisor in the French province, where he still makes his home. 

MRS. BELLE CARDER ECKERT.— Significant of twentieth century 
progress in the west is the prominence accorded women in agricultural, com- 
mercial and industrial activities and their successful achievements in enter- 
prises of large importance. Noi: the least successful or capable among the 
women of the great San Joaquin valley, where a goodly number of ladies are 
operating farms, is Mrs. Eckert, who since the death of her husband has 
continued to cultivate the valuable property purchased by him some time 
prior to his demise. The tract of sixty acres of highly improved land lies in 
the Buena Vista district, eleven miles southwest of Bakersfield. By means 
of irrigation from the Buena Vista canal alfalfa is raised in large quantities, 
thus furnishing an abundance of feed for the dairy herd maintained on the 
farm. 

A resident of Kern county since 1895, Mrs. Eckert previously had made 
her home in Texas, Arkansas and Arizona successively. Her father, William 
J. Carder, a native of Ohio, was the son of a blacksmith and learned that trade 
in early life, later also taking up the trade of a carpenter. During 1860 he 
removed to Missouri. While residing in that state he enlisted in a Missouri 
regiment and served in the Civil war until its close. Later he went to 
Kansas and settled in Clay county, where he married Miss Rosana Duncan, 
a native of Kentucky. After a brief sojourn in Kansas, also in Barry county, 
Mo., he settled in Dallas, Tex., and engaged in blacksmithing. During the 
residence of the family in Dallas a daughter, Belle, was born, she being the 
third among six children. Later the family went to Arkansas and there Mr. 
Carder died ; his widow now makes her home with Mrs. Eckert. The latter 
was educated in the public schools of Dallas, Tex., and Bluftton, Ark., and 
in 1890, in Cook county, Tex., became the bride of William Robert Town- 
send, a native of that state. Near Phoenix, Ariz., the young couple engaged 
in farming and there Mr. Townsend died in 1893. After closing out his af- 
fairs the widow left Arizona and settled in Los Angeles, whence in 1895 she 
came to Bakersfield. In this city she married John Eckert, a native of In- 
diana, who died on the home farm in 1910, leaving to Mrs. Eckert the estate 
which she had aided him in securing. By her first marriage she has two 
children, Edward and Anna Townsend, and the former is now aiding her m 
the management of the place. The family attend the Methodist Episcopal 
Church and Mrs. Eckert is a generous contributor to the missionary enter- 
prises of that denomination. Her political sympathies are with the Repub- 
lican part3^ 

MARK WILSON. — A member of an old family of the west and himself 
a na.ive Californian, Mr. Wilson was born in Visalia November 17, 1886, 
and received a fair education in the schools of that city. On the completion 
of the grammar course he studied for two and one-half years in the high 
school of Visalia. but left school at the age of fifteen years in order to earn 



HISTORY OF KRRX COUNTY 1395 

his own livelihood. By chance the first position he could secure was with 
the Southern Pacific Railroad Company as an assistant in the warehouse and 
baggage-room. At the end of three months he was allowed to enter the 
telegraph office of the same road for the purpose of learning telegraphy. The 
work interested him deeply and he took hold of it with such ardor that by the 
time three monchs had passed he was qualified for a position. 

There was need of a telegraph operator and clerk in the little ofiice at 
Oil City, Kern county, a new station started for the convenience of the oil 
operators. Mr. Wilson was assigned to the place and at the age of only 
eigh:een became assistant agent. During February of 1908 he was trans- 
ferred to East Bakersfield as ticket clerk, from which he was promoted to 
be cashier of the freight house in the same city, but in March of 1909 he was 
ordered back to Oil City, where the work had increased in importance as the 
shipments had been enlarged in volume. When but twenty-one years of 
age he was appointed station agent, being not only one of the youngest men 
to occupy such a position in the state, but also one of the most intelligent 
and popular. When the depot was moved from Oil City to Waits, during 
the month of September, 1912, he came to take charge of affairs a!: the new 
post. On July 14, 1909, he was united in marriage, at Mill Valley, Cal., with 
Miss Emma Louise Jasper, of Bakersfield, and they are the parents of one 
son, J. Ward Wilson. Since coming to Kern county, Mr. Wilson has allied 
himself with Bakersfield Lodge, No. 266, B. P. O. E., and has maintained 
an interest in the general activities of the organization. Broad-minded, ac- 
commodating and energetic, he has the friendship of the oil shippers in the 
Kern river field, and enjoys the distinction of shipping more oil from his 
station as an initial point than any other agent in California, while in addition 
the records prove that since he became station agent he has shipped out 
more oil than any other agent in the entire United States. 

JOSEPH V. MORLEY.— Near Land's End, in the county of Cornwall, 
England, Joseph V. Morley, now a well-known citizen of Kern county, was 
born August 1, 1854. He was the son of Joseph and Mary (Bradford) Mor- 
ley, the former a land agent and farmer. His boyhood was passed in public 
schools and when he was sixteen years old he had spent one year at a college. 
After working for his father for a time he took up other employment and 
when he was twenty years old resumed his studies in surveying for two years. 
Later he was employed by his father until in 1884, when he came to the 
United States, to the home of a banker, Mr. Lanning, who was a friend of 
his father's, residing near Leavenworth, Kans. For a short time he was 
employed on farms near that city, but in January, 1885, he came to Kern 
county, Cal., where for a few months he was engaged as a laborer. In 
March of that year, however, he found employment with Carr & Haggin, 
which later became known as the Kern County Land Company, by which 
firm he was employed twenty-one years. He was soon advanced to a fore- 
manship which he held fifteen years. In 1906 he began farming and dairying 
on leased land and moved to various parts of the county in the prosecution 
of this business. Beginning with two cows, he now owns seventy-five head 
of stock. In 1910 he moved to his present ranch of fifty-four acres, then 
unimproved and situated three miles south of Bakersfield. This is all now 
under cultivation to alfalfa and grain and is known as Morley 's dairy, as he 
is a wholesale and retail milk dealer. 

On February 22, 1898, Mr. Morley married in Bakersfield Miss Eva G. 
Colton, who was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, September 7, 1869, daughter of 
F. H. Colton, who is represented elsewhere in this volume. Mrs. Morley 
was brought to California by her parents in 1875, and received her education 
in the public schools and at the San Jose State Normal. For ten years she 
taught in the public schools of Kern county two years and a half of this 
time in Bakersfield. She has borne her husband sons named Joseph, Vivian, 



1396 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

George and William. Mr. Morley affiliates with Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, 
F. & A. M., with P.akersfield Lodge No. 208, L O. O. F., and is a charter 
member of the Independent Order of Foresters. 

WILLIAM G. SILBER.— The proprietor of a barber shop on Baker 
street, Bakersfield, William G. Silber is one of that city's enterprising citi- 
zens. He is a member of an old and respected German family, his branch 
coming from Saxony, Germany. Gottlieb Silber, grandfather of William G., 
served in the Austro-Prussian war, and was in his time a popular business 
man in the city of Leipsic, Germany, where his son, Gustav Emil, was born 
in 1854. The latter also became a soldier in his native country, and served 
three years in the One Hundred and Sixth Regiment of Infantry in that 
army. He was married in Chemnitz, Saxony, in 1878 to Laura Helena 
Clausnitzer, who was born there. Her father, August Clausnitzer, came to 
Tulare county, Cal., in 1885, and there he died. 

In 1881 Gustav Emil Silber brought his wife to America, settling in Ve- 
rona, Pa., where they remained until 1889. at that time coming to Delano, 
Kern county, Cal. Here he followed farming and died in 1903, his wife then 
removing with her family to East Bakersfield, where she now resides. She 
is a Methodist, and is an active member of the Fraternal Brotherhood. Her 
children, who all make their residence in East Bakersfield, are as follows: 
Elsie, Mrs. R. G. Libby ; William G. ; Clara Johanna, Mrs. W. R. Lowe; 
Minnie, Mrs. F. S. Sparks ; Mattie, Mrs. George Towers ; and Eddie R., a 
machinist in the employ of the Standard Oil Company. 

W'illiam G. Silber was but a lad when brought by his parents to Delano, 
Cal., and he was here educated in the public schools. Upon reaching man- 
hood he followed railroading for a while as locomotive fireman, then was 
engaged in the furniture business in East Bakersfield for a time, but finding 
it expedient to sell out he disposed of this business and started a barber 
shop on Baker street, where he is doing a profitable business. Mr. Silber 
married in 1909, Leola M. Weller, who was born in Howell, ^Nlich., and they 
have two children, Naoma and Kenneth. He is a member of the Fraternal 
Brotherhood, also the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers. 

OSCAR A. HOLTHE.— Since the initial period of development in the 
Kern river oil fields the location and the industry have exercised a particular 
attraction upon young men with clearness of intellectual vision and capacity for 
work. It is not therefore an occasion for surprise that Mr. Holthe, with his su- 
perior qualifications as a mechanic and his liking for industrial activities, 
should have sought this place in preference to devoting himself to agriculture 
near the comfortable home of his parents. As he had no previous exoerience in 
the industry he began at the bottom. Upon coming to the oil fields in 1909 
it was his good fortune to find employment with the Associated Oil Com- 
pany and he since has remained with the same concern, having worked during 
the first years as a roustabout and well-puller and later was made well-forema^n. 
On the 22d of February, 1912, he was transferred to the Hecla lease and 
here he and his family have established a comfortable home. His jurisdiction 
as well-foreman extends through the entire Missouri division of the Associated 
Oil Company, including the lease upon which he resides, and both in his own 
company and among workers with other concerns in the field he has the popu- 
larity and the respect merited b}^ his business ability and genial temperament. 

Born in Minneapolis, Minn., May 18, 1883, Mr. Holthe was brought by 
his parents, Oscar and Ellen Holthe, to California at the age of nine months. 
The family settled in Tehama county and there the father, at the age of fifty- 
two years, stands among the prosperous and influential men of his community. 
Of the six living children in the family Oscar A., the eldest, was the only one 
to seek a livelihood in the oil fields and he turned to this line of work as 
ofifering an interesting avenue for progress in mechanics. Always interested 
in mechanical work, he selected such occupative employment in preference to 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 130/ 

agriculture, although he was reared on a farm and possesses a substantial 
knowledge of grain-farming and stock-raising. Prior to removing from 
Tehama county he there married, in August of 1905, Miss Mabel Ham, 
daughter of Matthew S. Ham, who then lived in Tehama, but is now a resident 
of San Joaquin county. They reside in a cottage on the Hccla lease with their 
three children, Helen Irene, Ira Ellsworth and Mildred Elaine. Mr. Ilolthe 
is a member of the Woodmen of the World at Bakersfield. In politics he is a 
Republican. 

E. S. RHEA. — An honorable experience in the railway service in the 
northwest preceded the identification of Mr. Rhea with the oil industry in 
the Kern river fields, where for some years he has been retained in charge 
of the pumping station of the Kern Trading and Oil Company, being the 
older (in point of service) of the two pumpers regularly employed at the plant. 
In seeking the west as the locality of future labors, he came from Indiana, 
where he had passed the greater part of his early years and where he was 
born in Allen county near the city of Fort Wayne, October 8, 1884. While 
much of his school life was passed in or near Fort Wayne, he also attended 
for a time the schools of Corydon, Ky., and in the spring of 1901 was grad- 
uated from the high school of Auburn, Ind. During the summer following 
graduation he left Indiana for Washington and after arriving in Seattle 
secured employment with the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, being 
sent into the districts where construction work had been inaugurated. For 
three years he engaged as an assistant in the building of steel bridges for the 
company. The work was extremely hazardous and difHcult, but he proved 
careful, capable and courageous, and his services were so satisfactory to the 
company that, at the conclusion of the construction work he was made a 
locomotive fireman. His first run was from Tacoma to Portland. Later he 
was put on the line from Tacoma to Ellensburg and finally was transferred to 
the main system between Taccma and Seattle. 

Owing to the fact that railroading lacked the desirability of work in a 
fixed position, Mr. Rhea resigned his position, although he was in line for 
promotion and was popular with those in charge of the road. After leaving 
Washington he spent four months in the Risdon ircn works at San Francisco 
and in January of 1909 came from there to the Kern river fields, where in 
March following he was selected for the position he still fills. Before leaving 
Washington he married Miss ]\Iary Pinneo, of Tacoma, in July of 1907, and 
since coming to the holdings of the Kern Trading and Oil Company he and his 
wife have made their home in a cozy cottage in Bakersfield. 

DAVID SHEEDY.— Descended from an honored old Irish family, Mr. 
Sheedy was born in Gilboa township, Benton county, Ind., and grew to 
manhood upon a farm. As a boy he alternated his time between work in the 
fields during the summer days and attendance at school in the winter months, 
and while it was not possible for him to attend school throughout the full 
terms, yet he acquired a broad fund of information and could converse with 
ease and intelligence upon all subjects of importance. When he left the farm 
and started out to make his own way in the world he took up mercantile pur- 
suits. After a time he acquired the ownership of a general store at Lochiel, 
Benton county, and this he conducted until failing health forced him to give 
up a sedentary occupation and remove from the rigorous Indiana climate. He 
arrived in East Bakersfield (then known as Kern) in March, 1902, and on the 
4th of October, of the same year, his death occurred. There remains to family 
and friends the memory of his upright character and purposeful ambitions and 
the tiplifting influence of his kindly deeds. 

At Lochiel, Ind., in December of 1891, occurred the marriage of David 
Sheedy and Miss Nellie Kaar. One child blessed the union, Helen, a mem- 
ber of the Bakersfield high school class of 1913. Mrs. Sheedy's father, John 



1398 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Kaar, came to Kern county at an early date and I^ecame a leading business man 
of Kern, erecting a building on Baker street and starting the Citizen's Laun- 
dry. The business is still owned by the family and is managed by one of his 
sons, George S. (represented elsewhere in this volume). To this concern 
Mrs. Sheedy has devoted all of her time in the capacity of bookkeeper and from 
the first she was one of its stockholders. Keen business ability is one of her 
chief endowments and her services have been most helpful in the satisfactory 
prosecution of the business. Since coming to Bakersfield she has formed 
many friends among the best people and is particularly well known in East 
Bakersfield, where she makes her home and where she is a member of the 
Congregational Church. While her leisure hours are few she has found time 
to aid in church work, contribute to missionary enterprises and assist in 
charitable projects, and also has been able to interest herself in a number of 
fraternal organizations. For some years she has been connected with Bakers- 
field Chanter No. 125, Order of the Eastern Star, also the Pythian Sisters and 
Fraternal Brotherhood and is further identified with the Knights and Ladies 
of Security as a charter member and as vice-president of the order at Bakers- 
field. 

E. CARROLL EMMONS.— The fact that he holds a position of great 
responsibility and trust, although one of the youngest men in the employ of 
the Honolulu Consolidated Oil Company, indicates that Mr. Emmons has the 
confidence of the officials of the concern and that he has made a record for 
efficiency in his own special line of work. To act as purchasing agent for so 
large a corporation is no slight task ; that he discharges every duty with 
fidelity is evident to all familiar with his work as storekeeper on the lease 
situated on section 10, township 32, range 24, in the Midway field, where he 
superintends with dispatch and system the buying of all oil-well supplies 
as well as the maintenance of the commissary department. Practically all of 
his life has been passed in Kern county and the family has been well known 
here for many years. 

When only fourteen months old Mr. Emmons was brought to Kern 
county by his parents, who settled in Bakersfield. He was born at Sisson, 
Siskiyou county, August 7, 1891, and in boyhood he attended the Bakers- 
field grammar school, graduating from the regular course of study. At the 
age of eighteen he became interested in the oil industry, to which he since 
has given his time and attention. Upon first coming with the Honolulu Oil 
Company in December, 1910, he was under the then superintendent, J. A. 
Pollard, as a warehouse man and by successive promotions has risen to be 
storekeeper and purchasing agent for the great corporation. 

E. W. BAILEY. — Although the greater part of his busy and useful life 
has been passed within the limits of California, Mr. Bailey is an Ohioan by 
birth and was born at Wilmington, Clinton county, August 26, 1882. In 
early life he came west with his parents, J. W. and Catherine (Hiney) Bailey, 
who settled at Wliittier and sent him to the public schools at that town. 
When seventeen he secured employment in the Whittier oil field and within 
a year he had gained considerable experience in drilling, in which department 
of the oil business he has since gained more than a local reputation. After 
four years with the Murphy Oil Company he went to the Coalinga field and 
for a year engaged as a driller with the Union Oil Company. Next he took 
the contract to drill a well for George Roberts in the Coalinga field. 

Coming down to the Midway field during 1909 Mr. Bailey took charge of 
the development work for the May Oil Company, with which he engaged as su- 
perintendent for one year. In the meantime May's No. 1 was brought in as a 
twenty thousand barrel gusher. Not long before this the Santa Fe had brought 
in a gusher on section 6 and about six days afterward the famous Lakeview 
was the third gusher in the field. The presence of three gushers soon became 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1399 

known and caused a great excitement throughout oil circles in the entire 
country. The year after coming to the Midway field and while still engaged 
with the May's lease, Mr. Bailey married Miss Amy Logan, of Santa Maria; 
they have since lived in the Midway field and now have one son, Earl Logan. 
From May's Mr. Bailey went to the Rock Oil Company as superintendent. 
Ten months later he accepted an advantageous oflfer from the Midway Five 
and in another ten months he became associated as superintendent with St. 
Helen's Petroleum Company, Limited, whose stockholders are English cap- 
italists, forming practically the same coterie of financiers who own also the 
Kern River Oilfields of California, Limited. The holdings of the corporation 
comprise one hundred and eighty acres on section 16, township 32, range 24, 
and fcrty acres on section 32, township 21, range 24. While but a short time 
has elapsed since the concern began operations in its present location already 
two strings of tools are in operation and a third is being started, with the 
most favorable prospects for successful enterprises under the systematic 
management of Mr. Bailey as superintendent. The only fraternal organization 
with which he has connected himself is the Benevclent Protective Order of 
Elks, his membership being with Camp No. 439 at Fresno. 

J. A. BENNETT. — The superintendent of Section 25 Oil Company, who 
has the distinction of being the pioneer driller on 25 Hill and whose experi- 
ences as a driller have made him familiar with oil fields in different parts of 
the world, was born at Petrolia, Canada, December 16, 1874, and from earliest 
recollections has been familiar with the cil industry. The family to which he 
belongs boasts a lineage extending back to the early history of colonial 
America, and his father, John H. Bennett, a pioneer in the Canadian oil fields 
at Petrolia, now makes his home in Vancouver, British Columbia, and not- 
withstanding seventy-seven useful and active years he still retains his robust 
constituticn and mental faculties. He married Miss Mary Jane Barnum, 
whose father was a cousin of the noted P. T. Barnum and whose mother's 
mother, Malissa Clay, was an own cousin of the famous statesman, Henry Clay. 

In a family of nine children J. A. Bennett was third and he spent the 
first twenty years of life in his native town of Petrolia, where he learned the 
oil business in all of its departments. During 1894 he secured a position as 
driller for an Amsterdam syndicate that owned large concessions on the 
island of Sumatra in the ^Malayan Archipelago. For two and one-half years 
he engaged in drilling on Sumatra, where he had charge of one hundred and 
fifty thousand acres for the company. The eleven wells which he drilled 
averaged from five hundred to fifteen hundred feet. The oil was of fifty-two 
degrees gravity. Production varied from three hundred to five hundred bar- 
rels. The excessively hot and humid climate of Sumatra brought on fever 
and forced him to resign his position. Next he engaged in drilling for the 
Shell Transport and Trading Company on the island of Borneo, where he 
remained abcut three years and meanwhile made three discovery wells run- 
ning from eighteen hundred to two thousand feet in depth, with an asphalt 
base. The oil was of eighteen degrees gravity. After three years on Borneo 
he returned to America via the Pacific ocean to San Francisco. During 
December of 1899 he arrived at Bakersfield at the time of the boom incident 
to the discovery of oil in the Kern river field. About the middle of the sum- 
mer of 1900, while working on the Sunset coast No. 1 well, on 25 Hill, he struck 
oil at a depth of fifteen hundred and twenty-five feet, and this was the first oil 
well brought in on the now famous section 25. The oil was of fifteen degrees 
gravity and production averaged about one hundred barrels. While engaged 
in drilling for oil on section 22, 32-23, he struck water at a depth of one thou- 
sand feet. As the price of water was high and the quality of this well excellent 
for boiler purposes, the company paid ofif the driller, deciding that water was 
more valuable to them than oil. 

59 



1400 HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 

The marriage of Mr. Bennett and Dr. Jean Worthington took place at 
Bakersfield in 1902 and afterward they went to British Burmah, where for 
three years he had charge of oil production and development for a large cor- 
poration. Their first child James Gordon Bennett, was bcrn in Upper Bur- 
mah. The younger children, Nota B. and Jean, were born after the return 
of the family to America. Mrs. Bennett is a graduate of the dental depart- 
ment, University of California, with the class of 1898, and has practiced the 
dental profession with success in her home city of Bakersfield. After a 
second trip around the world Mr. Bennett settled in Cobalt, Canada, with the 
hope that the change of climate would rid his system of the malaria con- 
tracted in the tropics. Coming to Bakersfield in 1906, he entered the employ 
of the Associated Oil Company on the San Joaquin division and upon the 
promotion of Superintendent Bruce he was chosen to fill the position of 
drilling superintendent and later, on the promotion of L. J. King to the Mc- 
Kittrick division, he was made superintendent of production. After four 
years with the Associated he engaged in drilling for the Standard and in 1911 
began to drill for the Tejon Oil Company in the Kern river field, later drilling 
for the Sunset Security a well four thcusand feet deep. Since taking charge of 
the Section 25 Oil Company in February, 1913, he has maintained an average 
production of fifty thousand barrels per month and has superintended the 
crew of forty workmen employed by this large corporation. 

JAMES O. McCaffrey. — in the capacity of chief mechanical engineer 
Mr. 3*lcCatTrey has charge of the boiler-house and stationary engines on sec- 
tion 16 division of the North American Oil Consolidated, and his experience as 
a skilled machinist enables him to fill with success a most responsible and trust- 
worthy position. Belfast, Ireland, is his native heme and July 8, 1873, the 
date of his birth. He is a son of Patrick and Catherine (Bouges) McCaffrey, 
who were born, reared and married in Ireland, and during middle age came to 
America, settling in South Dakota, where now they own and live upon a large 
cattle ranch in Clark county. Their family comprises six living children, be- 
sides which they had two who died in early life. The eldest, James O., is the 
only member of the family in California. Mary married P. J. Murphy, who 
is now a storekeeper in Melbourne, Australia. Hugh and Thomas are part- 
ners in the cattle-raising business in Clark county, S. Dak. Francis is em- 
ployed as a steamship inspector by Harlem & Woolf, the great ship-building 
concern that produced the Titantic and other marvels of ocean speed. The 
youngest member of the family, Miss Annie McCaffrey, is living with her 
parents in South Dakota. 

Upon leaving the national schools in Belfast it was the plan of James O. 
McCaffrey to become an apprentice with Harlem & Woolf, but, wishing_ to 
see something of the world, he decided to come to America instead. During 
May of 1890 he arrived in Pittsburg, Pa., where lived an uncle, Patrick Cos- 
grove, the superintendent of the steel furnace of the Carnegie works at Brad- 
dock, Allegheny county. During his brief visit he was ccnvinced of the advis- 
ability of learning a trade, and for this purpose returned to Ireland and 
became an apprentice at the trade of machinist and engineer. That deter- 
mination was carried out and he spent three years in the great plant of Har- 
lem & Woolf, where he completed his time and acquired a reputation for 
skilled work. Again coming to America, he this time found ready work as an 
engineer under his uncle and for four years he continued in Pennsylvania. 
Ivleanwhile he had married Miss Bridget D. Lalley, a native of county Gal- 
way, Ireland, and the young couple in 1903 sailed for Honolulu. Upon his 
arrival there he was given charge of the engine room on the Ewea sugar 
plantation. During the three years passed on the Hawaiian Islands two 
children were born to them, but both died in infancy. Leaving the islands 
they came to San Francisco, where Mr. McCaffrey secured employment as 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1401 

foreman in the steel department of the Merle Ornamental and Bronze Com- 
pany. Three years were spent in the city and in the meantime he and his wife 
endured all the horrors incident to the famous earthquake and fire. While 
there he was a popular worker in Division 7, Ancient Order of the Hibernians, 
also took a leading part in the Irish National Foresters. About 1909 he left 
San Francisco and came to Taft, where on the second day he secured a 
position as engineer on the section 16 division of the North American Oil 
Consolidated and ever since then he has devoted himself clcsely to the duties 
incident to his post of trust and responsibility. From early life both he and 
his wife have been earnest members of the Roman Catholic Church. They oc- 
cupy a company house and their modest but cosy home abounds with good 
cheer and comfort. 

KEITH B. LE GAR. — Rapid rise to prominence in the oil industry has 
characterized the occupative activities of Keith B. LeGar, who as foreman on 
the section 16 division of the Ncrth American Oil Consolidated feels a just 
pride in a responsible identification with one of the leading corporations oper- 
ating in the Midway field. But few years have passed since he began to be 
familiar with the oil industry, and such has been his mental alertness and 
the quickness of his intelligence that he has grasped all the details connected 
with the business in a comparatively brief period. On the 1st of January, 1913, 
he was promoted to his present position as production foreman, in which 
capacity he has the full confidence of his employers and of the twenty-four 
men under him. The average monthly production en the division is about forty 
thousand barrels 

Mr. LeGar was born at Buchanan, Mich., April 2, 1889, and is the elder 
of two brothers, the younger being Kenneth LeGar, who has charge of 
the tools on the Kerto division of the Kern Trading & Oil Company near 
Maricopa. The father, Edwin LeGar, who was a farmer in Berrien county, 
Mich., died about 1895, and later the mother, who bore the maiden name of 
Estella Baker, became the wife cf James Snodgrass. At this writing she still 
makes her home at Buchanan, Berrien county. The boyhood years of Keith 
LeGar were made unhappy by the inconsiderate treatment accorded him by 
his step-father and when he was sixteen he left the home farm in Berrien 
county, determined to make his own way in the world. Frier to their mar- 
riage, which was solemnized May 14, 1913, Mrs. LeGar was Miss Blanche 
Carter. 

For three and one-half years Mr. LeGar was employed in Arizi na and 
much of that time was spent in driving stage between Prescott and Hooper. 
From Arizona he came to California in 1909 and secured employment in San 
Luis Obispo county, where he gained his first exoerience in the oil industry. 
For a time he engaged as tool-dresser with the San Luis Bay Oil Company. 
Coming over to the Midway field in 1910, he worked on various leases until 
December of the same year, when he was given a roustabout's position on 
section 16 division of the North American. In a short time he vvas made gang- 
pusher, after which he was promoted to be foreman, and in each post of duty 
he has proved to be trustworthy, energetic and eminently capable. 

FRANK J. MORA. — When the Castilian ancestors of the Mora family 
first crossed the ocean from Spain to America during the latter part of the 
eighteenth centur}^ and settled in Mexico they were led by a gallant Spaniard, 
the head of the ancient house, Raphael de la Mora, whose last days were spent 
amid the somewhat crude conditions then existing in the new world. A 
grandscn of the Castilian forefather, Pedro, passed all of his active years in 
carrying on a stock ranch in the Rio del Ora mountains of Mexico. For 
convenience the family name was shortened to the present form. Frank J., 
son of Pedro, was born at the ranch home near Zamora, Michoacan, Mexico, 
in 1877. At the age of eleven years in 1888 he came to California to make his 



1402 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

home with an older sister, Mrs. Nettie Smith in Tulare, and to have the ad 
vantages of the public schools of that place. For eight years he made his 
headquarters at the residence of Mrs. Smith, who afterward removed to Por- 
terville and is now living in the latter town. Besides attending the public 
schools he also for a time was sent to a private institution of learning. 

The skill which the lad displayed in the handling of horses led J. F. 
Batchelder to engage him for such work. It was not long before he was con- 
sidered to be an expert in the breaking of colts. The most fiery and dangerous 
animal speedily was brought under control through his wise management. 
His ability in the work seemed so unusual that he was induced to start a 
stable in which he boarded colts, keeping them under his personal oversight 
until they were thoroughly broken to the harness. For some years he made 
a specialty of training horses in his part of California and even after he had 
spent two years in travel through Mexico, his fondness for California was so 
deep that he returned to the state to establish a permanent home. Locating 
in Porterville he established a stable for the breaking of colts and continued 
in the business at that place until November of 1907, when he came to Bakers- 
field. Securing a position as manager of the Exchange stable on the corner of 
Eighteenth and I streets, he continued as an employe for two years. Mean- 
while he decided to purchase the stable, since which he has been the owner 
and proprietor. While living at Porterville he was united in marriage with 
Miss Savina Viscaino, a native of the state of Colima near the Pacific ocean 
in Mexico, but from early life a resident of California. Since coming to this 
city Mr. and Mrs. Mora have erected a house at No. 2416 N street, where 
they now have a comfortable and attractive home. 

SAN JOAQUIN LIGHT & POWER CORPORATION.— Suggestive of 

its name the San Joaquin Light & Power Corporaticm, which serves Bakers- 
field and adjacent country, has more than a local reputation and influence. In 
truth it may be said that its development has had more to do with upbuilding 
the Valley, whose name it bears, than any other single organization. The 
development of the San Joaquin Light & Power Corporation has been unique 
in that it is serving an immense and sparsely settled territory over which 
many miles of expensive transmission and distributing lines have had to be 
built and prospective consumers educated to the use of electricity for agri- 
cultural purposes before any returns whatsoever could be obtained on the 
investment. That the cempany is succeeding in its purpose is readily aoparent 
to the eye of the traveler who will ride through any of the newly settled col- 
onies such as Wasco and McFarland on the north to the Weed Patch on the 
south of Bakersfield. Electricity has meant water development in Kern county 
and development of water is rapidly opening up the agricultural holdings. 

The history of the present company dates back to the building of the 
original San Joaquin No. 1 Power Plant seventeen years ago. This plant 
made history in the San Joaquin Valley as it was the first hydro-electric 
development for long distance transmission. The plant had a capacity of 1450 
kilowatts, in the light of present day hydro-electric development a small one. 
and served the towns of Fresno and Hanford. In 1902 the present owners took 
over the property and since that time have built up what is now the great 
system of the San Joaquin Light & Power Corporation. Today this com- 
pany furnishes light and power throughout ten counties, seven of which are 
in the San Joaquin Valley and three on the coast. In round numbers the 
company is serving 18,500 lighting customers, 2O00 power customers, 6000 
gas customers and 7500 water customers. The Bakersfield Street Railway 
system, which is acknowledged by authorities to be the best constructed in 
the West, is operated by this company, and power is also supplied for oil well 
development and pumping in all the oil fields in Kern county as well as the 
famous Coalinga fields in Fresno county. In all these operations the facil- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1403 

ities are the best, no expense having been spared in fitting the general equip- 
ment in order to obtain the best results and bring the utmost satisfaction to 
the territories served. 

The rfiicers of the San Joaquin Light & Power Corporation are as fol- 
lows : William G. Kerckhoff of Los Angeles, president ; A. C. Balch of Los 
Angeles, vice-president ; A. G. Wishon of Fresno, general manager. 

In the Bakersfield district employment is furnished to 275 persons, while 
the company has on its general pay roll more than one thousand names. 

In August 1910, the San Joaquin Light & Power Company entered Kern 
county by purchasing the properties of the Power Transit and Light Com- 
pany, which consisted of the hydro-electric plant in the Kern river canyon, 
transmission lines to Bakersfield and distribution lines in Bakersfield and 
some territory immediately adjacent ; the Bakersfield and Kern Electric Rail- 
way System and Gas Works. The power plant at that time was inadequate 
to serve the interests of the city and the day before the company was to take 
charge one of the three generators burned out and the city of Bakersfield 
was without street lights until a temporary steam generator of 750 kilowatts 
could be installed for relief. This was the initial unit in the big steam plant 
which has since been built, the company at the same time ordering a 2000 
capacity steam turbo generator set. This initial development was almost 
twice as great as the generating capacity of the old generating plant which 
had an output of only 1440 kilowatts. The business grew so rapidly that a 
short time later a 5000 kilowatt capacity was added to the steam plant. Dur- 
ing the year 1911 another addition of 7000 kilowatts capacity was made. This 
steam plant now is the largest in the interior of California and cost practically 
$1,COO,000. It is modern in every respect. 

When this company entered Kern county they found customers paying 
thirteen and one-half cents per kilowatt hour for service, but as soon as 
the first steam plant unit was installed they voluntarily reduced the price to 
twelve cents per kilowatt hour. A short time later, when the new transmis- 
sion line built from Crane Valley, a distance of two hundred and twenty- 
five miles, were completed, the rate was again voluntarily reduced to ten cents 
per kilowatt hour and in a short time thereafter when business throughout the 
system was increasing, the rate was reduced throughout all the agricultural 
valley in the territory served by the company from Merced to Bakersfield to 
eight cents per kilowatt hour. 

In August, 1910, when the new company began business, they found them- 
selves serving 4195 customers in Kern county and at the end of 1913 this num- 
ber had been increased to more than 9100. In 1910 they were supply- 
ing power for one hundred and nine motors in Kern county, while at the end 
of 1913 more than 1050 customers had been installed on the lines. In 1910 
the gas consumers were supplied with manufactured gas which was being paid 
for at the rate of $1.47 per lOOO feet. This gas contained 600 heat imits. As 
soon as the company had been in operation it introduced natural gas into 
Bakersfield for which the average charge is seventy-eight cents per 1000 feet, 
and which contains more than 1000 heat units. Great improvements likewise 
were made in the street car system. In 1910 there were but three cars on the 
Nineteenth street single track line on a fourteen minute headway. This sys- 
tem has since been double tracked, four cars are serving the travel and they 
are running under a seven minute headway. The cross-city lines then were 
run under a thirty minute headway, but they since have been double tracked 
and the run headway has been cut in half. In re-building the system the 
company paved that part of the street taken up with their lines and to date 
have expended more than $127,000 on paving alone. The rails are 114 pound 
"Trilby" made for standard M.C.B. wheels. The paving between rails has 
eight inches of ballast with four inches of concrete on top while the sides of 



1404 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the rails are protected with turned basalt brick. Six cars of the modern 
pay-as-you-enter type have been installed and no expense has been spared 
in making this the peer in service and equipment of any interior system in the 
West. 

The San Joaquin Light & Power Corporation since entering Kern 
county has built 154 miles of high voltage transmission line from the begin- 
ning of the citrus belt at the northern part of the county, extending south to 
the Kern River oil fields, thence to Bakersfield and west and north through 
the Sunset, Midway, McKittrick, Bellridge, and Lost Hills oil fields. Five 
hundred and ninety-six miles of distribution line have been built to furnish 
service to this territory, and sub-stations at Bakersfield, Famosa, Midway, 
and McKittrick, together with meters, service lines, and other equipment, 
amounting in all to an outlay cf $803,000, have been built to maintain this 
service. Not including the original purchase price of the old Power Transit 
and Light. Company, nor the large amount of money spent on services and 
construction work since entering the company, the San Joaquin Light & 
Power Corporation has invested $2,200,000 in equioment and improvements 
alcne. In the very near future this investment will be largely increased as 
plans have been made for the complete rebuilding of the hydro-electric plant 
in the Kern River Caiion. The lines of the ccmpany now serve all of the oil 
fields and agricultural districts, and the progressive policy of the company 
providing power wherever there is prospect of development has been pursued 
and the result has been that a tremendous good has been done in building 
up the country. The history of Kern county has been that agricultural devel- 
opment has followed in the wake of these power lines. 

JAMES THOMAS GRAHAM.— As a partner of the firm of Kaar & 
Graham, proprietors of the Studebaker garage, James Thomas Graham ranks 
among the leading business men of Bakersfield, while his Masonic affiliations 
have brought him prominently into the best social circles of the city. Born in 
Crewe, England, August 6, 1874, his entire life has been characteristic of his 
race, for he has displayed marked traits which distinguish him as the son of 
a noble race, his inherent intelligence being brought to bear in his daily labors 
and his conscientious and never-failing honesty bringing him good results 
in the business world. His father was Charles Thomas Graham, who fol- 
lowed the trade of machinist in England and brought his family to Cincinnati, 
Ohio, in 1882, fcllowing that trade in their new home. He now makes his 
home in Kentucky. The mother, Louisa (Blinkhorn) Graham, was a native 
of London and passed her last days in Cincinnati. She bore her husband 
three children. 

The excellent public schools of Cincinnati, and also of Covington, Ky., 
afforded to James Graham his elementary education, upon completion of 
which at the age of sixteen he was apprenticed as a machinist in the shops of 
the Cincinnati Southern Railroad in Ludlow, Ky. After serving a four years' 
term he went to Lima, Ohio, to enter the shops of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & 
Dayton Railroad and from there went to the Illinois Central Railroad shops 
in East St. Louis, 111., after which for a short time he worked for the Atchison, 
Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad at La Junta, Colo. In all of these shops he 
worked as a machinist, always adding to his store of knowledge of the work 
and perfecting himself in that branch. In 1899 he came to Los Angeles, 
where he was employed in the Santa Fe shops for a year, and in 1900 he lo- 
cated in Bakersfield as a machinist in the Southern Pacific shops. In this 
capacity he labored four years, and subsequently for five years was identified 
with the Bakersfield Iron Works, at the end of this time resigning to become 
foreman of the Owners Garage ; he filled this position until the garage was 
burned down. His interest had by this time been directed closely to the 
building and caring for automobiles, and he formed a partnership with Messrs. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1405 

Gardette & Munsey, starting the Kern Valley Garage in the building where 
now is located his own garage. In 1911 Charles H. Kaar joined the com- 
pany, and buying cut the others, they began to do business as the Sludebaker 
uarage, the firm now being known as Kaar & Graham. It is the largest garage 
in Bakersfield, occupying a building 132x115 in dimensions, and they have the 
agency for the Studebaker cars. Mr. Graham is superintendent of the garage 
and machine shop, and a large general auto supply department has been 
added, making the concern complete in every particular and capable of hand- 
ling any make of car. 

Mr. Graham was married in Bakersfield to Miss Zora Perkett, who was 
born in Jackson, Amador county, and they have a daughter, Martha. Made a 
Mason in Lima Ltdge No. 205, F. & A. M., Mr. Graham was raised to the 
Royal Arch degree in Lima Chapter, No. 49, R. A. M., and later was made a 
Knight Templar in Bakersfield Commandery No. 39, K. T., of which he is now 
Eminent Commander. He is also a member of Al Malaikah Temple, N. M. S., 
of Los Angeles. 

FRANK A. MILLIFF. — A well-informed and practical oil refiner is found 
in Frank A. Millifif, who was born in Cleveland, Ohio, April 24, 1876. His 
father, John Millifif, was one of the early refiners of oil, having engaged in the 
business from 1865 until he retired in 1900. His death occurred in Findlay, 
Ohio, in 1904. Of his family of six sons all are in the oil and refining business. 

After graduating from the public schools of Cleveland, Mr. Milliff entered 
St. Ignatius College where he continued his studies for three years. In 1892 
he entered the employ of the Standard Oil Company at Parkersburg, W. Va., 
and there began to learn the refining of oil, and afterwards in the same 
capacity at their Cleveland No. 2 Refinery. Next he went with the Canfield 
Oil Company at Findlay, Ohio, and while there became assistant superintend- 
ent. After four years with the company he resigned to come to California in 
1904 for the Bulls Head Oil Company (now the American Oriental Oil Com- 
pany) to build their compounding plant at Martinez. This was the first 
plant to make a success of the ctmpounding of all kinds of grease and oil 
from the California product. The manufactured articles took the gold medal 
at the Lewis and Clark exposition in Portland. In 1S05 Mr. Millifif entered the 
employ of the Union Oil Company of California as superintendent of construc- 
tion and built their refinery at Oleum, and on the completion of the plant was 
made superintendent of the refinery. In 1906 he resigned and for a year was 
engaged in business for himself when he accepted the position of assistant 
superintendent of construction for the Associated Pipe Line Company. When 
the pipe line was completed to Port Costa he was placed in charge of that 
station. In June, 1912, he came to Lest Hills as superintendent of construc- 
tion of the refinery for the Universal Oil Company and since its completion 
has been superintendent of the refinery. 

In Martinez, Calif., occurred Mr. Millifif's marriage with Miss Rose A. 
Hurley, a native daughter of that place, and to them have been born three 
children, Francis, William and Raymond. His zeal and ardor for the Stars 
and Stripes was shown in April, 1898, when he volunteered his services for the 
Spanish-American war, enlisting in Battery A, First Ohio Light Artillery. 
He served with his battery until they were mustered out and was honorably 
discharged at Columbus, Ohio, after nine months' service. He is a charter 
member of General Fitzhugh Lee Camp, Society of the Spanish-American 
War Veterans, of which he was the first commander. 

E. J. BARKER. — Among the business men who are contributing to the 
upbuilding of Lest Hills we find E. J. Barker, the proprietor of The Toggery, 
a business handling exclusive men's furnishings, and he is also a merchant 
tailor. He was born in Jacksonville, Ind., in March, 1882, and was raised on 
the farm and educated in the local public schools. When fourteen years of age 



1405 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

he was apprenticed to tlie tailor's trade under his uncle. Later on, however, 
he discontinued the trade to follow the oil business and became a driller in 
Indiana, afterwards workings in the same capacity in Ohio, Pennsylvania, 
Texas and Kansas. In 1899 he made his first trip to California, where he 
spent nine months in the Los Angeles oil field. He then spent some time in 
Mexico and Central America, returning to California to follow the oil busi- 
ness in Los Angeles, Taft and Coalinga until October, 1911, when he located 
in Lost Hills and began the mercantile trade. He estabHshed The Toggery 
and is doing a successful and satisfactory business. 

On August 10, 1910, in Los Angeles, Mr. Barker was married to Miss 
Frances Seigel, a native of New York City, who came to California in 1907. 
Politically, Mr. Barker is a straight-out Democrat. 

MARLON PAYNE. — Whatever measure of success has come to Mr. 
Payne in the varied activities of existence, the credit for such achievements 
must be given to his own determined efforts unaided by any of the extraneous 
circumstances that oftentimes promote prosperity. Educational advantages 
he had none. Even the limited opportunities afforded by country schools of 
past generations were almost beyond his reach, yet he has succeeded, not- 
withstanding the discouraging environment of his youth. From the age of 
thirteen, when he lost his father, he was obliged to earn his own livelihood and 
thereafter drifted from one farm to another as he worked "for board and 
clothes." Of his mother he has no recollection whatever, for he was scarcely 
three years of age when he suffered an irreparable bereavement in her death. 

The original home cf the Payne family was in North Carolina, whence 
Barnabas Payne and his widowed mother removed to Indiana in 1830 and 
settled on a farm near North Manchester, Wabash county. After the youth 
had attained man's estate he married Miss Huldah Bond, a native of Ohio, 
but from early childhood a resident of Wayne county, Ind. The young couple 
settled on a farm in Wabash county and devoted themselves to the develop- 
ment of land. Six children were born of their union, and all were still young 
when the mother died in 1855. The father passed away in 1866 on the Wabash 
county farm. Their first-born son, Elias, a farmer by occupation, died in 
Wabash county at the age of thirty-one years, leaving a wife and two children. 
The eldest daughter, Luzena, is the widow of William Brindle and lives on a 
farm in Blackford county, Ind. The second son, Albert, died, unmarried, at 
the age of twenty-seven. Anna married Levi Walters and lives on a farm in 
Wabash county; Jesse is living retired in Los Angeles. 

The youngest member of the family circle, Mahlon Payne, was born in 
Wabash county, Ind., September 25, 1852, and endured all the privations inci- 
dent to being poor and an orphan. He remembers the excitement incident to 
the Civil war, which began when he was less than ten years of age. With 
equal clearness he also recalls the prevalence of malaria and other forms of 
disease common in a new country. As a lad of thirteen he began to work as 
a farm hand and thereafter he did a man's work for a boy's wages until he 
married and went to Kansas. At the age of twenty-four he married Miss 
Amanda Garretson, a native of McLean county. 111., and a daughter of Talbot 
and Mary Ann (Dysart) Garretson, both of whom were born "in Ohio. After 
his marriage Mr. Payne removed to Kansas and bought railroad land in An- 
derson county, where he and his young wife lived in a cabin that cost them 
$85. Believing the prospects in that locality to be unfavorable, he removed to 
Nebraska and bought one hundred and sixty acres of deeded land in Seward 
county. The improvement of the acreage brought him a fair degree of 
material prosperity. Stock-raising and grain-farming engaged his attention. 
In spite of having much sickness in the family, on the whole he prospered 
and each year found him with a small amount added to his growing capital. 
After some years on the farm he moved into the city of York, York county. 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1407 

Neb., from which point he en^ijarred in shipping live stock to Omaha. From 
York he and his wife came to Cahfornia, arriving at Bakersfield July 22, 1907, 
and shortly afterward settling en a fruit and alfalfa farm of ten acres on Union 
avenue. During the spring of 1911 he sold the ranch and came to Bakersfield, 
where he bought seven lots and began building operations. Since then he has 
expended a large sum in the erection of bungalows. 

Besides his own home at No. 331 Eighteenth street, Mr. Payne has built 
the cottage bungalows at Nos. 325, 401 and 403 Eighteenth street, in the Kruse 
tract. It was he who erected the first house on this terrace. In 1912 there 
were only two houses in the tract, but in 1913 there are twenty, all of them 
modern, substantial and up-to-date. The task of building still engages the 
attention of Mr. Payne and when all of the lots are improved he will devote 
his attention to the care of the cottages and property. Honorable in every 
dealing, forceful in temperament, whole-souled in spirit and upright in act, 
he forms a valuable accession to that class of citizens so necessary to the 
permanent prosperity of Bakersfield. Politically he always has been inde- 
pendent. In religion he and his wife adhere to the doctrines of the Christian 
Church. Their family has numbered five children, but one of these, Ernest M.. 
died at the age of twenty-seven, leaving a wife and daughter, Mercedes. The 
surviving sons and daughter are as follows : Clarence C, an optician and 
watchmaker at Modesto, Cal. ; Elmer A., a farmer in Seward county. Neb. ; 
Orville D., a watch-maker, engraver and optician doing business at Woodland, 
Cal., and Irene D., now connected as bookkeeper with the Pioneer Mercantile 
Company of Bakersfield. Remembering with regret his own lack of early 
advantages, it has been the aim of Mr. Payne's life to give his children good 
educations and in this ambition he has been successful, with the result that 
the sons and daughter are more than ordinarily well-informed, promising and 
capable. 

CHARLES HARDISTY.— During one of the religious persecutions that 
threw their somber shadows over Scotland in the middle ages the Hardisty 
family was forced to seek a haven of refuge in Ireland and later the name 
was transplanted to the shores of England. Upon the organization of the 
expedition for the new wcrld under Capt. John Smith and other hardy 
adventurers, two brothers, James and Tommy Hardisty, joined the party of 
emigrants from England and sailed with them on the long voyage to Vir- 
ginia, landing April 26, 1607. With others of the new-comers they founded 
Jamestown on the 13th of May. Thenceforward successive generations lived 
and labored in the Old Dominion and meantime the family was represented 
in the Indian wars, in the great Revolutionary struggle and other early con- 
tests for supremacy in the new world. One branch of the family established 
itself in Pennsylvania and Samuel Hardisty was born in Fayette county, 
that state. During the Civil war he and his four brothers fought in the Union 
army from the opening of the great struggle until peace was declared four 
years later. Prominent characteristics of the family are longevity, powerful 
physique, robustness of constitution and acumen of intellect. 

When oil was first discovered in West Virginia one of the pioneers in the 
Volcano oil fields twenty miles from Parkersburg was Samuel Hardisty, 
already known as an expert driller and competent production man. After 
settling in West Virginia he married Miss Julia Leach, who was born and 
reared in Ritchie county, that state, and who traced her lineage to Scotch an- 
cestors identified with the colonial history of Maryland and represented in the 
Revolutionary war. Three daughters and a son, Charles, were born of the 
union. The eldest child, Ella, is the wife of Henry Lowther, connected with 
the production department of the Standard Oil Company at Tulsa, Okla. The 
third child, Carolina, is the wife of Edward Ross, and the youngest, Bertha, 



1408 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

married Roy Trobb. Both these gentlemen are employed in the producing 
department of the South Penn Oil Company, near Parkersburg, W. Va. 

During the residence of the family in the Volcano oil field in West Vir- 
ginia the birth of Charles Hardisty took place March 7, 1864. From an early 
age he was obliged to be self-supporting. When only thirteen he began 
pumping for John A. Steele, the well-known oil man of Parkersburg. From 
the first he showed not only willingness, but also intelligence. Soon he was 
trained in the art of dressing tools, which line of work he followed for some 
time. At the age of twenty-two he became a driller, learning the trade by 
practical work in production. Prior to taking up the work of driller he had 
been employed under his father, then superintendent of a West Virginia oil 
company, and later he started out to make his own way in the world. For a 
time he worked in the Beaumont field in Texas and at Jennings, La., besides 
which he worked for an English syndicate on the Dos Bocos lease, containing 
the world's greatest gusher, with a record surpassing even the famous Lake- 
view gusher. It made a record of one hundred thousand barrels per day. 
Unfcrtunately, the oil caught on fire, flames arose seventeen hundred feet 
in height and the whole well was destroyed. When finally the fire died down, 
the well gushed hot water at a temperature of cne hundred and seventy-five 
degrees. The water increased in its flow and volume until it made twenty-five 
million barrels per day, with a crater covering thirty-five acres. The well 
still flows, but in a reduced amount. 

Any recital of the business connections of Mr. Hardisty must include 
his eight years of work in the production department of the South Penn Oil 
Company in West Virginia, where he made an excellent record for efficiency 
and trustworthiness. It must also include five years of successful work as a 
driller for water wells for the Texas Pacific Railroad between Fort Worth and 
El Paso. After six months in Mexico he came to California and joined in 
Kern county J. A. Pollard, who had been a superintendent for the Pierson 
Company in Mexico, but in 1910 was acting as superintendent of the Flonolulu 
Consolidated Oil Company on section 10, township 32, range 24, and is now 
employed as a government geolcgist in Oklahoma. Mr. Hardisty had worked 
under Mr. Pollard in Mexico and re-entered his service in California, where he 
since has acted as production foreman for the Honolulu, one of the most 
promising concerns in the oil fields of Kern county and already credited with 
several of the best gushers in the Midway field. Besides having charge of oil 
production in this township he manages the water system and superintends 
the pumping of the water from Buena Vista lake, also has charge of the gas 
production, the latter being sold to the Midway Gas Company and by them 
piped to Los Angeles. While employed in Texas in 1889 Mr. Hardisty married 
Miss Annie Robbins, who died in West Virginia in 1907. Mr. Hardisty is 
of the Baptist faith, and politically he is a Republican of the progressive 
type. While in Louisiana he was connected with the Elks at Jennings 
During his residence in West Virginia he was made a Mason at Pennsboro, 
Ritchie county, and later he was raised to the Scottish Rite in Oklahoma, 
joining the consistory at Guthrie, that state. 

CAPT. PAUL MORTENSON.— Off the coast of Denmark where the 
narrow and tumultuous channel of the Skager Rack meets the broader current 
of the Cattegat lies the small island of Lesso, where Captain Mortenson was 
born January 18, 1849, the son of a merchant doing business among the fisher- 
men and farmers who inhabited the island. Reared within sight of the sea, 
accustomed to the coming and going of ocean vessels, and to the tales of old 
mariners concerning storms and wrecks far and near, it was natural that he 
should have been drawn toward the occupation of a sailor. With the courage 
inherited from a long line if ancestors inured to seafaring experiences, he left 
home at the age of fourteen years and shipped to sea on a Danish vessel trad- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1409 

ing in European ports. As he learned the rudiments essential to good sea- 
manship he also had the privilege of seeing much of Europe. After a few 
years he sailed from Hamburg on the barque John Brown for Nova Scotia, 
but encountered such serious storms that it was necessary for the ship to put 
back to Oueenstown in distress. Shortly afterward he sailed on an English 
barque called the Red Cross Knight, which rounded Cape Horn, thence sailed 
along the Pacific coast and in July of 1869 entered the harbor of the Golden 
Gate. 

The completion of the first trans-continental railroad was bringing to 
San Francisco an era of great prosperity and the young sailor decided to re- 
main. Being skilled in the arts of the seafaring occupation, he experienced no 
difficulty in securing work. For a time he was mate in the coasting trade with 
a vessel known as the Alary Tyler, of which later he was promoted to be 
captain. Afterward he served as captain on dififerent schooners. Eventually 
he assumed command of a large, full-rigged vessel, called the Snow and Bur- 
gess, of which he continued to be master for nine years, meantime sailing to 
Australia, Siberia and other foreign ports. At the time of the Boer war he 
was master of an iron ship, known as the Star of Russia, which made a number 
of voyages to Africa. From that country he sailed to Australia, loaded the 
vessel with coal for Honolulu and then returned to the Pacific coast of Amer- 
ica, anchoring in Puget Sound in 1901. It lacked but little of being forty years 
since he had first shipped from the Danish island, a mere boy, knowing little 
of the dangers he was to face during the long period of his life as sailor and 
master of ships. Although he had encoinitered many severe stcrms he had 
never lost a ship, but calm and collected in the midst of danger, he had 
always brought his men and the vessel through in safety to the destined ports. 
Now, however, he had begun to crave a more settled existence than a captain 
could enjoy, so he resigned from the command of the ship, came to Bakers- 
field and in 1902 erected the Mortenson hotel on the corner of I and Twenty- 
second streets, a commodious and substantial three-story building, in which 
ever since he has conducted an hotel enjoying a large patronage and growing 
popularity. For four and one-half years, beginning in 1906, he also served as 
a member of the police force of Bakersfield. As early as 1872 he became a 
member of the Improved Order of Red Men in San Francisco and during one 
of his sojourns in Australia he was made a Mason in the Melbourne lodge, 
where he still holds membership. In San Francisco he married Miss Bridget 
T. Fleming, a native of Ireland, who came to San Francisco in 1873 and by 
whom he became the father of six children, namely : Mrs. Mary Lind, of 
Bakersfield; Margaret, Paul and Thomas, also of this city; Nellie, deceased; 
and Henrietta, at home. 

OTTO KRAMER.— The Midway Hardware Company, of which Mr. 
Kramer is the resident manager, is one of the recent important accessions to 
the commercial development of Fellows and conducts a large business in a 
fire-proof building erected for that purpose in the early part of 1912. By 
means of a partnership formed with E. H. Holt, a non-resident, Mr. Kramer 
was enabled to erect a building especially adapted to the hardware business 
and has since estabhshed a growing patronage among the people of the lo- 
cality. 

A native of Kansas, born in Jefferson county August 12, 1882, and reared 
in the same section of country, Mr. Kramer spent all of his early years in the 
Sunflower state. From the age of twenty-three he has been connected with 
the hardware business, which he learned while clerking in the hardware and 
agricultural implement department of the general mercantile store owned by 
Root Brothers in Ozawkie, JefTerson county. Later he was connected with the 
same department in the Griffith general mercantile store at Ozawkie, where he 
remained a trusted employe until he was induced to come to California in 1910. 



1410 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

June of that year found him a clerk in the hardware department of Heck 
Bros., dealers in general merchandise at Fellows, with whom he continued for 
two years and then resigned in order to engage in business with Mr. Holt 
under the firm title of the Midway Hardware Company. The large and increas- 
ing trade of the company results from the honorable methods employed in all 
transactions and the fact that the best goods only are kept and all stock is sold 
at a price as low as consistent with a reas( nable profit. The long experience 
of the proprietor in the hardware line qualifies him for a successful connection 
with the business. 

JOSE MIER. — xA.n ancient Castilian family is represented by Jose Mier, 
an enterprising young Spaniard who since 1892 has been identified with the 
sheep industry of California, but recently disposing of a large flock that had 
been built u]) and made valuable through his own tireless care and intelligent 
oversight. The Spanish province of the Asturias is his native place and he 
was born March 19, 1876, in the village of Colosia near Santander, a famous 
ocean port. At the age of sixteen he started across the ocean for America, his 
objective point being California, whither relatives had preceded him. Upon 
his arrival in Kern county he was able to secure empkyment under an uncle, 
who was one of the trusted foremen connected with the great corporation of 
Miller & Lux. 

Finally Mr. Mier felt justified in starting a flock of his own and with a 
large tract in Nevada as headquarters he kept his range in that state for five 
years, during this time having his share of ups and downs. His experience, 
however, was sufficiently profitable to cause him to re-enter the business after 
he had sold his original flock and returned to Bakersfield. With his second 
flock he maintained ranges in the plains and on the mountains, but eventually 
in 1912 he sold the entire bunch. Since then he has acted as assistant to his 
uncle, Faustino Noriega, proprietor of the Noriega hotel at No. 525 Sumner 
street, East Bakersfield, and with this uncle he has also purchased an alfalfa 
and grain ranch of one hundred and sixty acres situated in Kern county. In 
politics he votes with the Republican party. On the corner of Pacific and 
Kings streets he owns a comfortable residence, brightened by the presence 
of his four children, Clemence, Faustino, Martin and Alberto, and managed 
with housewifely skill by his wife, whom he married in East Bakersfield in 
1907 and who was Miss Celena Etchevery, born at Aldudes, Basses-Pyrenees, 
France, not far distant from the scenes familiar to his own boyhood. The 
family hold membership with St. Joseph's Catholic Church. 

JOSEPH G. JONES. — The first representative of the Jones family in 
Ameiica was Thomas Jones, a Welshman of such pronounced loyalty to the 
land of his adoption that he volunteered his services to aid the Union during 
the Civil war. Assigned to a Delaware regiment and sent to the front with 
his command, he stood the test of good soldiery in camp, on the long marches 
and during the fiercely contested battles. It was while bravely fighting on the 
field of battle that he received the wound that caused his death. Sharing 
with him in his patriotic devotion to country were his three sons, all of whom 
volunteered in the service and remained at the front until honorably dis- 
charged at the expiration of their terms of service. One of the three, George, 
was born at Wilmington, Del., and after the close of the war became manager 
for the Dixon Shoe Company at Baltimore, filling the position until his death 
in 1873 at the age of thirty-four years. The hardships and sufiferings of war 
times had hastened his untimely demise. During young manhood he had 
married Mary E. Kelty, who was born in Baltimore and still makes that city 
her home. Of their five children three are living, Joseph G. being the youngest 
and the only one to locate in Califcirnia. Born in Baltimore, September 27 , 
1871, he received his education in the schools of that place. 

When seventeen Mr. Jones began an apprenticeship to the trade of 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1411 

plumber under James McCrea, with whom he continued for three years. The 
next two years were spent in the largest plumbing- establishment in Balti- 
more, a shop owned and conducted by VV. H. Rothrock. During the five 
years of service he had acquired a thorough knowledge of every detail con- 
nected with the plumbing business and was well qualified for independent 
work. Leaving Baltimore he traveled through New York, Maryland, Dela- 
ware, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Virginia and in each of these states did 
important work as a j(.urneyman. Jobs of large dimensions were entrusted to 
his care and faithfully performed. During 1902 he came to California and 
worked at his trade successively in Sacramento, Stockton, San Francisco and 
Oakland. With a thorough understanding of the trade in its every detail, he 
had become fitted for contract work many years before, but did not enter into 
the taking of contracts until after he went to Mill valley and San Rafael, 
where he filled contracts for the plumbing work in some very costly resi- 
dences. Arriving in Bakersfield during January of 1909 he followed the trade 
as a journeyman for six months and then embarked in business as a con- 
tractor, since which he has been retained on many jobs of importance. At 
his shop, No. 1514 Eighteenth street, he carries in stock a full equipment of 
plumbing and heating supplies, and it is his intention to enlarge his equip- 
ment from year to year, to keep pace with the constant growth of the town. 
At this writing he holds office as vice-president of the Bakersfield IMaster 
Plumbers' Association, in the work of which he is deeply and actively inter- 
ested. In national principles he suppcrts Republican men and measures. 

During the period of his residence in Baltimore Mr. Jones married Miss 
Rosalie Hickman of that city. Her father, Emerson Hickman, a native of 
Baltimore and a contracting plasterer, served during the Civil war as a police 
ofiicer in his native city and later was commissioned a sergeant in the Union 
army. On one occasion during the war he was wounded in the shoulder, but 
the injury did not prove to be serious. Until his death, which occurred at 
sixty-three years, he continued to make Baltimore his home. In young man- 
hood he had married Catherine Bryan, a native of York, Pa., and first cousin 
of William Jennings Bryan. The only child of their unitn was 
Rosalie, Mrs. Jcnes, to whom they gave the best educational advantages their 
means rendered possible. Of her marriage there were eleven children, one 
daughter, LilHan, dying at the age of ten months. The ten now living are 
Ethel, Iva, Muriel, Lavonia, Gwendolyn, Millwood, Lanier, Dorothy, Audrey 
and Parker Barrett, all still at home, and the eldest now acting as bookkeeper 
for her father. 

OLIVER QUALLS. — That large class of native sons achieving note- 
worthy success and pushing forward in meritorious business transactions 
has a capable representative in Oliver Quails, who since coming to the oil 
fields has filled various positions from roustabout to tool-dresser, but more 
recently turned his attention to business pursuits. After having been an 
employe of S. J. Dunlop for a number of years on oil leases he became the 
latter's partner in the hay, grain and storage business, opening yards on 
East Main street in Taft. By the purchase of the Dunlop interests he became 
the sole proprietor and owner July 1, 1913. 

Prior to his identification with the oil fields ]\Ir. Quails made his home in 
Fresno county, where he was born January 4, 1879, at the family home three 
miles north of Sanger. His father, William, for years engaged in general 
farming in Fresno county, but of recent years has made his home in Wash- 
ington and has engaged in the lumber business at Winlock, Lewis county. 
The mother, who bore the maiden name of Marinda I^ale, was born in Ohio 
and is now deceased. The eldest and youngest of the three sons, Albert and 
Oscar, are engaged in farming in Fresno county. The second, Oliver, who re- 
ceived a common-school education in Fresno county and worked at agricuJ- 



1412 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

tural pursuits there, was interested in farming for himself from the age of 
twenty-three until twenty-nine. When he closed out his farming interests 
he brought with him from Fresno to Kern county sixliead of work horses and 
with these he engaged in freighting in the Midway field. At the expiration of 
three months he sold the horses. Then began a period of employment as 
teamster with the Mount Diablo Oil Company, in which Mr. Dunlop was a 
stockholder and director. For a number of years and indeed until the sale of 
the holdings of the company he continued with that concern, but later he 
was transferred by Mr. Dunlop to a lease of his own, where he worked up 
from roustabout to tool-dresser. January 1, 1913, he embarked in the hay, 
grain, feed and storage business at Taft and at the expiration of six months 
became the sole owner of the store, which he conducts in a manner satisfac- 
tory to customers and bringing to himself a fair profit. Since coming to this 
county he married at Hanford Miss Pearl Hunter, of Taft. In politics 
he is a Republican. Prominently connected with the Odd Fellows at Taft, 
he has been a promoter of the erection of their building here, a substantial 
structure, 50x118 feet in dimensions, two stories in height, a credit to the order 
and a source of pride to the people. 

JOSE M. LUGO. — The first association of the Lugo family with Cali- 
fornia dales back as far as the era of the establishment of the old Spanish 
missions so inseparably connected with the beginnings of modern civilization. 
When Los Angeles was an insignificant hamlet and San Francisco still un- 
known to the world of commerce Antonio M. Lugo owned cattle that roamed 
over the vast uninhabited ranges between the two towns, in the former of 
which he made his lifelong home, interested in its growth and well-known to 
its people. Possessing a sturdy physique and robust constitution, he lived 
to the age of one hundred and seven years, retaining his mental and physical 
faculties. Among his children was a son, Jose De Carmel Lugo, a native of 
Los Angeles, whose wife, Maria Antonia Poyorena, was likewise of Californian 
birth. After the death of that wife he married again, being married three 
times in all. For years he made his home on a large cattle ranch near 
Riverside and engaged in the stock business, owning cattle and ranges in Los 
Angeles and San Bernardino counties. Four children were born of his union 
with Miss Poyorena: Carmel, v^ife of F. Talamantes, a member of the detective 
force of Los Angeles ; Rita, who married A. Lopez and fives in Los Angeles ; 
jose M., whose name introduces this article and whose birth occurred in 
1860 in Los Angeles; and Agrippina, wife of Edward Haynes, a resident of 
San Diego. 

From his earliest recollections Jose M. Lugo has been familiar with the 
cattle business. In his younger years he handled thousands of head of stock 
and was considered unusually skilled in such work. For about twenty-five 
years he was employed in the cattle department of the Kern County Land 
Company, with whose officials he has enjoyed a reputation for fidelity, energy 
and trustworthiness. For some years he owned a ranch of forty acres south of 
Bakersfield, but in 1912 he sold the tract and embarked in the grocery business, 
since which time he has conducted a general store on the corner of H street 
and Brundage Lane in Bakersfield. In politics he is a Republican. During 
February of 1911 he was united in marriage with Mrs. Tillie Blanco, a widow, 
whose father, Michael Castro, was among the early settlers of this part of 
California. By her first husband she became the mother of three children 
now living: Carrie, a student in the Sisters' School in Los Angeles; Albert 
and Blanche, attending the Bakersfield public schools. Mr. and Mrs. Lugo are 
the parents of an only son, Jose J. The family are earnest and influential mem- 
bers of St. Francis Catholic Church of Bakersfield. 

FRED N. CRIPPEN. — Noteworthv prominence as a pioneer in the 
Kern river field and a record for fast and successful drilling on 25 Hill have 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1413 

been achieved by the superintendent of the Tamalpais Oil Company, not- 
withstanding the fact that he s:ill is a young man with the possibility of 
larger results to his credit in the future. An extensive experience as a 
driller qualifies him for continued usefulness in that important department 
of the oil industry. It was while connected with the Nevada-Midway Oil 
Company, in whose employ he drilled five wells, that he established the best 
record ever made on the hill, which was that of drilling eleven hundred and 
ninety-three feet in eleven days. In addition he has drilled many wells 
for other concerns and since being appointed superintendent of the Tamal- 
pais Oil Company, September 1, 1911, he has re-drilled three wells which 
now average a monthly production of fifty-five hundred barrels and at the 
same time he has succeeded in eliminating a very disagreeable feature by 
shutting off the top and bottom inflow of water. Three men are furnished 
employment as his assistants in the care and development of the lease on 
section 23, township 32, range 23, and in the capacity of superintendent he 
has proved absolutely dependable as well as efficient and energetic. 

A native son of the west, Fred N. Crippen was born in Humboldt 
county, this state, March 2, 1879, being a brother of S. G. Crippen, carpenter 
foreman on the Kern Trading and Oil Company's lease near Maricopa. The 
parents, S. G. and Mary A. (Beckett Crippen, are now residents of Lake- 
port, Lake county, and an uncle. Dr. W. W. Beckett, ranks among the in- 
fluential physicians of Los Angeles. The parental family consisted of ten 
children, but only five of these are now living, and in order of birth Fred N. 
is the youngest son and fourth child. The family lived on a ranch in Hum- 
boldt county and he was taught to aid in the care of the stock and the culti- 
vation of the land. When not attending the public schools at Petrolia he 
was occupied on the ranch, but agriculture did not prove a congenial occu- 
pation, and at the age of fourteen he found work in the Pecrolia oil field, 
first as a roustabout, and later as a tool dresser. 

Upon coming to the Kern river field at the age of nineteen Mr. Crippen 
secured employment on the Provident lease under Ed Bush. The following 
year (1899) he went back to Humboldt county and secured work with the 
Mcintosh Oil Company, continuing there two years. The year 1901 found 
him at McKittrick, where he was employed as a tool-dresser. From there 
he came to the Midway field and secured work on what is now the Santa 
Fe lease. After eight months in the Norlih Midway he went back to Mc- 
Kittrick and engaged in drilling for H. F. Guthrie. Even in the hardest 
times he was able to make his $7 per day, for he had a reputation as an 
expert driller. For fourteen months he had charge of drilling for the San 
Luis Bay Oil Company at San Luis Obispo. From September, 1909, to 
March 15, 1910, he was with the Standard in charge of section 30, while from 
March 21, 1910, to April, 1911, he was connected with the General Petroleum, 
(then known as the Esperanza). With his wife, who was formerly Miss Rose 
Welker, of Oklahoma, he makes his home on the Tamalpais lease and has 
many friends in this part of the field. Since coming here he has become a 
member of the Knights of Pythias at Taft, while formerly he was an active 
niember of the Elks at San Luis Obispo. Besides being the owner of lots 
in Bakersfield and at Del Monte Heights he has made excellent investments 
in oil lands in four different oil fields in California, and there is every reason 
to believe that at no distant day he will reap from these financial returns as 
gratifying as they are merited. 

CHARLES DALY. — Only exceptional native ability and determination 
of will could have brought Mr. Daly, while still at the threshold of maturity, 
to unquestioned prominence among the plumbers and steam-fitters of Bakers- 
field, where he has a workshop, display room and office at No. 1724 K street. 
A modern stock of sanitary appliances is to be found at his place of business. 
Skilled mechanics are engaged to assist in the installation of plumbing and 



1414 ■ HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

heating equipment and in gas-fitting". The personal supervision of the pro- 
prietor is exercised over all contracts, a practical plumber whose experience 
is far greater than might be expected of one so young in years. 

A son of M. J. Daly, of San Francisco, Charles Daly was born in that 
city December 15, 1887, and received a pul)Iic-school education. While yet 
in his teens he began to learn the plumbing ])usiness and for some time 
worked in his native city, but in 1906 came to Bakersfield, where he found 
employment with Gundlach and Ferguson, also did plumbing for the Bakers- 
field shops of the Santa Fe Railroad Company. During 1909 he embarked 
in business for himself as an independent plumbing contractor, and has 
since had many residence contracts, as well as public buildings, among the 
latter being the Kosel hotel of three stories, the Massena hotel of three 
stories, the two-story addition to the Echo building, the Morgan building 
of three stories and the old Redlick (now the Burges) building of two stories, 
besides which he has recently completed contracts on the Schofield building 
and the Bakersfield Manual Arts school. In the spring of 1913 he did the 
plumbing in the new Mercy Hospital and the watering of the parkway on 
Truxtun avenue from A to V streets. For some years he has been identi- 
fied with the Master Plumbers' Association and Builders' Exchange. July 
20, 1912, he was uniied in marriage with Miss Beulah Egan, of Bakersfield, 
and they now make their home at No. 721 Chester avenue. 

GRANT STUTSMAN.— From the inception of the industry the drilling 
of oil wells in California has engaged the attention of Grant Stutsman, who 
now is C( nnected with the C. C. M. Oil Company in the same important 
capacity, his work at the present time being on one of the Santa Fe properties 
in the vicinity of Fellows. When he undertook the drilling of oil wells on 
contract at Summerland in 1897, he had a previous large experience in the 
drilling of water wells and therefore was qualified for a new enterprise. 
Prior to his arrival in that field the wells there had been dug and his was 
the first string of tools and the first rig brought into Summerland, where 
during a long period of successful activity he put down a large number of 
wells for different companies and sunk four that were extremely profitable 
producers. In that work he used a portable rig and a gasoline engine. With 
the subsequent changes in methods of drilling he has kept in close touch. When 
new measures have been proved to be valuable he adopts them, so that as a 
driller he is thoroughly modern and up-to-date. 

Born in Illinois in 1868, Grant Stutsman is a son of the late Henry and 
Hattie Stutsman, the latter of whom died in Kansas. The former, a soldier 
in an Illinois regiment during the Civil war, later lived for a time in Illinois 
and then near South Bend, Ind., where he engaged in agricultural pursuits. 
About 1880 he took the family to Kansas and settled on an unimproved farm 
near Neodesha, Wilson county. His last days were spent in California, where 
he died at Nordhofif, Ventura county. Three of his children are now living, 
the second of these being Grant, who was twelve at the time of the removal 
of the family to the Kansas farm. After seven years devoted to helping in the 
tilling of the soil, he left Kansas and came to California, where he spent one 
year at Pasadena. Next he took up farming near Watsonville and still later he 
found employment in the drilling of water wells, but since 1897 he has given 
his time wholly to the drilling of oil wells. 

After three years in the Summerland field the opening activities in the 
Kern river field attracted ATr. Stutsman to Kern county in 1900, after which 
he drilled for a contractor and also did independent drilling as a member of 
the firm of Stevens & Stutsman. When his interests in the business were sold 
he entered the employ of the Kern Trading & Oil Company at McKittrick 
and for three years continued in the capacity of drilling foreman for the great 
concern. From Kern county he returned to Santa Barbara county and after 
the opening of the Santa Maria field he spent two years in Cat Cafion with one 



. HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1415 

of the larg^est companies working in that district, after which he was employed 
for eighteen months as a driller with the Dome Oil Company. Returning to 
Kern county in November, 1911, he i^ecame a driller at Fellows with the 
C. C. M. Oil Company, which concern has since had the benefit of his long 
and successful experience as a driller. In politics he has voted the Repub- 
lican ticket in all national elections. In Santa Paula he was married to Miss 
Elizabeth Hern, who was born at Watsonville, Cal., the daughter (A Rice and 
Juliana (Ogan) Hern. The former was a pioneer of 1850 in California, and 
the latter a Forty-niner, having come across the plains with her parents in 
childhood. 

WILLIAM E. VAN METER.— When Mr. Van Meter came to California 
in 1904 he had in view a permanent location providing that the country suited 
him and that a suitable position could be secured. Coming to East Bakers- 
field (then known as Kern) for the purpose of visiting an aunt, Mrs. A. E. 
Shelley, a California pioneer and a woman well-posted concerning the re- 
sources and opportunities of the state, he was induced to remain and since 
then has been variously employed, principally being engaged in the fire depart- 
ment in dififerent capacities. 

In the southeastern part of Nebraska at Table Rock, Pawnee county, 
occurred the birth of William E. Van Meter on Christmas day of 1879, his 
I^arents being Davis and Lottie A. (Jones) Van Meter, natives respectively of 
Iowa and INIichigan. The family were pioneers of the great plains of the 
middle west and sufifered the hardships and privations incident to the devel- 
opment of a productive farm out of raw land. Their home county in Nebraska 
was quite close to the Kansas border and after a time they crossed into the 
other state, where they traveled west to Jewell county and there b( ught an 
undeveloped tract of land near Formosa. The father still lives on the same 
farm, but under his wnse supervision it has been greatly imoroved and is now 
the source of a fair income in return for his care and cultivation. On this 
homestead in 1911 occurred the death of his wife. Of their three children the 
second was William E., who as a boy rode the range in Jewell county and 
became familiar with conditions then existing in the northern part of Kansas. 
For a time he clerked in Kansas stores, but finally gave up a position in order 
to come to the Pacific coast and he has since lived in Kern county. For four 
years he was employed in the boiler shop cf the Southern Pacific Railroad. 
About 1908 he received an appointment as driver of the hose wagon in the 
Kern fire department and continued in the same capacity after the consolida- 
tion of the two cities. Later he was made driver of the engine and afterward 
lieutenant of Engine Company No. 2, in which position he has since re- 
mained, having charge of the engine house and engine. Since coming to the 
county he has purchased two places in East Bakersfield and has thus exhib- 
ited the firm faith he cherishes concerning the future of his chosen home 
town and community. 

A. NEAL JACOBS.— The grandfather of our subject, Hon. Isaac W. 
Jacobs, was an early and honored pioneer of California, crossing the plains in 
1854 and becoming one of the most prominent and active citizens of Yolo 
county. He was a lawyer of no mean ability and after coming to California 
was elected in 1892 on the Democratic ticket in Yolo county to represent his 
district in the state assembly. A scholar, an orator and an up-to-date business 
man, he was much esteemed in his community, and his death, which occurred 
February 10, 1905, was widely mourned. His wife was before her marriage 
Alniira E. Martin, and among their twelve children was John M., who became 
the father of A. Neal Jacobs. 

John M. Jacobs crossed the plains with his father in 1854 and settled in 
Yolo county, where he followed farming and stock-raising on the old home 
farm during his entire life. He married Laura Hanscom, born in Chico. 

60 



1416 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

daughter of Henry Hanscom, who was a pioneer of Chico and a member of 
an old New England family. Mr. Jacobs passed away in 1898 and his widow 
is now making her home in Alameda, Cal. The second oldest of the children 
born to this couple was A. Neal, whose birth occurred April 13, 1884. near 
Yolo. Reared on the home farm, he attended the public schools of Wcodland 
and later entered and completed a course at the Pierce's Business College, 
Woodland, after graduation entering the Southern Pacific Railroad offices at 
Sacramento as clerk. He was thus employed for about ten years and then 
l)ecame salesman in San Erancisco, until August, 1911, when he came to 
Bakersfield to enter the employ of the San Joaquin Light & Power Company 
as bookkeeper, later becoming timekeeper and paymaster. He is now dis- 
patcher for the company, and his efficiency in the execution of all his duties 
has brought him a degree of success unusual in the career of so young a man. 
In fraternal circles he is a member of the Lcyal Order of Moose. 

O. P. GOODE. — Having spent his entire life in California and his mature 
years in Kern county, Mr. Goode is familiar with the resources of the state, 
the opportunities offered by the county and especially with the growing 
importance of the oil industry, for although not an oil operator, his work has 
kept him in intimate touch with the developers of the oil fields and his 
knowledge of the business has grown accordingly. A native of Yolo county, 
he was born in Woodland July 18, 1870, and at the age of seven years accom- 
panied the family to Santa IBarbara county, where he received a common- 
school education extending through the grammar grade. Since leaving school 
he has earned his own livelihood, working first at any occupation offered, 
but later devoting much of his time to the trade of a blacksmith. Upon his 
arrival in Kern county in 1891 he secured land, bought cattle and embarked in 
the dairy business, but did not find the undertaking profitable. Accordingly 
he changed his line of work and sought the activities of the new and growing 
oil fields. After going to the Sunset district in 1907 he began to take teaming 
contracts and ever since he has made a specialty of this business, in which he 
is unusually skilled and efficient. 

As early as 19C8 Mr. Goode came to the present site of Eellows and estab- 
lished a home on the St. Lawrence lease, but when the town was started in 
1910 he removed into its limits, at the same time building a blacksmith shop, 
which ever since he has operated. During December of 1908 he was united in 
marriage with Aliss Phoebe Harris, a native of Ventura county, and they 
have twin boys, Malcolm and Marvin, born in June, 1910. Upon the organiza- 
tion of this district, in July of 1910, Mr. Goode received the appointment of 
constable from the board of supervisors. In other ways he has been identified 
with the business administration and material development of the town. In 
addition to managing his blacksmith shop and his teaming business, he is 
engaged in the sale of hay and grain, wood and coal. The only fraternal 
organization to which he has allied himself is the Woodmen of the World. 

Erom the very first endeavor to found a town at Eellows Mr. Goode has 
had faith in the outcome of the project. Every movement calculated to further 
the general welfare of the community has received his cordial co-operation. 
All of his enterprises are conducted with intelligence and efficiency. In the 
hauling of freight he has proved most helpful to the smaller operators, many 
of whom, without his prompt delivery of the same, would have trouble in 
the transportation of goods from the depot to the fields. Anywhere on the 
west side his teams may be seen, busily engaged in the delivery of freight, 
while he himself is managing the entire outfit, as well as his store and shop, 
with the closest attention to all details and the most absolute integrity of 
principle. 

J. J. HERN. — With one of the expeditions that crossed the plains during 
the eventful summer of 1850 there came a rugged young frontiersman, Rice 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1417 

Hern, who was born in Boone county, Mo., of an old Kentucky family. 
Nothing of especial importance marked the course of that tedious journey with 
wagons and oxen, nor did his subsequent experience in mining camps savor of 
romance and thrilling adventure. Returning to his Missouri home via Panama 
in 1852, he visited among friends and relatives, and during 1853 again crossed 
the plains, this time with the intention of becoming a permanent resident of 
California. From that time he identified himself with ranching in this state, 
where at dififerent times he operated farms in Santa Clara, San Joaquin, Santa 
Barbara and Stanislaus counties, and where he is now living retired in Ven- 
tura county. A few years after his second trip to the west he married Juliana 
Ogan, who was brought across the plains by her parents in 1849 and settled 
near San Jose, where her marriage was solemnized. Her death occurred in 
Santa Barbara county. 

The eldest of the ten children of this pioneer couple was J. J. Hern, born 
in San Joaquin county near Stocktcn, March 21, 1862, and reared on a farm, 
where he became familiar with stock-raising and all the details of tilling the 
soil. Leaving home at the age of twenty-one, he earned a livelihood by honest 
perseverance and unflagging industry. In 1886 he went to Montana and took 
up a claim at the head of the Big Hole river in Beaverhead county, Mont., 
where later with two partners he organized the California Land and Cattle 
Company. After two years he disposed of his cattle and invested in sheep, 
running a ranch near Dubuque in the eastern portion of Montana. During 
the period of his sojourn in Montana he married at Dillon, that state. Miss 
Etta Wratcn, a native of Waverly, 111. Five children comprise their family, 
namely: Leslie W., now employed in Oakland, Cal. ; Bertha; Carroll, who is 
connected with the C. C. M. Oil Company; Russell and Lenora. 

Returning from Montana to California and taking up ranch pursuits in 
Ventura county near Oxnard, Mr. Hern specialized in the raising of grain 
and beans. In 1900 he gave up farming in order to engage in the oil business. 
As a teamster with the Modelo Oil Company he had his first experiences in 
the business at Piru City, Ventura county. Every phase of the industry he 
learned step by step and he remained with the same company successively as 
tool-dresser and driller. Coming to the Kern river field in 1902 he was engaged 
as a driller with Daulton & Fuller for eighteen months. Next he worked for 
the Salt Lake Oil Company as a driller in the Los Angeles field, from which 
he went to the Fullerton field and drilled on some of the first wells sunk at 
Olinda. Returning to the Lcs Angeles field, he put down an oil well on the 
Fillmore place. The drilling of two wells kept him for some time near 
Lomooc in the employ of the Union Oil Company, which then sent him to 
the Santa Maria field to aid in the drilling of wells. For two years following 
he engaged as superintendent of the Laguna Oil Company at Orcutt, in the 
Santa Maria field, after which he held a similar position with the Palmer Oil 
Company in Cat Caiion, Santa Maria. In August of 1909 he came to the 
Midway district, where he engaged as drilling foreman with the C. C. M. Oil 
Company, which in October, 1912, promoted him to his present position as field 
superintendent. In politics he is a Democrat and fraternally he belongs to San 
Luis Obispo Ledge No. 322, B. P. O. E., Fremont Camp, Woodmen of the 
World, at Los Angeles. 

ROBERT E. BLACKER.— The superintendent of the stable department 
of the Kern County Land Company has been a resident of California from 
early life and beginning with his present employers in a very humble capacitv 
he has worked his way forward to responsibilities of importance, in everv 
task proving trustworthy, efficient and reliable. On one occasion only did he 
permit other matters to interfere with the regular discharge of his duties, that 
exception occurring during the Spanish-American war, when he offered his 
services to the country as a volunteer. During June of 1893 he was mustered 



1418 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

into Company G, Sixth Regiment of California Volunteer Infantry, with 
which he remained on military duty until December of the same year, when he 
received an he norable discharge. 

Patriotic devotion to country is a characteristic of the Blacker family. 
During the Civil war J. N. IMacker, a native of Indiana, served as a member 
of theThird Cavalry Regiment from that state and two of his brothers also 
rendered efficient service in the same struggle. A farmer by occupation, he 
made his home in Indiana until his death in 1891. His first wife, who bore the 
maiden name of Mary Dunbar, died in Indiana and afterward he married Miss 
Jennie Bliss, by whom he had two children. Of the first union there were 
born four sons' and two daughters, the youngest of the six being Robert E., 
who was born near Colfax, Clinton county, Ind., August 8, 1876, and passed 
the years of boyhood on the home farm and in the country school. Upon 
starting out to make his own way in the world, he came to California, settled 
in Bakcrsfield, and secured employment with the Kern County Land Com- 
pany, whose interests he since has made his own. During 1898 he was pro- 
moted to be foreman and in May of 1902 he became superintendent of the 
stable, which is one of the largest in Bakcrsfield as well as one of the best 
equipped. 

The marriage of Mr. Blacker and Miss Gertrude Marshall Inboden, a 
native of Missouri, was solemnized in Bakcrsfield and has been blessed with 
two children, Robert E., Jr., and Mary A. The family residence at No. 2012 
Cedar street was erected by Mr. Blacker. Although Mr. Blacker takes no 
active part in politics he keeps posted concerning all issues of national 
importance and gives allegiance to progressive projects for the benefit of 
community and commonwealth. For some years he has been identified with 
the Benevolent Order of Elks and in addition he is a leading worker in the 
Knights of Pythias lodge at Bakcrsfield, which he serves as past eminent 
commander, besides being connected with Uniform Rank No. 60 and holding 
office as its captain; he is president of the board of directors of Castle Asso- 
ciation No. 76. 

ALBERT WALDO ALBRECHT.— A native son of the state, A. W. 
Albrecht was born in San Francisco May 26, 1883, and attended school in that 
city and Fresno. When his school days were over he became interested in 
mining, search for the precious metal taking him successively into Mexico, 
back to California, then to Mexico and to Washington, in all of which local- 
ities he was engaged in development work. 

A change of emplcyment as well as a change of location occurred in 
1909, when Mr. Albrecht became interested in the oil business in Coalinga, 
and during his residence there had charge of the Good Luck Oil Company, 
which he developed from one well to a plant embracing six producing wells. 
While there too he was at the head of a committee appointed to secure the 
right of way for the Coalinga and Monterey Railroad. Coming to Taft Janu- 
ary 1, 1912, he opened a real-estate and insurance office. That he is a man of 
enterprise and push is demonstrated in the fact that although a late comer 
to this community it was left for him to organize the board- of trade in the 
town, and ever since its organization he has been secretary of that body. 
Another enterprise that has benefited by his ability and has added to the 
business status of the town is the Superior Vulcanizing Works, of which he 
is part owner. 

Mr. Albrecht is a member of the Petroleum Club of Taft, a social organiza- 
tion of which he was one of the founders. His fraternal associations include 
membership in the Masons, he being a member of the lodge at Fresno, also 
Fresno Chapter No. 69, R. A. M., Commandery No. 29, and Islam Temple, 
A. A. O. N. ]\I. S., at San Francisco. 

PHIL BLANKENSHIP. — One of the most enterprising men in Kern 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1419 

county is Phil Blankenship of Wasco, telephone proprietor and rancher, who 
has won a notable success in life and whose influence in the community has 
always been for the general uplift. Mr. Blankenship is a native of California, 
born at Visalia June 11, 1858. a son of William Moore Blankenship, who was 
born in Richmond, Ya., about the beginning of the last century and died at 
Visalia in 1882. From the Old Dominion the elder lUankenshi]) removed to 
Iowa and there engaged in farming and stock-raising. In 1849 he came to 
California and settled near Stockton and scon took up the business of bring- 
ing cattle from the east to the mining districts of the gold country. In the 
course of events he made three trips back to Iowa for cattle which he drove 
across the plains to California, on the first trip going around the Hurn and by 
river to Iowa, the round trip consuming from two to three years. The two 
other trips were made via Panama, and on the last trip he took his son Phil 
with him, returning in 1860. He owned a ranch in Iowa on which he raised 
cattle. In 1854 he bought land at Visalia, but did not locate there until in 1858. 
As a rancher and cattleman he won an enviable success. 

It was in Cali-fornia public schocls that Phil Blankenship attained his 
education which was finished when he was seventeen years old. Until he was 
twenty-three he lived with his parents, employed by his father. He devoted 
himself entirely to ranch work until in 1884, when he went to Arizona and 
engaged in stock-raising on the San Pedro river until 1887. He then returned 
to Calif( rnia and located in Kern county, where he found employment with the 
Kern County Land Company on the Belleview and Poso ranches. In 1895 
he began a connection with the Cox ranch which continued for fifteen years. 
In 1898 he became superinterident of the ranch, embracing thirty-one thou- 
sand acres, and served in that caoacity until it was sold in 1908. He then 
engaged in the cattle business on his own account, and at this time he owns a 
fine ranch which is a part of the eld Cox ranch, consisting of one hundred 
and sixty acres, situated five miles north of Wasco on Poso creek. With J. T. 
Maguire Mr. Blankenship built the telephone system on the West Side, taking 
in Maricopa, Taft, Fellows and McKittrick, thus connecting, by telephone, 
all the West Side towns and having their main office in Taft. The company 
is incorporated as the Kern Mutual Telephone Company, Mr. Maguire serv- 
ing as president, Mr. Blankenship as vice president, and Mrs. Blankenship as 
secretary. After the Wasco colony was started Mr. Blankenship began build- 
ing operations there and has since resided in this location looking after his va- 
ried interests, enjoying the ample income from his ranch and telephone invest- 
ments. 

Fraternally Mr. Blankenship affiliates with the Fraternal Order of Eagles 
and he wields a considerable political -influence always in the interest of good 
government. In 1905 Miss Anna Steele Murdock, a native of Baltimore, Md., 
became his wife. She died July 21, 1907. His present wife, whom he married 
in Fresno July 1, 1909, was Miss Jennie G. Borrell, also a native of Balti- 
more, Md. 

CHARLES V. MORRISON.— The foreman of the Southern Pacific round- 
house at East Bakersfield is a member of an eastern family that has been identi- 
fied with America since the colonial era and that furnished representatives to 
aid the patriots during the trying period of the Revolution. One of its lead- 
ing men during later years was Hon. Fletcher C. Morrison, a native of Ohio 
and for years engaged as United States Indian commissioner in Ohio. During 
the time of his service as commissioner he had charge of the removal of the 
Wyandotte Indians to their reservation in Iowa. Much other important work 
in the interests of the Indians was placed in his charge by the government. 
John S., sen of Fletcher C, proved his loyalty to the Union by endeavoring 
twice to secure the acceptance of his service as a volunteer in the army, but 
each time he was rejected. During 1869 he took his wife and children from his 



1420 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

native Ohio to the newer country of Alinnesota, where he took up land near 
Eyota, Olmstead county. After eleven years in Minnesota he went to Mar- 
shalltown, Iowa, in 1880, and there remained until his death. Two months 
after his demise there passed into eternal rest his widow, Malinda (Burkhart) 
Morrison, a native of Bellefontaine, Ohio, and a daughter of William Burkhart, 
born in Philadelphia and deceased in Ohio. 

There were five children in the family of John S. Morrison. The second, 
Charles V., was born near Mutual, Champaign county, Ohio, August 13, 1862, 
and at the time of the removal to Minnesota was a boy of seven years. During 
1880 he accompanied the family to Marshalltown, Iowa. Meanwhile he had 
l-ecome prominent locally through his prowess as a runner and his skill as a 
swimmer and in 1879 he swam entirely across the Mississippi river. At Mar- 
shalltown he served as a member of the volunteer fire department about five 
years, being first foreman and later chief of the department. Largely to his 
work was due the winning of the prizes in the Council BlufTs races in 1889. 
For seven years he wt rked in a machine shop at Marshalltown and mean- 
while he acquired a thorough knowledge of the trade of machinist, which 
later he followed for two years in the Iowa Central machine shops. Next 
he secured a position as division foreman on the Chicago & Northwestern 
Railroad and continued in that place for seven years, first at Carroll and 
later at Boone, Iowa. When he resigned it was to come to the west. Upon 
his arrival at Bakersfield in January, 1887, he secured work as a machinist 
in the Southern Pacific shops. At the expiration of seven months he was 
promoted to be roundhouse foreman and since then has devoted his entire 
time to the filling of the position. The climate of Bakersfield has proved 
healthful and congenial, the possibilities of the place awaken his enthusiastic 
interest and he has shown his faith in the future of the city by buying lots and 
building three houses in East Bakersfield, which he rents. For a number of 
years he was a member of the volunteer fire department in Kern, from 1900 
to 1904 he served as a trustee of the village and in both these positions he 
did valuable work for the town in the protecting of the property and the 
rights of the citizens. Politically he is a Democrat. After coming west he 
was made a Masc n in Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M., and he is also 
connected with the Fraternal Brotherhood. His marriage was solemnized in 
Marshalltown, Iowa, and united him with Miss Elsie Hastings, who was born 
and reared in that city. They are the parents of five children, Harry, Floyd, 
Fannie. Lillian and Birdie. The eldest son is a machinist and the younger 
members of the family are students in the local schools. 

DONALD H. FORSYTH.— With the exception of perhaps six years 
spent in Nevada during the period of the mining excitement at Gcldfield and 
vicinity, Mr. Forsyth has been a lifelong resident of California and much of 
the time he has made his home in Kern county, although he was born in San 
Luis Obisno in 1874. Not only was his father a pioneer of that part of the 
state, but in addition he was identified with the early upbuilding of Kern 
county and in both olaces of residence he won and retained the confidence of 
other pioneers. At the time of the removal of the family to Kern county the 
son was a mere lad, hence his education was obtained principally in the pub- 
lic schools here and after he left school he learned the laundry business. Much 
of his time has been given to this work, and at this writing, as for some years 
past, he is in the employ of the American laundry, a local industry of con- 
siderable prominence. 

In Los Angeles occurred the marriage of Donald H. Forsyth and Mrs. 
Mary (Cant) Beatty, a native of Illinois. Her father, Sylvester Cant, who 
died at her home some years ago, was born and reared in Chester, 111., and in 
young manhood he came with friends to California. The trip was made in a 
wagon drawn by oxen. The plains were crossed in safety and he then traveled 



HISTORY OF KKRX COUNTY 1421 

through California, working at any occupation that was offered. A brief stay 
was followed. by a return to Illinois, where he married and established a home. 
Finally, however, he sold his interests there and brought his family to Cali- 
fornia, where he became a pioneer of Kern county and one of the very earliest 
settlers on Caliente creek in the Weed Patch. 

Shortly after the mines at Goldfield had begun to draw people to that 
section of Nevada, Mr. and Mrs. Forsyth removed to that camp and he 
engaged in jjrospecting and mining, also conducted a laundry business. Six 
years were spent in Nevada, whence they returned to California and settled at 
Bakersfield. Later they purchased two lots on the corner of I and Twenty-first 
streets, where they erected the St. Elmo hotel. The building burned to the 
ground in August of 1910 and they then erected a substantial structure of two 
stories, now known as the Florence hotel. Both Mr. and Mrs. Forsyth are 
Republicans. Fraternally Mr. Forsyth is a Mason of the Royal Arch degree 
and in religion he is in sympathy with the work of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church and his wife is an active member of that organization. Mrs. Forsyth 
has one child by her first marriage, Charles W. Beatty, a merchant of Mari- 
copa 

A. B. POLHEMUS. — Very early in the colonization of the new world 
the Polhemus family became identified with the agricultural upbuilding of the 
region lying along the Atlantic seaboard. Later generations turned from agri- 
culture to the industrial trades, but in whatever occupation followed the fam- 
ily was known for integrity of purpose and energy of will. It was Edward 
Polhemus, a native of Trenton, N. J., who established the family in regions 
further west. As early as 1832 he took up a tract of raw land in Washtenaw 
county, Mich., where he engaged in farming. During 1860 he took up land in 
Greene county, Mo., but with the outbreak cf the war he found the location 
undesirable, for he was thoroughly Union in his sympathies, while the neigh- 
borhood was intensely southern in sentiment. Lack of harmony led him to re- 
move to Illinois in 1862 and he settled on a farm in Champaign county, where 
for seventeen years he had mere or less success in agricultural enterprises. 
During 1879 he established a home in Pittsburg, Kan., where he died at the 
age of ninety-two years. 

In the family of this western pioneer there was a son, Thomas S., whose 
birth occurred at Port Byron, N. Y., and whose life occupation has been that 
of a painter. Beginning the trade in the John Deere plow works at Moline, 
111., he continued the business in Danville, 111., for more than forty years until 
his final retirement from active labors. During young manhood he had mar- 
ried Augusta M. Hankey, a native of Wurtemberg, Germany, and now seventy- 
three years of age. At the age of eighty he is hale and robust and among the 
people of Bakersfield, where he makes his home, he is regarded as a man of 
excellent information and fine qualities of heart and mind. By his marriage 
to Miss Hankey there was an only child, A. B., whose birth occurred at 
Sadorus, Champaign county. 111., July 27, 1863, and whose education was 
obtained in the Danville public schools. From boyhood he was familiar with 
the trade of painter. From eighteen until twenty-one years of age he wcrked 
in Western Michigan. Upon returning to Illinois he engaged in business with 
his father at Danville. Ultimately their trade took them to other parts of 
Illinois and even into Wisconsin. Many of their contracts were for public 
buildings and represented a large outlay of money as well as considerable 
time for the work. 

Coming to California in 1910 and settling in Bakersfield, Mr. Polhemus 
has business headquarters on the corner of I and Eighteenth streets, while 
for a residence he has purchased and now occupies property at Nos. 214-216 
Eureka street. All of his time is devoted to the filling of painting contracts in 
Bakersfield and Kern county and in this work he has the energetic assistance 



1422 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

of his three eldest sons, who have becnie his business associates. In addition 
to these sons, Harry L.. Thomas E. and Charles Richard, he has a younger son, 
Jake H., now a student in the Kern county high schot.l, also an only daughter, 
Helen Augusta, a clerk in the county tax collector's ofifice. Mrs. Polhemus 
is a native of Hagerstown, Ind., and prior to her marriage in Danville, 111., 
bore the name of Alice Leona Fleming. With her husband she holds active 
membership in the Court of Honor. PLlitically Mr. Polhemus has been stanchly 
Republican in his sympathies ever since attaining his majority and casting his 
first presidential ballot. 

E. J. SCHNEIDER. — The name cf Schneider indicates a Teutonic an- 
cestry. The first to seek a home in the new world was Rev. George Schneider, 
a man of college education, splendid mental attainments and high moral prin- 
ciples, an ordained minister in the IMethodist Episcopal Church and a noble 
exp( nent by theory and by example of the lofty doctrines of his denomination. 
A member of a family of high standing and considerable means, he was given 
the best advantages offered by the educational institutions of his part of Ger- 
many and at the age of twenty-seven became a citizen of Pennsylvania, where 
he remained until his death in 1910 at the age of eighty years. Meanwhile 
he had assisted in the growth and advancement of denominational enternrises 
and had given liberally of time and means for the unbuilding of Christianity 
in the Keystone state, preaching regularly in many needy fields, but refusing 
any compensation for such work. From the time when Colonel Drake drilled 
his first oil well near Titusville until the death of this pioneer preacher, he 
earned his livelihood in the oil industry and this naturally necessitated the 
rearing of his children at oil camps or in towns in the center of the oil fields. 
His son, E. J., was born in Oil City, Venango county. Pa., in 1862, and was 
carefully trained by a wise falher and a devoted mother, the latter having 
been Catherine (Peters) Schneider, a native of Pennsylvania. As scon as he 
had completed the studies of the grammar school he began to earn his own 
livelihood in the oil industry, in which he passed throusfh the various depart- 
ments from roustabout to positions of importance. When only sixteen he 
thoroughly understood drilling. After some years he became a contractor and 
later was promoted to be a superintendent in Pennsylvania fields. 

Upon coming to California in 1901 Mr. Schneider engaged in drilling for 
oil at Vacaville, but met with no success. As early as 1902 he came to Mc- 
Kittrick with the Silver Row Oil Company of INIontana. The year 1906 found 
him in the Salt Lake field of Southern California as an employe of the Amal- 
gamated Oil Compan}^ which soon promoted him to be a foreman. As pro- 
duction superintendent in the west side field he was transferred to the xAsso- 
ciated Oil Company during November, 1910, making his headquarters in the 
Midway. Since November of 1911 he has engaged as superintendent of the 
Lost Hills division, where he has been very active in increasing production 
and otherwise promoting the interests of the company. During the period of 
his employment in the Salt Lake field he erected a substantial residence in 
Hollywood, which he still owns. He was married at \\'arren. Pa., December 
15, 1887, to Miss Myrtle White, a native of Warren county and a daughter of 
Alfred and Marcia (Davis) White, the former a lumber manufacturer of that 
eastern city. They are the parents of two daughters : Mrs. Leah H. Middle- 
ton, of McKittrick; and Mrs. Nina K. Hamm, of Hollywood. The family 
are earnest believers in the doctrines of the Methodist Episcopal denomination 
and have contributed to general church benevolences. Fraternally INIr. 
Schneider is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 

JASPER MYERS. — A native of Indiana, Jasper Myers was born in 
Anderson, Madison county, December 25, 1838. He was appointed a cadet to 
West Point and entered the academy in 1858, continuing his studies until 1862 
and was commissioned second lieutenant in the ordnance department of the 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1423 

United States Navy, serving on the field and in different arsenals until the close 
of the war. He continued in the army until January, 1870, when he resigned, 
at which time he was holding a captain's commission. In the meantime he 
had studied law and on leaving the army began the practice of his profession 
in San Francisco, Cal. 

In the fall of 1872, on the advice of a physician, Mr. Myers abandoned 
the law and came to Bakersfield and a short time afterward he located on his 
present ranch and immediately engaged in husbandry, which he has contin- 
ued ever since. His ranch is located nine miles southwest of Bakersfield and 
is devoted to alfalfa and dairying. 

Mr. Myers was married in 1883 to Miss Mattie Gather, also a native of 
Anderson, Ind., who had spent several years in educational work. Thev are 
the parents of three children: Edith, Mrs. Marek, of Bakersfield; Robert, of 
Paraguay, South America; and Ralph, who is attending Leland Stanford, Jr., 
University. Mr. Myers is a member of Hurlburt Post, G. A. R., and politically 
he is a Progressive Republican. Being interested in the history of Kern 
county he is a member of the Pioneer Society. 

S. G. CRIPPEN.— Many of those connected with the oil industry in 
California are men whose bread knowledge of the business has been gained 
in the east, but this is not the case with Mr. Crippen, who is a native son of 
the west and by actual experience in California oil fields has acquired the 
most complete information regarding rig-building and other lines of carpenter- 
ing peculiar to this kind of work. As carpenter foreman for the Kern Trading 
and Oil Company, he has erected altogether ninety-seven buildings in the 
Sunset-Midway fields and has had charge of the erection of practically all of the 
buildings at Fellows, Oil City and McKittrick. 

Mr. Crippen was born in Humboldt county, Gal., August 3, 1874, and is a 
son of Stephen G. and Mary (Beckett) Crippen, the former a native of Penn- 
sylvania, the latter born in Missouri. The father, who came to California for 
the first time during the summer of 1852 and made the tedious trip overland, 
engaged for a time in mining, but later settled on a ranch and began to raise 
stock. Although he returned to the east intending to settle there, he found 
himself dissatisfied and so came back to California and resumed stock-raising. 
He and his wife are still living at Lakeport, Lake county. Of their ten children 
five passed away. Reared and educated in Humboldt county, S. G. Crippen 
started out to make his own way at the age of seventeen. For two years he 
worked at the barber's trade at Petrolia, Humboldt county. Next he hired 
out on a ranch and later found employment in the lumber woods. His first 
training as a carpenter was received under a rig-builder and contractor and 
he soon became quite skilled in the construction of oil derricks. Upon starting 
out in the occupation for himself he engaged in house building at Ferndale 
and later became an independent rig-builder. For four years he followed the 
trade in his native county, after which he went to San Francisco and secured 
employment in building the woodwork for bridges with the Thompson Bridge 
Company, No. 29 Mission street. B'or a time he worked at house building 
in the city. 

Coming to McKittrick, Kern county, in 1902, Mr. Crippen became a house 
builder in the employ of the Associated, but at the end of nine months he 
went to the Santa Maria field and engaged as a tool-dresser on the Casmalia 
for three months. Returning to Kern county and securing employment at 
Oil City with the Kern Trading and Oil Company, he entered upon an asso- 
ciation that has continued to the present time and that has been mutually sat- 
isfactory. Besides erecting the houses of the superintendents and many other 
buildings at Kerto he has had charge of a large amount of building at McKit- 
trick and Fellows. Having entire charge of the construction of rigs, he has 
built perhaps one hundred derricks in the Midway and Sunset fields and has 



1424 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

worked from Pentland to McKittrick. Steadily since 1904 he has remained 
with the same company and for six years worked wholly in the Kern river 
field, although his first two rigs for the corporation were built at Coalinga. 
The marriage of Mr. Crippen took place at Elko, Nev., and united him 
with Miss Berta M. Doe, of Humboldt county. They are the parents of three 
children, Frederick, Evelyn and Gilbert. While living in Humboldt county 
Mr. Crippen became connected with the Knights of Pythias at Petrolia. Since 
coming to Kern county he has put in membership with the Woodmen of the 
World at Bakersfield and also has been initiated into Masonry in Taft Lodge 
No. 426, F. & A. M. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the Kerto 
Club, the quarters for which are provided by the Kern Trading and Oil Com- 
pany. 

GEORGE E. TAYLOR. — It is interesting to write of a native son who 
has, through all circumstances, conducted himself with credit and honorably 
accomplished success in his business and the securing of the confidence of 
his customers, meanwhile establishing warm personal friendships, receiving 
from every one the utmost faith in his integrity and honesty of purpose. Such 
a man is George E. Taylor, who was born in Ukiah. Mendocino county, Cal., 
February 1, 1876. His father, William, was born in Missouri, while his grand- 
father, Alexander Taylor, was a native of Kentucky, of an old southern family. 
He removed to Missouri and in 1849 joined the tide of migraticn to the far 
west, bringing his family across the plains with ox-teams and locating first in 
Humboldt. Later they made their home in Mendocino county and afterward 
in Monterey, always following the occupation of stock business. He died in 
Monterey county. 

Like his father William Taylor was a stockman; at Ukiah for some years 
he followed that trade and then moved to Fresno county. When oil was 
discovered in the Coalinga district he began locating oil lands and followed the 
oil business for a time. While on a visit to Bakersfield he passed away in 
May, 1912. His wife, Annie (Thompson) Taylor, was born in Iowa, the 
daughter of Theodore Thompson, who was a native of Maryland. The latter 
brought his family across the plains in the early '50s, and became a pioneer 
farmer. Pie now makes his home in Bakersfield aged eighty-two years. Mrs. 
Taylor passed away in Huron, Fresno county, in 1887. 

Of the five children born to his parents George E. Taylor is the eldest. 
His childhood was passed mostly in Monterey county, where he assisted his 
uncles who were cattlemen. From a young boy he rode the range. His educa- 
tional training was obtained in the local schools and as he grew he imbibed 
a spirit of progressiveness and a courage to accomplish successful ends. On 
February 1, 1896, he came to Kern county, his first employment being with 
Wellington Canfield, receiving $20 per month. He worked steadily for some 
years and having saved some of his hard-earned money he purchased sixty 
acres of land in the Old River district, which he improved, raising alfalfa. 
In addition he engaged in the dairy business and continued with marked suc- 
cess until he sold the place to R. L. McCutchen, and in February, 1904, began a 
mercantile business in Bakersfield. Starting in a small storeroom on Chester 
avenue, he conducted the business under the firm name of G. E. Taylor & Co. 
This business he sold in 1907 and soon afterward started the present store 
known as Taylor's grocery, at No. 1423 Nineteenth street, of which he is 
now sole proprietor and he enjoys a large trade among the citizens of Bakers- 
field and the surrounding country. 

Before her marriage Mrs. Taylor was Miss Dollie Rowlee, a native of 
Marion, Iowa, who came to California when a child with her parents. Her 
father, Charles E. Rowlee, is represented elsewhere in this publication. Mrs. 
Taylor is a graduate of the San Diego State Normal class of 1902, and has 
achieved much success as an educator. She is at present acceptably serving 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1423 

as principal of the Standard schools. By a former marriage Mr. Taylor is 
the father of two daughters, Alma and Frances. A woman of intellect and 
accomplishments, with refined and artistic tastes, Mrs. Taylor is much beloved 
by her many friends and with her husband is freely hospitable and respected 
for their generous impulses. 

J. C. KNOKE. — No other occupation aside from the oil industry has 
ever engaged the attention of Mr. Knoke and therefore his rise from a most 
humble capacity to an influential position has been steadfast. At this writing 
he fills a very important place as production foreman for the Kern Trading 
and Oil Company in the Midway-Sunset fields. The duties cf the position entail 
upon him the management of the company's wells (about eighty-five now 
producing) situated between Pentland and the North Midway. 

Throughout practically all of his life Mr. Knoke has lived in oil regions. 
Born at Wheeling, W. Va., November 1, 1877, he is a son of the late Clem 
Knoke, at cne time a shoemaker in Wheeling, but later the owner and occu- 
pant of a farm at Sistersville, in the same state. When oil was struck at Sis- 
tersville about 1890 Mr. Knoke was a lad of thirteen years and was a pupil in 
the local schools of the village. There were twelve children in the family and 
ten of these are still living, so that the small estate left by the parents at 
death could aid the sons and daughters but little. After he had graduated from 
the grammar school Mr. Knoke began to make his own way in the world 
and as early as 1894 he worked as a roustabout in the Sistersville field. Later 
he was employed in other fields of the same state. From 1902 to 1934 he 
engaged in the oil industry in Colorado, where he worked up from tool-dresser 
to driller. 

For nine months he engaged with the Burlington & Missouri Railway 
Company and drilled three discovery wells for that company near Shaddron, 
Neb., but found no cil. Various parts of New Mexico also were inspected 
with a view to finding favorable oil prospects and at Raton he drilled a dis- 
covery well for the Raton Oil Company, but the results were unsatisfactory. 
During the year 1904 he came to California for the first time. Securing work 
with the Union Oil Company as tocl-dresser, he was soon made head well- 
puller and before the first year of his connection with the company had ex- 
pired he was filling the position of superintendent of production. For six 
and one-half years he remained in the employ of the Union Oil Company at 
Santa Maria and then resigned to make a tour of inspection through Cuba. 
In the five months spent there he engaged in digging discovery wells for an 
English syndicate, but no oil was found. Returning to California for the pur- 
pose of securing more supplies and sending them to Cuba, he discharged these 
duties and then, instead of going back as he had anticipated, he accented a 
position as manager for the May's Consolidated Oil Company, owning leases 
on sections 28 and 30, township 31, range 23. After nine months with that cor- 
poration he entered upon the duties of his present position in May, 1912, and 
since has devoted his energies to this work, meanwhile making his home at 
Maricopa in one of the superintendents' houses on the Kern Trading and 
Oil Company's lease. One daughter, Helen B., has been born of his union 
with Miss Mamie McKay, daughter of E. S. McKay, of Lcmpoc, Cal., but a 
resident of Santa Barbara at the time of their marriage. While making his 
home at Santa Maria he affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and during a 
temporary sojourn at San Luis Obispo he became a member of the Benevolent 
Protective Order of Elks. He is one of the trustees of the Kerto Club, which 
meets in a building provided by the Kern Trading & Oil Company. 

C. L. DICKEY. — The lease foreman on the Kern Trading and Oil Com- 
pany's properties has been familiar with the oil industry from his 
earliest recollections, for he is a native of one of the eastern oil regions 
and has given all his mature life to the development of the in- 



1426 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

dustry. Born at Sistersville, W. Va., September 6, 1887, he is a son 
of the late Thomas and Sarah (Phillips) Dickey, the former con- 
nected with productitin activities in the oil fields of his home town. 
There were nine children in the family and of these C. L. was sixth in 
order of birth. When only fifteen years of age he was obliged, on account of 
the death of his father, to stop school and take up the serious business of 
earning a livelihood. Not only was he self-supporting, but in addition he 
helped to care for his mother and other members of the family, so that he 
assumed the responsibilities of manhood while yet a youth. When he began 
in the oil fields it was as a roustabout. 

Continuing with the same eastern oil comi^any for some years, Mr. 
Dickey resigned his place in the spring of 1907 and then sought an occupative 
opening in the west. Upon his removal to California he engaged in work in the 
Santa Maria field, where he remained until September of 1910. Having had 
thorough training as tool-dresser and head well-puller in West Virginia, he 
was competent to fill important duties at Santa Maria. From that field he 
removed to Fellows and was employed as gang-foreman and tool-dresser. The 
next step in advance brought him to the Kern Trading and Oil Company's 
properties, where since June of 1912 he has served as lease foreman, his juris- 
diction extending to the properties in the Sunset field. A warm friendship with 
J. C. Knoke, production foreman for the company, which -dates back to their 
early residence in Sistersville, W. Va., was instrumental in identifying him 
with this company and his own reliability and energy enable him to fill the 
positi( n with satisfaction to all concerned. 

CHARLES E. GEDDES. — The youngest of seven sons and a member 
of a family of thirteen children, of whom there now survive five sons and five 
daughters, Charles E. Geddes was born at Sheffield, Warren county. Pa., and 
grew to manhood in McKean ccunty, same state, where he attended the 
Bradford schools. Always the family maintained an interest in the oil business 
and two elder brothers are now with the Associated in the Coalinga oil field in 
California, G. W. being a machinist and J. E. production foreman. The father 
has made the lumber business his principal occupation and is now living 
retired, being at present in Coalinga. The mother was a native of Pennsyl- 
vania and came of a Swiss family. After two years in the high school Charles 
E. Geddes began to work in the Bradford oil field at the age of sixteen. At first 
he engaged as a pumper and later as a tcol-dresser. Going to Illinois at the 
age of twenty-one he worked in the Robinson field for two and one-half years 
and from that section of the country he came to California in October of 
1907. A visit of eight days in the Kern river field gave him his first practical 
knowledge of western conditio ns. Two months were then spent in the 
Coalinga field as an employe of the pipe-line department and then of the pro- 
duction department of the Associated, after which he was promoted to be 
gang-pusher and well-foreman. On being chosen superintendent of the Espe- 
ranza and the Sibyl he associated himself with the properties that later were 
overtaken by the General PetrLleum, whose officers retained him in the 
capacity of superintendent with largely increased responsibilities. This 
position, as foreman of all the properties of the company in . the North 
Midway field, includes the f( llowing divisions now owned and operated by the 
great concern : Oakburn, Dabney, Sahle, Globe, Logan, Brunswick, Section 
19, Fellows, Continental and Sibyl. He personally visits each lease daily, 
going from one to another by automobile, and directing and supervising all of 
the work with an alertness and nervous energy that invariably produces re- 
sults. 

Since coming to Kern county Mr. Geddes has been connected wath the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Taft. He married Miss Leula Hunter, 
of Russell, Warren county. Pa., the daughter of one of the well-known and 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1427 

successful oil operators of the east. The company's residence on section 14, 
31-22, is their home, which with its artistic furnishings and air of happy- 
domesticity attracts often to its hospitality the many friends of the charming 
hostess. 

ARTHUR EUGENE HOAGLAND.— The excitement caused by the dis- 
covery of gold in California imbued William Hoagland with a desire to visit 
the vast unknown west. At the time of joining a party of Argonauts he was 
still a mere lad, yet he was able to do a man's work and assumed responsibil- 
ities equal to those thrust upon men many years his senior. As a boy he 
had attended the schools of Springfield, 111., where his birth had occurred about 
1835 and where his parents had made their home for years. The trip across 
the plains during the summer of 1849 he still recalls as one of the most inter- 
esting experiences of his eventful life and scarcely less interesting was the 
return vt yage by water. Settling upon a farm in Missouri, he gave himself in- 
dustriously to agricultural pursuits and for some time continued to live and 
labor in that state. Meantime he served in the Union army during the Civil 
war and remained at the front until the expiration of his period of service. 
About 1884 he became a pioneer of Kansas and took up a claim in Barber 
county, where he engaged in farming for some years. When he made his 
second trip to the Pacific coast in 1891 he found conditic ns in the west far 
dififerent from those of the earlier period. Oregon, to which state he removed 
from Kansas, was becoming known for riches of soil and growth of commerce. 
For a number of years he served as assessor of Klamath county and made 
his heme in Klamath Falls, but more recently he has removed to California, 
where he and his wife, Cassie (Fulton) Hoagland, now are living in Butte 
county. 

The family of William Hoagland comprised eleven children and eight of 
these are still living. One of the younger members of the family, Arthur 
Eugene, was born July 7, 1876, during the residence of the parents near Rolla, 
Phelps county. Mo., where he remained until eight years of age and then 
accompanied the other members cf the family to Kansas. Later he attended 
the public schools of Medicine Lodge, Barber county. At the age of fourteen 
he began to be self-supporting and from that time he has made his way unaided 
in the world. .The Santa Fe Railroad had a line through his home town and 
offered an opportunity for an honest livelihood through day labor. At first 
his wages were very small, but his worth found appreciative recognition and 
at seventeen he was promoted to be a foreman. Later he was transferred from 
Kansas to Illinois as a construction foreman, after which he was similarly 
employed in Arizona. During 1899 he was transferred to Bakersfield and 
from this city was sent north on construction work. The year 1900 was 
spent mainly in Hanford. During 1901 he returned to Bakersfield and this 
city has since been his home. For three years he continued in the railroad 
business. As general foreman of construction he had charge of construction 
work between Bakersfield and Fresno. 

Resigning in 1904 after a long and honorable identification with railroad 
interests, Mr. Hoagland turned his attention to other lines of business. For 
a time he owned a cigar store and for two and one-half years he acted as 
local manager for the Wieland brewery, since which time he has been a 
member of the firm of Hoagland & Ross, wholesale distributors of Rainier 
beer, manufactured by the Seattle Brewing and ^Malting Company. The 
firm has an agency at Mojave and a cold storage plant at Bakersfield and 
ships the bottled beer throughout all of Kern county. In politics he is a Dem- 
ocrat and fraternally he is identified with the Royal Arch Lodge and also has 
served as president of the Eagles. By his marriage to Miss Maude Rainer, a 
resident of Bakersfield, but a native of Kansas, he has two children, Bruce 
and Helen. 



1428 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

JOHN HENRY HARVEY.— The power of determination and industry 
in overcoming" obstacles appears in the life of Mr. Harvey, who, although 
left an orphan in early life and obliged to forego educational advantages, has 
nevertheless risen to a position of influence in his chosen calling. His 
mother had passed away when he was so small that even the most indistinct 
memories were lacking of her aflfection and devotion. The father, Thomas, 
an Irishman by birth, was most intensely loyal to the country of his adop- 
tion and when the Civil war began he ofifered his services to the Union. 
Enrolled as a private in the Sixteenth Michigan Infantry, he was sent to the 
front with his regiment, took part in a number of large engagements and 
finally lost his life in the battle of Gettysburg, where he was buried in an 
unknown grave. The son, who was born on Christmas day of 1856 near 
Port Huron. St. Clair county, Mich., was thus left alone in the world. 
Though far too young to be self-supporting, he nevertheless determined to 
"paddle his own canoe" and notwithstanding the fact that he lacked warm 
clothing and nourishing food he kept on without disheartenment and even 
was able to attend school for several winters. At the age of sixteen he 
began an apprenticeship to the trade of a blacksmith. After completing his 
trade he worked as a blacksmith during the winter months in large cities in 
Michigan, while in the summer months he sailed on the lakes as wheelman 
or quartermaster. Life on the lakes interested him from its constant variety 
and its healthful nature, but when he established domestic ties the desire to 
be at home caused him to give up his position as a sailor. Meanwhile having 
worked as a blacksmi.h in the lumber woods and having risen to be foreman 
of the lumber camps, he had proved his skill and efficiency in the occupation 
to which he has devoted the greater part of his mature years. 

The marriage of John Henry Harvey and Miss Eusebia A. Richards, a 
native of Cairo, Mich., but a descendant of French ancestry, took place in 
her home town, where ]\Ir. Harvey engaged in running a blacksmith's shop. 
Later he was similarly employed in Cass City and then in Imlay City. Dur- 
ing 1892 he came to California and found employment at his trade in Bakers- 
field, where in 1895 he started a shop at No. 1712 Chester avenue. From a 
very small beginning he rose to the management of a large business, con- 
tinuing at the same location until 1908, when the Elks' Hall was erected on 
that site. Since then he has had his manufacturing establishment at No. 
2300 Chester avenue, the large increase in his business necessitating an ex- 
pansion, as he has taken up the manufacture of automobile springs and 
forgings in connection with blacksmithing and carriage-making. Electric 
power is utilized and an electric motor furnishes the current for the four 
fires. Tracks and cranes have been installed and in every respect the shop 
has been well equipped, not only for the heavy iron work and repairing of 
vehicles, but also for the repairing of bodies, frames and wheels of auto- 
mobiles. For the manufacture of automobile and heavy truck springs he 
has installed a spring rolling machine run b}^ a seven and a half horsepower 
electric motor, also a gas oven for the quick heating and tempering of 
springs, and he has a gas furnace for tire-heating and setting. 

The home of Mr. Harvey, erected by himself, stands at the corner ot C 
and Palm streets. His family comprises his wife and three children, the 
eldest of whom, LeRoy Alonzo, is a pianist, devoting all his time to music. 
The second son, Lee Richards, is head of the grocerv firm of Harvev & 
Webber, in Bakersfield. The youngest child. Ina Aville, is a high-school 
student. In national politics Mr. Harvey is a Republican. While still living 
in Michigan he was made a Mason in the blue lodge at Romeo, and since 
coming west he has transferred his membership to Bakersfield Lodge No. 
224, F. & A. M., while in addition he is identified with the Woodmen of the 
World and the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and has been an officer 
in the local lodge of the latter organization. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 142Q 

SARSHEL VAUGHN MATHEWS.— A native of Wilmington, Los An- 
geles county, Sarshel Vaughn Mathews has spent his entire life in Southern 
C'alifornia, where he has seen many wonderful improvements, and been 
among those who have benefited greatly by the development which has 
taken place in this part of the country. Earnest, energetic and persevering 
he has worked hard to reach the point of prosperity he now enjoys. 

Theodore Mathews, father of Sarshel V., was a native of Pennsylvania, 
born in 1827 in Pittsburgh. He served as corporal in Company B of a New 
Jersey regiment during the Mexican war and in the early '50s came west in 
the employ of the government, spending some time in Utah. In the latter 
state his marriage occurred, shortly after his arrival, to Harriet Burton, born 
in England, and they later removed to Oregon, remaining there for a number 
of years, after which they came to California. Wilmington, Los Angeles 
county, was their place of settlement, Mr. Mathews holding the position of 
wagonmas;er under the government, which post he filled for a long time. 
He finally removed to Los Angeles, where his wife died in 1903, and he 
passed away in 1907. 

Sarshel V. Mathews was born in Wilmington, Los Angeles county, 
October 7, 1866, and was a small lad when his parents removed to Los Nietos, 
in Los Angeles county, seven years later moving into Los Angeles, where 
he attended the schools and made his home for many years. His first occu- 
pation was on a stock ranch, but in 1889 he went to work for the Union 
Lime Company in San Bernardino councy, remaining there about three years, 
at the end of which time he entered the Southern Pacific railroad shops in 
Los Angeles. In 1899 he came to Tehachapi in the capacity of superintend- 
ent for the Union Lime Company and filled that position for two years, re- 
turning then to the shops in Los Angeles until 1908. Tehachapi had proved 
aitractive to Mr. Mathews, and after his return he opened up a quarry for 
the city aqueduct and settled permanently. About the same time he pur- 
chased thirty acres of apple land and began improvements, planting apples 
and pears. The ranch is located one and a half miles from town and has been 
equipped with a pumping plant, with a capacity of thirty inches of water, 
and the property is well cared for. 

Mr. Mathews was married in 1901 to Mabel Diamond, a native of Utah, 
and to this union two children were born, only one of whom is living, Gert- 
rude, who is attending school at Tehachapi. Mrs. Mathews is the daughlrer 
of James and j\^ary Diamond, both deceased. As a Republican, Mr. Mathews 
has taken an active part in the politics of his native state, and he has served 
as road master at different periods. 

HOWARD W. CARLOCK.— East Bakersfield. formerlv known as 
Kern, is Mr. Carlock's native place, and he was born June 26, 1875, when 
the now flourishing town was a straggling hamlet called Sumner. Both his 
father, Francis Marion, and his grandfather were pioneers of California, 
having crossed the plains with ox-teams and wagons during the era of gold 
excitement and afterward engaged in mining in the Sierras. 

The early agricultural settlement of Kern county found Francis M. 
Carlock actively engaged in cattle ranching on Kern Island. For years he 
also engaged in freighting between Delano and Bakersfield, meanwhile haul- 
ing the first lumber into the latter town and also into Sumner. After he 
had moved from Sumner to Bakersfield he engaged in merchandising on the 
present site of the Redlick building, on Eighteenth street and Chester avenue, 
where in 1889 he suffered a heavy loss from a destructive fire. Later he pur- 
chased a new stock of goods and resumed business. After he had finally 
disposed of his mercantile enterprises he continued in the dray and transfer 
business until 1906, when he retired to private life. His wife, formerly Miss 
Marv Tucker, came across the plains with her parents from her native 
locality in Pike county, Mo., and endured all the hardships of the tedious 



1430 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

journey made with ox-teams and wagons in company with a large expedition 
of emigrants. 

Out of a family of seven children there are only three now living and 
these reside in Bakersfield, namely: Hattie, H. W., and Mrs. Iva Hayes. 
The only son received his early education in the Sumner schools and con- 
tinued in school after the family had removed to Bakersfield, when he was 
about thirteen years of age. While still a mere lad he acquired a thorough 
knowledge of the dray business. Many years ago the elder Air. Carlock 
had built the Overland stables and, after losing heavily twice by hre, he 
had finally built new barns on Eighteen :h near Chester. About 1907 the 
Overland barn was leased by the son, who purchased a complete outfit of 
new vehicles and horses and has since carried on a large business. The 
building is large, having a frontage of more than one hundred fee:, with a 
depth of one hundred and fifty feet, besides which he leases a building across 
the street. The livery is the largest in Bakersfield, and more than one 
hundred and twenty-five head of horses are kept in the barn. Politically he 
is a Republican and fraternally he holds membership with the Wocdmen 
of the World. In Fresno he was united in marriage with Miss Nettie 
McLennan, who was born in Illinois, but has been a resident of California 
from early life. They have a son Harold, aged twenty-one months. 

H. ROY SHEFFLER.— Throughout practically his entire life Mr. 
ShefiBer has been familiar with the oil industry and since the age of sixteen 
years he has earned his livelihood from the occupation. An early training 
in :he business came to him under the personal oversight of his father, Alex- 
ander, a pioneer oil man in some of the Pennsylvania fields, although in 
addition he also engaged to some extent in general farming. The home of 
the family was situated in Clarion county. Pa., and there the birth of Roy 
Sheffier occurred January 10, 1880; there he attended the public schools 
until he had completed the grammar grade and there he took his place 
among the busy workers in the workaday world. When sixteen years of 
age he secured a job in an oil field four miles froni home. At that time his 
wages were only $4 per week, but later he received a gradual advance until 
he was getting $1.50 per day. From roustabout and errand boy he worked 
up to be a tool dresser, in which capacity he proved efficien!; and capable. 
After having worked on two wells in the home field he went to W^est Vir- 
ginia, where he remained for almost eicht years, meanwhile finding employ- 
ment successively in the fields at Sistersville, Mannington, Wolf Summit and 
Parkersburg. 

Upon returning from West Virginia to Pennsylvania and securing em- 
ployment at Bradford, Mr. Sheffier spent two years as a tool-dresser in gas 
and oil wells in that field. A similar position was then filled for six years 
at Little Washington, Pa., where he was in the employ of a noted oil oper- 
ator, who also owned the Monongahela Gas Company. A la'er venture led 
him to invest in a water-well rig, after which he engaged in drilling water 
wells and testing coal fields, but at the expiration of eighteen months he 
went back to oil drilling and tool-dressing. While in Westmoreland county, 
Pa., he formed the acquaintance of Clint McCall, for whom he worked about 
one year. Later he worked for Bob George and George Evans, who in turn 
were employed by Andrew Carnegie. In 1902, while still making Pennsyl- 
vania his home and business headquarters, he married Miss Annie Mat- 
thews, daughter of George Matthews, of Washington county, that state, 
where their marriage was solemnized. Accompanied by his wife he came to 
California in 1910, and established a home at Maricopa. Here he entered 
the employ of E. S. Good and acted as chief driller on the twenty-acre lease 
of the El Dora Oil Company, on section 32, township 12, range 23, where 
he drilled two excellent wells, one at a depth of twenty-three hundred and 
eight feet and the other twenty-four hundred feet deep. On August 1, 1913, 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1431 

he gave up his position with the El Dora, and is now drilling for the Spreckels 
Oil Company. His experience as a driller in California and Pennsylvania 
has given him a technical knowledge of every detail connected with the 
work, and in addition he engaged as a driller for a short time in Illinois at 
Robinson. Since coming west he has saved his earnings and invested in 
property, being now the owner of a ranch of twenty acres north of Bakers- 
field and thus substantially identified with Kern county not only as an oil 
man, but also as a property owner. 

JAMES C. GRANT.— The foreman of the machine shop of the Cali- 
fornia Oil Well Supply Company at Taft is a member of an old Pennsylvania 
family and traces his lineage to Aberdeen, Scotland, from which city the 
forebears of Gen. U. S. Grant also immigrated to the United States. The 
old homestead in Butler county, Pa., remained in the possession of the 
family through several genera :ions. There his father, Alexander B. Grant, 
died at the age of sixty-five years; there his own birth occurred December 
23, 1858, and there too his only son, Fred D., was born. Aside from the 
endearing associations of youth, the farm itself has had a unique history, 
for upon it were developed the first oil and gas wells in that locality, and 
the cract of one hundred and eight acres for years presented scenes of stirring 
industry. Other wells later were developed in the name neighborhood dur- 
ing the' '80s, and when Mr. Grant made a trip back to the old Pennsylvania 
home twenty years after the era of the first excitement, he was surprised to find 
these same pioneer wells s:ill producing gas and oil in paying quantities. 

The marriage of Alexander B. Grant united him with Elizabeth Ervin, 
who, physically and mentally alert at the age of eighty-two, is still a resi- 
dent of Harmony, Butler county, Pa. The family consisted of six children. 
One of these, a daughter, died at Oil City, Pa., at the age of eight years. 
The five survivors are as follows: James C, of California; Flora M., who 
married James Welsh, a hardware dealer of Harmony, Pa.; Samuel D., a 
machinist employed in Denver, Colo.; Etta E., wife of John Klofenstein, of 
Harmony, Pa. ; and John A., a machinist now employed at Miles City, Mont. 
Born December 23. "l858. fames C. Grant received a public-school education 
at Six Points, Butler county, and as early as 1882 aided on the buiklmg of 
derricks on :he home farm^ In addition to being one of the crew of four 
men who dug the first well, he personally carried one-fourth interest m the 
enterprise. Six wells were drilled on his father's farm and in addition he 
worked on nine other wells in the same neighborhood. 

From the oil fields of Butler county going to West Virginia, Mr. Grant 
settled at Parkersburg and engaged in the building of a machine shop for the 
Oil Well Supply Company, into whose service he had entered prior to re- 
moval from Pennsylvania. After the shop at Parkersburg had been com- 
pleted and the machinery installed. Mr. Grant remained for one year for 
the purpose of testing out the plant and putcing it in first-class running 
order. Next he built a machine shop at Weston, Lewis county, W. Va. 
After the plant had been put into working operation with the necessary 
machinery he was sent by the company to Woodsfield, ATonroe county, Ohio, 
where he' built, equipped' and started a machine shop. Upon the completion 
of the plant he was ordered to St. Mary's, Pleasants county, W. Va., where 
he erected, equipped and put into running order a large machine shop, 
makins" two complete plants established within one year. A shop that 
previously had been erected at Cairo, Ritchie county, W. Va., he inventoried, 
purchased and put into workins" operation, after which for a time he super- 
intended all of the five shops. He became a powerful factor in the success of 
the company. The shops' that he built were conducted with profit to the 
concern and established his own reputation for skill as a machinist and su- 
perintendent, r -n- 1 

In the interests of the William Kavanaugh Company, of Pittsburgh, 

61 



1432 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

during 1904 Mr. Grant went to Kansas, leased a tract of ground at Chanute 
from the San:a Fe Railroad Company and erected a shop for oil-well ma- 
chinery. When the plant had been completed he remained to put it into 
successful operation. After a year he was sent to Oklahoma in the interests 
of the National Drill and Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of drill- 
ing and fishing tools. Arriving a: Tulsa, he rented land from the Frisco 
Railroad Company, erected a shop, equipped the plant and put it in running 
order. Through his instrumentality the Oil Well Supply Company was 
induced to buy the plant, and it has proved to be their best-paying shop. 
The next work of Mr. Grant was done in New Mexico, where he spent two 
years, meanwhile with a brother, John A., putting in three portable drilling 
machines and drilling a number of artesian wells in the Pecos valley. 

The company transferred Mr. Grant to their Los Angeles headquarters 
and he arrived in that city May 30, 1908, af:er which he was employed in the 
stock-room of the concern until transferred to Taft July 22, 1909, for the 
purpose of building the machine shop. A year was devoted to the building 
of the store-house. During his second year at Taft the company decided to 
pu: in a stock of fishing tools, with him in charge. Next it was decided to 
build the machine shop and the latter has been in operation now for two 
3^ears (since 1911), electricity being used for motive power. On short 
notice the company is prepared to do every kind of work in the oil fields, 
including the building of derricks, the laying of pipe lines, the building of 
oil tanks, the drilling, shooting or cleaning of wells and :he handling of the 
product. The foreman exercises the most painstaking oversight in every 
department of the business. Prompt, dependable, accurate and honest, he 
has built up a large patronage for the company of which he is an old and 
trusted employe. Since coming to Taf: he has erected a neat residence and 
here he and his wife, formerly Rebecca Artman, of Westmoreland county, 
Pa , have established themselves comfortably. The only daughter, Miss 
Nellie, is engaged as cashier in the store of Heard & Painter. The only 
son, Fred D., makes his headquarters at Torrance, Cal., where he has charge 
of the fitting department of die Union Tool Company. The family are iden- 
tified with the Presbyterian Church and Mr. Grant has been one of the 
leaders of that work in Taft, where he has served the church as chairman 
of the board of trustees, and in addition has rendered the most efficient 
service as superintendent of the Sunday-school. 

FRANCOIS BERNARD.— The proprietor of the Tehachapi hotel, Frank 
Bernard, has l)een associated with that town and its afifairs since 1907. He 
was born in Taurrontes, county of Orcirrise,, Hautes-Alpes, France, Decem- 
ber 13, 1868, and there he attended school and spent his youthful days. 
With his studies came a desire to read and a yearning to see the country 
in which he found himself most interested, and in 1887 he came to the 
United States, traveling directly to Los Angeles, Cal., where he remained for 
a short time. Bakersfield, Kern county, was his nexi: place of residence, 
and after staying there for about two years he went to Invo county for a 
year. Then he removed to Montana, where as a ranch hand and sheep 
herder he became thoroughly experienced. The next year he went to Wyo- 
ming and followed ranching and sheep raising on his own account for nine 
years, finding it most profirable as an industry. A longing for the homeland 
took him back to France and there in 1905 occurred his marriage to Marie 
Pellisson. 

Returning to the United States in the year of his marriage, Mr. Bernard 
spent .about one year in Montana, afterward was in Delano for a short time, 
but since 1907 has been a resident of Tehachapi. Buying out the hotel he set 
to work to make many improvements and build up a ?ood business, and his 
ambitious efiforts have not been expended in vain. The Tehachapi hotel is 
nicely equipped in all details and gives general satisfaction to all its visitors 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1433 

and guests. Mr. Bernard votes the Republican ticket, and he takes a deep 
interest in all that pertains to the city's benefit. 

The parents of Mr. Bernard, Francois and Rosalea (Garnea) Bernard, 
both passed away in France. His wife, Marie (Pellisson) Bernard was the 
daui^diter of Joseph and Angelina (Reymond) Pellisson, who are still living 
in France, two children have been born to Mr. Bernard and his wife, viz.: 
Francois, Jr., and Edward. 

MARY ELIZABETH M. STAPR— A splendid example of the capable, 
energetic business woman is Mrs. Mary Elizabeth (Mitchell) Stapp, of Ba- 
kersheld, where she. is engaged in the real-estate business. 

Mrs. Stapp was born in Bracken county, Ky., the daughter of Isaac 
and Mary E. (Henry) Mitchell. Mr. Mitchell was born in Ohio, and worked 
as merchanc tailor for some years, but on account of poor health was obliged 
to give this up, and later was a steward on the Ohio river. Deciding to take 
up farming he accordingly settled on a farm in Indiana, near Terre Haute, 
going from there to Illiopolis, 111., where he remained until 1884. He then 
brought his family to California, arriving in Bakersfield on October 9 of 
that vear. Here he spent the remainder of his life, becoming largely in- 
terested in real estate here and in East Bakersfield. His death occurred in 
1901. The wife of Isaac ISIitchell, who was born in Kentucky, passed away 
at the birth of her daughter, Mary Elizabeth, in Bracken county. Mr. 
Mitchell was a Mason fraternally. 

Mrs. Mary Elizabeth (Mitchell) Stapp was the only child of her parents' 
union. She was brought up in Kentucky and Illinois, attending the schools 
of the locali:y, and came with her father to California in 1884. She has 
interested herself in the real estate business, has built several residences m 
East Bakersfield, one a large rooming house, and she owns the corner of 
Kentuckv and King streets. She is the wife of W. C. Stapp, a native of 
Grass Valley, Cal., who is a steam-shovel engineer. 

Mrs. Stapp is a splendid type of womanhood, and though she fills a 
man's position in business she has retained all the finer elements which rep- 
resent refinement and culture. She is a lover of art and from young woman- 
hood took up painting, in which she now excells and she makes a specialty 
of painting velvet pillow tops and painting on glass, from which she reaps 
both pleasure and profit. 

GEORGE W. DERBY. — Although by no means belonging to the pioneer 
element of Kern county, Mr. Derby readily is accorded a position among :he 
most progressive citizens and energetic ranchers in this favored region. 
From the time of his arrival in Bakersfield, some time during February of 
1899, he has kept in touch with every movement for the upbuilding of the 
city and county, has kept in mind the uncontested fact that the locality 
ofifers unsurpassed opportunities for business, for the oil industry and for 
agriculture, has maintained an exceptionally clear insight into business meth- 
ods and with characteristic nerve, energy and ability has risked much in 
order that he might gain much. It is worthy of note that at three separate 
times and from three dififerent parties he has bousht two hundred and eighty 
acres situated on section 24, township 31, range 28, which tract he now owns 
and operates, devoting his mental abilities and physical strength to the trans- 
formation of the tract into a productive, remunerative ranch. 

A native of Lapeer county, Mich., born July 29, 1867, George W. Derby 
grew to manhood in Kansas and in that state received a common-school edu- 
cation. Upon starting out in the world for himself he came to California 
in 1889 and secured "employment by the day or month in Tehama county. 
In a short time he removed 'to Santa Clara county, where he spent nine years 
as a workman in and around San Jose, acting as agent for an ice company in 
that city. From San Jose he came to Bakersfield for ten years after his arrival 
in California. At once he was impressed with the resources of the region. 



1434 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

At the time of his arrival Bakersfield was a village of shacks, but the devel- 
opment of the oil industry caused the town to develop a boom and this gave 
him steady employment in contracting and building to provide quarters for 
incoming setilers. Meanwhile he often visited the oil fields and constantly 
studied conditions there. As a result he invested financially in the west 
side district. He still owns a one-half interest in one-half section of deeded 
lands now leased to the Standard Oil Company, and in addition he has m- 
vested in other properties loca;ed on other sections. He now has one hun- 
dred and sixty acres in an excellent stand of alfalfa hay, while during the 
crop year of 1912 he had sixty acres in corn, the whole bringing him fair 
returns. On coming to the Weed Patch he found his' greatest need to be 
facilities for irrigation. Accordingly he has drilled five wells one hundred 
and ninety feet deep, from which great s:reams of water are pumped by 
means of two Bessemer engines. One of these has twenty-five horse-power 
and the other furnishes forty horse-power. He was the pioneer rancher to 
demonstrate the feasibility of irrigating land in this part of Kern county from 
wells by means of. pumps. 

Mr. Derby and his wife, whom he married in 1895 and who was formerly 
Miss E. Alice Hunt, of San Jose, have made their home most of the time in 
Kern county. 

R. L. BEWLEY.— Shortly after coming to Taft in 1910, Mr. Bewley 
bought out the interest of VV. E. Pennell in the blacksmith shop of Pennell 
and Massa and later he purchased the interest of Lawrence Massa, thereby 
acquiring the complete ownership of the plan:. During 1912, his quarters 
being insufficient for the demands of his growing trade, he rebuilt on Center 
street, where now he has a galvanized building 50x118 feet in dimensions, 
equipped with every modern convenience for blacksmithing and general 
repair work. Skill as a mechanic has given him the confidence of users of 
automobiles, who. find him thoroughly trustworthy in the care and super- 
vision of cars. To aid him in repair work he keeps on hand all kinds of 
automobile forgings and springs. Besides furnishing siorage and. gasoline 
for cars owned by others he has the Kern county agency for the Vulcan car. 
The care and repair and sale of automobiles do not represent the limit of his 
enterprise, for in addition he maintains three forges in his blacksmith shop 
and with the help of skilled assistants he is prepared to do horse-shoeing 
expeditiously and skillfully. 

Of Pennsylvanian bir:h and parentage, R. L. Bewley was born in Craw- 
ford county, nine miles south of Corry, on January 30, 1880. The home 
town was Spartansburg and there he attended the public schools. During 
1899 he apprenticed himself for three years under P. M. Nelson, owner of a 
blacksmith* and machine shop at Oil City, Pa. For the first three months 
he received no remuneration. During the next twelve monrhs he was paid 
S2.50 per week. Thereafter he received a slight increase in pay each month 
until at the end of his apprenticeship he was. being paid $2 per day. On 
the expiration of his time he went to Tidioute, Warren county, Pa., where 
he worked as a machinist. From that place he wcnL to other parts of the 
stite as a journeyman. One winter was spent at Meadville and he gained 
familiarity with heavy machine work in the shops of the Erie Railroad Com- 
pany there. From Pennsylvania he went to West Virginia to work 
for the Ferguson Construction Companv near Burnsville, and in a short time 
he rose to be a foreman, serving in that capacity in three different camps of 
that company. Encouraged by success as a foreman, he decided to embark 
in business for himself. "Returning to his home town of Spartansburg, Pa., 
he Operated a blacksmith and repair shop until he entered the employ of the 
State Hospital Association as engineer and mechanic in their shops. 

Upon resigning that position Mr. Bewley came to California during 
March of 1910, and from Los Angeles proceeded direct to Taft, where ever 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 143.^ 

since he has engaged in the blacksmith and repair business. In this town he 
has built a coctage for his family. In his home town of Spartansburg, Pa., 
in 1905, he married Miss Grace M. Caral, by whom he has two children, 
Celess A. and Robert LeRoy. 

F. S. COOK.— The business interests of Taft have a capable representa- 
tive in the well-known plumber, F. S. Cook, whose office and workshop are 
located in the Mariposa building and whose long experience in the plumbmg 
business, especially as connected with oil fields, qualifies him for a risnig 
patronage in sucl^a city as Taft. Work in oil districts has taken him nitc 
difi:erenc parts of the country. His childhood years were passed in Catta- 
raugus county, N. Y., where he was born March 12, 1886, and where he at- 
tended the public schools. Ever since he was fifteen he has been self-sup- 
porting. Before he had reached man's estate he was an expert steam-fitter 
and could repair gas engines with a skill and promptness unexcelled by older 
hands. Primarily introduced to the oil industry through work as a roust- 
about in :he fields of Monroe county, Ohio, he later had considerable expe- 
rience in well-known districts of West Virginia, Oklahoma, Indian Territory 
and Pennsylvania, where he became familiar with every phase of the work 
and with the varying possibilities ol production in dififerent fields. Mean- 
while he specialized in plumbing and gained a thorough knowledge of the 
trade, so that when he came to California and to Bakersfield in 1909 he 
experienced no difficulty in securing employment at a fair compensation. 

The Gundlach Tank Company, for which Mr. Cook worked as a journey- 
man in Bakersfield, sent him to Taft in 1911 to take charge of a branch busi- 
ness at this point. Discerning the excellent opening for a plumbing shop 
he established himself in business in February, 1913, and has since given a 
number of plumbing contracts of considerable importance. Exact in all 
work, industrious in disposition, careful in the filling of contracts and ex- 
perienced as to the best methods of sanitation, he is winning recognition as 
a plumber and has every reason to be gratified with the progress thus far 
made in occuoative advancement. 

ALEXANDER CARVER.— The cattle industry in Kern county had an 
able representative in the late Alexander Carver, who was born in Calaveras 
county in 1857, the son of Joel and L. J. Carver, the latter also represented in 
this work. Coming to Kern county with his parents in 1869, he here attended 
the pubhc schools and in 1876 graduated from Healds Business College in 
San Francisco. From a boy he learned the stock business, riding the range 
and after the death of his father he ran his mother's cattle at the same time 
starting a small herd of his own which gradually grew to such proportions 
he found it necessary to give it all of his time. He then purchased the nucleus 
of his ranch about fourteen miles east of Delano, afterwards adding to it until 
it contained over thirty-five hundred acres. This he improved with fences, 
wells and buildings and here he raised cattle, grain and hay, but more par- 
ticularly engaged in growing cattle of the Shorthorn variety until his death, 
lune 27, 1912. 

The marriage of Mr. Carver occurred in Visalia January 5, 1893, unitmg 
him wath Miss Eugenie E. Woody, who was born at Woody, Kern county, 
and in this county she was reared and educated. She is the eldest daughter of 
the late Dr. Sparrell Woody, a pioneer and one of Kern county's foremost men. 
(See biographies of S. A. and E. H. Woody.) To Mr. and Mrs. Carver were 
born six children : Inez L. and Ira J., both graduates of the Berkeley High 
School ; Lorene E., Marguerite M., Carl T. and Vernon L. 

Soon after Mr. Carver's death his widow sold the stock and leased the 
ranch, removing with her family to Berkeley, where she built a comfortable 
home' at No. 1617 Spruce street. A woman of high ideals and religious con- 
viction, she is a devoted member of the Christian Church. 

BENEDITTO ARDIZZI.— The late Beneditto Ardizzi, or as he was more 



1436 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

familiarly known, "Ben" Ardizzi, was born in Canton Ticino, Switzerland, and 
was there educated in the public schools. His father was an extensive mer- 
chant in Lagarno, Switzerland, and Ben became familiar with the mercantile 
business in boyhood. Becoming interested in California he came here at 
fourteen years of age and from San Francisco went immediately to the mines 
in the Sierras. He was also in the Frazier river country when the excite- 
ment was at its height. On his return to California he settled in Bear valley, 
Mariposa county, and with a partner, Victor Amy, engaged in the hotel 
business and also followed mining. Afterwards they carried on the same 
business in Snelling until the Southern Pacific was built to Delano, Kern 
county, when they established a stcre and restaurant there. When the railroad 
was continued into Sumner, now East Bakersfield, they started a store which 
afterwards grew to such large proportions that today it is one of the most 
extensive mercantile establishments in the county. The firm was Amy & 
Ardizzi until the death of the former in 1881, when Luis Olcese became a 
partner and business has since been done under the name cf the Ardizzi- 
Olcese Co. 

In 1887 Mr. Ardizzi married ?klrs. A. Park, who in maidenhood was Son- 
tine DePauli, born in Bear valley the daughter of a California pioneer and a 
sister of James DePauli also born there. After Mr. DePauli com )leted his 
studies at the University of California in 1888 he came to Kern a unty and 
became associated with the Ardizzi-Olcese Co., of which from 1897 until his 
death. May 30, 1908, he was president and manager. He married Leonora 
Gazzola, by whom he had two children, Thelma and James. Fraternally he 
was an Elk and as a citizen was highly esteemed. For some years he served 
as a trustee of Kern city and part of the time was president of the b ard. By 
her first marriage Mrs. Ardizzi had two daughters, Etta, wife of Dr. J. M. 
Kane, of Oakland, and Millie, Mrs. A. Rudgear of San Francisco. 

Ben Ardizzi died at his home in Sumner July 31, 1895, while his wife 
passed away in Oakland March 20, 1900. Mr. Ardizzi was a member of Bakers- 
field Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M., and he was buried with Masonic honors. 
Politically he was a Democrat. 

REV. EDWARD MORGAN.— St. Paul's Church at Bakersfield owes its 
organization, and in fact its early development, to Rev. D. O. Kelley, whose 
congregation erected a small frame church on Seventeenth street before 1898, 
later also building a chapel in Rosedale. It was in the latter year that the Rev. 
Edward Morgan, whose name heads this article, became rector of St. Paul's, 
and he immediately put forth efforts to acquire more land, subsequently build- 
ing the present church on the corner of I and Seventeenth streets on a prop- 
erty about double the size of the former site. This consisted of a substantial 
brick edifice which has proved a credit to the builders and a source of satis- 
facticn to the city. The old frame church was moved to Kern city and placed 
on land donated by the Pacific Improvement Company and named St. Bar- 
nabas Chapel. The Rev. Edward Morgan also procured a property in the 
Greenfield district, where he built All Saints' Chapel. 

While in Bakersfield Father Morgan purchased property on Chester 
avenue, and when the growth of the city justified he built the Morgan block, 
a two-story brick and concrete building, consisting of stores and offices, at a 
cost of $36,500. This is considered a valuable addition to the business build- 
ings in Bakersfield, and is a splendid structure throughout. 

The Rev. Edward Morgan belongs to a family many of whose members 
have won merited recognition in the world, bringing honor and glory to the 
name. Born in County Cork, Ireland, he was the son of Anthonv and Eliz- 
abeth (Tymonds) Morgan, the former an officer in the British army who dis- 
tinguished himself in the Crimean war at Alma, Inkerman and Sebastopol 
to such a degree that Queen Victoria conferred upon him three clasps and a 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1437 

medal, and he also received a medal from the Sultan of Turkey. A brother 
of the Rev. Edward Morgan, by name Lieut. Col. A. Hickman Morgan, D.S.O., 
was well known in Her Majesty's Army. The Morgan family were originally 
from Herefcrdshire, but removed from there to Ireland during the reign of 
Queen Elizabeth. The Tymonds were an old family in County Dublin but of 
English descent. 

Primarily educated by private tutors, upon coming to San Francisco the 
Rev. Edward Morgan studied for holy orders under the Rt. Rev. William 
F. Nichols, Bishop of Calif-.rnia, later was a student at the General Theological 
Seminary in New York City, and then did special work at Columbia College. 
Seventeen years ago he was ordained deacon at St. Matthews Church, San 
Mateo, and one year later was ordained priest at the Cathedral Mission of the 
Good Samaritan, at Second and Folsom streets. There he worked under the 
Rev. William I. Kiop, grandson of the first Bishop of California, who had 
passed through San Joaquin valley before there were any settlers where now 
stands the city of Bakersfield, being escorted by soldiers for protection from 
the Indians. Soon afterward he was called to Bakersfield as rector of St. 
Paul's parish, and there he remained until 1905, imparting his broad influence 
for good throughout the community, lending his aid to suffering humanity 
and bringing peace and comfort wherever he went. As a reward for his efforts 
in 1905 he became Senior Curcr at St. Agnes Chapel, Trinity parish, New 
York City, but in February, 1907, he returned to San Francisco and took 
charge of St. Luke's parish, which under his guidance has since erected a 
beautiful new church and is now one of the most prosperous and well known 
churche:s in the city. 

THE PETROLEUM CLUB.— March 1, 1912, a number of oil men from 
the Midway field were discussing matters of general interest pertaining to their 
work. Certain matters they desired to discuss confidentially, but there was no 
convenient place for a meeting. Someone then suggested a club C( mposed of 
oil men. E. D. Gillette was asked to convene the oil men of the community 
and March 4, 1912, a meeting was held in the ofifice of the Western Water 
Company, attended by the following-named gentlemen: E. D. Gillette, W. A 
Fisher, J. W. Squires, William McDufifie, E. H. Edwards, C. S. Crary and A. 
W. Albrecht. A committee on constituticn and by-laws was appointed. It was 
decided to organize a club and the name Midway Club was temporarily 
adopted, the same being afterward changed to the present title. By resolution 
a membership fee of $25 was adopted, with a monthly fee of $5. The follow- 
ing oiBcers were elected: E. D. Gillette, president; William McDufifie, vice- 
president; C. S. Crary, treasurer; and A. W. Albrecht, secretary. The second 
meeting was held March 12 in Mr. Albrecht's cffice. At the third meeting, 
March 18, the question of location was discussed and it developed that it was 
impossible to secure a hall. Some then presented the plan of erecting a build- 
ing of their own. At the same meeting articles of incorporation were pre- 
sented and the certificate of incorporation bears date of March 27, 1912. The 
niembership soon grew to twenty-five members. The by-laws were adopted 
March 23, at the first meeting of the board of directors. 

A STCcial committee and later a house committee considered the question 
of building. On the 15th of April this committee recommended the purchase of 
lots 13, 14, 15 and 16, block 18, townsite of Moron (now Taft), from the 
Southern Pacific Company, together with the purchase of lot 12, same block, 
from Mr. Savage. The recommendation passed by vote. At a later meeting 
plans for a building were discussed and those by E. D. Ferrell, architect, were 
adopted. The north end of the building, consisting of the main living room, 
30x40, with hardwood floors, was erected in 1912 at a cost of $13,003. The 
bungalow style makes an attractive exterior, while the interior appointments 



1438 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

are those of a modern, first-class club and already $19,000 has been expended. 
At the present time the membership is about one hundred and twenty-five. 

Saturday, May 10, 1913, the Merchants' Association of San Francisco, 
one hundred and twenty-five stron.2:, visited Taft and were entertained at a 
banquet by the club. Opening night, September 7, 1912, an impromptu pro- 
gram of local speakers and a banquet made a delightful function for the 
members and their gentlemen guests. About once in two months there is a 
ladies' night. Every Tuesday afternoon the Woman's Improvement Club of 
Taft holds its social and business meetings at the Club, which more and more 
is becoming a social center for the city. The present officers are as follows: 
E. D. GilleUe, president; E. B. Latham, vice-president; T. O. May, treasurer; 
and A. VV. Albrecht, secretary. 

The latest venture of the Club is the publication of the Petroleum Re- 
porter (independent), the first number of which appeared July 8, 1913. In 
putting out such a publication the members did so with the hope that it 
might accurately reflect conditions as they really exist in the great industry 
that forms the very life of Taft. Public measures afifecting the oil fields and 
oil industries receive impartial comment. 

Below we append a list of the active members of the Petroleum Club : 
A. W. Albrecht, F. E. Beach, A. R. M. Blackball, F. R. Campbell, Walter Can- 
field, J. B. Carlock, J. B. Carter, W. O. Clay, J. P. Cooney, F. E. Davis, S. 
Duschak, Charles del Bondio, E. T. Edwards, W. A. Fischer, W. Follansbee, 
W. J. Fitzmartin, J. J. Gallman, E. D. Gillette, C. E. Good, L. P. Guiberson, 
C. H. Holmes, G. S. Hanning, H. M. Haseltine, J. P. Hickey, W. D. Head, 
Charles A. Hahn, George Kammerer, A. M. Keene, M. L. Kleinsmith, E. C. 
Kellermeyer. Dr. C. Lawton, E. B. Latham, F. W. Livingston, Jack Lilburn, 
H. H. Maddren, T. O. May, E. H. Marsh, F. Marsh, W. O. Maxwell, J. J. 
Aleachem, R. R. Morris, J. M. Murray, S. W. Mimms, H. F. Mcshier, William 
C. McDuffie, J. F. McMahan, F. O. Patterson, G. G. Patten, J. C. Perkins, T- L. 
Philiop, J. H. Rainey, E. S. Rose, J. F. Ross, F. O. Redd, L. W. Sharp, C. L. 
Shirk, Charles St. Louis, W. G. Talbot, J. W. Tipton, George H. Todd, Wil- 
liam Walker, Clarence H. Williams, E.'H. Williams, R. L. Agee, I. W. Alex- 
ander, W. J. Atwood, C. H. Allison, F. Bellis, George H. Bailey, R. A. Broom- 
field, E. M. Brown, T. F. Bastain, E. H. Conklin, George R. Caldwell, C. B. 
Colby, J. O. Clutter, W. Dumont, B. T. Dyer, J. P. Dooley, H. J. Everitt, E. H. 
Edwards, F. P. Findley, S. G. Gassaway, F. H. Hall, Stone Hastain, J. J. Hern, 
C. M. Imerson, J. M. Jameson, W. C. Johnson, Dave Kinsey, L. P. Keister. 
George R. Kerr, Everitt King, E. W. King, W. M. King, W. A. Kobbe, R. 
Laird, G. P. Louthaine, George H. Lowell, H. H. McClintock, P. M. Pike, A. 
E. Raine, William C. Rae, B. L. Stitzinger, Mel P. Smith, J. W. Squires, R. A. 
Sperry, Walter Snook, H. N. Taylor. H. W. Wadeson, A. Wark, J. J. Wilt, 
C. E. Word en. 

JOHN KOCH. — The earliest recollections of Mr. Koch are of a home 
nestled among the mountains in Canton Graubunden, Switzerland, where he 
was born January 25, 1863, at Zilles. That same canton was the birthplace 
and childhood he me of his parents, John and Mary (Hunger) Koch, and there 
too they were married and continued to make their home. 

Of the two children comprising the parental family John Koch was the 
younger, and early in life was made familiar with the duties of the dairy, for 
his father had extensive interests along this line. His services in the dairy, 
however, were not allowed to interfere with his education, but after school 
days were over he returned to the duties of the home farm and gave his services 
lo his father until he took upon himself the duties of life. As a dairyman in 
the employ of others he worked as a butter-maker and as a cheese-maker from 
that time until he came to the new world in 1890. Coming direct to Kern 
county, Cal., he saw a good outlook for the business to which he had been 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1439 

trained. He was fortunate in securing ready employment, but no more so 
than was Chris Mattly, with whom he remained as butter and cheese maker 
for two years. He then engaged in business for himself. Associated with two 
others with like ambitions and with a good understanding of the business 
he rented a dairy in the vicinity of Bakersfield and for three years made a 
specialty of butter-making. After selling his interest in the enterprise in 1896 
he returned to the old family home in Switzerland. While he enjoyed renew- 
ing the associations of family and friends, at the end of a year he was as 
anxious to return to California as he had been to leave it. Upon his return to 
Bakersfield he entered the employ of the Kern County Land Company as 
Initter-maker, on the Stockdale ranch, remaining there about two years, or until 
his marriage. 

In the Old River district, Kern county, John Koch was married in 1898 
to Miss Mary VVeichelt, who was born in Canton Graubunden, Switzerland, the 
daughter of Gottlieb Weichelt, and a sister of Mrs. Chris Mattly. In 1899 
Mr. Koch purchased sixty acres of the property which he now owns nine 
miles southwest of Bakersfield. Here in a modest way he engaged in the dairy 
business independently, extending his interests as conditions permitted, and 
ultimately he purchased twenty acres adjoining his first purchase until he now 
has eighty acres altogether, under the Farmers canal and devoted to alfaha 
and grain. During 1901, associated with Christian Ruedy and Peter Gilli, Mr. 
Koch erected a creamery which he and his associates ran for about eight 
years. Since then Mr. Koch has given his attention to the dairy business, and 
as a result of his unremitting efiforts has built up one of the largest individual 
dairy interests in the vicinity of Bakersfield if not in Kern county. 

Politically Mr. Koch is a Republican, and with his wife he is a communi- 
cant of the Lutheran Church. In this faith they are rearing their three chil- 
dren, John, Nina and Gottleib. 

R. N. SIMPSON.— -The San Francisco Midway Oil Company, of which 
]\Ir. Simpson acts as superintendent, is one of the organizations operating in 
section 24, 31-23, and where two wells produce an average monthly output 
of two thousand barrels. The superintendent of this property is a native of 
Pennsylvania and was born in Mercer county, February 19, 1864, being one of 
four children whose father, a farmer and oil speculator, died when the son was 
only eight years of age. The mother married a second time and now, again 
widowed, she makes her home at Long Beach, Cal. Besides Robert N., there 
were two sons and one daughter in the family, namely: George W., who was 
accidentally killed in 1909 while drilling on the Mascot lease near Taft ; Frank 
B., a driller now working on the San Francisco Midway lease near Shale; 
and Ada, Mrs. John Nonnemoker, who died in Ohio, leaving a daughter, Agnes. 

Reared in Venango and McKean counties, Pa., and near Windsor, Ohio, 
Robert N. Simpson has earned his own livelihood since he was a lad of twelve. 
At first he worked on an Ohio farm for his board and clothes. Later he was 
paid a small wage. During a part of his youth he was allowed to attend school 
in the winter months. When eighteen years of age in 1882 he successfully 
passed the teachers' examination in Ashtabula county, Ohio, where he taught 
in 1883 and 1884. Upon discontinuing work as a teacher he went to New York 
state with a roofing gang and later learned the details of the oil industry in 
the fields of Simpson, Pa., where he spent considerable time as a pumper. 
A well-known oil man of Pennsylvania, George McCloud, was his employer 
in the Pennsylvania oil fields. Returning to Ohio in 1892, he engaged as a 
tool-dresser at Woodville for four months. During eight years following he 
held a very important and responsible position with S. C. Heacock, an exten- 
sive farmer and prominent oil operator in Wood county, Ohio. 

Coming to California in 1501, Mr. Simpson spent five months at Long 



1440 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Beach and meanwhile studied conditions in that part of the state. On his 
return to Ohio he resumed work in the oil fields, where he remained for two 
years. When he again came to California, he sought the Coalinga field and 
secured employment with the California Limited and the 28 Oil Companies, 
also held a position later with the Premier Oil Company. In 1910 he came 
to the Midway and worked as a driller under E. S. Brown. November 8, 1912, 
he was made superintendent of the lease owned by another oil company, and 
he now has charge of the San Francisco Midway lease of forty acres. During 
the period of his residence in Ohio he married in 1894 Miss Elvira Hill, of 
North Baltimore, that state, a lady of housewifely skill and gracious hospital- 
ity. They became the parents of five children, four of whom are living, 
namely: Hugh, a pumper on the San Francisco Midway lease; Gertrude A., 
Clyde R. and George F. The second son, Lyle, accidentally shot himself 
December 15. 1912. while duck hunting near Long Beach. 

LESREY G. HELM. — One of the leading business men of Wasco, Kern 
county, L. G. Helm is the junior member of the firm of L. G. Helm & Son, 
general merchants, whose establishment is one of the finest of its kind in the 
vicinity. L. G. Helm, Sr., was born in Saline county. Mo., January 30, 1854. 
and for many years carried on merchandising in the east. In 1882 he moved 
to Texas, disposing of his property in Missouri, but finally returned east 
and engaged in business. In 1892 he came to California, locating at Rosedale, 
Kern county, where he lived until he settled in W'asco. While he retains 
his interest in the" store with his son and is interested in the McKittrick and 
Lost Hills oil fields, he is practically retired from active business. 

It was on the 25th of April, 1886, that the younger Helm was born. He 
came to Kern county with his parents when he was about six years old, and 
until he was fourteen attended the public schools at Rosedale and Bakers- 
field. Then for eight years he was a salesman in Redlick's department store at 
Bakersfield. Late in 1908 he moved to McKittrick, where he opened a general 
merchandise store which he conducted with success about six months. In 1909 
he took up his residence at Wasco, where in partnership with his father he 
established the mercantile establishment of L. G. Helm & Son, a concern 
which supplies Wasco, Lost Hills and vicinity with merchandise of all kinds. 
They are local agents for the Moline Plow Company's implements and the 
Fish and Studebaker wagons and their trade extends widely throughout the 
country surrounding W asco. The firm erected a large brick building 50x60 
feet, in which their business is conducted. The son owns property in the 
Lost Hills oil district and in the McKittrick field. In 1910 he organized the 
Louise Oil Company, which is operating in the Lest Hills district. He is 
now a director in the Wasco Hall Association and he affiliates socially with 
the Woodmen of the W^orld and the Modern Woodmen of America. He 
married, November 14, 1906, Miss Etta A. Martin, who was born in Arizona, 
and they have one child, Fay H. Mr. Helm was one of the organizers and a 
director of the Bank of Wasco. 

GEORGE W. McCAUSLAND.— The revolution which during 1911 and 
1912 rendered the presence of American business men in Mexico no longer safe 
proved the unfortunate affair which influenced George \^^ McCausland to 
return to the United States, thereby temporarily causing a cessation of his 
extensive mining operations in our neighboring country. Howevci, much as 
he regretted the deplorable national occurrences that forced him to discontinue 
business interests in Mexico, he has had no reason to regret the decision that 
has made him a resident of Kern county and a contributor to the material 
development of W^asco, where he has been engaged in mercantile pursuits 
and also in the securing of an adequate water system for the town. As a boy 
he attended the common schools in Michigan, where he had been born at 
Saginaw July 21, 1884. and later he attended the Chicago high schools. The 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1441 

bent of his mind turned his studies toward mining- and he qualified for scien- 
tific work in the occupation throufjh attendance upon a college of mining in 
Michigan, where he had the best advantages the country afforded for special- 
izing in his chosen calling. 

Upon leaving college and subsequently engaging for one year with the 
United States Gypsum Company in Chicago, Mr. McCausland resigned a 
flattering position in order to join his brothers in mining ventures in Mexico. 
Upon leaving Chicago and the north he proceeded to Santa Barbara in the 
state of Chihuahua, Mexico, where he acquired an interest in a valuable 
gold mine. With his brothers he managed and developed the property and his 
interest in the company is now very valuable, besides which he owns an in- 
terest in a copper mine in Chihuahua. He returned to the United States in 
1911, at which time, after a visit of six months with his parents in Los Angeles, 
he came to Kern county and formed a mercantile partnership with G. R. 
Stillson. He now owns and conducts a general store at W'asco. He installed 
the water system which supplies the village with water, but this was later sold 
out. He has built a comfortable bungalow en the Main. During December of 
1909 he married Miss Czegenyi B. Howes, who was born in Nashville, Tenn., 
in November of 1891 and received superior educational advantages in the 
south. 

JOHN W. CANADAY. — Not only does the Canaday family enjoy the 
distinction of being numbered among the pioneers tf California, but in addi- 
tion it is of colonial and Revolutionary lineage and different generations have 
aided in the material upbuilding of different parts of the country. The family 
history shows that William and Polly (Gier) Canaday, natives of Kentucky 
and farmers in Madison county, left their eld southern commonwealth for 
the then undeveloped and sparsely settled regions of Missouri, where in 1836 
they became pioneer farmers of Linn county. With them in the removal was a 
son of four years, John Turner, whose birth had occurred in Madison county, 
Ky., March 7, 1836, but whose recollectit ns include only the most meager 
memories of his native place. Upon attaining his majority he started out to 
earn his own way in the world. For a few years he engaged in teaming and 
lumbering at St. Joseph, Mo., and in that period he heard much concerning 
the great west. During the spring of 1858 he joined an expedition comprising 
seventy-five large wagons and teams, which started from Independence, Mo., 
for the long journey across the plains. It was his task to drive nine yoke of 
cattle for their owner and he therefore was obliged to leave the main caravan 
at Salt Lake City, from which point he proceeded to Box Elder with the stock. 
Having delivered the drove to the proper parties, he then took charge of some 
horses and cattle and drove them through to Susan Bluffs on the Carson 
river for their owner, Mr. Blankinship. He then proceeded on foot to Placer- 
ville, where he landed in August after a journey of four months and eight days. 

An experience as teamster with the Diamond Mills Placer Company dur- 
ing the autumn and as miner in the winter proved unremunerative, so he tried 
his luck on a ranch near Yolo and afterward engaged in teaming and ranching 
near Stockton. Later he took up land near Modesto, Stanislaus county, whence 
about 1878 he came to Kern county and for two years was with the Kern 
County Land Comnany. During 1880 he homesteaded eighty acres on the 
Beardsley canal and there he engaged in ranching until 1893. His marriage 
took place in Stanislaus county in 1868 and united him with Miss Louise 
St. Mary, a native of Illinois and a daughter of Alexander St. Mary. When 
only two years of age she was brought from Illinois to California by way of 
Panama. In girlhood she attended school in San Joaquin county. Five chil- 
dren were born of her marriage : James M., Bakersfield ; George, wdio died 
at fourteen years ; John W., whose name introduces this article and whose 
birth occurred near Modesto, Stanislaus county, November 20, 1^75 ; Mrs. 



1442 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Barbara Wible, of Bakersfield ; and Mrs. Minnie Sleichter, a resident of Fresno. 

Being only a small child when the family came to Kern county, John W. 
Canaday received all his schooling in Bakersfield and later he followed farm- 
ing in this county. An experience of four years as a driver with H. H. Fish 
was followed by a connection for five years with the Southern Pacific Railroad 
Company as locomotive fireman. Next he was a conductor with the street- 
car ccmpau}' in Bakersfield, resigning this June 7, 1910, to become collector 
for the water department of the Kern County Land Company. At Caliente, 
Kern county, June 26, 1901, he was married to Miss Mary Dukes, a native of 
Kernville, Kern county. In an early day Charles Henry Dukes came from his 
native Kentucky to California with two brothers. For a long period he was 
engaged with the Southern Pacific Railroad Comoany and made his home at 
Caliente, where his death occurred at the age of sixty-four years. In the same 
town in 1898 occurred the demise of his wife, who bore the maiden name of 
Sarah E. Bowen and was born in Tulare county, this state, in 1860. Their 
family comprised six children, the eldest of whom is the wife of Mr. Canaday. 
The others named are as follows: Mrs. Virginia Rose, of Los Angeles; 
Charles A. and W. G., of Globe, Ariz. ; Sadie and Floyd, who are living in 
Bakersfield. Mrs. Canaday was educated in Caliente and Bakersfield and is a 
woman of intelligence and refinement, intensely devoted to the welfare and 
progress of California and deoly interested in the activities of Tejon Parlor 
No. 336, N. D. G. W., of which she is past president. In addition she is asso- 
ciated with the Pythian Sisters, while Mr. Canaday has been a leading member 
of the Knights of Pythias in the Kern Lodge, and he is further connected 
with Bakersfield Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E., and the Woodmen of the World. 
Politically he is a Democrat. 

M. A. LINDBERG.— The proprietor of the Arlington hotel and cafe at 
Bakersfield is of Scandinavian birth and lineage and was born at Skaane, 
Sweden, August 19, 1867, being the son of a farmer who also followed the 
occupation of a brick-layer. At the age of fourteen years he was taken out 
of school in order to begin an apprenticeship to the brick-layer's trade and for 
six years he devoted himself to the work in his native land, whence in 1887 
he came to the United States, first settling at Omaha, Neb. The following 
year he went on to the central part of Colorado and began to assist in 
filling contracts for ties and timber for the Denver & South Park Railroad. 
On the completion of that job he filled similar contracts for dififerent railrcads 
in Idaho, Washington, Montana and British Columbia, and during that period 
he was married, in Virginia City, Nev., to Miss Hulda Streckenbach, who 
was born and reared in that place. During 1892 he came to California as 
foreman of construction wc rk on the Coast line and three years later he came 
through Kern county for the first time. Relinquishing his railroad work, he 
entered into the restaurant business at Lompoc and after three years in that 
town he came to Bakersfield in INlarch, 1900, shortly afterward buying an in- 
terest in the lease of the Arlington hotel. For a time the inn was conducted 
under the name of the T. H. Fogarty Comoany, but later Mr. Lindberg 
acquired control of the entire lease and since then has managed the hotel in 
his own name. The building occupies a central location on the corner of 
Chester avenue and Nineteenth street. 

Besides acting as proprietor of the hotel Mr. Lindberg represents the 
Pabst Brewing Company of Milwaukee and is also president and a director of 
the S. P. Oil Mining Company, which operates producing wells in the Kern 
river field. During June of 1911 he bought the Democrat springs and the O. K. 
placer claim of twenty acres on the Kern river, where the presence of one of 
the finest white sulphur springs in the state makes the place valuable as a 
health resort. A hotel and cottages have been erected, a large plunge and mud 
baths have been instituted, attractive facilities for boating and fishing have 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1443 

been provided and many other improvements have been made, including an 
electric li.s:ht and storage plant and g( od roads by stage or automobile from 
Bakersfield, the distance of forty miles being easily made in three hours. He 
has installed an automobile stage plying between the Arlington and Democrat 
springs. The resort is run both winter and summer and has already estab- 
lished a record for the great curative properties of the water, particularly for 
rheumatism. Ever since he began to vote Mr. Lindberg has supported Demo- 
cratic principles. The Bakersfield Board of Trade has his name enrolled 
among its members. Fraternally he has been identified prominently with the 
Improved Order of Red Men, the Royal Arch, Benevolent Protective Order of 
Elks and the Eagles, in which last-named organization for seven or more 
years he has served with fidelity and accuracy in the office of treasurer. 

EDWARD F. NEWSOM.— The lineage cf the Newsom family indicates 
long identification with the history of Virginia and at Petersburg, that state, 
occurred the birth of David Frank Newsom, a pioneer of California. Long 
before the Civil war (in which a brother bore an active part) he had left the 
old home and had begun to earn his own livelihood as an employe of the 
Hudson Bay Company, in whose interests he conducted sutler stores at 
Bellingham bay, on Puget sound and along the Eraser river in British Colum- 
bia. Upon resigning the position he had held with them he came to Cali- 
fornia and became cne of the very first settlers of San Luis Obispo county, 
where he married Miss Annie Branch, daughter of an Englishman, Ezba 
Branch. Elected the first clerk of San Luis Obispo county, he filled the office 
for many years. The salary, however, was scarcely adequate for the needs of a 
large family and accordingly he followed other lines of work to increase the 
annual income. One of his early occupations was that of schoolteacher. In 
addition he served for years as county judge. Meanwhile, having been greatly 
troubled with catarrh, he had found a permanent remedy in the waters of a 
fine medical spring owned by his father-in-law and when the latter presented 
his daughter, Mrs. Newsom, with the springs and adjacent grounds they u'ere 
named the Newsom Arroyo Grande warm springs. A resort was established 
two and one-half miles from Arroyo Grande and many people troubled with 
rheumatism, neuralgia and catarrh found relief from the diseases through the 
waters of the springs. After the death of Mr. Newsom, in KOI, his widow 
became the manager of the springs and she conducted the resort until her 
death in April, 1912. The land, together with a large tract adjacent thereto, 
had been given to her father, Ezba Branch, a pioneer of San Luis Obispo 
ccunty, after his marriage to Dona Manuella Ortega, a native daughter of 
California and a member of a pioneer Spanish family well-knowm al( ng the 
coast. Through the prominence and high standing of this family the iMexican 
government was influenced to bestow upon Mr. Branch the Santa ]\Ianuella 
grant and thereafter he had charge of the vast tract, which he devoted to 
stock-raising purposes. 

Six sons and six daughters comorised the family cf David Frank Newsom 
and among these (all still living) Edward F. was next to the eldest. Born at 
Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo county, December 16, 1865, he attended the 
schools of the locality in boyhood and at the same time acquired a knowledge 
of the fundamentals of agriculture. A decided fondness for the care of horses 
decided his occupation in life and while he worked with the Kern County 
Land Company in Bakersfield from 1898 to 1904 and with the Standard Oil 
Company from 1904 to 19C6 he used teams in all of this work and thus con- 
tinued to study the care and management of horses. After he had completed 
a job of excavating for reservoirs for the Standard Oil Company he embarked 
in the livery business in Bakersfield, where he has a feed and sale stable on the 
corner of M and Eighteenth streets. A general livery business is conducted 
wath a full equipment of fine horses and neat vehicles. Horses are bought, sold 



1444 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

and exchanged, while many also are taken as boarders. He also runs the stage 
line to Glennville, a distance of fcrty-five miles, making three round trips a 
week. While he displays ability in every line of the business, it is in the 
breaking of horses that he has gained his widest reputation. He has built 
two bungalows on Grove and Sonora streets in one of which he makes his 
home, and he also owns real estate in Los Angeles and San Diego. Aside from 
maintaining a constant supervision of his stables, he has been active in the 
Knights of Pythias, Woodmen of the World and the Owls, while in politics 
he has stanchly supported Democratic principles. He is a widower with one 
son, Alfred, whose mother, Eveline (Cochrane) Newsom, a native of Paso 
Robles, San Luis Obispo county, and a daughter of a pioneer physician in that 
portion of the state, died after the family had established their home in Bakers- 
field. 

P. J. O'MEARA. — The real-estate and insurance interests of East Bakers- 
field find able rei)resentation in the firm of W'oody and O'AIeara, whose offices 
are located in the Hotel Metropole and who are now owners of one-half 
interest in that hotel. In addition to negotiating sales of farms and town 
properties, they sell oil lands, put through important leases, secure options, 
make first-mortgage loans, efifect exchanges of properties and indeed discharge 
any duty or carry out any transaction connected with their chosen occupation. 
Many of the most important real-estate and promotion deals in East Bakers- 
field have been made under their supervision, and by integrity, honesty and 
intelligence they have won the confidence of all. Along insurance lines they- 
represent such well-known companies as the German-American Insurance 
Company of New York, the Fireman's Fund Insurance Company of San Fran- 
cisco and the Royal Insurance Company of Liverpool. A safety deposit de- 
partment has been added to their office equipment and there are fire and 
burglar pro^f boxes for rent to customers. 

Born at Vancouver, Wash., October 9, 1876, P. J. O'Meara was fifth in 
order of birth among ten children, eight of whom are still living. The parents, 
Patrick and Johanna (Long) O'Meara, died respectively in 1903 and 1904, 
the former at the age of seventy-eight years. He had come to California 
in early life from the mines of Australia and New Zealand and after his 
arrival in 1850 had engaged in the hotel business in San Francisco, but later 
became a pioneer of Washington and engaged in ranching near Vancouver. 
Returning to California in 1885, he took up land near Keene, Kern county, and 
engaged ni stock-raising and farming. From time to time he added to his 
possessions until he had acquired the title to about two thousand acres of land 
near Keene. To his labors was due the organization of a school district and 
the building of a schoolhouse. For years he gave faithful service as school 
trustee. For some years he was employed as bridge inspector of the district 
along the Southern Pacific Railroad. 

Coming to Kern county when less than nine years of age, P. J. O'Meara 
passed the uneventful years of boyhood on the home ranch near Keene and 
attended the school in that district. After leaving school he aided his father 
on the home ranch. At the age of nineteen he became a fireman of the South- 
ern Pacific Railroad and continued in that capacity for four years, after which 
he returned to the stock industry and engaged in raising cattle on a ranch 
near Breckenridge. For three years he continued raising cattle on the Kern 
river and then disposed of his stock, investing the proceeds in a stock of 
general merchandise at Caliente, Kern county. While carrying on the store 
he also served as justice of the peace. During 1908 an explosion of dynamite 
in the Southern Pacific warehouse started a fire that almost wiped out the 
village and he was one of the heaviest losers by the catastrophe. The following 
year he formed a partnership with A. J. Woody in the real-estate business at 
Kern, where also they with J. H. Stevenson own the Hotel Metropole. In 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1445 

addition to other holdings Mr. O'Meara is interested in oil development in the 
west side fields, serves as a director in various companies and is part owner of 
a quartz mill in the Amelia district. Fraternally he holds membership with 
the Eagles and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. 

FREDERICK ELI HARE, — Best known in Delano as manager of the 
Union Lumber Company's yard stationed there, Frederick Eli Hare is classed 
among the reliable, honest and trustworthy citizens of the county. He was the 
elder of two children born to his parents, Elias C. and Anna (Woods) Hare, 
the former of whom was born in Wooster, Ohio, and came to California when 
eighteen years old. Traveling by way of Panama he reached the California 
coast in the '50s and followed placer mining in the Sierra Nevadas for many 
years. Subsequently he successfully conducted a mercantile business in San 
Francisco, relinquishing this interest to become secretary of the Masonic 
Board of Relief in that city, and for many years he filled that responsible 
position with credit and ability. Mr. Hare is now making his home with his 
son at the age of seventy-seven years. His wife, whom he married in Eldorado 
county, was a native of Illinois, and crossed the plains with her parents by 
means of ox-teams. The father was prominent in Masonic circles, has been 
grand lecturer of Grand Lodge of California, serving for four years, and 
attained the Knight Templar degree. 

Frederick E. Hare was born September 11, 1864, at Rose Springs, Eldorado 
county, on Tennessee Creek. This was located about eight miles from Ccloma, 
where gold was discovered by Marshall in 1848. Reared in the city of San 
Francisco, he there obtained a good public school education and graduated 
from Heald's Business College in 1882. Then he gained experience by filling 
the position of bookkeeper for several firms, after which for eight years he 
served as route agent for the San Francisco Chronicle. The succeeding four 
years he passed in the employ of T. J. Conroy's insurance agency. Coming 
to Bakersfield in 1903 he assumed the management of the Coffee Club but the 
duties proved too arduous for his constitution and he went to Nevada county 
to regain his health. After eighteen months spent on a ranch he returned 
to Bakersfield and entered the employ of the Union Lumber Company in 
the capacity of bookkeeper. In 1908, upon the establishment of the lumber 
yard at Delano, he was made manager of same and to^k full charge of the 
building up of the branch, in which he has met with signal success. Mr. 
Hare's marriage occurred in Nevada county, Cal., uniting him with Amy 
Isbister, a native of that county and daughter of John Isbister, who was a 
pioneer miner and farmer of this state. Three children have blessed this 
union, John, James and Frederick. Fraternally he is a member of San Fran- 
cisco Lodge, No. 212, F. & A. M., and politically a Republican. 

ROBERT GUNDERSON.— To leave a Norwegian home at the age of 
fifteen years and to devote the next decade exclusively to mining in loneh'' 
regions far removed from educaticnal centers, would seem to offer. few advan- 
tages to a young man for the acquisition of culture and a comprehensive 
fund of knowledge in history, literature and the arts, yet we find Mr. Gunder- 
son one of the best-posted men in his part of Kern county. Both he and his 
brother, Daniel, who is in partnership with him in the book and stationery 
business at Randsburg, are regarded as men of intelligence and much general 
information ; furthermore, they have a high standing in the community for 
their honesty, integrity and moral worth. Their stock of books has been 
selected with more than ordinary care and they also maintain a branch of the 
county library in their book-shop, further have a newspaoer agency and 
deal in cigars and tobacco. Since they bought the McCarthy store in April, 
1905, they have conducted their book and stationery business at Randsburg, 
besides having other interests in this portion of the county. 

Near Mandal, Norway, Robert Gunderson was born February 5, 1871, 



1446 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the son of a well-to-do farmer who gave him the advantage of a thorough 
education in the common branches of study. Upon coming to the United 
States in 1886 he found employment in Michigan iron mines at Ironwood, 
but a year later removed to Wisconsin and secured employment on the coal 
docks at West Superior. During 1888 he migrated to Montana, where he was 
employed in mines and the smelter at Anaccnda. In a short time he went to 
Utah and found work in mines at Park City. The year 1890 found him at 
Pioche, Nev., where mining pursuits occupied his time for two years. The 
trip from that locality to Vanderbilt, San Bernardino county, Cal., in 1892 was 
made by wagon. Happening to be in Los Angeles in 1893 when Mr. Reed 
brought a $1,000 nugget obtained in Reed Gulch in the Goler district, he 
decided to prospect in the new location. Immediately he came to Kern county 
and took up work in the vicinity of Goler, where he located the Last Chance, 
Norway and Rocket mines, and where he met with considerable success in 
the placer mines. Upcn the starting of Randsburg he decided to locate at 
this point and October of 1896 found him a newcomer in the district, where 
ever since he has been interested in quartz mining. He discovered and U cated 
what is known as the Minnesota group of four claims situated two and one- 
half miles southwest of Randsburg, where he is engaged in mining and ship- 
ping ore, while in addition since 1905 he has been a partner in the book 
business. Fraternally he holds membership with the Eagles. His brother 
and partner, Daniel, completed his education in the high school at Ottawa, 
Minn., and engaged in teaching in that state until 1903, when he jcined Robert 
in Kern county. For a time he taught in the Randsburg school, but later he 
has engaged in the book business, besides acting as a member of the Kern 
count}^ board of education for two terms. In the community the brothers 
have the highest reputation for progressive tendencies, personal energy and 
keen mentality and they have been important factors in the permanent upbuild- 
ing of Randsburg. 

FRED C. CLARK. — New York state has given to California many citi- 
zens who have contributed to its growth and development and participated in 
the benefits accruing therefrom. Born in De Peyster, St. Lawrence county, 
N. Y., February 23, 1853, Fred C. Clark was the son of John B. and Amelia G. 
(Robertson) Clark, natives of New Hampshire and Wales, respectively, who 
farmed in the state of New York until their deaths. 

At the public school near his boyhood home young Clark was a student 
until he was seventeen years old, living meanwhile with his parents and 
assisting with the work on the home farm. About that time his father sold 
his property and the family moved to a town nearby, where the young man 
learned the trade of carriage-making. Finding that a place in a carriage shop 
was net always open to him he became a carpenter and builder, and as such 
was constantly employed in various cities in New York, Illinois, Missouri 
and Kansas, until he came to the Pacific coast, arriving at Los Angeles January 
3, 1890. Here he was employed as a carpenter until February, 1891, when he 
came to Bakersfield and prospered as a rancher for twenty-one years. He 
purchased a ranch of twenty acres on Kern Island, later adding ten acres more, 
the land being unimproved when he took possession. But he began with 
alfalfa and grain and soon improved it and had it all under successful cultiva- 
tion. In 1904 he bought forty acres about a mile from his first purchase, and 
when he had put it under cultivation to some extent he bought an adjoining 
sixty acres, making a hundred and thirty acres in alfalfa and grain. In the 
same year he also carried on dairying for a short time. In 1911 he sold his 
first thirty acres and now owns one hundred acres, most of it under alfalfa 
and grain, the remainder devoted to pasturage, and he keeps a limited number 
of cattle and hogs. In 1911 he removed to Bakersfield, purchased a home on 
Dracena street, and is to a degree retired from active life. Mrs. Clark was 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1447 

formerly Miss Annie M. Handley, who was born near Attica, Ind., February 16, 
1863, and she has two children, Fred H. and Glenn B. Mrs. Clark was the 
daughter of William and Maria (Pyle) Handley, natives of Scotland and Ohio 
respectively, who were farmers in Indiana. From there they moved to Kan- 
sas and thence in 1894 came to Bakersfield, where the mother died in 1903. 
The father resides with Mrs. Clark. She is a member of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church South. In politics Mr. Clark is a Republican. 

ADOLPHUS DOWD. — Varied experiences in different parts of the coun- 
try have come to Mr. Dowd since he earned his first money as a messenger 
boy in Sherman, Tex., and since he devoted his evenings after school to 
acquiring an expert knowledge of telegraphy, an art in which he gained re- 
markable proficiency at an early age. For years he had a reputacion as one 
of the swiftest and most accurate operators in the service and although no 
longer following the occupation his hand has not forgotten its skill at the 
key. In addition to expertness in telegraphy he had completed a commercial 
course and thus became competent in stenography and bookkeeping, so that 
while still young he was well qualified to earn a livelihood. The course of 
his business life took him to every part of the country and even to Panama, 
but he found it impossible to forge ahead financially; indeed, when he arrived 
at Taf: February 15, 1909, he had but $1.65 in his possession. Today he 
owns his own garage, owns also a neat cottage in Taft, and as a partner in 
the firm of Stebbins & Dowd owns an interest in the stock, equipment and 
supplies of the Ford automobile agency at this point. 

A member of an old Southern family, Mr. Dowd was born in Toledo, 
Ohio, August 25, 1880, and was the eldes: child of Gundulphus and Mary 
(Strickland) Dowd. The mother died at the age of thirty-three and later 
the father married again, by the second union becoming the parent of one 
child, Henry, now living on the home ranch in New Mexico. After suc- 
cessive removals through the south, from Georgia (where he was born), 
to Texas, Mississippi and o:her states, the elder Dowd eventually established 
a permanent home in New Mexico, where he since has engaged in ranching 
and cattle-raising. His second and third sons, Cephus and George T., are 
living in Texas, where the former is a cattleman and the latter an emplove 
of the Santa Fe Railroad Company. The fourth son, Edvv^ard S., works for 
his oldest brother in the garage at Taft, while the fifth son, Harry T., and 
the son by the second marriage, Henry, remain with their father on the New 
Mexico ranch. 

When nine years of age Adolphus Dowd accompanied the family from 
Mississippi to Texas, where at the age of eighteen he completed the literary 
course in the Sherman schools. Meanwhile he had gained a thorough knowl- 
edge of telegraphy by night study and his first paid position as operator was 
at Trinidad, Colo., where he worked for two vears with the Colorado South- 
ern Railroad Company. Later he had positions in many places and with 
different companies. Particularly he worked for the Postal and Western 
Union Companies, and the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company under 
Capt. H. J. Hughes, head of the Marconi svstem. In New York Citv he, 
was with both the Postal and the Western Union. In Texas he worked at 
Dallas and Galveston, later held a position at Denver. Colo., and as early as 
1904 went to Panama under a three-year contract in the government service, 
but an attack of malaria and conseouent ill-health led to his honorable dis- 
charge from the service. During 1905 he arrived in San Francisco, where 
he engaged as telegraph operator for the San Francisco Examiner and the 
Associated Press. One of the most thrilling experiences occurred at the 
time of the earthquake, when he was on dutv in San Francisco. From that 
city he went to Kansas, where he was emploved successively at Topeka, 
Dodge City and Herington. The year 1907 found him with the Western 
Union in Los Angeles. Later he was employed for a year at New Orleans, 

62 



1448 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

La., and next went to Houston, Tex., to engage with the Houston Belt & 
Terminal line. When he resigned from that position he was sent to San 
Francisco by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and next came to Kern 
county early in 1909. After a few months as Southern Pacific agent at Taft 
(with'ofifice in the Santa Fe depot, which at that time consisted of a box car), 
Tune 12, 1909, he opened the independent ofifice for the Western Union Tele- 
graph Company, installed the equipmen: and started a set of books. From 
the Western Union service he drifted into the livery automobile busmess 
and now, as a member of the firm of Stebbins & Dowd, has the agency in 
Taft and the west side for the Ford automobiles, Haynes autos and Federal 
trucks, buying and selling automobiles and their accessories, also doing re- 
pair work of all kinds. 

The marriage of Mr. Dowd took place at Taft and united him with Miss 
Ruth Elder, of Indianapolis, Ind. They are identified with the Baptist de- 
nomination. Fraternally Mr. Dowd ranks as one of the leading Py:hians of 
California. During 1903 he first identified himself with the order in Texas 
and ever since that time he has maintained an interest in its progress. After 
coming to Taft he interested others in the movement and as a result organ- 
ized the Knights of Pythias lodge at this point, from which he was sent as 
delegate to the Grand Lodge of Pythias, held at San Diego, May 19-23, 1913. 

E. D. BURGE. — The name of Burge has been connected with the agri- 
cultural development of Calif, rnia and particularly with the farming inter- 
ests of the San Joaquin valley, ever since the era of mining activity began 
in the west, for it was during the year 1853 that J. C. Burge, a West Virginian 
by birth, made the tedious voyage via Panama to San Francisco and from that 
city proceeded to the vicinity of Lodi. After he had been in the west about 
a year he sent for his wife and two children. The former, who bore the 
maiden name of Sarah E. Hurlbut, was a native of Virginia and came from 
an old family of that state. A large expedition in charge of his brother, 
Simeon Burge, crossed the plains and she with the two children accompanied 
the party. Four children were born during the residence of the family near 
Lodi. 1 he father"died in El Paso, Tex., and the mother in Bakersfield in K08. 

Of the six children comprising the family the next to the youngest, E. D., 
was born November 3, 1867, and received common-school advantages in 
boyhc cd. His identification with Kern county dates from March 17, 1901, 
when he came to the Midway oil fields in the employ of the Midway Oil 
Company of Oregon as their foreman. On New Year's day of 1902 he took 
charge of the property as superintendent, in which capacity he continued 
until his resignation in August of 1909. After leaving that concern he located 
in Bakersfield and began to handle oil lands, and the returns from valuable 
properties in his possession have been most gratifying. Meanwhile he has been 
concerned in the unbuilding of Bakersfield. During 1910 he built the Southern 
garage on Chester avenue and Twenty-fifth street, a structure exhibiting the 
mission style of architecture. 

Having purchased property at Santa Ana, in 1911 Mr. Burge removed 
with his family to that place, where now he owns and superintends an orange 
grove cf twenty acres and a walnut grove of twenty-one acres, the whole 
forming a very highly improved and valuable property, and is known as one 
of the "show places in the county. Much of his time is now given to he rti- 
culture, yet he has not neglected his Kern county properties nor lessened 
his deep interest in the progress of this section < f the state. Since the organiza- 
tion of the National Bank of Bakersfield he has been a stockholder and director 
in the institution. With -Mr. Thomas he organized the Security Development 
Company, of which he since has officiated as president. The company owns 
the old Fcx and Tamaloais leases in the North Midway and on 25 Hill. At 
this writing six wells are in operation, while others are in process of drilling. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1449 

The only fraternal organization with which Mr. Burge has identified himself 
is the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, his membership being with iiakers- 
field Lodge No. 266. His family comprises Mrs. Burge and their six chil- 
dren. The former, formerly Miss Millie Mason, was born in Colorado and 
became his wife in Missoula, Mont., since which she has lived in California. 
Their family consists of four daughters and two sons, namely: Edna, Alice, 
William, Melvin, Vivienne and Myrna. 

RICHARD E. WHITE.— A native of New Mexico, Richard E. White 
was born at Georgetown, August 24, 1884, and was about five years old when, 
in 1889, his parents removed to Bakersfield, Kern county, where he was des- 
tined to become a citizen of prominence. After completmg his course in the 
public schools of Bakersfield, Richard White' was appointed, in 1902, a mid- 
shipman at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., by Con- 
gressman Daniels, and afterward sanctioned by the late Senator Smith. Serv- 
ing there for three years he acquired a valuable technical education. In 
1904 he resigned his position in the navy and returned to Bakerstield where 
he was for iwo years employed as a civil engineer in the employ of the 
Southern Pacific Railroad Company. Then for two years he was assistant 
city engineer, in 1909 he became a contractor of street work at Bakersfield 
and OjjeraLed in that capacity successfully until 1911, when he engaged in 
the hardware and implement trade at \vasco. By industry, conscientious 
dealing and untailing aleriness he has succeeded even beyond his expecta- 
tions and is building up a fine business which extends far beyond the limits 
of his home tovvn. 

t^ratornaily Mr. White affiliates with Bakersfield Lodge No. 266, B. P. 
O. E. September 17, lb08, he married Miss Bessie L. Caldwell, who was 
born at i)aiiia Kosa, Cal., l^ebruary 19, 1885, and they have a daughter, 
Julia V. 

JOHN J. McCLIMANS.— While the oil industry in the United States is 
of comparatively modern inception and development, three generations of 
the McLiimans have been identified wuh its history and the second gener- 
ation has a most capable representative in the superintendent of the Oleg 
Crude Oil Company, who from his earliest childhood days was familiar with 
the business and has made it a means of livelihood throughout his entire 
life. Association with the industry is continued through his sons, Augustus 
and Lewis, the former now engaged with the Alaska Pioneers and the latter 
employed by the Oleg Crude. 1 he grandfather, W. M., a native of Penn- 
sylvania, became connected with the oil business from its inception in 
his native commonwealth and he remained steadily in the occupation until he 
was accidentally killed by a runaway horse. Since his death the widow, 
who bore the maiden name of Jennie Calvin, has continued to make her home 
in Pennsylvania. 

In l^ranklin, Venango county, Pa., where he was born July 9, 1870, and 
where he attended the grammar schools, John J. McClimans acquired his 
first knowledge of the oil industry. At the age of sixteen years he w^as 
employed as a roustabout around oil wells. By the time he was twenty-two 
he had gained a thorough knowledge of tool-dressing and four years later 
he began to aid in the drilling of wells. All of this time he worked mostlv 
in Venango county. Meanwhile he married in that county Miss Amelia S. 
Miller, who was born and reared in Franklin, and by whom he has two sons, 
themselves already interested in the oil industry. During 19O0 the family 
came to California and Mr. McClimans secured employment with the Pacific 
(now the Oleg) Crude Oil Company, whose holdings in the McKittrick field 
he aided in deveLping through his skill as a driller. Recognition of his 
ability came in his promotion in 1901 to be superintendent of the McKittrick 
lease, which he developed so that it now contains five producing wells. From 



^"^^5^-- HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

B^' •*- — * 

that field in 1909 he came to the Midway and opened work on section 32, 31-23, 
w^here he since has developed four producing wells. Since coming to this 
field he has purchased stock in the company, so that he now is financially 
interested, as well as the superintendent of the Midway lease. With a reali- 
zation of the importance of good schools, he gave his services to the Oleg 
district as a director for four years and in that time accomplished much for 
the welfare of the local schools. On the organization of Yokute Tribe 
No. 152, I. O. R. M., at.McKittrick, he became a charter member and remained 
an active worker in the same until his removal from McKittrick to the Mid- 
way field. 

CHARLES D. SMITH.— The citizenship of Mr. Smith in California 
dates from 1901, while his identification with the Associated Oil Company 
dates from October 20, 1903, when he secured employment on the Green- 
Whiltier division of the Kern river field. Having had no previous experience, 
he was obliged to begin at the bottom and gradually work his way forward 
to a position cf importance. 

The youngest in a family of four children, Charles D. Smith was born 
near Warrentown, Warren county, Mo., December 29, 1880, being a son of 
Amandus and Eliza (Consage) Smith, also natives of Warren county, but 
now residents of Texas county. Mo., where they own and operate a farm. 
During the Civil war the father offered his services to the Union and was 
assigned to Comoany B, Tenth Missouri Cavalry, in which he remained until 
the expiration of his term of service. The old homestead was the environ- 
ment of the early years cf Charles D. Smith and the country schools gave 
him a fair education. From the age of nineteen years he has been self-sup- 
porting, for at that time he left Missouri for Kansas and secured employ- 
ment on a cattle ranch. Two years later, in 1901, he came to California, and 
found emph yment in ranching in Tulare county, whence he came to the Kern 
river field and began with the Associated Oil Company October 20, 1903. Em- 
ployment as roustabout was followed by that with a well-pulling gang. Within 
three and one-half months he had been made foreman of the gang and for 
eighteen months he continued in that capacity, after which he was transferred 
to the McKittrick division. Two years later he became tool-dresser, which en- 
gaged his attention for six months, and then he was put to the task of drilling, 
and four months later he was made foreman. As such he was retained in the 
McKittrick field until 1910, when he was transferred to Fellows and appointed 
general foreman cf the Midway division, in charge of drilling and production. 
About eight years after .he had removed to California he returned to visit 
the old Missouri neighborhood familiar to his early days and to spend a few 
months with his parents in Texas county, that state. During that visit he 
married, at Licking, Texas county, January 6, 1909, Miss Maggie Denison, 
a native of Licking, educated in the schools of the town and an active worker 
among the young people of the Baptist Church at that point. Her parents, 
Z. T. and Sarah C. (Jonathan) Denison, were natives of Kentucky and Ten- 
nessee respectively, but have been residents of Missouri from early years. In 
politics Mr. Smith votes with the Republican party. Fraternally he holds 
membership with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 

FRED L. GRIBBLE. — Many years ago, when the opportunities afforded 
by the west first began to attract the attention of the world, John W. Cribble, 
a Missourian by birth and a young man of energy and sterling worth, left 
the home of his youth in order to embrace the possibilities of the mountain 
regions lying beyond the then confines of civilization. For a time he en- 
gaged in ranching not far from Denver, Colo., but somewhat later he removed 
to Fremont county and took up a homestead, on a part of which now stands 
the thriving city of Florence. Upon selling out in that place he removed to 
Dallas, Colo., and continued agricultural pursuits. To some extent he had 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1451 

been interested in mining- tlirouohont the entire ])eriod of his residence in 
Colorado and after coming to California in 1891 he continued the same occu- 
patit n in Tuolumne county, but more recently he has retired from active 
labors and now makes Bakersfield his home. By his union with Donna 
Arthur, a native of Missouri, he became the father of three children, the 
second of whom, Fred L., was born at Florence, Fremont county, Colo., 
December 9, 1876. During early life he attended the common scho Is of 
Colorado and after coming to California in 1891 he attended the Santa 
Barbara schools for a few months. 

Returning to Colorado a year af:er leaving that state, Mr. Cribble 
secured employment on a cattle ranch in Mesa county and later began in the 
stock business for himself. At first his herd was very small and only the 
range offered by government land enabled him to make a start in the indus- 
try but he met with fair success notwithstanding his lack of capital. While 
occupying various ranges he always made his headquarters at Grand Junc- 
tion and from that place his shipments of stock were made to the various 
markets of the country. During 1896 he came for the second time to Cali- 
fornia. This time he engaged in mining near Tuttletown, Tuolumne county. 
From there he went to Nevada and engaged in mining with more or less 
success. His experience in the gold, silver and copper mines has taken him 
into all of the western states and has given him an accurate comprehension 
of the industry, together with a fair knowledge of milling the ore. When 
a young boy in Colorado he had learned the carpenter's trade and after he 
established a home in Bakersfield in 1905 he turned his attention to the occu- 
pation, in which he met with a success that justified him five years later in 
taking up work as a contractor and builder on his own account. His comfort- 
able home at No. 920 Truxtun avenue is presided over with capability by 
Mrs. Cribble and they have two children, Fred and Inez. Mrs. Cribble bore 
the maiden name of Grace Martin and was born in Tuolumne county near 
Tuttletown, where she was reared and married. In politics Mr. Gribble is a 
Democrat and by his party in July of 1910 he was elected a member of the 
board cf trustees of Bakersfield. At the expiration of his first term he was 
again chosen to serve as a trustee and is now chairman of the building com- 
mittee. Fraternally he holds membership with the Eagles and the Woodmen 
of the World. 

ALBION R. BERGSTEN.— In the quiet and purposeful devotion to duty 
which has always been a marked characteristic of Albion R. Bergsten he 
strongly resembles his father, the late Andrew Bergsten, who for years was 
an employe of the Rock Island Plow Company. The mother, who bore the 
maiden name of Louise Ericksen, is still living in Rock Island, 111. The chief 
ambition of the parents was to rear their children to lives of honor and to fit 
them for positions of usefulness. 

There were six children in the family and of the four now living Albion 
R., the youngest of the four and the only one to settle on the coast, was born 
at Rock Island, 111., March 1, 1883, and received his education in the public 
schools of his native city. At the age of fifteen he became an apprentice black- 
smith with the Rock Island Plow Company and remained with that con- 
cern not only until he had completed his time, but later as a journeyman, being 
with them for eleven years altogether, and finally resigning in order to remove 
to California. Prior to his removal from Illinois he had married Miss 
Bertha Karr, a native of Rock Island county, that state, and by this union 
there is a daughter, Jessie Lois. February 2, 1910, he and his wife arrived 
in Bakersfield. It was not his desire to resume work as a blacksmith, so he 
sought employment in the oil fields and for four months held a position 
with a surveying corps on Elk Hills. For six months after his return to 
Bakersfield he had charge of the H street plant of the Sumner w-ater works. 



1452 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

after which he resigned in order to take charge of the management of the 
Brewer building, then just completed, and he has continued as superintendent 
ever since. Since coming to Kern county he has been identified with the 
Modern Woodmen of Arnerica and the Mystic Workers of the World, while 
both he and his wife are earnest workers in the Christian Church of 
Bakersfield. 

H. A. McMURTRY. — Force of character and determination of will are 
evidenced in the Drogress of Mr. McMurtry. Since coming from Pennsyl- 
vania to California he has engaged at engineering and at this writing fills a 
most responsible position as chief engineer of the Producers' Transporta- 
tion Company at Sunset Station, about three miles north of Maricona, on 
section 34. 32-24. Prior to 1910 he had always been connected with the 
Standard Oil Company and since then he has been with the Producers, the 
greater part of this time having charge of the engines at the Sunset Station. 

With the earliest development of oil in Pennsylvania the Mc^lurtry fam- 
ily was identified. The late J. A. McMurtry was one t f the pioneer oil men 
of ihe Keystone state and followed the development of the industry from 
Oil City, where oil was first discovered, southward and westward into newer 
fields as each in turn was discovered and developed. Thus it happened that 
H. A., son of T. A., was reared in dififerent oil camps in Pennsylvania. He 
was born in St. Joe, Butler county, Pa., July 15, 1882, and attended the 
public schools of Chicora, in the same county, where later he gained his 
first practical experience in the oil business. While working at various jmmp 
stations for the Standard Oil Company he learned telegraphy, after which 
the Standard appointed him as telegraph operator at Ewing Station, W^ash- 
ington county. Pa., where he remained for ten years, meanwhile having 
heavy responsibilities in connection with the management of an important 
main-line station. While there he married Mrs. Emma Childress, widow of 
T. E. Childress, and daughter of Jacob Smith, of West Monterey, Clarion 
county. Pa. By her first husband she had one child, Esther Childress. Of 
her second marriage there is a daughter, Frances. The family reside in the 
company's house on the premises and the daughters are students in the Mari- 
copa school. Since taking his present position Mr. MciMurtry has had 
supervision of three men and has been devoted to his engineering duties. 
The Standard and Producers are the only companies for which he has worked 
and with both of these organizations he has become known for reliability, 
skill, tact and intelligence. 

BURT THOMAS.— When Mr. Thomas first entered the em )loy of the 
Standard Oil Company he was assigned to the production department, but 
later was transferred to the teaming or transportation department and is 
now engaged as teamster connected with the pipe-line deoartment at the 
pumping station of the Central Midway division, on section 1, 32-23, having 
charge of teaming not only in the Central Midway but also the Sagna station. 
At these two pumping stations in the Midway field the oil is pumped through 
the eight-inch mains of the company and sent on to the next station, thence 
pumped to the nearest station on its way to Point Richmond at the bay. 

In Wabasha county, Minn., near Lake City, Burt Thomas was born 
Se':)tember 3, 1859, being the only son of Uriah and Eliza (Lee) Thomas, 
pioneers c f Minnesota, where the father is still making his home in ]\Iinne- 
apolis. The mother, a native of Vermont, is now deceased, while the only 
daughter, now the wife of George W. Davis, is a resident of Chicago. 111. 
During the period of the supremacy of steamboat navigation on the Missis- 
sippi river Uriah Thomas engaged as a mate on one of these vessels and his 
connection with the business continued until the decadence of navigation on 
that stream, after which he settled on a farm and developed a tract of Min- 
nesota land. Burt Thomas was reared in Wabasha county, but in young 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1453 

manhood removed to Minneapolis and secured a position in the city fire 
department. For fifteen years he continued with that work, meanwhile 
suffering many narrow escapes. He came nearly being killed while fighting 
the great fire that destroyed the Washburn iNo. 1 mill in ]\Iinneapolis and 
that was caused by an explosion of flour dust. In another fire a falling wall 
injured him and he was reported killed. 

Enlisting in the Spanish-American war April 1, 1898, Mr. Thomas became 
a private in Company I, Thirteenth Minnesota Infantry, which was sent to 
Camp Ramsey to be drilled in military tactics. June 29, of the same year, 
the command sailed from San Francisco for the Philippines. On the morn- 
ing of the 5th of July the ship cast anchor in the harbor ( f Honolulu. While 
on the Philippines he took part in twenty-eight engagements, some of these 
being among the most important battles of the entire war. When the war 
came to an end he was returned to San Francisco and received an he nor- 
able discharge in October, 1899, at the Presidio. He determined to .remain in 
San Francisco and soon secured a position in the street railway service, where 
he continued for three years, resigning at the time of the- strike. Later he was 
employed as special officer at the Auditorium and in other places and also 
served as a member of the special city police force until his resignation in 
1909, after which he spent six months as special police officer at the Alaska- 
Yukon Pacific Exposition in Seattle. Returning to California, he spent about 
nine months as game warden and custodian of the estate of A. W^ Foster 
near Tamalpais and since leaving that pv;,sition he has been an employe of 
the Standard Oil Company in the Midway field. By his first marriage he 
has a daughter, Alice Myrtle, now engaged as a stenographer with the Gould 
Elevator Company in Alinneapolis. His present wife, whom he married in 
1896, was formerly Miss Alice Carroll, of Minneapolis. 

R. W. McGILL. — From earliest recollections up to the present time Mr. 
McGill has been acquainted with the oil industry. As a boy at Petrdia, Onta- 
rio, Canada, where he was born December 11, 1875, he became familiar with 
the stirring excitement incident to the drilling for oil, a work that assumed 
especially important proportions through the fact that oil was struck on land 
owned by the McGill family. Thereupon the father, being offered a gratify- 
ing figure fcr the land, sold out and later acquired a ranch of three hundred 
and twenty acres in Manitoba now rented to tenants and devoted to the rais- 
ing of wheat. Himself interested in the oil business from an early age, he has 
made a specialty of the building of oil tanks, but is familiar with every depart- 
ment of the great industry. 

The fifth among six children who attained mature years, R. W. McGill 
remained in Canada until twenty-four years of age. Meanwhile, when only 
sixteen, he was a diligent worker in the oil fields and when only twenty-two 
he was considered one of the most careful drillers in the district. Fcr two 
years he drilled at Button, Ontario, and there he married Miss Annie Sutton, 
by whom he has a son, George. Leaving Canada in December of 1900, he 
brought his family to Bakersfield, Cal. He was familiar with the Midway 
field before Taft had a place on the map and before Maricopa had even a 
single store. The importance < f the field was then unsuspected. Nor were 
his first labors in the field fruitful of results. In the interests of the contract 
driller, J. E. Austin, now of Bakersfield, he engaged in drilling on section 
31, 32-23, a wild-cat proposition that brought no oil. Going then to the Kern 
river field, he worked for the Grace, Vulcan and other companies, also held 
positions with the Union Pacific (now the Phoenix) and other refineries, and 
helped to build the National and Great Western (now Producers') refineries. 

After five years as an employe of refineries in the Kern river field Mr. 
McGill purchased a one-half interest in the livery stable of William Ratliff, 
now deceased, but at the expiration of three months he sold his interest in 



1454 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the livery business in order to resume identification with the oil industry. 
After a time he took charge of the Live Stock Oil Company and when it was 
overtaken by the Tannehill Oil Company he was retained by the new organi- 
zation as superintendent, which position he still fills, having charge of the 
lease on section 34, 12-24. On the lease there are twelve wells and the 
ten of these now active produce an average of four thousand barrels per 
month. A driller of long experience and exceptional ability, the superin- 
tendent is thoroughly qualified to cope with every difficulty that arises. He 
is a member of the Woodmen of the World at Bakersfield. 

W. CANFIELD.— As drilling foreman on the Taft division of the Kern 
Trading & Oil Company, which position he has filled since May of 1911, Mr. 
Canfield takes just pride in the development of the oil industry and keeps 
posted concerning the production of the commodity in the state's most noted 
fuel oil fields. 

About the year 1890 N. O. Canfield brought his family to California and 
settled in Los Angeles, where he engaged in cement and brick contracting. 
The business depression following the subsidence of the boom afifected him 
serii, usiy. Many owed him for work already completed and, unable to col- 
lect these large sums, he could not continue in business. Undaunted by this 
serious trouble, he started anew and in due time regained a competency 
through fortunate investments in the Kern river and Los Angeles oil fields. 
Surrounded by all the comforts that brighten life's declining day, he is now 
living on his ranch in Tulare county. His wife, who is also still living, bore 
the maiden name of Ella Brcmigham. During the residence of the family in 
Minnesota W. Canfield was born October 31, 1878. Between the ages of 
five and twelve years he lived with his parents in Moody county, S. Dak. 
After the age of twelve he lived in Los Angeles, where he completed his 
education in the Commercial High (now the Polytechnic) school. After 
graduation he gave his time wholly to the oil business, in which he had 
worked previously during vacations. Under the firm name of Canfield Bros., 
he. and his brother, Frank, entered the Kern river field in 1899 and put down 
nineteen wells on the Knob Hill lease, also drilled in other parts of the same 
field. Meanwhile Mr. Canfield also had charge of the old Aztec Oil Company. 
Going to the Midway field in 1905, he spent a year as driller for the C.C.M. 
Oil Comoany, and in 1906 transferred his headquarters to Coalinga. where 
for eip-hteen months he took charge of a rotary well-drilling outfit for the 
Associated. 

Contract drilling of artesian water wells kept Canfield Bros, in Tulare 
county for a time. On the return of Mr. Canfield to the Kern river field he 
drilled a number of wells ff r the Sapphire Oil Company, but no oil was found. 
As superintendent of the Western ATineral Oil Company he spent a year on 
their lease west of Maricopa. In 1910 he entered the employ of the Kern 
Trading & Oil Company as a driller and the following year he was promoted 
to be drilling foreman on the Taft division. With his wife, who was form- 
erly Miss Helen Grodzek of Bakersfield, he lives in a cottage on the company's 
lease. Besides being a member of the Petroleum Club, he is interested in 
other enterprises for the upbuilding of the city and especially for the devel- 
opment of the great oil interests on which the life of the city itself defends. 

W. A. ENGELKE.— The Taft Garage Company, of which W. A. 
Engelke is manager, was acquired from Woods Brothers June 21, 1913, by 
the present owners, one of whom is the manager and proprietor. On the 
corner of Fifth and Main streets the company owns a galvanized iron building, 
50x118 feet in dimensions, with office, waiting room, machine shop and auto- 
mobile storage room. The equipment is so complete that automobilists may 
be accommodated in every line of their necessities. Ample facilities have been 
provided for the storage of cars. Supplies are kept on hand and repair work 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1453 

is executed promptly by a corps of able and trustworthy machinists and at- 
tendants, under the supervision of the proprietor, himself a skilled machinist 
and unusually capable workman. 

Like many of those prominent in business and oil circles in the Midway 
field Mr. Engelke is a young man. He was born in St. Louis county, Mo., 
March 23, 1886, and is the" only son among- five children, whose parents, 
Frederick and Margaret (Ennis) Engelke, still reside in St. Louis, the father 
having been engaged in business there for many years. Having received fair 
advantages in the public schools, W. A. Engelke at the age of sixteen began 
an apprenticeship of three years to the trade of machinist with Yerkes & 
Finan, of St. Louis. At the age of nineteen he became an employe in an auto- 
mobile factory owned and operated by the St. Louis. Power Company. In 
that place he continued until his removal to the west, with the exception of 
eighteen months as maintenance man for Buxtcn & Skinner. One of his 
duties was in connection with the printing presses, which he repaired and 
kept in perfect working order, ^ 

A brief experience with a manufacturing company in Los Angeles after 
his arrival in that city in 1910 was followed by the employment of Mr. 
Engelke with the Premier Automobile Company as machinist in their garage. 
From that place he came to Maricopa in January, 1912, and secured employ- 
ment two miles north of that town, as machinist at the Monarch camp of 
the Union Oil Company. While working on the celebrated Lakeview lease 
he formed the acquaintance of F. F. Hill, general superintendent of develop- 
ment, and George Kammerer, superintendent of development in the Midway 
and Maricopa districts. By singular goed fortune his real merits attracted the 
attention of these two widely known oil operators. Appreciating his skill 
as a machinist and his character as a man, they formed a partnership with 
him in the Taft garage, each gentleman buying one-third interest in the 
business, which has since been under the management of Mr. Engelke. 

FRED C. SHERWOOD.— During August of 1909 Mr. Sherwood and 
his wife established their home in the place they still occupy and about the 
same time he was assigned to work as a driller on section 6, township 31, 
range 23. Since then he has engaged as a driller or as driller foreman with 
the C.C.M. Oil Company, commonly known as the Santa Fe. 

Twenty-two miles from Erie, in Union township, Erie county. Pa., Fred 
C. Sherwood was born on a farm June 1, 1873, being the son of Bruce Sher- 
wcod, who for years has engaged in general farming and stock-raising. 
Primarily educated in public schools, he later attended the high school and 
Luce's Business College at Union City, Pa. Leaving home at the age of 
twenty-one, he went to West Virginia and found employment with an uncle 
in the oil fields of Jake's Run. For three months he was hired as a teamster, 
after which he was taught to dress tools. Several years later he turned from 
tool-dressing to drilling. At Fairmont, W. Va., November 29, 1898, he mar- 
ried Miss Celesta H. Barr, of Crossroads, Monongalia county, W. Va., and 
afterward he continued to work in the oil fields as a driller, remaining in 
West Virginia until 1907. For eighteen mcnths he and his wife lived at the 
old Pennsylvania homestead and from there in December, 1908, they came 
to California. His first place of work in the west was in Cat canon, Santa 
Maria oil field, where he engaged in drilling for the Brooks Oil Company. 
On leaving that field he came to the Midway August 1, 1909, and since then 
he has been with the Santa Fe, now being driller foreman in charge of four 
strings cf tools. With his wife he holds membership in the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church at Taft and their oldest child, Hazel Sherwood, is now engaged 
as church organist. Two other children bless the household, Harry and 
Oren. Fraternally Mr. Sherwood is connected with the blue lodge of Masonry 
and the Modern Woodmen of America. 



1456 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

AXEL LONSTROM.— r>orn at Stockholm, Sweden, February 7, 1872, 
and where his father, for years engaged in business as a manufacturer of 
powder, is now living in quiet retirement, at the age of seventy-two years. 
Axel Lonstrom at sixteen years of age started out to see something ^ f the 
world. Having lived all of his life near the coast, he was familiar with the 
great ships that sailed the high seas and it was on one of these that he started 
out, and until nineteen years of age he was a sailor on English and American 
sail and steamshins. One of his first voyages tcok him to the principal ports 
of the Mediterranean sea. Later he sailed from Marseilles, France, to Rio 
Janeiro, Brazil. Later voyages took him to New York City, the West Indies, 
Trinidad Island and London, after which he sailed along the coast of Great 
Britain and thence to Barcekna, Soain. On again crossing the ocean he 
traversed the St. Lawrence river to Three Rivers, ninety miles above Quebec, 
from which place he returned to London on the vessel Bucephalus. An 
English sailing-ship brought him around the Horn to San Francisco and 
there he engaged to accompany the whaler Sea Breeze in a whaling expedi- 
tion to the Bering sea and Artie ocean, where he remained f. r nine months. 

At the close of the whaling cruise Mr. Lonstrom proceeded from San 
Francisco to Los Angeles and near there spent seven months on h ranch. 
From that he drifted into other work. The mcney so carefully hoarded was 
lost during an unprofitable period as owner of a Long Beach meat market. 
For a time he worked at ranching and breaking colts. With a number of 
companions he sailed from San Pedro f c r Alaska on a schooner they had 
bought for $6,003. For a time he engaged in mining at Kotzebue sound, 
and indeed, he prospected and mined throughout almost every nart of that 
great and unknown country. Many of his experiences were thrilling and 
some even dangerous, nor were there any rich discoveries to repay him for 
the hardships and ')rivations. After he had remained in the far north con- 
tinuously from 1898 to the fall of 1909 he came down to Seattle, but in the 
spring oi 1910 he returned to Nome. Again in the fall of 1910 he sailed down 
to Seattle, only to return to Alaska for the summer of 1911, but when in the 
fall of that year he again departed from Nome, it was with the intention of 
remaining in the United States, and since then he has been engaged in the 
oil industry in Kern county, working on various leases until the spring of 
1912, when he was promoted to be yard foreman of the Central Midway 
division for the General Petroleum Company. Since coming to Taft he has 
identified himself with the Loyal Order of Moose. 

T. P. KELEHER. — A specialist in the important work of pipe line con- 
struction and connection is "Tim" Keleher, who holds a very responsible 
position as connection foreman of the pipe line department, Standard Oil 
Company, on section 1, township 32, range 23. Arriving at Taft Se Uember 
1, 1910, he since has been identified with the development of the Midway 
field, and on the 1st of November following his arrival at this point he was 
tendered the position he since has filled. 

Mr. Keleher was born in Toledo, Ohio, August 20, 1872, and is third 
among the six living children of Daniel Keleher, for thirty-five years a care- 
taker in the employ of the Michigan Central Railroad Company. While at- 
tending school in Toledo he gave his vacations to baseball and soon acquired 
skill in the game. After considerable amateur work he became a member of 
the Inter-State League. During the first tw^o seasons he played with amateur 
nines at Toledo and smaller towns throughout the state. During the third 
year, while playing second base with the South Bend Nine, he was injured 
in the arm in such a way as to incapacitate him for athletics. Forced to 
seek another occupation, he turned to the oil industry and secured a position 
with the East Ohio Gas Company. After two years in their service he went 
to the West Virginia oil fields, thence to Kentucky, working in gas and oil 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1457 

fields for five years in those states. Next he spent two years in the Ohio oil 
fields mainly at Lima and Findlay. 

Two years were spent by Mr. Kelcher in construction work on the oil 
line extending from Jamestown, Ind., to Martinsville, 111., after which he 
engaged in construction work on the first large gas line out of Kansas City. 
From there he went to Oklahoma and for a year worked on pipe line con- 
struction at Tulsa. Returning to former headquarters he became an employe 
of the Ohio Oil Company and for almost six years had charge of their inter- 
ests at Martinsville. Upon resigning that position in 1910 he came to Cali- 
fornia and since has been connected with the Standard Oil Company at Taft. 
He is a member of the Catholic Church. While he had his headquarters in 
Illinois he was married, at Marshall, that state, to Miss Margaret Kelm, who 
was born and reared in Illinois, received an excellent education and from 
childhood has been an attendant at the services of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. A daughter, Margaret Mary, blesses their union. 

CHARLES S. TAYLOR. — Among the men who have taken an active 
part in prospecting and developing the mining interests of Kern and San 
Bernardino counties is Charles S. Taylor, superintendent of the Atolia Mining 
Company at Atolia. Tennessee is the native state of Mr. Taylor, he being 
born at Elizabelhton, Carter county, June 21, 1871. His father, Jonathan 
Taylor, was a carpenter by trade and during the Civil war served in Com- 
pany B, Fourth Tennessee Volunteer Infantry. In 1876 he came to California, 
his death occurring in Fresno county. 

Charles S. Taylcr lived in Tennessee until 1884 when he came to Lemoore, 
Cal., where he completed the public school course. He then ft llowed farm- 
ing until March, 1896, when he came to Randsburg and after eighteen months 
with the Butte Mining Company he was two years with the Y. A. ^I. & M. 
Co., after which he began prospecting and mining on his own account. Just 
after Churchill discovered the tungsten ore in 1905 he with tthers iocated 
several tunsfsten claims at what is now Atolia, and also bought an interest 
with Mr. Ray. Together they began to open the Papoose mine which is 
now the site of the main plant of the Atolia Mining Company. Mr. Taylor 
was foreman of operations until January, 190^. when the Atolia ^Mining Com- 
pany of San Francisco purchased the Churchill, Ray, Taylor and other inter- 
ests and continued operations and development. Mr. Taylor was engaged as 
foreman and was afterward made superintendent of the mines. The com- 
pany have sixty-two claims and the mine is considered the largest and richest 
individual tungsten mine in the world. 

In 1906 when the postoffice was Iccated at Atolia he was appointed post- 
master and has held the position ever since. As one of the organizers of 
the Atolia school district he was a member of the first board of trustees and 
has been its clerk for three terms. 

In Kingman, Ariz., occurred the marriage of Mr. Taylor with Mrs. Ger- 
trude (Nelson) Schoonmaker, a native of Ohio, and they have two children, 
Charles S., Jr., and Robert Lawrence. Fraternally he was made a Mason in 
Tehachapi Lodge No. 313, F. & A. M., and he is also a member of Los 
Angeles Consistory and Al Malaikah Temple, N. M. S. With his wife he is a 
member of the Order of Eastern Star. 

ANDREW J. FOUST.— Whatever of success has crowned the efforts of 
Mr. Foust and whatever of gocd he has accomplished in the world may be 
attributed to the possession on his part of determination of Avill, honesty of 
purpose and integrity of character. With these attributes and the aid of his 
capable wife he has risen to a place of independence. 

The Foust family is of German extraction. As early as 1845, when 
Iowa presented a vast stretch of uncultivated acreage and Des Moines Avas 
merely a log fort, E. M. Foust, who was born in Indiana in 1832, accom- 



1458 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

panied other members of the family to the state and settled on a claim about 
ten miles south of Des Moines in Warren county. Ever since then he has 
lived on the same land. Meanwhile he has seen the state developed into a 
great commonwealth and the improvement of his own property has kept 
pace with the growth of the state. His first wife, who bore the maiden name 
of Sarah Bishop, was born in Indiana and died on the Iowa farm in Decem- 
ber, 1854, leaving an only child, Andrew J., whose birth had occurred on 
that same homestead January 2, 1854. As a boy this son worked early and 
late. When not needed on the farm he was sent to the neighboring school. 
At the age of fourteen he began to work for farmers in the community and 
continued as a hired hand until he established a home of his own. 

The marriage of Mr. Foust November 13, 1879, united him with Miss 
Elector L. Bishop, a native of Somerset, Iowa. The eldest of six children, 
Mrs. Foust was a daughter of Levi and Caroline (Ferrel) Bishop, natives 
respectively of Indiana and Missouri. At the age of nine years in 1845 Levi 
Bishop accompanied his father, Joshua Bishop, from Indiana to Iowa, and 
settled not far from the capital city of Des Moines, then an insignificant 
village of logs, fortified to afford protection from the Indians. Thri^ughout 
all of his active life Mr. Bishop engaged in general farming in Iowa. At 
the opening of the Civil war he entered Company H, Thirty-fourth Iowa 
Infantry, in which he continued at the front until the failure of his health 
and his h( norable discharge. After returning home he served as lieutenant 
of a company of Iowa Home Guard. Eventually he removed to F(jwler, 
Cal., where he remained until death and where his widow still makes her home. 

A condition of health so serious as to arouse fears for the life of Mrs. 
Foust led her husband to close out his farming interests in Iowa and remove 
to California in February, 1888. The change proved beneficial and Mrs. Foust 
was soon restored to health. Nor did the removal prove disastrous from a 
financial point of view. On the other hand, Mr. Foust has been prospered 
in the west. Immediately after his arrival in Kern county he homesteaded 
one hundred and sixty acres in the Weed Patch, put up a house, sunk a well, 
established his home there and at the expiration of five years proved up on the 
claim. Later he bought eighty acres of school land four miles from the home- 
stead. In order to improve the new property he removed thither, after which 
time he made a special feature of the stock business until June, 1913, the 
date of his removal to California avenue. In politics he has been a stanch 
Republican. On the organization of the Vineland school district he was 
made a member of the first board of trustees and upcn removing to the farm 
of eighty acres he aided in organizing the Mountain View school district, of 
which he served as trustee for many years. In religion they are members 
of the Christian Church. Their eldest son, E. L., who died in 1903, had 
been engaged as a steel construction engineer and had designed many steel 
buildings in San Francisco. The other sons, E. B. and L. E., are respectively 
boss rig builder and superintendent of construction for the Associated Oil 
Company at Fellows. The third child and only daughter, Mrs. Virna Fill- 
more, is a resident of the Weed Patch, where her husband, H. H. Fillmore, 
is engaged in farm pursuits. 

GEORGE W. URIE.— George W. Urie was born in Chelsea, Mass., 
August 15, 1864, and was the son of John and Elizabeth (Orell) Urie, natives 
of Paisley, Scotland, and England, respectively. The father learned the dyer's 
trade in Paisley and on coming to the United States follow^ed the trade in 
the woolen mills in Massachusetts. George W^. was brought up and edu- 
cated in Alassachusetts. When eighteen years of age he removed with the 
family to Appleton, Wis., where he learned the dyer's trade under his father, 
but five years later was obliged to give it up on account of his health. He 
then began the study of telegraphy in Rockford, III., and held positions with 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1459 

the Illinois Central Railroad in different parts of Illinois and Wisconsin 
until 1901 when he removed with his family to California. Here he entered 
the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad as operator at Red Bluff until 
1902 when he held the same position at Indio. Then he was assistant agent 
at Anaheim for one year, when he became agent and operator at Glamis. 
This was at the front during the time of the opening of the Palos Verdes 
valley and to accommodate the settler and miners he opened a restaurant and 
also a hay and feed business. After three years he was sent as agent to 
Mecca, where he remained four years. Next he was stationed at Cabazon 
until April, 1913, when he was transferred to McFarland as agent. With his 
son, Charles L., he is engaged in the coal and feed business in McTarland 
under the firm of G. W. Urie & Son. 

Mr. Urie's marriage occurred in Appleton, Wis., when he was united with 
Miss Lulu A. Sackett, a native of that place, and to them have been born 
four children, as follows : Hazel G., John L., Chester L. and Donald W., all 
under the parental roof with the exception of John L., who is at- Venice, 
Cal. Fraternally Mr. Urie is a member of the Fraternal Brotherhood. He 
is a devout Methodist and is an active member of the board of trustees of 
the McFarland Methodist Episcopal Church. 

MISS ELLA B. KINTON.— Among the residents of Rosamond we find 
Miss Kinton, who was a pioneer homesteader and merchant, having located 
here as early as 1890. She has since given all her energy to the develop- 
ment of this section of Kern county. Born at Mans Choice, Bedford county, 
Pa., she is the daughter of Theodore and Maggie E. (Stuckey) Kinton, both 
descendants cf old Pennsylvania families; the father is deceased, but the 
mother is still living at the old home in Bedford county. 

The great-grandfather of Theodore Kinton was Thomas Kinton, who 
served as an of^cer under General Washington in the French and Indian 
war. He located on a farm at the foot of Willis mountain in Bedford county, 
the same place that Theodore Kinton afterwards owned and where Miss 
Kinton was reared. A high peak of Willis mountain was named Kinton 
Knob in his honor. 

In July, 1890, Miss Kinton came to California and immediately (the 
same month) located at Rosamond. About a year later she located a home- 
stead of one hundred and sixty acres five miles west of Rosamond on the 
Willow Springs road, the present site of the Hamilton mill. She made the 
necessary improvements, sunk two wells and resided on it for five years, when 
she proved up on it. She then sold twenty acres for the Hamilton mill site, 
retaining, one hundred and forty acres. In 1896 she moved back to Rosamond 
where she built and started a store and ever since has continued in the 
mercantile business. Being appointed postmaster of Rosamond under the 
Cleveland administration she served from 1895 to 1909. Having a retentive 
memory she is well posted as co the history and growth of this vicinity and 
therefore is able to relate incidents that are intensely interesting. Reared in 
the Presbyterian Church, she holds to that faith, while in her political convic- 
tions she adheres to the principles of the Republican party. 

J. W. HICKS.— Born in Randolph county, Mo., April 27, 1873, J. W. 
Hicks is a son of the late J. C. and Jeannette (Crawford) Hicks. The latter 
was born in Missouri and died in California. The former, who followed agri- 
cultural pursuits in Missouri, came across the plains to California during 
the summer of 1854 and tried his luck in the mines and on the. unimproved 
farm lands of the then undeveloped west. It was not until 1869 that he 
returned to Missouri and resumed general farming in Randolph county, where 
he remained for a long period. Accompanied by his family in 1889 he came 
to California and settled in Kern county, but later resided in Tulare county. 
His last days were passed in Bakersfield. Of his seven children all but two 



1460 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

are still living, the eldest being J. \V., who was fifteen at the time of coming 
to Kern county for the first time. Here and in Tulare county he completed 
the trade of a carpenter. About 19C0 he was one of the original locators of 
Twenty-five Hill in the oil fields, but relinquished his interest before the value 
of the lease was known. 

Several years were spent by Mr. Hicks in carpentering through different 
localities of Northern California, Utah and Nevada, and during that period he 
formed the acquaintance of Miss Celia J. Henry, who was born in Utah and 
with whom he was united in marriage at Ogden, that state. On returning 
to KeriT, county he took up carpentering on the west side. After a year 
as a carpenter he was elected marshal of Maricopa and devoted much of his 
time to the duties of that position, resigning eventually in order to remove 
to Bakersfield, where since February of 1912 he and his wife, with their four 
children, Lynn, Marvin, Walter and Fred, have made their home. He is 
stanch in his sympathy with the socialist movement and well informed con- 
cerning its objects and principles. Upon his removal to Bakersfield he was 
elected president of the Carpenters' Local No. 743, and February 14, 1913, 
he was chosen business agent of the Kern County Building Trades Council, 
to which work he devotes his entire time. 

MICHEL ANSOLABEHERE.— A native of France, M. Ansolabehere 
was born March 24, 1875, in Basses-Pyrenees. He attended public schools 
near his boyhood home for a short time and worked for his father until he 
came to the United States. He arrived in Kern county January 8, 1893. at 
the end of a direct journey over seas and across the United States. Very 
soon after he came here he engaged in herding sheep, a business which has 
commanded his attention to the present time. He planned and worked 
and prospered and saved his money until in January, 1910, he was able to 
buy a ranch of sixty acres, six miles from Bakersfield, which is all under 
cultivation, producing good crops of alfalfa, oats and barley. During recent 
years he has gradually reduced the number of his sheep until he now has 
comparatively few. As a stockman and farmer he has succeeded, due largely 
to his industry and integrity. 

On September 3, 1908, Mr. Ansolabehere married Miss Frances Labouc- 
here, who was born in France February 18, 1887, and they have a daughter 
whom they have named Lucy. 

FRANK HARROL BALDWIN.-^The proprietor of the Star livery 
stable in Bakersfield is a member of an old family of the east and has the dis- 
tinction of being descended in the collateral line from D. H. Baldwin, the 
inventor and original manufacturer of the celebrated Baldwin piano. For 
several generations the family has had representatives in or near Cincinnati, 
where occurred the birth of Caleb S. Baldwin and also of his wife, Margaret, 
daughter of Daniel Allen Campbell, one of the first retail milk dealers to 
engage in business in Cincinnati. At the opening of the Civil war Caleb S. 
Baldwan, then a youth of eighteen, enlisted in the Union army and was 
a drummer in an Ohio regiment. With his command he went to the front 
and took part in many engagements. In one of the battles with the Con- 
federate troi ps he was seriously wounded, but in time fully regained his 
health. At the close of the war he returned to Cincinnati and engaged in 
the retail oil business, which engrossed his attention throughout his remaining 
years. While yet in the midst of his useful activities he was removed by 
death, leaving an only child, Frank Harrol. The wife and mother is still 
living and makes her home in Cincinnati, where her son was born August 
27, 1878, and where he received a public school education. In 1896 he went 
to Phoenix, Ariz., and learned the undertaking and embalming business under 
A. J. Bradley, with whom he continued to work for two years. In the spring 
of 1898 he came to California and in the autumn of the same year he settled 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1461 

in Bakersfield, where he secured employment in the Union stables. Upon 
leaving- that place he entered the employ of Jacob Neiderauer as undertaker 
and embalmer, but in a short time he resigned the position to embark in 
the livery business on his own account. 

For three years Mr. Baldwin operated a livery stable at Oil Center and 
the venture proved profitable in a gratifying degree. After disposing of 
that stable he returned to Bakersfield and started the Exchange stable on 
Eighteenth and I streets. Four years later he disposed of the business and 
thereupon started the Star stable on the corner cf Chester avenue and Twenty- 
third street. During 1909 he erected a brick building, 75x120 feet in dimen- 
sions and two stories in height, with elevator running between the two 
floors. The stable stands at No. 232 Chester avenue and is said to l)e the 
most modern fireproof building for livery purposes in the entire city. White 
sandstone brick is utilized in the constructii n of the building and the effect 
is attractive as well as substantial. In addition to owning the building and 
the livery business Mr. Baldwin has a small fruit ranch in Kern county 
and real estate in Bakersfield. Politically he votes with the Republican party. 
At Los Angeles, September 1, 1906, he married Miss Margaret Voshell, who 
was born at Easton, Md., and descends from French-Huguenot ancestry 
identified with America during the colonial period. In a family of eight chil- 
dren she was fifth in order cf birth. Her father, John W., a farmer of Mary- 
land, removed with his family to Kansas and settled in McPherson county, 
where he still makes his home. Some time before leaving the east he had 
married Miss Sarah Lewis, a native of Dover, Del., and a member of an old 
eastern family. Her death occurred in Kansas, in which state Mrs. Baldwin 
was reared, receiving excellent advantages in the Normal University at Salina. 

CHARLES HENRY SHURBAN.— The youngest child and only son 
among three children, Charles Henry Shurban was born at Fryeburg, Oxford 
ccunty. Me., March 25, 1863, and is a son of John and Mary (Downs) Shur- 
ban, natives respectively of Vermont and Maine. Early in life the father 
migrated from Vermont to Maine and there married Miss Downs, after which 
they began housekeeping upon a farm in Oxford county. During the Civil 
war he enlisted as a private in a Maine regiment of infantry and was sent 
to the front with his command. Twice he was wounded on the battle-field. 
Six months after he had received an hcnorable discharge at the close of the 
war he died from the effects of his wounds. The only son was then scarcely 
more than an infant and upon the mother was thrown the heavy responsi- 
bility of caring for the three children ; nobly she labored for their support 
and welfare, ncr did her labors cease until her death, which occurred in 
]\laine. Meanwhile the son had been taken into the home of Theodcre Pingree, 
a brother of Hon. Hazen Pingree, ex-governor of Michigan. For three years 
he did such work in the Pingree home as his years rendered possible and 
meanwhile he was allowed to attend school regularly, so that his education 
was not wholly neglected. 

Coming to California in 1882 he secured employment on a ranch near 
Modesto, Stanislaus county; later he was emploved near Merced and in the 
vicinity of Stockton. During 1886 he came to Bakersfield and secured em- 
ployment with Carr & Haggin as fcreman of the ditch gang. In a short 
time he left to take a clerkship in a store on Chester avenue and Eighteenth 
street, Bakersfield, owned at that time by Mr. McKelvey. In the same room 
were the offices of the Wells-Fargo Express Company and the Western Union 
Telegraph Company. When the Wells-Fargo Express Company established 
their ollfice at Kern in 1895 he was chosen as agent and continued to fill the 
position until his resignation in 1908, upon taking up the work in the rural 
mail service. Meanwhile, associated with John Kaar. he had erected the 
First Bank of Kern building on the corner of Baker and Humboldt streets 



1462 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

and had aided in the organization of the First Bank of Kern, in which he 
served as a director until he disposed of his stock. 

At Limington, York county, Me., occurred the marriage of Charles Henry 
Shurban and Miss Sadie V. Foss, who was born at Limington and is a grad- 
uate of the academy in that city. Prior to their marriage she had engaged 
in educational work. The family of which she is a member ranks among the 
oldest and most prominent in New England and her father, John R. Foss, 
was a first cousin of Hon. Eugene Foss, governor of Massachusetts. Some 
time since Mr. Shurban purchased a block of ground and on one of the cor- 
ners (Fremont and Gage streets) he erected the residence, where he and 
his wife are comfortably domiciled. They are the parents of two children, 
Robert, a graduate of the Kern county high school class of 1913, and now 
a clerk in the post office at Bakersfield ; and Callie, who is a member of the 
class of 1914 in the same high school. The family attend the Congregat-'onal 
Church. After his arrival in Kern county in 1886 Mr. Shurban made a study 
of its conditions and possibilities and decided to remain, a resolve which 
he has no reason to regret, for he has become well known to business men, 
prominent in the K dge of Odd Fellows, highly regarded among personal 
friends and successful in his chosen line of work. 

FORREST A. CASSADY.— Although the earliest memories of Mr. Cas- 
sady are associated with California and Kern county, Iowa is his native com- 
monw^ealth and he was born in Madison county November 19, 1886, being 
one of the three sons of Joseph and Maggie (Cunningham) Cassady, known 
and honored by many of the citizens of Kern county. The family had no 
means on their arrival in Bakersfield and it required the most tireless industry 
on the part of the father to provide for wife and children. However, he had 
become inured to hardships and privations in early life and the struggle for 
existence did not discourage him. Although a native cf New York state, 
he had lived in Iowa from the age of three years and was familiar with pioneer 
experiences from early memories in the vicinity of Winterset. After his 
marriage to Miss Cunningham, a native of Iowa, he settled upon a farm in 
Madison county and continued there until 1887, when he brought the family 
to Bakersfield and secured work with Carr & Haggin. In a shrrt time he 
entered the maintenance of way department with the Southern Pacific Rail- 
road Company. Later he was promoted to be foreman of the construction 
department, in which responsible position he remained for twenty-two years. 
Meanwhile his wife determined to prove vip en a homestead. Entering a 
tree claim near Lerdo, she proved up on the tract and eventually acquired a 
title to three hundred and twenty acres of land, which was not sold until 
about 1907. In addition he had bought and developed eighty acres in the 
Rio Bravo district, but this too has been sold at a profit. 

The Cassady family includes three sons now living, of whom the eldest, 
Frank, is employed with the Kern Trading and Oil Company, and the young- 
est, Walter, remains with his parents in East Bakersfield. The second son, 
Forrest A., received his education in the grammar and high schools of Kern 
county, but left school when only fourteen years of age and took up the 
battle of self-support. For five years he held a clerkship in the freight depart- 
ment of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. Upon resigning that posi- 
tion he opened the City market, but at the expiration of one year sold the 
business. During the ensuing year he was employed as foreman in the 
department of maintenance of way with the Southern Pacific Railroad, but 
resigned in 1908 and then started the People's market at No. 814 Baker 
street, East Bakersfield. On July 1, 1913, he purchased a half interest in the 
Metropole market. No. 810 Baker street, in partnership with A. W. Rench, 
and they are today conducting not only the largest market of the kind in 
East Bakersfield, but one of the largest wholesale and retail enterprises of 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1463 

the kind in Kern county. In the management of the market they evince a 
desire to please their customers and to meet their diversified needs and pref- 
erences. The many responsibilities of the business are met with a keen in- 
telligence and a high sense of honor. Mr. Cassady's attention has been given 
closely to business and he is independent in his political views. He belongs to 
the Knights of Columbus. His family comprises wife and two daughters, 
Kathleen and Pauline, his wife having been, prior to the marriage in East 
Bakersfield, Miss May Callagy, for some years a resident of this city, but a 
native of Iowa City, Iowa, and reared and educated in Creston, that state. 

GEORGE P. THORNBURGH.— Since bringing his family to the west 
he has followed agricultural pursuits and at present makes a specialty of 
raising hay and of the dairy industry, which are very satisfactory. The one 
hundred and sixty acres kncwn as the Fujon ranch, which he is holding under 
lease, is well adaoted to this industry, for seventy acres are in hay and 
thirty-five acres in an excellent pasture. In addition he is devoting con- 
siderable attention to the raising of grapes and has a vineyard of thirty-three 
acres on the farm. 

Of southern parentage Mr. Thornburgh was born in Leavenworth county, 
Kan., May 25, 1859, and is a son of John and Rachel (Preston) Thornburgh, 
the frrmer a native of Tennessee, the latter a Kentuckian by birth. As early 
as 1854 the father became a pioneer of Kansas, where he heloed to lay out 
the city of Leavenworth and where for years he engaged in farm pursuits. 
There were eight children in the familv, but aside from George P.. only three 
are now living, namely: Benjamin, Eliza Jane and John W., all of whom 
remain in Kansas. The early recollections of George P. Thornburgh are 
associated with the stirring events in Kansas that marked the ch sing era 
of the Civil war. The poverty Of the family prevented him from securing 
a good education, but through observation and reading he has become a 
man of broad information. During 1886 he married Miss Flora Young, a 
native of Atchison c( unty, Kan., and they settled upon a farm in Leavenworth 
county, remaining in Kansas until 1907, when they came to California. 

Immediately after his arrival in Kern county Mr. Thornburgh rented 
land and took up ranching, which he still follows. During December of 1911 
he came to the Fujon ranch which he is holding under a lease of three years 
and with the assistance of his family he is making good in his dairying enter- 
prises. In his family there are nine children, of whom five have left the 
shelter of the parental roof to take up life in homes of their own. The eldest, 
Grace May, is the wife of Ora Collins, a hardware merchant of De Ridder, 
La. Blanche married J. W. James and lives on a farm in Kern county. Otto 
is a mail clerk, with headquarters at Topeka, Kan. Lester married Miss 
Myrtle Fowler and is engaged in farming in Kern county. On March 4, 1912, 
Elma became the wife of W. E. Addington, foreman cf the Mitchell garage, 
Bakersfield. The four remaining children are still with their parents and are 
as follows : Roy, Edith, Everett and Floyd. In his anxiety to secure educa- 
tional advantages for his children Mr. Thornburgh has taken a warm interest 
in every movement to promote the welfare of local schools. Since coming 
to this county he has served as school trustee, having been re-elected to the 
office in the spring of 1912. Vineland district, of which he acts as trustee, 
has a commodious scho( Ihouse and boasts one of the best schools in all the 
region south of Bakersfield. Politically he has voted with the Democratic 
party ever since he attained his majority. However, there is no trace of 
partisanship in his opinions, but instead he manifests a warm devotion to 
the welfare of county, commonwealth and nation in all those higher interests 
that make for the ultimate weal of the people. 

J. N. CRAIG. — That Kern county presents exceptional advantages for 
agricultural development is the firm belief of J. N. Craig. When first he 

63 



1464 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

acquired unimproved acreage in the Weed Patch during the year 1909 he 
immediately began the task of placing under a high state of cultivation his 
tract oi three hundred and twenty acres, forming the west one-half of sec- 
tion 13, township 28, range 31. He is successfully engaged in raising alfalfa 
and stock. Since acquiring the property he has erected a commodious resi- 
dence of two stories, a substantial barn, a milkhouse and a ranchhouse con- 
taining a dining-room and kitchen. While the ranch is under the East Side 
canal, a branch of the Kern Island canal, his facilities for the securing of an 
adequate supply of water are further enhanced by three wells and two pump- 
ing plants for the watering of stock. One of these wells is four hundred 
and twenty feet deep and has a never-failing supply of artesian water. 

Born in Florence, Italy, July 8, 1874, Mr. Craig is the son of the late 
Eugene and Mary Craig, natives respectively of Pittsburg, Pa., and New- 
port, R. I., the former a sculptor and painter of prominence. Educated in 
private classical schools in Germany and France Mr. Craig later became a 
student in the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, where his father had been 
an honorary professor. As a student in the department of architecture he 
remained in the academy for two years. Upon coming to America and set- 
tling in Los Angeles in 1899, he became interested in the development of 
the west and made a study of conditions in various localities. For a time he 
operated a ranch in Lower California. In 1902 he was united in marriage 
with Miss Edith Murray, of Los Angeles, and they afterward spent three 
years in European travel, returning to Los Angeles and from there coming 
to Kern county. In his devotion to the progress of Kern county and the 
agricultural prosperity of the Weed Patch, he is surpassed by none of the 
older residents, and his identification with the locality already is bearing fruit 
in an improved agricultural outlook, a more intense interest in local develop- 
ment and a deepened faith in this region a's one of the garden spots of the 
west. 

RAY OWEN. — Upon the establishment of a postoffice at Shale in April 
of 1912 Mr. Owen received the appointment as postmaster and when in the 
same year the Wells-Fargo Express Company opened an office at this point 
he was selected to serve as agent. In addiaon to filling these positions he 
acts as manager for the Holmes Supply Company at Shale. Although it 
was only in April of 1910 that Mr. Owen came to the oil fields of Kern 
county, thus identifying himself with an industry in which he had no 
previous experience, already he has acquired a wide general knowledge of 
the business and a considerable acquaintance among the oil operators, wi:h 
all of whom he is popular. 

Mr. Owen is a native of Crawford county, Mich., born November 9, 
1885. His education was that afforded by the public schools of the country. 
At an early age he became self-supporting. As clerk with mercantile and 
other houses in the east he gained his first practical knowledge of business 
affairs. For a time he was employed in Bishop's candy and cracker factory. 
During a period of four years and ten months he remained with the general 
mercantile firm of T. E. Douglass & Co., meanwhile receiving a merited 
increase in salary as his knowledge of the business made his services more 
valuable. During 1909 he left Michigan and came to California, making 
his home in Los Angeles and Covina until August of 1911, when he came 
to the oil fields. In April of 1912 he received the appointment as postmaster 
at Shale, also acts as agent for Wells-Fargo Express Company, and as 
manager for che Holmes Supply Company he has since been a leading busi- 
ness man of the new town where he is an influential factor in material 
development, maintaining the keenest interest in the development of the 
surrounding oil territory. Since coming to this county he has become a 
member of the Knights of Pythias at Taft. 

JAMES ERNEST ROBERTS.— A native of Dallas, Texas, born April 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1465 

16, 1879, James Ernest Roberts was brought to the county by his parents in 
1882. His father, James C. Roberts, is an old settler of Kern county and is 
represented elsewhere in this history. Ernest Roberts atcended the public 
school and when about sixteen entered the Kern county high school, and 
was graduated from the commercial department. At seventeen he began 
his connection with the Kern County Land Company, becoming zanjero on 
the Colloway canal. Then he became foreman of the Kern Island ranch, 
and later was cattle foreman at the Greenfield ranch, but he resigned the 
latter pcsition to accept the superintendency of the Sol Jewett 
ranch, which he held a year. He resigned then to engage in the 
mercantile business in Bakersfield, but in 1905 he sold his business to 
start farming on eighty acres of land, a mile and a half wesL of his present 
home place. This tract he rented for three years, at the end of that time 
buying his present place of forty acres, which he has developed into one 
of the best ranches of its size in the vicinity. It is under the Beardsley 
canal and is all under cuUivation, being devoted to alfalfa, producing from 
six to eight tons to the acre. Each year he rents land from the company 
on which he raises barley and corn, and he has been very successful ; he has 
raised as high an average as a ton and a half of corn to the acre on one 
hundred and sixty acres, which is a banner crop for the valley. 

In Bakersfield, August 31, 1902, Mr. Roberts married Mary McCaffrey, 
who was born in Kern county, December 7, 1879, the daughter of John 
McCaffrey, who is represented elsewhere in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. 
Roberts have two sons, Ewell and Cecil. Mr. Roberts has fraternal affilia- 
tions with the Woodmen of the World. As a farmer and as a man of affairs 
he brings to the solution of his difficulties a knowledge of details which 
renders him successful beyond many of his competitors. 

JOHN HALLORAN. — The Kern County Land Company had no more 
conscientious or trustworthy employe than John Halloran, whose term of 
service under them covered abou: twenty-three years, during which time 
he proved himself a most valuable worker. He has spent the last thirty 
years of his life in Bakersfield, whither he came to seek his fortune. He was 
born in County Clare, Ireland, June 24, 1864, and until he was seventeen re- 
mained at home with his parents. Embarking for New York he first obtained 
work in Catskill, Greene county, N. Y., becoming an employe of Peter Shell, 
for whom he labored for five years. Being a great reader he found many 
articles on California and its prosperous conditions, and at last an article in a 
Los Angeles newspaper caused him to make his decision to come to California, 
and in 1884 came to Kern county, where he has since made his home. In 
1903 he purchased sixty acres of land, which has been improved and is now 
in a high state of cultivation. 

In Kern county, in 1898, Mr. Halloran was married to Miss Delilia 
McCaffery, who was born in New York and came with her parents to Kern 
county in 1876, when she was but three years of age. Her parents settled here 
and made it their home, and here their deaths occurred. Mrs. Halloran had 
eisfht brothers and sisters, all but two of whom live in Kern county, among 
them, Peter, who is a foreman at McKittrick ranch ; James, who is farming in 
Kern county ; Thomas, who is employed by the Kern River Mills ; and a sister, 
who is the wife of Dan Woodson, a farmer of Kern county. Mrs. Halloran 
was reared in Bakersfield, where she attended the public schools, and she now 
presides over her home with quiet grace, taking the greatest interest in the 
education of her children and the systematic conduct of her household. Three 
children were born to ]\Tr. and Mrs. Halloran, Curtis, Lizzie and Francis, all 
of whom reflect credit upon their excellent training and the refining influence 
of their parents. They are all members of the Catholic Church, and in political 
sentiment the father unites with the Republican party. 

FRANK ORR. — A native son, Frank Orr was born in 1858, in Sacra- 



1466 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

mento, where his parents, Chambers and Martha J. Orr made their home for 
a considerable period. The mother died in middle age ; the father, who had 
crossed the plains shortly after the discovery of gold in the west, tried his 
luck in the mines without encouraging success and then turned to carpen- 
tering. As a contractor and builder he assisted in the pioneer development 
of Sacramento and San Francisco and even came as far to the south as Bakers- 
field, where he had the contract for the building of the Masonic Temple. Up 
to the time of his death he continued in the building business. His son, 
Frank, who was next to the youngest among four children, passed his early 
years in Sacramento, where he attended the public schools. Early in life he 
began to earn a livelihcod for himself in the employ of the Southern Pacific 
Railroad Company. At first he was given the humblest duties, finally became 
an engineer running out from Bakersfield, where he ran a switch engine 
in the yards. During that period of labor he bought a lot and built a cottage 
in Kern, now East Bakersfield. 

Resigning from the railroad service about 1899 after a long period of 
faithful identification with the Southern Pacific Company, Mr. Orr spent 
some time as a prospectc r and miner in Inyo county. Although he gained 
no wealth from his expeditions, he found the work exciting and interesting, 
and he still retains mining interests, but since 1909 he has given his attention 
principally to the proprietorship of the Lone Pine house at Mojave, which 
he owns and manages. His wife, who assists him in the suoervision of the 
hotel, was in maidenhood Miss Stella Holmes, a native cf Bradford, Pa., and 
the daughter of Frank and Harriett (Tellus) Holmes, natives of Bradford, Pa. 
Her father, a druggist, removed to Toledo, where Mrs. Orr was reared and 
educated. She has three brothers, one a general manager and two superintend- 
ents with the Central Union Telephone Company of Columbus, Ohio. While 
he has not been a partisan in political sentiments Mr. Orr stanchly believes 
in the platfcrm and principles of the Republican party. Fraternally he holds 
membership with the Loyal Order of Moose. 

JOHN CLICKARD.— Born near Peru, Miami county, Ind., February 11, 
1855. John Clickard was the son of George and Mary A. (Wallig) Clickard, 
natives of Germany, who were farmers in Washington township, Miami 
county, Ind., where John was reared on the farm and also learned the car- 
penter's trade. Having advanced in the public schools until he obtained a 
teacher's certificate he taught school and in that way made the money to 
complete a course in pedagogy and law at the Northern Indiana Normal at 
Valparaiso. After receiving his diploma he was admitted to the practice 
of law in Peru, Ind. For a while he followed his profession, but a spell of 
sickness came on, and after his recovery he gave up the practice of law and 
continued teaching. W^hile residing in Peru he served two terms as alder- 
man. 

In 1897 he came to Tulare county, Cal., and for a time engaged at the 
carpenter trade at Sugar Loaf Mountain. In 1900 he came to Woody, locating 
his present homestead and while improving it he worked as foreman rig 
builder in the Kern River and McKittrick oil fields. He also spent considerable 
time constructing the buildings for Joseph Weringer at Weringdale and the 
Greenback mine. All this time he has engaged in the cattle business, leasing 
considerable land adjoining his homestead for that purpose. 

Mr. Clickard was married in Peru, Ind., being united with Miss Sarah 
Pierce, who was born in the same county, and they have four children as fol- 
lows: Nellie, Mrs. Smith, resides near Woody; Frank, Bessie and Ruth, who 
reside at home, the son being interested with Mr. Clickard in stock-raising. 
Fraternally the father was made a Mason in Peru, Ind., and is now a member 
of Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M. Politically he is independent, pre- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1467 

ferring to cast his vote for the men of his choice rather than be bound by 
party ties. 

GABRIEL CHAVEZ.— A native son of the commonwealth is Gabriel 
Chavez, who was born at New Almaden, Santa Clara county, March 18, 1876. 
Being left an orphan he came with his uncle to Kernville, Kern county, in 
1882"and from that time he began making his own way as best he could, 
working for his board and going to school until he reached an age when he 
could be employed at mining, and later on he worked on ranches. In 1901 he 
entered the employ of the Kern River Ccmpany as driver with the engineer 
corps. A vear later he was given charge of the stock and stables, serving 
thus until he was made foreman of the Beatty ranch at Kernville for the com- 
panv. which position he has held ever since. The ranch is now owned by the 
Pacific Light and Power Cornoration. In connection with the supervising 
of the ranch he also looks after the headwork of the canal and displays good 
judgment in the dispatch of the different tasks that arise in the discharge of 

his duties. , • i ^i 

In March, 1911, at Kernville, occurred the marriage of Gabriel Chavez 
with Miss Alice Tuttle, a native of New York state. Fraternally he is a 
member of Kernville Lodge No. 251, I. O. O. F., while in his political views 
he is an ardent Republican. 

MRS. LIZZIE McGUIRK KERSEY.— The present postmaster and mer- 
chant at Piute, Lizzie ^IcGuirk Kersey, is a native daughter, born on Bear 
River, Yuba county, Cal. She is the daughter of Andrew McGuirk, a pioneer 
of the state, who was born in Ccunty Kildare, Ireland, and came to California 
in the early '50s, being engaged in mining in the Sierra Nevadas. He was 
married in Grass Valley to Mary Casey, also a native of Ireland, and they 
removed in 1860 to Visalia. where he was engaged in packing to the mines 
at Keyesville and also to Coso, Inyo county. On the last train he sent to 
Coso the IVTexican packer was killed by the Indians and the goods stolen. 

In 1865 Mr. McGuirk located at Havilah, where he followed mining and 
teaming until 1870, then settling on a homestead in Walkers Basin, where he 
died in 1875. His wife survived him manv years and died in Randsburg in 
1903. Of their union there were eight children, five of whom are living, Mrs. 
Kersey being the third eldest. She received her education in the public schools 
of Havilah and Walkers Basin and at St. Vincents Convent, Santa Barbara. 
Her first marriage was in 1876, uniting her with James Scobie, a native of 
County Antrim, Ireland, who was one of the early prcspectors and miners in 
Kern county, being located at what is now Piute as earlv as 1865. Later on 
he was one of the discoverers of the Panamint mines. He died in Walkers 
Basin in 1888, leaving one son, James Scobie. who is now assisting his mother. 
Her second marriaee was in Bake^sfield to William Shi-^sey, wh-m she after- 
wards divorced. The three children of this union, Edward. Annie E. and 
William V., are with her and have been reared with care and each of them 
given a commercial education and are graduates of the Bakersfield Business 
College. The mother is now Mrs. Kersev. Ever since 1876 she has engaged 
in farming and cattle-raising at Piute, where she owns six hundred acres in 
a bcdy, her brand being a' capital N and a cross. She is also engaged in 
mining and mercantile business and in her store at Piute she has the post 
office,' for she has been the postmaster for the past eighteen years. In con- 
nection with her store she owns a pack train, engaged in packing goods 
and material to the different mines in the district. For manv years she 
served as a member of the school board, most of the time as clerk of the board. 
Politically she is a Democrat and is a member of the County Central Com- 
mittee. 

EDWARD A. DAVID.— From his earliest recollections he has been 
familiar with farming. The clearest recollections of childhood are those asso- 



1468 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

ciated with the then frontier of Missouri, where he helped to till the soil and 
harvest the crops, doing a man's part in the field while he was yet a mere boy. 
The family was poor and the struggle for a livelihood keen. Switzerland was 
his native county in Indiana, being born near Allensville, September 25, 1857. 
He was the son of William Atwell and Prudence (Ray) David. In 1859, 
when the son" was two years old, the parents removed to Holt county, Mo., 
where the father died during the same year. The death of the mother occurred 
in Kirksville, Mo. While his mother sent him to the county schools as much 
as possible, he was so greatly needed at home that his educational advantages 
were meager and his present broad fund of information results from habits of 
careful reading rather than from attendance at school. When he was fourteen 
years of age his mother died and he went to work on farms in Missouri, con- 
tinuing this until he came to the Pacific coast. 

Upon arriving in California March 19, 1887, Mr. David was without 
means for the purchase of land, but it was possible for him to take up a gov- 
ernment claim and he therefore located one hundred acres in the Rio Bravo 
country. For eleven years he lived on the homestead, meanwhile filing his 
claim, proving up on the land and acquiring a clear title to the property. 
As he was entirely without capital for the working of the land he engaged with 
neighboring farmers and the wages thus earned helped him with the develop- 
ment of his own properly. Then, as now, it was no easy task to improve a farm 
when without funds and he was handicapped constantly by this lack, but 
finally he emerged from the most discouraging of his troubles and entered upon 
a greater agricultural independence. With his removal to and leasing of 
forty acres twelve miles west of Bakersfield in the Rosedale colony he found 
conditions more favorable and in 1899 he bought the nucleus cf the tract which 
now forms his homestead. This he added to at different times until he now 
owns one hundred acres in a body under the Colloway canal. This he checked 
and leveled and sowed to alfalfa and it is now well improved with suitable 
buildings. In Taberville, St. Clair county, Mo., September 23, 1877, occurred 
the marriage of Mr. David to Miss Catherine A. Baker, who was born in 
Clinton, Henry county. Mo., the daughter of Stephen P. and Catherine Baker, 
early settlers of Missouri. Of their union have been born eight children: 
Katie, Mrs. Spurlin of this vicinity; Daniel, who-assists on the farm; John, of 
Los Angeles ; Vernie, of Panama, this county ; Maude, Mrs. Krause, of Rose- 
dale ; Artie, at home; Eddie, who died in 1912, at the age of fourteen years; 
and Lloyd, also at home. 

Mr. David now ranks among the oldest residents of this part of the 
county. He has always been interested in the cause of education, and has 
served on the board of trustees in the Rio Bravo district, and assisted in 
building the first school house. 

W. O. THOMAS.— The general foreman of the Kern River Oilfields 
of California, Limited, enjoys the distinctirn of being the oldest man in years 
and also in point of continuous service with the organization whose interests 
he now serves. Coming to this district to take the position of engineer, at the 
recommendation of his personal friend, W. S. Boggs, then the superintendent 
of the 33 and Imperial Oil Companies, he remained in the employ of the 
successor of these concerns and eventuallv was promoted to be foreman, in 
which p^ St he hns the responsibility for the proper working of the two hun- 
dred and thirtv-five wells on section 33. 

Born in ^Vales May 12, 1860, Mr. Thomas has made his own wav in the 
world ever since he was ten years of age. At that early a"-e he began to 
learn the cement business under his father, an expert in that line. When only 
fifteen venrs of age he had passed through the chemical denartment of the 
Portland cement manufacturing business owned bv W^hite Bros., and situated 
on the Thames in the outskirts of London. His ability for successful work in 



HISTORY OF KERX COUNTY 1469 

the industry seemed an inborn talent. Even at that youthful age his work was 
recommended for its permanence and satisfactory condition. When seventeen 
years old he came with his father to New York. The White Bros. Portland 
Cement Company had engaged them as inspectors and instructors in the con- 
struction of the menagerie building in Central park, New York City. The 
young man had been working for some years with the company and they 
recognized his dependable character and efficiency in the cement business, 
while the father had a wide reputation in the same line. 

While working in Central park W. O. Thomas made the acquaintance and 
wen the approval of Clifford Richardson, chief inspector of asphalt and cement 
at Washington, D. C. When the contract in the park had been completed Mr. 
Richardson introduced him to some of the Santa Fe officials and gave such a 
recommendation for his work that the railroad company hired him to assist 
in their cement construction work. After a time he was made superintend- 
ent of cement construction and had charge of the building of bridges and 
abutments of concrete. During this period of work he put in the foundation for 
the Union passenger depot in Kansas City, Kan. Later he secured a position 
with the Western Cement Company at Salt Lake, Utah, where he ccntinued 
for five years of successful work. While gaining expertness in the concrete 
business he had not limited himself to that specialty but in addition he 
had become an expert steam engineer and it was in the latter capacity that 
he remained for two and one-half years with the Portland General Electric 
Company at Portland, Ore., next going to the Mountain Copper Comoany at 
Shasta ccunty, Cal., where he spent six years. The failure of his health induced 
him to give up a congenial business connection and thereupon he came to 
Bakersfield in 1902, securing employment immediately after his arrival through 
his friendship with W. S. Boggs, superintendent of the 33 and Imperial Oil 
Companies. After coming to this county he married Miss Nora Monahan 
and they have established a comfortable home in the oil district. When he 
came here as an engineer there were only twenty-one wells on section 33 and 
he has been identified with the rapid increase, also has had charge of the 
work of re-drilling many of these wells and putting in air compressors. 

FRANK H. NEWTON.— An appreciation of the possibilities ofifered by 
Kern county induced Mr. Newton, upon arriving in California from Texas to 
become a resident of this section of the state and here since 1900 he has made 
his home. As a lad and young man in Texas he became familiar with ranch- 
ing as conducted in the Lone Star state, but being entirely without means 
and obliged to work for wages in the employ of others he had no opportunity 
to forge ahead. Nor were his first years in California more encouraging than 
those of earlier life, but a few years ago he was able to embark in independent 
agriculture and since then he has made a specialty of the dairy industry. 

Ellis county, the portion of Texas where Mr. Newton was born April 27, 
1878, lies in the north central part of the state, not far from the important 
communities of Fort Worth and Dallas. He entered the employ of a rancher 
when he left the public schools at the age of seventeen years. For some years 
he continued in the same locality, but there seemed little opening there for 
the future and he determined to try his luck in the far west. Accordingly he 
came to California and settled in Kern county in 1900. The first oosition held 
by him was at Oil City and later he worked for the Sterling Oil Company 
during a period of five years. In 1909 he leased twenty acres in the Rosedale 
district and embarked in the dairy business with a herd of twelve milch cows. 
Since then he has added to his drove and now owns thirty head of fine 
cows, which he keens on a leasehold of sixty-six acres. The milk is delivered 
in Oil City. Besides the dairy business he engages in raising alfalfa, for 
which the land is well adapted. Fraternally he holds membership with the 
Woodmen of the World. He was married in Ellis county, Tex., to Elizabeth 



1470 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Kizziar, a native of that county and the dauijhter of W . L. Kizziar, now of 
Bakersfield, and tliev have five children, Lorena, Let B., Frankie, Rav and 
AUie. 

WILLIAM EDWARD HEASLEY.— Mr. Heasley ranks as a pioneer 
in the oil industry for he has been identified with the oil business almost 
one-half century and has witnessed the transformation of the work from 
crude and primitive methods to the most up-to-date equipments. ATanv of the 
oil fields of tie eastern and central states he thoroughly understands in all 
their difficulties and possibilities. Actual experience has taught him that 
oil development forms one of the most promising industries in the entire 
countr}^ and he regards California as in the forefront from the standpoint of 
its great fields and many producing wells. 

Not only has Mr. Heaslev been an oil operator throughout his active life, 
but in addition his father, Elias, followed the same occupation, while the 
third generation in the same business is represented by his son. The father 
and mother, Elizabeth, were lifelong residents of Pennsylvania, and he was 
born in that state, at Irwin, Westmoreland county, December 12. 1854. When 
thirteen years of age he found employment in the oil fields. Learning to be a 
tool-dresser he followed such work at St. Petersburg, Clarion county. Later 
he engaged in drilling at Richburg, Allegany county, N. Y. Another oil 
field in which he worked for years was that of Montnelier, Ind., Avhere 
he took drilling contracts and operated two strings. Similar work kept him 
in the Robinson field in Illinois for some time, after which he engaged in the 
same work at Cuba, Mo. Upon returning to the east he engaged in drilling 
in the gas fields at Buffalo, N. Y., for two years. When he came to Cali- 
fornia he entered upon relations with the Kalisoel Midway Company at 
Fellows, where he engaged as a driller in 1911 and August 1, 1912, received 
merited promotion to be foreman of the lease. While living in Pennsyl- 
vania he was a member of the Knights of Pythias lodge at Foster Brook, 
McKean county, but since coming to this state he has had little leisure for 
fraternal interests. 

The marriage of Mr. Heasley and Miss Lizzie Gary, a native of Leon, 
Cattaraugus county, N. Y., was solemnized at Bradford, Pa., and has been 
blessed with five children. The eldest son, Morris W., is an employe of 
the Kalispel Midway Oil Company at Fellows. The second son, Harold 
remained in Indiana, where he is now a reporter on the Montpelier Herald. 
The daughters are Mrs. Ray Dawson, of Montpelier, Ind.; Mrs. Ina Hickev, of 
Dayton, Tex.; and Mrs. Anna Risk, of Montpelier, Ind. The family stands 
high for those qualities that give influence in a community and ]\Ir. Heasley 
himself is regarded as an oil man whose long experience has given him a most 
accurate comprehension of the industry. 

FRANKLIN LEE VAN EPPS.— The earliest recollections of Mr. Van 
Epps are associated with the oil fields of McKean county, Pa., where he 
was born at Bell's Camp May 15, 1881, being the only son of Lee Lloyd 
and Lizzie (Mixer) Van Epps, likewise natives of the Keystone state. The 
former, after having engaged in the oil business in Pennsylvania, went to 
New Mexico and started a trading post at Socorro, but in 1881 he was 
killed during an Apache uprising. Orphaned in infancy, Franklin Lee Van 
Epps w^as taken into the home of his maternal grandfather in McKean 
county. When twelve years of age he accompanied the Mixer family to the 
vicinity of Pittsburg, where he attended high school until graduation. For 
two years he lived in Chicago with his maternal grandfather and in 1898 he 
came to California, where he soon found work in the oil industry. As a 
tool-dresser he engaged with the contracting firm of Dunn & Erwin. In 
1899 he learned drilling while working for the San Buena Ventura Oil Com- 
pany in Ventura county. Much of his later work was done in the same 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1471 

county and eventually he was promoted to be superintendent in that field. 

Contracts that took him to other points gave to Mr. Van Epps a wide 
experience in the oil industry as conducted throughout the west. For a 
time he remained in Arizona, where he had contracted to drill a well near 
Winslow. Similar work took him into Death Valley and into the Devil's 
Den country, while he also had a number of contracts in Ventura county. 
During the last five years of his identification with the countv he engaged 
as superintendent for the Dixie National Oil Company near Fillmore. Feb- 
ruary 2, 1912, he came to the Midway, where at first he gave his attention 
wholly to the development of the Maricopa Union. During September of 
1912 he was made superintendent of the Midway Five Oil Company, whose 
holdings he has put in shape for profitable work. Still more recently he was 
chosen superintendent of the West Virginia Oil Company at Maricopa, so 
that he now has charge of three important companies in the Midway field. 
While he votes the Democratic ticket he gives little attention to politics, the 
demands of his positions as superintendent of three companies being so 
engrossing as to preclude any outside interests.- His family comprises two 
children, Isabelle and Lloyd, and their mother, whom he married in Santa 
Barbara and who was Miss Isabelle Rich, a native of Massachusetts. 

WILLIAM FRANCIS CLEGG.— Since establishing a home in Kern 
county in 1911 Mr. Clegg has been identified with the Bakersfield Iron works, 
being first a machinist in the Bakersfield plant, and from there he Avas trans- 
ferred, June 14, 1913, to the foremanshio of the Fellows shop. The eldest 
among five children and the only one of the family to establish a home in 
the United States, William Francis Clegg was born at Liverpool, England, 
June 9, 1879, and is a son of Thomas and Ann (Mulligan) Clegg, the former of 
"whom is still living. At the age of three years he entered school and when he 
left St. John's at the age of eleven he had entirely completed the course of 
studv. As an office boy in an insurance office he earned his livelihood until 
he was fifteen, when he became an apprentice in the machine shop of the 
Liverpool Engineering & Condenser Company and for five years he workecl 
to master every detail of the machinist's trade. When scarcely twenty 
years of age he went to sea as marine engineer with the British merchant 
marine, having obtained a license as chief engineer. During the eight years 
of his service as marine engineer he visited almost every country in the 
world. Altogether he made about twenty-six voyages to the Mediterranean 
sea. Six tinies he rounded Cape of Good Hope, twice he sailed through 
the Suez canal and twice passed the Straits of Magellan below South America. 
In April, 1906, Mr. Clegg gave up marine engineering and established a home 
on the Pacific coast, following his trade at Portland, Ore., for three months 
and then securing employment in San Francisco with the Peters Gas Engine 
Company. After a time he became a machinist with W. A. Boole & Co., 
ship-builders (now Moore & Scott), of whose shops he was made foreman, 
holding the position until he resigned to engage as first assistant engineer 
on a steamship engaged in the ocean trade. In the course of eight months 
with this ship he visited Mexico and the Orient. Upon resigning the position 
he came to Bakersfield in 1911 and since then has been associated with the 
Bakersfield iron works. His family consists of his wife, formerly Miss Alice 
Edith Williams, of Liverpool, England, and their three children, Alice Edith, 
Dorothy Margaret and William George. 

L. R. COOK. — A native of Galesburg, Knox county, 111., born April 4, 
1876, L. R. Cook was the son of James P. Cook, who lived and died in Gales- 
burg, having been the proprietor of a wall-paper store there for a number of 
years. His widow survived him and removed to Chicago, where she is now 
living. The son, L. R. Cook, remained in his native town until he was nine- 
teen, having obtained his educational training there in the public schools. His 



1472 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

first business venture was operating a dairy there, and he next engaged in the 
livery business at Ethley, 111., a coal mining town, where he built up a brisk 
trade. Upon the closing down of the mines he went to Knuxville, 111., where 
he resumed the livery business, but soon sold out and went to Chicago, where 
he followed the race course for about four years. At this time he accepted 
an attractive offer from M. R. Hoxie, the millionaire cattleman and rancher, 
whose ranch was situated at Taylor, Williamson county, Tex., whither Mr. 
Cook went to serve as one of several foremen and to have full charge of the 
Hereford cattle department. On leaving that position and spending a short 
time in Oklahoma, he returned to Chicago and in 1902 came to Kern county, 
Cal. For four years he was cashier and steward at the Turf restaurant in 
Bakersfield and in September, 1906, he established Cook's Cafe, which is now 
catering to a wide patronage, and is considered one of the most up-to-date 
short-order houses in the city. 

The marriage of Mr. Cook to Mrs. Maggie Foster, of San Francisco, took 
place November 22), 1906, and she proved a helpmeet of no mean ability, aiding 
her husband in the conduct of his business and lending that delicate touch 
which cnly a woman can add for the completion of an excellent table. The 
place of business was moved from No. 2021 K street to No. 2105 Chester 
avenue (formerly the Russ cafe) May 23, 1913, and only one week later, on the 
1st of June, Mr. Cook was bereaved by the death of his wife, who had been 
cashier at the cafe and the most trusted business associate of her husband, 
as well as a devoted wife and whole-sculed friend. Kindliness of heart and a 
cheerful disposition endeared her to every acquaintance and her passing was 
deeply mourned. The body was taken to San Francisco and interred in the 
Cypress Lawn cemetery. Fraternally Mr. Cook is still connected with the 
Eagle Aerie No. 226 at lola, Kans., frcm which he has never obtained his demit. 
In politics he is a Democrat and while never seeking or holding public office 
he has united with other public-spirited citizens to promote beneficial move- 
ments in Bakersfield. 

C. Le ROY WHITE. — Exceptional qualifications for the peculiar duties 
incident to auctioneering led Mr. White to enter this line of salesmanship and 
he since has risen to the very front rank among the auctioneers of the San 
Joaquin valley. In addition to such work he carries on a store in Bakersfield, 
where the name cf Roy White is synonymous with energy, fairness and an 
optimistic personality that sees the cheerful side of life. Through long and 
honcrable identification with the business growth of the community he has 
won the confidence of its residents, who regard him as a buyer of unerring 
sagacity along the line of his specialties. With customary carefulness he has 
eliminated from his store everything not thoroughly reliable, so that he is 
enabled to make sure that promises are kept and the details of every transac- 
tion are carried to the limit of fulfillment. 

Although still a young man, Mr. White has been associated with the 
business history of Bakersfield since 1889. Born at Marshalltown, Iowa, 
October 18, 1869, he is a son of Abraham White, who lived to be eighty-four 
years of age. Longevity is noticeable throughout preceding generations of the 
family, whose history is traced back to the very earliest attempts at coloniza- 
tion in Kentucky. They have been typical Americans, devoted to their 
country and genuinely helpful in pioneer development. During the year 1885 
the family removed from Iowa to California and settled in Los Angeles county, 
where for three years Roy White worked in a furniture and carpet establish- 
ment. Meanwhile an older brother, Richard J. White, had come to Bakers- 
field, where he is now president of the Bakersfield Hardware Company. An- 
other brother, Ansil J., also a resident of Kern county, is employed as engineer 
for the Santa Fe Railroad. Their mother is still living, hale and mentally 
active, at the age of seventy-nine years. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1473 

Arriving- in Bakersfield August 23, 1889, Roy White at once began to 
work for his brother, Richard J., and later acquired a business of his own, 
which he still conducts, in addition to answering many calls for his services as 
auctioneer at sales throughout various parts of the valley. While at no time a 
partisan in political connections, he stanchly favors Republican jirinciples and 
always votes that ticket in general elections. In fraternal relations he has been 
for years a popular worker and leading member of the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen and Woodmen of the World at Bakersfield. By his mar- 
riage to Miss Dora C. Coughran, a native of Maricopa county, this state, he 
is the father of three children, Irwin, Thelma and Harold. 

WALKER RANKIN. — It is interesting to chronicle the life history of 
the pioneer, the man who in his prime entered the wilderness and claimed 
the virgin soil as his heritage and becoming inured to privations and hardships 
accomplished the transformation of the country to its present wonderful 
state of development. Among those early settlers now remaining who aided in 
this accLmplishment is Walker Rankin, who was born in Pittsburg, Pa., June 
2, 1842, the son of William and Ursula (Keene) Rankin, born in Ireland and 
Pennsylvania respectively. On coming to the United States from his native 
Ireland the father became foreman in an iron works in Pennsylvania and after- 
wards a farmer in Westmoreland county, where he and his wife spent their 
last days. Of their family of eight children two came to California, namely: 
Walker and Aquilla. The latter crossed the plains in 1853 to Los Angeles and 
was afterwards a resident of Alameda county for many years, but spent the 
last year of his life with his brother Walker. 

The public schools of Westmoreland county afforded Walker Rankin his 
educational advantages until a youth of fourteen, when he determined to come 
to California. Making the journey by way of Panama he landed in San Fran- 
cisco early in January, 1856. He followed mining in the Sierra Nevadas for 
two years and from Butte county returned to San Francisco bay where he 
engaged with his brother in the dairy business on Alameda creek in Alameda 
county fcr five years. Dissolving the partnership and dividing the stock, he 
then brought his flock to Mill creek, Tulare county, and in 1867 he brought his 
stock to Walker's Basin and purchased a farm from Dan Walser. At once he 
began to improve the ranch and raise hay and cattle, thus laying the founda- 
tion of his present large holdings in lands and cattle. His brand is the 
quarter circle over the capital IJ. Later he bought the Wicks ranch and 
afterwards the Williams ranch of eight hundred acres, besides many sections 
of range land. The ranch is well watered from Walker's Basin branch and 
from the same source he obtains water for irrigating and raising about one 
hundred and fifty acres of alfalfa. He also owns a valuable ranch on South 
Fork, which he operated until lately when he gave its supervisicn to his sons, 

Mr. Rankin did not assume dcmestic ties until 1872, when he married 
Miss Lavenia Lightner, a sister of Abia Taylor Lightner, in whose sketch on 
another page appears the family history. 

Mr. and Mrs. Rankin have six children living, named as follows : Charles 
W., a stockman near Havilah ; Warren, a stockman at the head of the South 
Fork Valley; Edward, who is farming his mother's (the old Lightner) place 
in Walkers Basin ; Le Roy, a stockman near Weldon ; Jesse, who resides in 
San Francisco, but is interested in the stock business in Kern county ; and 
Walker, Jr., also a stockman on the South Fork. Mrs. Rankin is a member of 
the Baptist Church. Always interested in the cause of education, Mr. Rankin 
served some years and was a member of the first board of education of the 
Walkers Basin school district. Politically he is a Democrat. 

EDWIN P. LIEB.— Born in Bufifalo, N. Y., March 15, 1867, E. P. Lieb is 
of German extraction, his father, Adam Lieb, having been a native of Wurtem- 
berg, Germany, and migrating from that place to New York state. In the fall 



1474 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

of 1867 he brought his wife and little son by way of Panama 
to San Francisco and immediately went to Sierra City, where he 
followed mining-. Afterwards he located on a farm in Sutter county 
where he died. The first nine years of Edwin Lieb's life was 
spent in Sierra City and then he lived on the farm in Sutter county, 
where he attended the schools of the locality. After his father's death he went 
to Santa Barbara, where he followed farming and asphalt mining. In 18^7 he 
came to Kern county and engag^ed in mining near Bodfish, being successful in 
locating and opening several small mines and disposing of them. He then 
engaged in raising alfalfa near Bakersfield until 1909, when he entered the 
employ of A. Brown & Co., as foreman of their farms and mill on the South 
Fork. Since then he has devoted all of his time and best efforts towards 
advancing the company's farm holdings. Well and favorably known and an 
influential man in his community, he takes an active interest in the success 
of the Democratic party and is serving as a member of the county central 
committee. 

HARRY G. MASSA.— Born in Cadiz, Spain, November 28, 1863, since 
that time the career of H. G. Massa has been in the course of development 
in many parts of the world, his parents having removed from there when he 
was about three and a half years old. going to Kornstadt, Germany. Here he 
was reared and attended school until he became old enough to learn the 
cabinet-maker's trade, which he thoroughly mastered. 

With his brother Gus.tav H., Mr. Massa decided to come to the new world 
while he was still' a young lad, and embarking for America they reached New 
York February 2, 1879, anxious to obtain work and acquire a fortune as so 
many cf their friends had done before them. From this time his life work 
varied from one line of business to another, he proving himself an efficient, 
observing employee. Learning the barber trade in New York City he worked 
there until 1881. For two years following he worked in Elizabeth, N. J., and 
then returned to New York. In 1883 he enlisted in Company D, Second 
Infantry, his term expiring in 1888, and he procured his honorable discharge 
at Omaha, Neb., on January 30 of that year. 

In May, 1888, Mr. Massa settled at Sioux Falls, S. D., where he was em- 
ployed in the Cataract barber shop until 1900, then coming to Bakersfield, 
where he has made his permanent residence, having valuable property holdings 
here as well as his barber interests. He has been thrifty and economical, and 
has saved his earnings, so that he has been enabled to invest them most 
judiciously. In 1891 he married Ollie Johnscn, and she has been the means 
of aiding her husband in the wise management of his affairs. 

Mr. Massa's military training has served him well in many instances, 
not the least of which is in his capacity of drillmaster of the Bakersfield local 
team in Aerie 93 Order of Eagles, of which he is a member. Mr. Massa is a 
Democrat. From Jwne 3, 1912, to January 7, 1913, he was president of the 
Labor Council of Bakersfield. 

CHARLES BRANCH TIBBETTS.— Born at Alpha Flill, Nevada county, 
Cal., January 29, 1859. C. B. Tibbetts is a sen of Roswell G. Tibbetts, who 
came from the state of Maine as second mate on a sailing vessel around Cape 
Horn to San Francisco in 1850. His wife was named Helen Branch and 
resides in Oakland, while he died in Bakersfield. Charles Branch was the 
oldest of a family of seven children and received his education in the schools 
of Santa Cruz county. In 1879 he came to Kernville and for two years was 
employed by the Big Blue Mining Company, hauling quartz On contract. 
He hauled twenty-four tons a day with a four-horse team and averaged 
?^10 per day above expenses. These savings he invested in cattle and bought 
land on the North Fork, establishing his ranch headquarters opposite the old 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1475 

mill. His brand was the double TT. He continued in the cattle business 
until 1897, when he made the trip to Alaska, packing fifteen hundred pounds of 
notions over the Chilcoot trail, built a boat and conveyed them down the 
Yukon to Dawson, where he immediately sold them at a good profit and 
returned home via St. Michaels. On his return he had a contract packing goods 
into the mountains for the Kern River Company, then contracted to furnish the 
same company with meat, but the second year he sold his business and located 
in Bakersfield, investing in real estate there and at Sawtelle. In the latter 
place in 1904 he built the first brick store, which he still owns, besides owning 
residence property there. In Sawtelle he had the mail contract and ran the 
buss between Sawtelle and the Soldiers' Home, but sold when the car line 
was built. In Bakersfield he has built a store building and two dwellings on F 
street near the Santa Fe depot. Of late he is spending the greater part of the 
year in Kernville, where he is road overseer of the district. 

In Kernville June 7, 1893, occurred the marriage of Mr. Tibbetts and 
Emma L. Klosa, a native daughter cf Ventura. Her father, Louis Klosa, was 
an early settler of California and died on his farm near Kernville, while her 
mother, now Mrs. Anna Lurch, is one of the honored old settlers of Kern- 
ville. To Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Tibbetts were born three children, as follows: 
Roswell, a graduate of the Bakersfield Business College; Harry, who was 
accidentally drc wned in the Kern river in July, 1913, aged seventeen ; and Carla 
B. Mr. Tibbetts has always manifested an active interest in politics and is a 
stanch Republican. 

ELI BLANC— The third of a family of four children, whose parents, 
Casimir and Theresa Blanc, are deceased, Eli Blanc was born November 11, 
1871, at La Batineuve, Hautes-Alpes, France, and spent the years of boyhood 
upon a farm near the foothills of the Alps mountains, where he grew familiar 
with the care of sheep. His schtoling, although somewhat irregular, was 
thorough and gave him an excellent education in the French language. When 
about eighteen years of age he came to California in 1889 and found employ- 
ment near East Bakersfield (then called Sumner) with a sheep-raiser in the 
Poso creek country, where he remained for two years as a herder. Mean- 
while he had started a small bunch of sheep as an individual flock. As the 
number increased he felt justified in giving to the flock his entire time and 
attentit n. For the most part he ranged the animals along Poso creek and 
in the hills and the location has proved so satisfactory that he still retains his 
flocks in that country, having at this time a large drove of merinos as fine 
of fleece as may be found. Meanwhile he has bought a home at No. 831 Hum- 
boldt street, East Bakersfield, also has acquired other property at this place, 
and he is further an active member of the Kern County Live Stock Association. 
The marriage of Mr. Blanc and Miss Louise Raymond took place at Ba- 
kersfield October 28, 1901, and has been blessed with six children, viz.: Louise, 
Henry, Elise, Olga, Eli Jr., and Armand. A resident of California since about 
the year 1898, Mrs. Blanc is of French birth and ancestry and was born at Pont 
du Fosse, Hautes-Alpes, being a daughter of Auguste and Rose Raymond, 
members of the farming community of Hautes-Alpes at the eastern edge of 
France. Both parents are now deceased. By a singular coincidence their four 
surviving children all live in East Bakersfield, from which pcint the two broth- 
ers of Mrs. Blanc, Jean and Peter Raymond, superintend their large sheep in- 
terests. The eldest member of the family. Rose, is the wife of Vincent Rambaud. 
Since becoming a citizen of our country Mr. Blanc has aflfiliated with the 
Republican parly and has given stanch support to its principles. In religion 
he and his family are actively identified with St. Joseph's Catholic Church. 

WILLIAM H. McCLURE.— Too much credit cannot be given to the 
men who spend their lives at the front looking after the construction of new 
enterprises. Such positions are fraught with danger as well as privation, yet 



1476 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

to their promoters the country owes its greatness. Such a man is William H. 
McClure, who was born in Buffalo, N. Y., in 1856, but removed to Marquette, 
Mich., when a mere child with his father, James McClure. There he grew 
to manhood and received his education in the public schools. After com- 
pleting his education he began working as a miner and later became foreman 
in the Washington mines. About 1877 he removed to Oshkosh, Wis., and 
there began work in the woods. Two months later he was placed in charge of 
the camp for Spaulding & Peck, filling the position of foreman for a period of 
two years. Next he accepted a pcsition as foreman on construction of the 
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad in Minnesota, a year being spent in 
taking out rock cuts and driving tunnels. 

On the completion of the road Mr. McClure became a contractor on the 
Northern Pacific Railroad in Minnesota, furnishing ties and timbers for 
eighteen months. About 1883 he came west and made an extended trip alcng 
the Pacific coast. On his return to St. Paul he entered the employ of Keefe 
& Duffy, contractors on the Great Northern, for two years filling the position 
of superintendent of construction from Pacific Juncticn west. He then filled a 
similar position with W. D. Bailey, railroad contractor, building from Duluth 
to Tower, Minn. This took three and one-half years, at the expiration of 
which time he came again to the Pacific ccast in 1899 and entered the employ 
of the Edison Electric Company (now the Southern California Edison Electric 
Company) as foreman on construction of the Kern River No. 1 plant. In 
1906 he became superintendent in charge of all the works m System 3 and as 
such began the work. Since then he has surveyed and built ab^ut forty miles 
of road and has done the preliminary work towards bringing the North Fork 
through the mountains by tunnel, a distance of fourteen miles to the power 
plant, which will give a fall of nine hundred feet. The tunnel has already 
been started and the work is progressing satisfactorily. The work of the ci m- 
pany has been of great benefit to Kern county, as it has opened a road 
along the north fork of the Kern river heretofore accessible only by trail, but 
now used by automobilists, thus penetrating in a day's journey of ease the 
beauties and grandeur of the high Sierras in Kern county. 

Personally Mr. McClure is well and favorably known. Not only in Kern 
county, but throughout the entire state he has hcsts of friends and well- 
wishers. Fraternally he is a member of Bakersfield Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E. 

FRANK ANDERSON.— Twenty-five miles north of Des Moines in the 
then sparsely settled county of Polk in Iowa, at the farm home of Nelson 
Anderson a son, Frank, was born September 14, 1854. The father, a native of 
Syracuse, N. Y., had been one of the earliest settlers of Polk county, having 
located a raw tract of land on the barren prairie during 1838. Aside from the 
tilling of the soil he ran a blacksmith shoo and attended to repairing the 
machinery and vehicles of the husbandmen of the community in th. se primi- 
tive days. In such an environment the son was taught the trades of black- 
smith and carriage-maker and he remained with his father until twenty-three 
years of age. During 1885 he made his way to Colorado, where he followed 
mining. In 1886 he came to California and operated a combined harvester in 
Sonoma crunty. Coming to Kern county in 1887, he conducted a blacksmith 
shop at Lebec and also engaged in prospecting and mining. In 1904 he made 
the voyage to South Africa, where he welded steel in Kimberly until he 
became somewhat familiar with the different forms of diamond mining. While 
operating a placer diamond mine he made $22,000 in four months. On the 
return trip to California he spent some time in England. His next trip was to 
the Copper river in Alaska, from which country he returned to Kern county. 
In 1911 he settled at Wasco, where he built his present shop and embarked 
in general blacksmithing and repair work, in which he is very skilled. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1477 

AUGUST KLINGENBERG.— This well-known contractor in East Ba- 
kersfiekl was born in Dansig, Germany, December 30, 1857, the son of Cor- 
nelius and Charlotte (Dravitz) Klingenberg, who with their family removed to 
Southern Russia. From that country in 1875 they came to the United States 
and settled in Marion county, Kans., later going to Kirk, Colo., and eventually 
to Minnesota, where the father died. The mother, at the age of ninety-three, 
is now making her home in East Bakersfield. After becoming a resident of 
Kansas, August Klingenberg tcok up farming pursuits in Marion county. 
That occupation engaged his attention until he located in Henderson, York 
county. Neb., in 1886, when he began as a contractor for stonework and plas- 
tering. During 1893 he removed to Mountain Lake, Minn., where he followed 
the same business for eleven years. Next he established himself in business at 
Lovcland, Ce lo. The year 1908 found him in Bakersfield, where he took up 
contracting and building, and he is now located on Humboldt street, East Ba- 
kersfield, where he manufactures cement blocks in addition to following his 
regular line of work. 

The marriage of Mr. Klingenberg took place in Marion county, Kans., 
and united him with Miss Anna Schoenhofif, also a native of Germany. They are 
the parents of eight children, as follows: Nettie, who married J. E. Wiens, 
of East Bakersfield, and has three children; Henry A., of Bakersfield. who is 
married and the father of three children ; Anna, Mrs. Henry Wall, of Chey- 
enne, Wyo., who has three children: Cornelius, of Montana; Peter, of East 
Bakersfield, who has two children; August C, of Denver, Cclo., who is mar- 
ried and has one child ; Mary and Louise, who reside at home. An enterpnsmg 
citizen, Mr. Klingenberg is willing to do all he can to advance the interests 
of the community. Religiously he is a member of the Mennonite Brethren 
Church. 

MISS ANNA CLAR. — The leading exclusive ladies' and gents' furnish- 
ing goods establishment in East Bakersfield is presided over by Miss Clar, 
who received her education in Philadelphia and the Linccln school, San Fran- 
cisco, also in the schools of Selma, Cal., under Prof. Walker, after which she 
engaged in the millinery business in Visalia and then opened a dressmaking 
parlo'r in Kern, now East Bakersfield. In 1910 she started the present store 
at No. 727 Baker street, where individually she has built up a large business. 
Miss Clar is the daughter of Ludwig S. and Anna (Heidrich) Clar, na- 
tives of Poland and Saxony, Germany, respectively. In 1884 they came to 
Philadelphia, Pa., and in March, 1889, to San Francisco, Cal. Following the 
tailor's trade there and later at Visalia, Hanford, Lemoore, and Selma until 
February, 1894, Mr. Clar then located in Kern (now East Bakersfield) where 
he engaged as a merchant tailor at No. 816 Baker street. The mother of Miss 
Clar is assisting the daughter in the mercantile business. Anna Clar is a 
member of Kern Lodge No. 58, Fraternal Brotherhood, and St. Joseph's 
Catholic Church. 

HARRY Le ROY COLEMAN. — Recognized as one of the competent 
men in the employ of the Santa Fe Railroad company, Mr. Coleman has been 
stationed on the Bakersfield division for a number of years as locomotive 
engineer. During his employment he never has had an accident or even any 
serious delay. In the Brotherhood cf Locomotive Engineers he has been a 
local worker and a generous contributor to its helpful charities. Although he 
came to California from Colorado and had lived in Denver during the years 
of youth, Mr. Coleman is a native cf Kansas and was born at Washmgton, 
Washington county, April 4, 1881, being the eldest among four children form- 
ing the family of George F. and Albina (Smith) Coleman, natives respectively 
of'bhio and Indiana. The father, a miller by occupation, engaged in that work 
for some years in Kansas and from that state moved to Colorado in 1891, 



1478 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

settling in Denver. At this writing he and his wife make their home in Los 
Angeles. When ten years of age Harry LeRoy Coleman accompanied his 
parents from Kansas to Colorado and later attended the Denver public schools. 
Upon leaving school he served an apprenticeship to the trade of machinist 
in the Burnham shops of the Denver & Rio Grande railroad. On the expi- 
ration of his time he was made a fireman out from Pueblo on the Atchison, 
Topeka & Santa Fe railroad and continued in the same place until 1903, when 
he resigned to remove to California. 

After six months as a fireman on the Southern Pacific railroad out from 
Los Angeles, followed by a tour of inspection through Mexico and the south- 
ern part of our own ccuntry, Mr. Coleman resumed work with the Los Angeles 
division, but in May of 19C4 he began as fireman out from Needles on the Santa 
Fe railroad. Fidelity to every duty caused him to be promoted to the position 
of engineer in December, 1906, and ever since then he has been with the same 
company in the same capacity, his runs having been out from Needles, Bakers- 
field and Altjave. While living in Los Angeles he formed the acquaintance of 
Miss Ethel E. Compton and they were married in 1904 in that city. For a 
time they lived at Mojave, but now they reside at No. 711 K street, Bakersfield. 
Mrs. Coleman is a woman of education and an earnest member of the Chris- 
tian Church. Although much of her life has been passed in this state she is a 
native of Oregon, born in Jackson county, where her father, William J., was a 
well-known resident, and her grandfather, John Compton, an honored and 
influential pioneer. 

DANIEL RICE MILLER.— Both through his father, David Miller, who 
more than sixty years ago conducted a cooper shop in Harrison county, Ind., 
and through his mother, who bore the maiden name of Mary Ellen Miller, 
the gentleman whose name introduces this narrative traces his genealogy to 
Germany, but both of these families (unrelated, although bearing the same 
name) have been represented in the new world since the colonial period. The 
mother was a daughter of Gen. James Miller, a patriot of national renown and 
intrepid valor, who in young manhood served as sheriff of Hardin county. Ky., 
a region known chiefly through having been the birthplace of Abraham Lin- 
coln. At the opening of the war cf 1812 this gallant young Kentuckian o.Tered 
his services to his country and, while acting as a lieutenant-colonel, was sent 
with troops to open communication with the base of supplies at Raisin 
river. In the course of the journey he was attacked by an ambuscade at Ma- 
guaga, but after a brave fight of two hours he and his men routed the enemy, 
forcing them to flee to their boats. In that brief battle the Indians lost one hun- 
dred and the English about fifty, while the American loss was very small. 
Even greater honor came to General Miller at Lundy's Lane in 1814. This 
engagement, known also as the battle of Bridgewater or Niagara, was one of 
the hardest ever fought considering the number of the participants. When the 
crisis of the battle was at its height and the English guns seemed impregnable. 
Colonel Miller at the head of his regiment, in the midst of the greatest peril 
to themselves, shot down every man at the guns, rushed forward in the face 
of sharp fire and captured the guns. This turned the tide of victory and gave 
to the brave leader of the American troops a renown that is deathless. 

The discovery of gold in California was the attraction that caused the 
Miller family to give up their home in Indiana and remove to the then un- 
known regions along the Pacific coast. Early in 1850 they joined an expedition 
that journeyed across the plains with ox-teams and wagons. At that time 
there were five children in the family, namely: Sarah, who later married 
William Gregory and is now living at Reno, Nev. ; David and Nicholas, both 
now deceased; Daniel Rice, who was born in Harrison county, Ind., August 3, 
1843, and was less than seven at the time of leaving Indiana; and John W., 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1479 

now a resident of Napa county, this state. Two children were born after the 
family settled in California, namely: Isaac L., the present county clerk of 
Kern county, Cal. ; and Gilla Ann, wife of George F. Mack, who for many years 
was school superintendent of Amador county and at the present time is cashier 
of the bank at lone, where he now resides. 

About the 1st of September, 1850, the family arrived in Eldorado county. 
Besides engaging in gold mining at Coal Springs, that county, David Miller 
carried on a hotel. The boy, who was only seven at the time the family settled 
in the mining district, found much to interest him in the life of the camp 
and did not then realize his deprivation in a lack of any educational advan- 
tages. When his father took up a government homestead in 1854 he began to 
assist him in the difficult task of transforming a raw tract into a productive 
ranch. From an early age he has earned his own way in the world and 
at the age of twenty-one he left home to go to Nevada, where he engaged as 
clerk in a hotel at "Washoe, City. After a year as hotel clerk he took a contract 
to cut saw-logs in the woods for the Virginia mines. Altogether he spent three 
years in Nevada and then returned to Coal Springs, where he engaged in 
merchandising. In the mean time his father died and he bought the old family 
home. Conditions had changed in the surrounding country. The era of gold 
excitement had passed and with it w^ent the period of high prices. In the 
early days meals were $1 each, pork fifty cents per pound, pies $1 each and 
bread $1 per loaf, other things being in proportion. On the other hand, many 
of the miners made money easily and were willing to spend without stint. He 
recalls how, when employed by leading miners, he took out of the placer mines 
as much as $1,000 per day, with the assistance of only one helper. 

The marriage of Mr. IMiller in 1873 united him with Miss Mary Ellen Gard- 
ner, who was born in Eldorado county, Cal., in 1856, the daughter of George 
and Betsey Gardner, pioneers of 1852 in California, where her father for years 
engaged in business as a nurseryman. After his marriage Mr. Miller engaged 
in general farming, improved a tract of raw land, then sold the place and in 
1879 came to Kern county. On the present site of the Southern hotel. Bakers- 
field, he conducted the French hotel, then the leading hostelry in the county, 
and which under the supervision of himself and wife retained its firm hold upon 
the good-will of the traveling public. After a year at the French, he bought 
the Central hotel at Sumner (later known as Kern, now East Bakersfield). 
Where that inn then stood now stands the Metropole hotel. After four 
years as proprietor of the Central he leased it and later sold out. For about 
six years he lived at Tulare, then spent two years at Fresno and from there 
returned to Bakersfield, where he kept a lodging house until the building was 
destroyed by fire. His next step was to buy a tract of ten acres south of Ba- 
kersfield and here he has since made his home, with the help of his capable 
wife improving the little property and greath^ enhancing its attractions as 
well as its productiveness. As early as 1884 he located twenty-two hundred 
acres of oil land at Sunset, Kern county, but since then he has not been inter- 
ested in the oil industry Mr Miller is a Mason. His parents and family were 
Methodists. At the present time, although not a member of any denomination, 
he is in sympathy with the Episcopal Church, to which his wife belongs and 
with her he has contributed to its maintenance. While he has never aspired to 
office, he has been a stanch Democrat and has attended the greater number of 
the state conventions of the party, has kept posted concerning political issues 
and has enjoyed the acquaintance of man}- of the leading politicians of the 
state. 

JOHN FRANCIS MAID.— The death of John Francis Maio, which oc- 
curred May 10, 1912, in Bakersfield, from the effects of an injury received 
from being thrown to the ground while leading a mule to water, removed from 



1480 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the vicinity a citizen whose broad charities and gentle influence for good 
were deeply felt throughout the long period of his residence here. A man 
of strong personality, in temperament optimistic, he displayed a spirit and 
influence that proved a factor for good in all emergencies, and he was looked 
upon by all who knew him as a man whose kind sympathies and helping 
hand were ever at their disposal at the time of need and adversity. His 
genial disposition and cordial, courteous mannerisms drew to him a host of 
friends who have felt deeply the great loss of his companionship and strong 
influence for good among them. 

Mr. Maio is a native son of the Golden state, having been born in San 
Francisco November 4, 1854. His father, Victor A. Maio, was born in France 
and during the gold excitement in 1849 came to the United States, making 
San Francisco his point of destination. He finally removed to Kern county, 
where the remainder of his life was spent. The son, John F., grew to young 
manhc od in his native city, receiving thorough training in the public schools 
there and then entering Christian Brothers College in Iowa, from which 
latter institution he was graduated. Pharmacy had early attracted Mr. Maio 
as a desirable line to follow, he being led to this decision by his experience in 
a drug store in San Francisco, and he accordingly entered the College of 
Pharmacy there and received his pharmaceutical degree upon graduation. In 
Virginia City, Nev., he established a drug store and in its successful conduct 
continued until the year 1880, when disposing of it he came to Bakersfield 
and started a similar store on Nineteenth street, on the present site of the 
Gundlach shoe store, and here he remained for many years, administering 
faithfully to the wants of his many patrons, and becoming a prominent factor 
in the business world of the city. 

Shrewd perception and observation convinced Mr. Maio of the advis- 
ability of investing in real-estate in his vicinity, the value having increased 
rapidly and the future appearing even brighter, so he dispc sed of his drug 
interests and entered the real-estate business. Investing also in farm lands, 
he finally bought a ranch of twelve hundred and sixty acres about twenty- 
five miles from Bakersfield and one mile above Granite, where he engaged in 
farming and stock-raising, his product being chiefly grain and stock. Later 
he had the mail contract between Bakersfield and Glennville and fcr many 
years ran a tri-weekly stage between these points. Since Mr. Maio's death it 
has been rented, his wife having found the duties of its conduct too arduous 
for her to undertake. 

The Fraternal Brotherhood claimed Mr. Maio as a member. In political 
sentiment a stanch Democrat, he had ever adhered to its principles and served 
as county core ner and public administrator with satisfaction to all. His public 
services were not alone confined to the duties of his offices, for he was active 
in all public movements where the services of public-soirited citizens were 
needed. In San Francisco he married Rachel A. Edmonds, whose birth took 
place in Eugene. Ore., she being the daughter of William and Adeline 
(Draper) Edmonds, and a sister of Reuben A. Edmonds, a sketch of wh m 
is found elsewhere in this history. Mrs. Maio was educated in the public 
schools of Sonoma county, and since the death of her husband makes her 
home in Bakersfield. She has two children: Charles F., of San Francisco; and 
Fannie L., Mrs. Hirshfield, of Bakersfield. In her many acts of kindness, 
her unrstentatious charities and her loving thoughtfulness Mrs. Maio is per- 
petuating the custom of her beloved husband, whose philanthropic character 
many have reason to mourn. 

RICHARD D. MONTGOMERY.— As superintendent of the South Mid- 
way Oil Company, in which he is a stockholder, and as superintendent of 
the Extension Oil' Company, R. D. Montgomery has an intimate association 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1481 

with two of the important concerns in the Sunset field and has made good in 
the comparatively brief period of his identification with the work at this 
point. 

A native son of California, Mr. Montgomery was born in Los Angeles 
December 31, 1888, and is a member of a wealthy pioneer family of Southern 
California. The immediate family comprises himself and an older brother, 
Chester A., also a younger brother, Monroe D., these two being in partner- 
ship under the firm title of Montgomery Bros., jewelers, Los Angeles. After 
years of successful association with mercantile enterprises in that city the 
father, Gecrge A. Montgomery, retired from business pursuits and is now 
living retired on West Twenty-first street. At one time he owned large 
gold-mining interests in Arizona and in that venture he met with more than 
(ordinary success. The second son in the family, Richard D., was educated 
primarily in the public schools of Los Angeles and later matriculated in the 
University of California at Berkeley, where he took the complete c<. urse in 
mining engineering. Upon graduation with the class of 1911 he received 
the degree of B.S. from the university. Meanwhile he had familiarized him- 
self with the oil industry during the vacation months. When about sixteen 
years of age he had commenced to work as a helper in oil fields, being for 
a time staticned at Coalinga, later in the Los Angeles district and eventually 
in the Sunset field. With characteristic determination he has learned every 
detail of the business and is now skilled in the operation of both rotary and 
standard drills, as well as in the other work essential to the development of 
leases. Since leaving the university he has been identified with the Sunset 
field and has acquired stock in the South Midway Oil Company, of which he 
also acts as superintendent. The company's property ctnsists of forty acres 
with two wells that average a monthly production of six thousand barrels. 
The Extension, of which he is also superintendent, operates eighty acres, 
on which there is now only one well started. With intelligent supervision 
he looks after the afifairs of bcth companies and is managing the business 
in a way indicative of future prosperity both for himself and for the concerns 
which he represents. 

JAMES M. WHITE.— Not rapidly but by slow degrees Mr. White has 
worked his way from a very humble position in the oil industry to one of 
responsibility and influence. Fcr a number of years he held subordinate posi- 
tions. Progress was slow and the road to success seemed a tedious and 
almost insurmountable highway. In the midst of discouraging conditions 
he allowed nothing to come between him and duty. Every responsibility 
was cheerfully assumed and carefully discharged. In time he became a 
drilling foreman, from which he worked his way to the superintendency of 
the M. J. & M. & M. Consolidated Oil Company, with four hundred and 
forty acres lying on section 36, township 12, range 24. Since he entered upon 
the duties of his position, March 1, 1913, he has devoted his time earnestly 
and intelligently to the supervision of the company's holdings and has main- 
tained an oversight of the twenty-nine employes! At the present time the 
company has thirty-two wells on their large tract. Of these thirty are produc- 
ers and three are flowing wells. The average monthly production is about 
fifty-seven thousand and five hundred barrels. 

The White family is of eastern ancestry. M. L. and Lizzie (Chapman) 
White, who for years lived upon a farm, finally moved into the city of 
Washington, Pa., where the former, now sixty-one years of age. is still 
conducting a grocery business. The latter also is living and is now fifty-nine. 
Of their two children the daughter, Mattie, married Harry Piatt, a contractor 
and builder at W^ashington. The son, James M., was born at ^^^ashington, 
Pa., Seotember 21, 1878, and at the age of thirteen began to work out as a 
farm hand, receiving $3.50 per week and board. Ever since then he has 



1482 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

been self-supporting. When about sixteen years old he entered the night 
school of the Washington Y. M. C. A., where he continued to study for two 
years, meanwhile earning his livelihood by day work at different occupa- 
tions. By attendance at the night school he was able to make up for lack 
of earlier advantages. His first experience in oil fields was secured when 
he was sixteen. It became possible for him to enter the employ of the 
Elwood Oil Company at the outskirts of Washington. Beginning as a 
roustabout with that company, he soon acquired a general knowledge of 
the work. Later he engaged as a roustabout with the William Paul & Son 
Oil Company and the S. K. Werick Oil Company. 

The outbreak of the war with Spain found Mr. White eager to enlist 
in the volunteer service. At the age of nineteen. May 9, 1898, he was enrolled 
as a private in Company D, Eighteenth Pennsylvania Infantry. He was mus- 
tered in at Camp Hastings, Pa., for two years or until the close of the war. 
While stationed at the camp he was drilled in military tactics and was 
honorably discharged October 8, 1898, by reason of the close of the war. 
Returning to his he me county he worked in a glass factory for a short time. 
In January of 1899 he went to the oil fields on the Baltimore & Ohio Rail- 
road at Sutersville, Pa., about eigh' miles east of Pittsburg. While working 
there in the interests of the Carnegie Gas Company he learned to be a rig- 
builder. As a rig-builder for the South Pennsylvania (Standard) Oil Com- 
pany he remained for a short time at Mannington, W. Va., but soon shifted 
from such work to drilling and tool-dressing, in which he acquired speed and 
proficiency. At the age of twenty-three he had married Miss Nettie Herschell, 
of Washington, Pa., and in December, 1904, when their eldest child was 
only nine months old, they came to California. Since their removal to the 
west two other children. Hazel and Clarence, have been born. The eldest 
child, Harry R., is now attending the Kern county schools. 

January 4, 1905, Mr. White entered the employ of the Union Oil Company 
as a tool-dresser at Rosemary in the Salt Lake field. In September of the 
same year he began to work as a tool-dresser for the Associated Oil Com- 
pany in the same field. Returning to Pennsylvania in May of 1906, he spent 
the summer in the east and during September came back to California, where 
he entered the employ of A. F. Gilmore. For three years and seven months 
he continued on the same lease, engaging first as cleaner and then as driller. 
When C. W. Stone, who had been Gilmore's superintendent, left to identify 
himself with the activities of the Sunset field at ]\Iaricopa, Mr. White came 
with him. When Mr, Stone was chosen superintendent for the Monte Cristo, 
Mr. White was made drilling foreman on the same lease. In that capacity 
he drilled seven new wells and re-drilled two wells. April 1, 1911, he was 
appointed drilling foreman for the Ethel D. Oil Company. June 1, of the 
same year, he was promoted to be superintendent. July 1, 1912, having 
resigned the position, he returned to Pennsylvania to visit his mother and 
sister, both of whom were ill. Returning to Maricopa in August, September 
1, 1912, he was made superintendent of the Fulton Fuel & Road Oil Company, 
but resigned the position in February, in order that he might enter upon 
the duties of his present position March 1, following. Many responsibilities 
crowd in upon him as superintendent. The task ahead of him is no sinecure. 
In order to meet emergencies of the future he devotes much time to study 
of subjects bearing upon the oil industry. In fact, much of his leisure time 
of evenings is given to occupative study, but in addition he finds leisure to 
keep posted on religious movements and is an earnest believer in the doc- 
trines of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Since coming to Maricopa his 
wife has been one of the leading workers in the Congregational Church and 
has done effective work as a teacher in the Sunday-school. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1483 

ARTHUR MARION KEENE.— The first daily paper in Taft, West 
Side News, was started by Mr. Keene, February 1, 1912. It was a four- 
page, seven-column daily, printed in the press-rooms of the Bakersfield 
Californian. The publication appeared regularly until December 9, 1912, 
when it was taken over by the Midway Driller and printed in press-rooms at 
Taft. The Daily and Weekly Midway Driller are the only papers now pub- 
lished in Taft. The latter was established in 1909 and on the 19th of Janu- 
ary, 1910, absorbed by consolidation the old Midway Oil Courier, a weekly 
that had been in existence for almost one year. The Midway Driller Pub- 
lishing Company, a corporation of which L. W. Sharp is the president and 
principal stockholder, owns and operates the weekly and daily editions, and 
the latter still appears in the form of a four-page sheet, with seven columns 
to the page. 

As reporter for the Midway Driller Mr. Keene keeps in close touch with 
the life of the locality. In addition he has engaged to act as editor of the 
new paper published by the Petroleum Club, of which organization he is 
a charter member. Another recent journalistic venture was the starting, 
with Charles B. Hartwick, of the Fellows Courier, a weekly paper with 
four pages of seven columns each, having a present circulation of al:)OUt one 
thousand. Besides reporting for the local Taft paper and editing the other 
papers mentioned, he reports the west side oil news for the Bakersfield Cali- 
fornian, the Fresno Republican, the California Oil World and other well- 
known publications of the state, his services as reporter not being limited to 
Taft, but including also the oil development at Maricopa, McKittrick, Fellows 
and other points in this field. 

Peoria, 111., is the native city of Mr. Keene, and August 28, 1883, the 
date of his birth. He is the elder of two sons, the younger of whom, Tom H. 
Keene, is now editor of the Elkhart (Ind.) Truth. The parents, Thomas J. 
and Minnie B. (Richmond) Keene, removed to Indiana about 1884 and settled 
at Elkhart, where since 1886 Mr. Keene has held the position of city agent 
for the Standard Oil Company. At the age of seven years Arthur M. Keene 
became a newsboy and paper carrier. At first he delivered Elkhart papers 
only, but soon he began to deliver also some of the Chicago dailies and by 
the time he was seventeen he represented all of the Chicago papers and was 
delivering an average of four thousand papers daily to customers in their 
homes and to buyers on the streets. For two years he acted as representa- 
tive of all of the Hearst publications in Indiana and Ohio. During December 
of 1909 he came to the Pacific coast. At first he engaged as reporter on the 
Bakersfield Morning Echo. Later he was connected with the Union Labor 
Journal of Bakersfield, and the Bakersfield Californian. Upon resigning those 
positions he came to Taft, where he is recognized as a live wire in journalism 
and a progressive participant in local affairs. He is a member of the Knights 
of Pythias. His family comprises two children, Walter and Elizabeth, and 
his wife, whom he married in Chicago in 1903 and who was Miss Corinne 
Adams, of that city. 

JEFFERSON M. GREER.— Acting upon the advice of a brother who 
had preceded him to the west, Mr. Greer came to California and arrived in 
Bakersfield on the 21st of November, 1900. Through much of the subse- 
quent period of oil development he has been identified with the industry 
and since he returned to the county in 1906 after a brief experience with 
agriculture in Oklahoma he has engaged continuously in the service of the 
Monte Cristo Oil Company in the Kern river and Sunset fields. So steadfast 
has been his devotion to the work that he has not been absent from the 
county excepting four days spent in the oil field at Coalinga. Every stage 
of growth and development in the local industry is familiar to him. Working 



1484 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

in different capacities, he has gained a knowledge of details invaluable to him 
in his present service as foreman of the Maricopa division of the Monte Cristo. 

It is but natural that Mr. Greer should have been interested in the oil 
industry from early years, for he is a native of a well-known oil region in 
Ohio and has been familiar with the work from early childhood memories. 
Findlay, Hancock county, is the native place in Ohio and August 10, 1874, 
the date of his birth. His parents, Samuel Ford and Catherine (Corbin) 
Greer, are now living retired at Goodwell, Okla., and the former owns large 
property interests in Texas county. There are seven children in the family, 
all still living, as follows: William D., who is engaged in the automobile 
service at Maricopa; Jefferson M., of Kern county; Elmer, who owns and 
conducts a garage at Taft ; Virgie, wife of W. R. Treece, an oil man residing 
in Bakersfield; Birdie, wife of Edward Corbin, who is engaged in the grocery 
business at Findlay, Ohio; John, empLyed as production foreman for the 
Kern Trading and Oil Company at Coalinga ; and Nathan, a rancher and 
stockman operating a farm in Texas county, Okla. 

Until nineteen years of age Jefferson M. Greer lived upon the home farm 
in Ohio and even after he had embarked in the oil business he frequently 
returned to farm work, thus filling in the dull seasons when work was scarce 
at the oil camps. He learned the business in every detail. Every depart- 
ment of activity became familiar to him through actual experience. In the 
employ of cne of the Findlay contractors he learned to dress tools as well 
as other lines of work connected with the business. Between farm work 
and tool-dressing in oil fields he was busy throughout the entire year and 
thus learned the habits of industry, persistence and varied activities insep- 
arable from progress. Meanwhile his brother, Elmer, had become one of the 
pioneer drillers in the Kern river field and had written to him urging that 
he come to California, which counsel induced him to give uo his job in 
Ohio and seek empL yment in the west. Immediately after he arrived in 
Bakersfield he was engaged as a tool-dresser on the Monte Cristo in the 
Kern river field, under the then superintendent, Frank Feathers. For four 
years he continued on the same lease, meantime being promoted to be a 
driller. His father having removed to Oklahoma he was induced to take up 
farming activities in that state and in 1904 bought a quarter section in 
Texas county, where he engaged in farming. H( wever, he soon became dis- 
satisfied with agricultural pursuits and in 1906 returned to California, since 
which time he has rented the Oklahoma farm to tenants. Since his return 
to Kern county he has remained in the Monte Cristo service and since Sep- 
tember 22, 1912, has served as foreman of the Maricopa division, having 
charge of the lease of one hundred and sixty acres situated on section 1, 
township 11, range 24. 

The marriage of Mr. Greer united him with Miss Carrie Eatherton of 
Findlay. Ohio, and has been blessed with two children, Roy and Dessie. For 
a number of years Mrs. Greer served as organist of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church of Findlay and was influential in musical circles in that city, where 
her skill as a musician was recognized and ap':)reciated. In religion she is of 
the Methodist faith. Mr. Greer stanchly upholds Democratic principles. 

TROY MARTIN OWENS.— The superintendent of the Hale McLeod 
Oil Company began the develooment of their lease near Fellows during Sep- 
tember of 1909 and has been identified with the concern, first as driller and 
then as superintendent, from that time up to the present, when eleven 
producing wells attest to the energy of his services and the exceptional value 
of the property. When he was promoted to be superintendent in March, 
1911, he entered upon a successful identification with the upbuilding of the 
company, in which he is a stockholder. It is generally conceded that the pres- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1485 

ent fine condition of the lease is due largely to his ability, perseverance and 
excellent knowledge of the oil industry. 

Throughout his entire life, back to his earliest recollections, Mr. Owens 
has been familiar with the oil business, for he was born and reared near 
Sistersville, Tyler county, W. Va., in the heart of a well-known oil field. Born 
August 17, 1881, he was the eldest of twelve children (all still living), forming 
the family of Hamilton D. and Madeline (Musgrove) Owens, who for years 
have made their home on a farm in the vicinity of Sistersville. After he had 
completed the studies of the grammar school he was sent to the McKim high 
school in Tyler county. ■ At the age of seventeen he began to earn his live- 
lihood as a roustabout with the Carter Oil Company. A year later he left 
the oil field to take up school-teaching, but at the end of the year he returned 
to the employ of the Carter Oil Company, with which he engaged as a tool- 
dresser and later as a driller. For two years he was a member of the firm 
of Jones & Owens, contract drillers, working in West Virginia. February 
21, 1909, he arrived at the present site of Taft, Cal., where he was employed 
by the Standard Oil Company as a driller, but resigned that position in order 
to identify himself with the Hale McLeod Oil Company. While living in 
West Virginia he was a prominent worker in the Meadville Lodge, I. O. O. F., 
and also became a member of the encampment at Sistersville. In Bakersfield 
occurred his union with Miss Catherine O'Brien, a native of Pennsylvania 
and a graduate of St. Joseph's Hospital at Philadelphia. Later she took a 
post-graduate course at the Pennsylvania Orthopedic Institute at Philadel- 
phia, completing the course September 1, 1901. One child, ■\Iary Virginia, 
blesses their union. To Mrs. Owens belongs the honor of having superin- 
tended the first hospital on the west side (the American Hospital at Taft), 
where she was the first trained nurse and where she became well known for 
her efficiency, skill and success in her chosen work. 

JONATHAN M. BUSH.— The genealogy of the Bush family is traced to 
the cavaliers of England and to the Virginian aristocracy of America, where 
the name was established at a period antedating the Revolutionary struggle. 
Following the westward trend of migration, the family crossed the mountains 
from Virginia to Kentucky and assisted in the early development of the Blue 
Grass state, where they maintained a warm friendship with Daniel Boone 
and other noted pioneers. John Madison Bush, son of Mercer Bush, was born 
in Kentucky, but during childhood, years before the Civil war, he accom- 
panied other members of the family to Missouri, establishing a hi me at 
Liberty, Clay county, then a town of considerable importance. At Independ- 
ence, Mo., was born and reared Sarah Ann Watson, daughter of Henry 
Watson, a Virginian, descended from Dutch and English progenitors, and 
himself a pioneer of 1849 in California, having landed in Placer county with 
his family after a tedious trip with oxen and wagons across the plains and 
mountains. April 12, 1850, on the day that he was twenty-one years of 
age, John M. Bush left Clay county, Mo., in company with an expedition 
bound for Placer county, Cal., under the captaincy of Hon. James G. Blaine, 
later senator from Maine. In the autumn of 1850 the party arrived at their 
destination and the youthful emigrant from Missouri met Miss Watson, whom 
he married at Hangtown, Placer county, in 1852. The young couple set- 
tled on a ranch and Mr. Bush, from his original employment as a drover, 
began gradually to acquire a flock of sheep for himself. It was not long before 
he became widely known as one of the largest sheepmen of San Benito county. 
A large circle of pioneer acquaintances testified to his intelligence and thor- 
ough knowledge of his chosen occupation. 

Accompanied by his son Jonathan M., and others, during 1869 John 
Madison Bush drove a bunch of fifteen thousand head of sheep from Mon- 



1486 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

terey county to Los Angeles and en route passed through what is now Kern 
county. Aside from signs of activity at the Rancho San Emidio, then known 
as the Gody ranch, and the presence of Colonel Baker at Bakersfield, no 
permanent settlements had been effected in this part of the country. The 
drovers with their sheep passed through Fort Tejon and there saw the ruins of 
the old barracks. A tedious but uneventful trip was ended at Santa Ana. 
where the father established a home, having sold out his holdings in the San 
Joaquin valley on account of the prevalence of malaria, • fever and ague. 
During 1869 he planted the first walnut grove along the Santa Ana river 
and later he laid out the town site of Orange. Sturdy and robust up to the 
very last, he died at the old homestead on the Santa Ana river, February 8, 
1913, aged almost eighty-four years. His wife, who survives him, is now 
seventy-eight years of age. Of their sixteen children ten are now living, 
namely : Paulina J., Elizabeth, Jonathan M., Phoebe, Jacob Taylor, Eliza, 
Sarah A., Charles T., Lillie and John M. . The first-named daughter is the 
wife of R. L. Ralls and lives at Button Willow, Kern county. The second 
daughter is the widow of W. H. Borden and lives at San Bernardino, this 
state. Phoebe, the widow of C. N. Burbank, makes her h( me in Orange 
county. Jacob Taylor, who is foreman of the Perkins rose ranch at McFar- 
land, moved from Orange county to Kern during the fall of 1911. Sarah A., 
Mrs. Edward Howard, is living at Long Beach. Charles T. is a successful oil 
operator at Maricopa. Lillie, widow of E. L. Martin, resides in the Union 
avenue settlement, Kern county, and John M., the youngest of the family, 
continues on the old home place near Santa Ana. 

Born in San Benito county April 8, 1861, Jonathan M. Bush had very 
meager advantages during boyhood. The large fund of information he now 
possesses is the result of observation and self-culture. At the age of eight 
years he accompanied his father to Orange county and helped him in securing 
a foothold in that new country. From there in 1889 he came to Kern county 
and settled southwest of the San Emidio ranch, where he embarked in the 
stock industry. This he followed successfully for nineteen years. When 
finally he sold his stock he came to Union avenue and bought eighty acres on 
section 17, eleven miles s( uth of Bakersfield. In 1900 he embarked in the 
meat business in the oil fields an-d later erected at Maricopa the West Side 
market, equipped with a cold-storage plant and with other modern conven- 
iences. Through his own energy he built up a large business and this he 
conducted for twelve years, after which he leased the plant to George Fiester. 

Ever since coming to Kern county Mr. Bush has been more or less inti- 
mately identified with public affairs. Not the least of his responsibilities was 
a service of sixteen years as justice of the peace. During 1908 he was elected 
a member of the board of supervisors, in which capacity he has remained 
up to the present time, having been elected as the Democratic nominee 
but retained by the insistent demand of a host of friends of all parties. For 
years he has been a member of the blue lodge of Masons and a firm champion 
of the philanthropic principles for which the order stands. While living in 
Orange county he met and married Miss Sarah A. Thomas, daughter of 
Benjamin and Mary Elizabeth (Miller) Thomas, and a granddaughter of one 
of the noed itinerant ministers of the Methodist Eoiscooal Church South. 
When California was still sparsely settled the Rev. Mr. Miller traveled from 
l)lace to place, establishing congregations, ministering to churches, ofBciating 
at weddings and funerals and occupying a high place in the afifection of the 
people of his broad parish. During his visits at Bakersfield he met Colonel 
Baker and was invited to visit at his home whenever in this neighborhood, so 
that eventually he became a close friend of the pioneer settler of this city. 
The family of Mr. and Afrs. Bush comprises four sons. The eldest, Marion. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1487 

married Josephine Emerson and lives at Pattiway, a small postoffice south of 
Maricopa, where he is engaged in the stock business ; the second son, Howard, 
married Miss Sarah Martin and makes his home in Maricopa. The two 
youngest members of the family, Henry and Benjamin, still reside with 
their parents on the farm eleven miles south of Bakersfield. Attesting the 
popularity ( f Mr. Bush in Kern county are the election returns of 1912, when 
he received the largest vote of any of the supervisors elected. 

JAMES A. RANEY. — Much of the west has been made familiar to Mr. 
Raney through travel and observation since he left the old Missouri home- 
stead where had been lived the uneventful but busy years of boyhood. The 
home farm was located in Wright county in the vicinity of Hartville, where 
he was born November 18, 1875, and where he had made himself very useful 
in such work as his strength rendered possible. Although a capable assist- 
ant on the homestead and skilled in many departments of agriculture, the 
occupation did not appeal to him as a means of livelihood and at the age of 
twenty-one he started out to earn his own way through other callings. 
Throughout the greater part of the time since he left the old home he has been 
employed in various oil fields in California, including those at Coalinga in 
Fresno county, Kern river and Midway in Kern county, also in Santa Clara 
and Inyo counties. In the last-named county he had considerable experience 
in wild-catting and as usual in such instances the results were not gratifying 
from a financial standpoint. 

Upon his arrival in the Kern river oil fields in 1900 Mr. Raney was 
employed to move the rig for the first well on the Green and Whittier lease 
and his first steady job was as driver of a two-horse team. Since those days 
he has seen many changes in the district. Many of the early concerns have 
dropped out. Other men have become leaders in development work at this 
point. His own experiences have been as varied as the changes in the field 
itself, for he has worked in almost every capacity and with a number of 
different companies. Not only has he filled humble positions with conscien- 
tious industry, but in addition he has had a number of positions of great 
trust and responsibility. In every capacity he has proved an indefatigable 
worker. It has been his policy to devote his entire time to his work without 
mingling in politics except to cast a Democratic vote at general elections. 
While at Coalinga oil fields he became a member of the Eagles in Coalinga. 

During 1912 Mr. Raney filled the very responsible position of field fore- 
man or manager for the Rambler and Expansion leases of the Traders Oil 
Company. February 14, 1913, he was transferred to the Midway division 
of the Traffic Oil Company, where he has since been engaged as driller. It 
should be exolained that the Traders Oil Company and Traffic Oil Company 
are closely allied, and that the two companies are under practically one man- 
agement. 

FELIX GEIGER. — Life has not meant ease and luxury to Mr. Geiger, 
but a stern battle that beginning at the age of twelve has continued through 
years of difficult struggle and hardships, until eventually he has seen the 
recompense of his privations and the reward of his self-sacrifices. 

The parents of Mr. Geiger were natives of Switzerland and pioneers of 
Black Wolf township, Winnebago county, Wis. Both are now deceased 
Their family comprised six sons and three daughters, of whom Felix is the 
only one living in California. Born in Oshkosh, Wis., December 19, 1872, he 
spent his early childhood years upon a farm and at the age of twleve years 
started out to make his own way in the world, his first work being in a cheese 
factory. At sixteen he became a fireman in the plant of the Oshkosh Electric 
Light and Power Company at Oshkosh, Wis., where later he was made oiler 
of the machinery and eventually second engineer. Throughout all of this time 



1488 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

he worked twelve hours each day in the plant and during this time took a 
course in electrical and steam engineering in a correspondence school. Next 
he secured a position as station baggage master for the Chicago & North- 
western Railroad Company at Oshkosh and in a short time was transferred 
to the machine shops of that road in Oshkosh, where he remained several 
years. During 1901 in Oshkosh he married Miss Elizabeth Pieper, a native of 
that city, and the wedding tour of the young couple brought them to Cali- 
fornia, where they have since made their home. 

An experience of eight months with the Frazer Borate Mining Company 
and of four months on the west side in the Kern county oil fields was followed 
by two years spent in drilling on the properties of the Los Angeles Traction 
Company located on Pine creek, Ventura county, after which Mr. Geiger 
settled permanently in Kern county and for four years served as foreman of 
the Monte Cristo Oil Company. During September of 1911 he became super- 
intendent of the West Shore Oil Company, whose properties lie on section 32, 
township 28, range 28, Kern river fields. This company has the same corps 
of officers as the Monte Cristo and employs seventeen men. Of their twenty- 
nine wells on the West Shore all but eight are producers and these eight are 
now being re-drilled. The monthly production averages nineteen th usand 
barrels. In the fall of 1912 Mr. Geiger was made assistant superintendent of 
the Monte Cristo. The Monte Cristo properties in the Kern river field now 
not only include the original Monte Cristo and the West Shore, but also the 
Oakland Water Company, all of which comes under Mr. Geiger's jurisdiction 
as general foreman. Mr. and Mrs. Geiger are at present residing in the original 
Monte Cristo. Fraternally Mr. Geiger holds membership in the Woodmen of 
the World. 

FRED S. HOLMES.— The proprietor of the Oil City livery stable on the 
county road in the Kern river oil fields belongs to a pioneer family of California 
and is a native son of the state. From early years he has been interested in 
stock and particularly in horses. On the old home ranch he gained a thor- 
ough knowledge of equine flesh, studied the best methods of handling horses, 
accustomed himself to treating their various diseases with skill and efficiency 
and learned how to subdue the wild, unbroken colts that had roamed, un- 
molested, over the vast ranges. Having thus a liking for animals and an 
understanding of the horse, it was but natural that he should turn from the 
oil industry to the management and ownership of a livery business. In his 
work he has formed the acquaintance of practically every man in the oil 
field and among all he is pooular, for he has given the best possible service to 
every customer and has regarded their comfort rather than his own conven- 
ience. 

The identification of the Holmes family with California dates from 1852, 
when Albert O. Holmes, a native of Mansfield, Ohio, and a young man of 
twenty years, came via Panama to San Francisco and proceeded thence to 
Placerville, Eldorado county. As a gold-miner he had little or no success, so 
in 1853 he turned to the grocery business and conducted a store at Coon Hol- 
low near Eldorado. For a time he met with success, but eventually the gold- 
camp was abandoned, the miners left and this brought financial reverses to 
him. He too was forced to seek a new business and another location. Before 
leaving Ohio he had learned the trade of stationary engineer and this proved 
helpful to him in an emergency, for in 1863 he found employment as an 
engineer at the hoist of the Golden Curry near Virginia City, Nev. Being a 
skilled mechanic and an expert machinist, he filled the position to the satis- 
faction of all concerned. Meanwhile he had married and had lost his wife, 
while the two sons of that union, Edward C. and Albert O., also are deceased. 

After going to Nevada Mr. Holmes formed the acquaintance of Miss 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1489 

Susan Louisa Smith, of Boston, Mass., and they were married in 1866, one 
year after her arrival in Nevada. The family of which she was a member 
comprised three children, but she was the only one to attain maturity. Her 
parents, Edward and Louisa (Cooledge) Smith, were natives of Massachu- 
setts and lifelong residents of the Old Bay state, where the mother died when 
Mrs. Holmes was only four years of age. The father, a carpenter in early life 
and later a dry-goods merchant, descended from a colonial family of Massa- 
chusetts whose earliest representatives in the new world crossed the Atlantic 
long before the outbreak of the Revolutionary war. Educated in the schools 
of Boston, Mrs. Holmes came to San Francisco in 1865 when she was twenty 
3'ears of age. In the same year she was induced by a lady friend to go to 
Nevada and visit relatives. There she met and married Mr. Holmes, with 
whom in 1871 she removed to Los Angeles and thence to a tract of unim- 
proved land near San Bernardino. Out of the land they devel ped a fine fruit 
farm. After sixteen years on the farm they removed to the San Gabriel forest 
reserve on Big Rock creek, Los Angeles county, where he established a large 
stock ranch and acquired a herd of nine hundred head of cattle and three 
hundred head of horses. In addition a specialty was made of growing ap iles 
in the San Gabriel mountains. After a long and successful career as farmer, 
rancher and horticulturist, Mr. Holmes died in 1901. Later Mrs. Holmes 
removed to Los Angeles, where now she makes her home at No. 419 South 
Grand avenue. 

Seven children, all still living, comprise the family, namely : Annie L., 
who married Jefiferson Caruthers, a farmer at El Monte; John A., a gold- 
miner, now engaged as superintendent of the Standard mine at Bodie. Mt.no 
county; Martha F., wife of A. Maritall, a driller of oil wells at Maricopa; 
Laura A., the widow of Frank Patterson and a resident of Los Angeles; 
Maude M., who is conducting the Davenport (Iowa) hotel ; William R., em- 
ployed as a driller cf oil wells and now located at Electra, Wichita county, 
Tex. ; and Fred S., who was born in San Bernardino county, Gal., December 
16, 1885, and at the age of five years accompanied his parents to the ranch in 
Los Angeles county. There he spent the years of beyhood in learning to handle 
cattle and horses. The regular public-school advantages were given to him. 
After he had graduated frt m the Los Angeles high school in 1902 he came 
to the Kern river oil field and secured work as a roustabout on the Peerless. 
From that he wcrked his way to gang-pusher, tool-dresser and well-driller 
successively. Besides being with the Peerless he worked with the Potom.ic, 
Coloma and Emerald Oil Companies and in the San Joaquin division < f the 
Associated. For three years he engaged as a driller under James L. Bruce, 
formerly superintendent of the Kern division of the Associated. Sent out to 
the Lost Hills in 1910, he there drilled various wells, notable among which is 
the Associated No. 4, a well of three hundred barrels. After having drilled 
for a year in the Lost Hills as an employe of the Associated, he decided to 
invest his savings in a livery business and accordingly in 1912 availed himself 
of an opportunity to purchase his present stable on the county road, where 
he since has engaged in business. For some years he has been a member of 
the Woodmen of the World. A son, Gordon Arthur, the only survivor of two 
children, has been born of his union with Miss Ellinor Strong, daughter of 
Richard B. and Frances E. (Martin) Strong, of Belding, Ionia county, I\Iich., 
where she was born, reared and educated and where, prior to her marriage in 
1908, she had made her home. 

ROLAND R, FISHELL. — In his important position as production fore- 
man on section 26 division of the North American Oil Consolidated Company, 
R. R. Fishell has brought to his place of trust not only energy, but also 
efficiency in method, dispatch in results and tact in the handling of workmen. 



1490 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

When he was appointed production foreman April 1, 1913, he succeeded to the 
care of one hundred and sixty acres comprising section 26, township 32, range 
23. An average output is secured of thirty-two thousand barrels per month 
from thirty-two producing oil wells. 

As evidence of the long identification of the family with the oil business, 
it may be stated that Mr. Fishell's father, Francis Marion Fishell, now an 
employe on the section 26 division, worked in the Pennsylvania oil fields in 
the very infancy of the industry, when methods of work were primitive, 
equipment scanty and wells drilled in the old-fashioned manner. In those 
days tools had to be taken to the blacksmith's shop in near-by towns when- 
ever they were to be sharpened or repaired. Although now only fifty-eight 
years of age, he has witnessed practically the entire development of the oil 
industry of the country and in his younger years he was considered one 
of the best drillers in Clarion county, Pa., also in the Bradford field in McKean 
county, where he took contracts for drilling. By his marriage to Samantha 
Robinson, who was born in Pennsylvania about 1859, he has a daughter and 
son, the former, Zelma, being now the wife of Jacob N. Ripple, superintendent 
of the Mascot Oil Company. 

Born in Clarion county. Pa., June 15, 1878, Roland R. Fishell passed 
the years of boyhood in the Bradford oil field in McKean county, 
that state, and from boyhood earned his own way in the world 
by means of work at the wells. His own efforts enabled him to pay 
his way through the commercial department of the large university at Val- 
paraiso, Ind., where he completed a business course at the age of seventeen 
years. Meanwhile the family had left Pennsylvania for Indiana in 1892 and 
he had worked in the oil fields of Blackford county. When twenty years of 
age he became a driller and about the same time he was united in marriage 
with Miss Minnie K. Wampler, of Montpelier, Ind., the two keeping house 
in Indiana until 1904 and then establishing a home in Illinois oil fields. From 
that year until 1909 Mr. Fishell was employed as a driller at Westfield, Clark 
county. Upon leaving Illinois he came to California and settled in the 
Midway field in 1909, working for five months on the Mascot. Since then he 
has been connected with section 26 division of the North American, engaging 
first as a driller under Superintendent Kurtz and later receiving a merited 
promotion to be production foreman. With his wife and three children, 
Frances B., Beatrice E. and Clair N., he has a comfortable home in the com- 
pany's residence on section 26. Across the road from the house is the Hill 
school, which has been utilized by the people on 25 Hill not only for educa- 
tional purpcses, but also for religious services, musicals and as a social center 
for the neighborhood. Realizing the value of the school as a community 
headquarters, he has taken a warm and unceasing interest in its supervision 
and has promoted every movement undertaken by those responsible for its 
beneficial work. Politically he votes with the Republican party. 

CHRISTIAN ADAM WIRTH. — From every life may be gleaned lessons 
of great value and the life of the late Christian Adam Wirth especially illus- 
trates what it is within the power of a man to accomplish, notwithstanding 
the handicap of poverty, lack of education and ignorance concerning the cus- 
toms of the country. For thirty-five years he enjoyed the co-operation and 
companionship of a devoted wife, whose presence was his greatest encour- 
agement in every enterprise and her counsel his chief guide in business trans- 
actions, and when finally in 1910 death separated them it formed the deepest 
sorrow of his long life. 

Born in Wittenberg, Germany, September 15. 1847, Christian A. Wirth 
sailed for America :at the age of twenty-three years and landed at Castle 
harden in May of 1871. From New York City he traveled west as far as 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1491 

Zanesville, Ohio, and thence to Cincinnati, where he remained for four years, 
meanwhile holding a position as shipping clerk for the wholesale commission 
house of S. S. Cooper. Although unfamiliar with the English language and 
American methods of work, he learned easily and soon commanded fair wages. 
It was during this period of his life that he met Miss Elizabeth Klein, of Cin- 
cinnati, whom he married in 1875 and who accompanied him in that year 
to California. From San Francisco he came to Kernville, Kern county. 
Shortly after his arrival in this county he bought two hundred and forty 
acres of raw land and began to raise stock and general farm products. To 
the original purchase he soon added an adjoining tract of two hundred and 
forty acres. Later he bought a ranch of one hundred and sixty acres. 
Eventually he sold the property at a large advance over the original cost. 
Meanwhile he had invested in other parts of the county, both city and coun- 
try property, and until his death he lived retired in Bakersfield, where he 
owned the corners of Eighteenth and L, Eighteenth and M, Fourteenth 
and G, and much other unimproved property. The increase in land valuation 
made him wealthy and removed from him all necessity for further work, 
aside from such as was involved in the care of his tracts and the oversight 
of his interests. 

The family of Mr. Wir^h comprised one daughter and three sons, all of 
whom are well established in life. The daughter, Louise, married J. C. House, 
M.D., and resides at Port Townsend, Jefferson county, Wash. The eldest 
son,' Henry A., is one of the leading citizens of Onyx, this county, where 
he is postmaster and merchant, and in addition he owns large farming inter- 
ests in that locality. William A., who is represented elsewhere in this 
volume, is a business man at Kernville and Christ is a tool-dresser well 
known in the Sunset field. During his residence here Mr. Wirth witnessed 
many changes, not only in his own personal affairs, but also in the aspect 
of the country. Then there were few farmers and the land was almost wholly 
unimproved. The raising of stock helped him in getting a start and at times 
he had as many as fifty head of horses on his ranch. A skilled blacksmith, 
he had a shop on his ranch and did his own repair work on machinery, besides 
taking personal charge of the shoeing of his horses. Before he left the 
ranch he had seen much of the development of the country, whose tillable 
acres w-ere drawing an increasing number of desirable settlers and whose 
fertile soil made an excellent return to those bestowing care and cultivation 
thereon. The death of Mr. Wirth occurred October 25, 1912. 

L. T. BROWN. — The proprietor of an upholstering business and in the 
manufacture of awnings and tents, Mr. Brown's goods and services are much 
in demand. 

Born in Little Rock, Ark., on February 11, 1885, Mr. Brown was the 
eldest of his parents' three children. His father and mother, who were respec- 
tively R. A. Brown and Cordelia (Pollock) Brown, came to Bakersfield in 
May, 1891, and were very well known here. In the public schools of Bakers- 
field, Mr. Brown received his educational training, and here his youth and 
early manhood were spent. Upon leaving school he entered the emplov 
of Roy White, for whom he worked for seven years. He then worked 
for the Hayden Fur Company for a short time, later being in the employ of 
P. Niederaur in his present line of business. Subsequently he entered the 
/ business of his predecessor in his present business, W. H. Reeve, of Bakers- 
/ field, from whom he learned all the details of the business and its conduct 
' and later bought out the establishment from him. This he is at present 
conducting on his own account with marked success, it being located at 
No. 2001 I street. 

Mr. Brown's marriage occurred March 6, 1907, to Miss Lola Coughran, 
of Merced county, Cal., daughter of J. L. Coughran. One child has been 



1492 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

born to them, Wyvverne. Fraternally he affiliates with the Loyal Order 
of the Moose, and held office in Bakersfield Lodge No. 460, and he is also 
a member of the W'oodmen of the World. 

ADLORE SAVOIE. — As vice-president of a wholesale house oper- 
ated under the title cf the Fred Gunther Company, Mr. Savoie holds an 
official connection with a well-known Bakersfield enterprise and in addi- 
tion he maintains an important business relation with the concern through 
being the manager of the soda water deoartment. It is said that he is an 
expert in this line of work, understanding fully all the intricate processes 
for the making of the highest grades and in his own shop manufacturing 
nineteen different flavors. The soda water factory of the company stands 
in the northern part of Bakersfield. in the old Buffalo brewing building, 
on the Southern Pacific tracks, near the plant of the Union Ice Company. 
Every nn dern equipment has been introduced to make the shop perfect of 
its kind and without doubt, from the standpoint of sanitation, it is unex- 
celled by any similar establishment in the entire state, which result may 
be attributed to the capable oversight of the manager. 

The Savoie family is of French Canadian ancestry and possesses the 
thrift of the one race with the resolute soirit characteristic of the other 
nationality. Ezra and Minnie (Mercier) Savoie, natives of Canada, born 
in the vicinity of Quebec, crossed into the States and settled at St. Anne, 
Kankakee county, 111., where they became influential residents. Among 
their six children the next to the youngest and the only one to settle in 
California was Adlore. whose birth occurred at St. Anne, 111., June 15, 
1873, and whose somewhat meager education was obtained in local schools. 
During 1887 he left home to make his own way in the world. Three years 
later he secured a clerkship in the grocery establishment of H. F. Westfall, 
on Archer avenue, Chicago, where he remained for six years. The wages, 
however, were small and h( ping to better himself by a change he went 
into a wholesale paper house in the same city. After a year he resigned 
that position and came to California in 1879, settling in Bakersfield. For 
six years he was an employe of the C. O. D. soda works, first with Mr. 
Mercier and later with Mr. Condit, and during this period he acquired a 
thorough knowledge of the soda business. Next he became a member of 
the firm of Gunther & Savoie, bottlers and manufacturers of soda water, 
the same being now merged into the Fred Gunther Company, incorporated 
at $15,000. with B. H. Sill as oresident, Fred Gunther as secretary, treas- 
urer and manager, and Mr. Savoie as vice-president, also as superintendent 
of the soda plant with its large output and its regular c( rps of workmen. 
When coming to Bakersfield Mr. Savoie was unmarried and in this city in 
1899 he was united with Miss Maud Hawlev, of Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. 
Savoie and their son, Floyd, reside at No. 2111 Nineteenth street. Fratern- 
ally Mr. Savoie holds membership with the Elks. Eacrles and Indeiendent 
Order of Odd Fellows and served as delegate to the national grand lodge. 

E. S. WILLIAMS.— The multiplicity of the business interests repre- 
sented in Taft appears little less than remarkable when the brief life cf 
the place is taken into consideration. Not the least conspicuous of these 
business enterprises may be mentioned the Midway bottling works of South 
Taft. an organization fr rmed for the purpose of handling the Vallev brew 
of El Dorado Brewing Company at Stockton. The concern, c rganized under 
the laws of the state of California, has been incorporated by its president, 
F. Bontadelli, of Tranquility, Fresno county, and its secretary-treasurer, 
E. S. Rose, manaeer for the Jameson tract in South Taft. Under the super- 
vision of E. S. Williams as manager a wholesale and retail business has 
been developed that extends through these oil fields and that gives every 
evidence of steady increase in quantity and importance. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1493 

A resident of California since December, 1909, Mr. Williams is well 
posted concerning the west and has the firmest faith in its future progress. 
The family of which he is a member has been identified with Missouri for 
several generations and he himself is a native of Cross Timbers in Hickory 
county, that state, where he was reared and educated. Upon leaving school 
he learned the business of an undertaker. At the same time he acquired a 
thorough knowledge of the furniture business. These two occupations he 
followed at Cross Timbers for a number of years and during that period 
of business identification with his native town he married Miss Anna Spickert, 
by whom he has a daughter, Eunice. Accompanied by his family he came 
to California during the latter part of 1909 and after more than a year in 
Los Angeles removed to Taft in April of 1911, since which time he has had 
charge of the Midway bottling works and has built up a modest but suc- 
cessful business. Ever since attaining his majority he has voted the Demo- 
cratic ticket in all elections. During the period of his residence in Los 
Angeles he became connected with the Golden State Camp of Woodmen, 
while prior to his removal to the west he was an active worker in a Mis- 
souri lodge of Odd Fellows and is still remembered as one of the popular 
members of that organization at Preston in Hickory county. 

JOY J. RICHART.— Since September of 1910 the development of the 
Cheney-Stimpson Oil Company has been carried on under Joy J. Richart 
as superintendent, to whose ability and careful oversight may be attributed 
the profitable continuance of the enterprise. The holdings of the company 
include twenty acres lying on section 23, township 32, range 23, where 
drilling was started February 7 , 1910, and where since there have been devel- 
oped six producing wells. Four of these wells, Nos. 1, 2, 8 and 10, had been 
drilled prior to the association of Mr. Richart with the work and since then 
he has superintended the drilling of Nos. 3 and 7. Every modern equip- 
ment has been provided. The first-class condition of the lease renders pos- 
sible the maximum of production and there is now an average monthly out- 
put of ten thousand barrels of oil of fourteen degrees gravity. The lease 
ranks as one of the most profitable small properties in the field. 

From his earliest recollections Mr. Richart has been more or less famil- 
iar with the oil industry, for he was born and reared in Crawford county, 
111., for years a center of that business. His parents, Watts and Fannie 
(Connett) Richart, devoted their active years to agriculture in that county, 
where the father died about 1899, and where the mother still remains at the 
old homestead. Eight children comprised the family, namely: Easier, wife 
of C. C. Baker, a merchant at Alma, 111. ; Kate, who married F. M. Cullson, 
a farmer in Lawrence county. 111. ; Charles I., an operator with the Big 
4 Railroad Company, now stationed at Flatrock, Crawford county. 111. ; Anna, 
wife of J. W. Fantz, a driller in the Flatrock oil field in Illinois; Myrtle, who 
is with her mother; Edith, who died at the age of thirteen years; Joy J., 
who was born November 28, 1887, and is the only member of the family to 
remove from Illinois ; and Grace, who resides with her mother at the old 
homestead. During early life Joy J. Richart attended school, worked on 
the home farm and had considerable experience as clerk in a store. When 
nineteen years of age he secured employment in the oil field near Robinson, 
Crawford county. With the Hazelwood Oil Company and the Ohio Oil 
Company he had a valuable experience of four years. Arriving at Bakers- 
field December 13, 1909, he sought employment in the oil fields. For three 
months he was employed as a gang-pusher on the San Joaquin division of 
the Associated, after which he came over to the Midway, sought employ- 
ment on 25 Hill and adjoining leases and in less than three days secured 
a position as production foreman with the Cheney-Stimpson Oil Company, 
whose holdings he since has developed with profit to the company. 



1494 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

The marriage of Mr. Richart took place in Effingham county, 111., and 
united him with Miss Mabel, daughter of George and Caroline (Fite) Eagle- 
ton, of Crawford county. 111., the former deceased, the mother still living. 
Mrs. Richart was for three years before her marriage identified with the 
educational profession of Crawford county, 111., being recognized as one of 
the best teachers enrolled. In the Eagleton family there were ten children 
and six of these attained mature years, namely : Viola, who married John D. 
Price, a farmer of Crawford county, 111., and died leaving one child ; Sadie, 
wife of F. L. Price, agent for the Prudential Life Insurance Company and a 
resident of Robinson, Crawford county; James C, a rancher in Colorado; 
Ota Earl, who is engaged in the meat business and in ranching at Sugar 
City, Otero county, Colo.; Mabel, Mrs. Richart; and George H., who is em- 
ployed on the Cheney-Stimpson lease in the Midway field. Since coming 
to this location Mr. Richart has been identified with the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows at Taft. With characteristic thrift he has invested his sav- 
ings in land and is now the owner of forty acres in Merced county, on the 
state highway, convenient to the Southern Pacific Railroad and to the San 
Joaquin Light and Power Corporation. The tract is now under cultiva- 
tion to melons and sweet potatoes, and is irrigated by means of pumping 
plants operated by electric motors. The land is worth $250 per acre and 
its fine improvements and high state of cultivation afiford convincing evi- 
dence as to the capable oversight of the owner. 

REV. JOHN H. BOESE.— The genealogy of the Boese family is traced 
to Germany, whence the paternal grandfather migrated to Poland, the birth- 
place of Henry Boese, who became a farmer in Molotschnah Colonic, Rus- 
sia, and there Rev. John H. Boese was born September 25, 1844. The family 
continued in Russia until 1879 and then immigrated to America, settling on 
a farm in Marion county, Kan., where Henry Boese died. The eldest child 
in the family, John H., worked hard from a lad to assist in the maintenance 
of the others. Meanwhile he learned the German language in the local 
schools. In 1867 he married Miss Lizzie Warkentin, who died in 1875. 
Afterward he was united with Miss Lizzie Fast, daughter of Rev. Peter 
Fast, a preacher and educator who followed these professions until his death. 

Upon settling in Kansas John H. Boese purchased eighty acres of land 
and engaged in raising grain until 1889, when he removed to Granada, 
Colo. There he pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of land, which he 
proved up on and then sold. His next location was Kirk, Colo., where he 
fifed on a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, but after an attempt 
he found the land too dry and abandoned the claim. After a year at La Junta 
he purchased a farm near Pueblo and engaged in farming there until 1910, 
when he came to California. Soon afterward he bought forty acres under 
the Beardsley canal, ten miles northwest of Bakersfield. The improvements 
are of a permanent character, including a concrete house, substantial out- 
buildings and an excellent pumping plant. The farm is devoted to alfalfa. 

By his first marriage Mr. Boese became the father of two children now 
living, namely : John, a farmer near his father's place ; and Mrs. Nettie 
Freisen, of Bakersfield. Of the second marriage there are eleven children 
living, namely : Mrs. Lizzie Newman, of Colorado ; Henry, of Pueblo ; Sadie, 
Mrs. Freisen, of Bakersfield ; Peter, of Pueblo ; Mrs. Mary Hannaman, of 
Bakersfield; Mrs. Katie Koepper, of Los Angeles; Abraham, a farmer at 
Lerdo ; Mrs. Anna Hiebert, also of Lerdo ; Isaac and Susie, of Bakersfield; 
and Jacob, who is aiding his parents on the farm. Having studied the Gos- 
pel for many years, Mr. Boese while in Colorado was ordained to the min- 
istry of the Mennonite Brethren Church and has since served in the min- 
istry. As the unsalaried preacher in the Rosedale Mennonite Brethren Church 
he gratuitously tenders his services to the congregation and, while depend- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1495 

ing upon his farm for a livelihood, freely gives of his time to the upbuilding 
of the cause of religion in his community, 

J. B. JAMES. — A native of Missouri, Mr. James was born at California, 
Moniteau county, April 20, 1869, received a common-school education in Mis- 
souri, came from that state to California at the age of eighteen years and 
settled in the vicinity of Santa Barbara, where for four years he was employed 
on a stock and grain ranch near Lompoc. At the expiration of 
the first year he was promoted to be foreman of the vast tract, 
comprising about seventy-five thousand acres and covering an area 
about thirty-five miles in length. The supervision of the stock on 
the immense acreage made his task one of great difficulty, but he discharged 
every duty with intelligence and fidelity. However, he did not feel any 
desire to take up agriculture as a life-work. Instead, he had indulged a 
fondness for photography from youth and without special training dis- 
played commendable skill as an amateur. With the hope that his success 
might be developed by professional training, he gave up his position on 
the ranch and went to San Francisco to study the art. In that city he 
enjoyed exceptional advantages for learning the business in all of its 
branches. For two years he was in the studio of J. W. Baker, a prominent 
photographer of the western metropolis, and from there he went to Martinez, 
Contra Costa county, where he opened a studio and embarked in business 
for himself. Two years later he removed from there to Bakersfield and 
began in the business, which since has developed into the finely-equipped, 
modern and artistic studio situated at No. 1923 I street, a studio known 
throughout the valley for the high character of its photographic output and 
the artistic tastes of its proprietor. The majority of the photosfraphs taken 
especiallv for the engravings in this work were made at this studio. 

JOHN W. KELLY. — Shortly after the execution of Robert Emmet in 
1803, when emigration from Ireland was at its flood tide, there left the old 
home in one of the beautiful valleys of the island an Irish lad sixteen years 
of age, who crossed the Atlantic as a stowaway and settled in Virginia. 
During the war of 1812 he served in the army of his adopted country and 
bore a valiant part in the battle of New Orleans under General Jackson. 
Receiving an honorable discharge at the close of the war, he returned to 
\"irginia and from there crossed the mountains into Kentucky, but later ac- 
companied Daniel Boone to the wilds of ^lissouri. "Uncle" Jack Kelly, as he 
was known far and wide, possessed the temperament of a pioneer and the 
ready skill of the typical frontiersman, hence he was well qualified for the 
difficult task of transforming a wilderness into an abode of peace and plenty. 
He had married Joanna Stephens and thus became allied with one of the 
most prominent Missouri pioneer families who with Daniel Boone founded 
the village of Boonville in Cooper county. Later some difficulty arose between 
Boone and Stephens and the former, giving up all association with the town 
named in his honor, crossed the Missouri river into Howard county, where 
he started a rival town called Boonesboro. LTncle Jack himself remained 
at Boonville and there died in 1874 when eighty-eight years of age. 

Among the children of the Irish emigrant there was a son, Ewing, who 
was born in Missouri and during 1849 crossed the plains to the mines of 
California, where he worked for three years, returning to -Missouri via 
Panama. After his return he took up general farming, established a home 
of his own and lived a quiet, uneventful existence. His wife, who bore the 
maiden name of Celia Cornelius and was born in Missouri, descended from 
Virginian ancestors on both the paternal and maternal sides. Her death 
occurred in IMissouri. Of her three daughters and two sons all are still 
living except one son. During 1888 Ewing Kelly came for the second time to 
California and this time joined his son in Glenn county, Avhere he remained 

65 



1496 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

until his death. The son, John W., is the last male representative of the 
family in the United States of his generation. Born in Cooper county, Mo., 
October 29, 1861, he received his education in the school of experience. To 
an unusual degree he may be called a self-made man. With the exception 
of three months in a subscription school he was utterly without educational 
advantages, having to make his own living fr^m the time he was ten years 
old without any assistance, yet notwithstanding this handicap he has achieved 
success of an high order. When he came to California in 1884 he intended to 
settle in Kern county, but suffering from chills and fever for three days he 
made a hasty change to Glenn county. On the Kendrick ranch at Stony 
creek he found his first employment at bucking sacks of Sonora wheat aver- 
aging one hundred and forty-five pounds (the same weight as himself), receiv- 
ing therefor $2 per day. This remuneration seemed princely as compared 
with wages in Missouri, which were about $12 per month. Following this he 
was employed on various ranches until November 7, 1887, when he was 
married at Stony creek to Miss Ida May Perry. She was a native of that 
place, the daughter of Thomas G. Perry, who was born in North Carolina 
but reared in Missouri, where he remained until 1865. In that year he crossed 
the plains with ox-teams to Napa, Cal., where he married Melissa Bunch, a 
native of Missouri who had come overland in the same train. Mr. Perry was 
a farmer in Glenn county until 1909, since which time he has resided on his 
ranch near Bakersfield. After his marriage Mr. Kelly took up a homestead 
and bi ught school land on Stony creek. There he engaged in farming and 
stock-raising until 1893. In that year he removed to Trinity county and 
engaged in nlacer mining until October, 1895, when he drove overland through 
the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys to Randsburg, Kern county, where 
he to k up mining and also engaged in merchandising. From 1896 to 
1900 he served as constable of Randsburg. During the two ensuing years 
he was a member of the county board of supervisors. As the nominee of 
the Democratic party in 1902 he was elected sheriff and resigned as super- 
visor tfi take the oath of office in Januarv of 1903. At the expiraticn of 
his term he was re-elected, holding the office until January of 1911, when 
he retired, not having been a candidate for re-election, although he had been 
continually in office in Kern county for sixteen years. 

In Bakersfield. where he has made his h. me since 1903 and where he 
has en9'aged in the real-estate business since 1911, Mr. Kelly has a large 
circle of warm personal friends and business associates. His interests have 
been and still are varied and important, including as sub-division acreage 
the Verdina ranch two miles west of town, also stock in oil companies and 
the handling of oil lands. Interested in Maricopa from its beginning, he 
still oAvns forty acres r f the town-site, which leased to tenants and improved 
with buildings forms an important part of the growing oil town. The first 
to embark in mercantile pursuits in the new oil town, he started the present 
st( re of Coons, Price & Co., Incorporated, of which he is still president and 
which has built u'^ a large trade on the west side and keeps five delivery 
wagons in constant use. In add-'tion he is engaged in the raising of alfalfa. 
Mr. and Mrs. Kelly have one child, Elisie Irene Kelly. The Bakersfield 
Board of Trade numbers Mr. Kelly among its most nrogressive members 
and his nid is confidently relied upon in all movements for the local advance- 
ment. Made a Mason in Tehachapi Lodge No. 313, F. & A. M., he has been 
Iryal to ihe high principles of the order and in addition has been prominently 
ideni^i'^'^d n-i^h i^^f loml work rf Bakersfield Lodee No. 266, B. P. O. E. 

JEAN POURROY. — Among the old timers in the French colony of 
East Bakersfield we find Jean Pourroy, a native of Hautes-Aloes., France, 
born Tune 24, 1847, and reared on the farm of his father, Pierre Pourroy, 
near Gap, where he obtained the advantages of the common schools of the 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1497 

locality. In 1872 he came to San Francisco, Cal., where he followed various 
occupations, but principally that of brick-making until 1878, when he came 
to Sumner (now East Bakersfield). 

Being familiar with the sheep business in France, Mr. Pourroy entered 
the employ of a sheep man as a herder and by industry and economy in a 
few years he had accumulated sufficient capital to purchase a Hock of sheep 
and engage in business for himself. During the winters he ranged his flocks 
on the plains near Delano and herded them in the mountains during the 
summers. He met with success and ten years later he purchased a farm 
of forty acres under the Kern Island canal, where he engaged in ranching 
for six years. Then he sold the place and now lives retired at his home on 
Humboldt street, East Bakersfield, enjoying the fruits of his labors. The 
lady who became his wife and assisted him in gaining their competency 
was in maidenhood Emily Villard, also a native of Hautes-Alpes, France, 
and is a sister cf Ambroise Villard, who is represented in this work. To 
Mr. and Mrs. Pourroy were born three children, as follows: Emil, who is in 
the employ of the .Southern Pacific Railroad; Blanche and Louise. Politic- 
ally he esoouses the principles of the Republican party. 

TRUMAN WORTHY HAMILTON.— The young men have aided 
materially in forwarding enterprises for the development and improvement 
of Kern county during the last decade and among those who have helped to 
bring about its present wonderful growth we find Truman Worthy Hamil- 
ton. He was born in Lcs Angeles, Cal., March 17, 1883, the son of E. M. 
Hamilton, the proprietor of Willow Springs, who is represented elsewhere 
in this work. Truman W. was educated in the public schools of Los Ang- 
eles until fcurteen years of age. He then joined his father, who had dis- 
covered the Lido mine in Antelope valley, and continued to devote his time 
to its development until it was sold. His father having completed the Ham- 
ilton hotel at Rosamond, a large modern fireproof building, he became its 
proprietor January 15, 1912, and on March 14, 1912, he was appointed post- 
master at. Rosamond, the office being in the hotel, as is also the telephone 
office. In connection with the above he is also a dealer in hay and grain, 
gasoline and oils, and conducts an auto livery. 

The marriage of Mr. Hamilton was celebrated in Lcs Angeles, uniting 
him with Miss Erma Gertrude Marine, a native of San Joaquin county, and 
they have a daughter, Harriett Blanche. He is greatly interested in the 
cause of education, being the clerk of the board of trustees of the Rosamond 
school district, and previously he held a similar position in the Willow 
Springs district. 

JACOB N. RIPPLE.— Born in Huntingdon county. Pa., July 5, 1869, 
Jacob N. Ripple is a son of the late Henry Ripple, who for years operated 
the large tannery of R. G. Faust & Co., at Mount Union, Pa., and was still 
filling the position at the time of his death, in 1895, at the age of sixty-nine 
years. The mother, now seventy-two years of age (1913), still makes her 
home at Mount Union. The family consisted of eight children. The eldest 
son, Frank, who succeeded his father as superintendent of the tannery at 
Mount Union, died at the age of thirty-four years from the efifects of an acci- 
dental injury and is survived by wife and five children. The surviving mem- 
bers of the family are as follows : Hannah, wife of Alexander Chilcoat. a 
foundryman at Bradford, Pa. ; Wre'mick, a retail grocer, the father of a son 
and a daughter ; Jacob N. ; William H., superintendent of an oil company in 
the Bradford (Pa.) field ; Thomas, foreman of a brick yard at Mount Union. 
Pa. ; J( hn, master mechanic in the extract works at Mount Union ; and Laura, 
wife of James Kimberlan, who is engaged in the brick business at J\Iount 
Union. 

The humble circumstances of the family rendered imperative early self- 



1498 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

support on the part of the children and thus developed traits of independence, 
industry and perseverance. When only fourteen years of age Mr. Ripple was 
earning his own livelihood by working in the tannery operated by his father. 
At the age of eighteen he became a brakeman on the middle division of the 
Pennsylvania Central Railroad, his run being on a freight train between 
Altoona and Harrisburg. Railroading suited him as an occupation and in all 
probability he would have continued at such work throughout life had not the 
failure of his eyes obliged him to leave a business where unerring vision is 
absolutely necessary. For a time he worked in the tannery of his father 
and later held positions in tanneries at Arona and Mapleton. When twenty 
years of age he secured employment with the Forest Oil Company (subsidiary 
to the Standard), and from that time to the present he has been identified with 
the oil industry. Successively he worked in the Bradford field of McKean 
county. Pa., for eight months with McDonald & Oakdale at Wildwood, Alle- 
gheny county, Pa., then at Montpelier, Ind.; and since 1908 in California, 
where for eleven months he engaged as production foreman with the Mascot, 
then for three years and one month filled a similar position with the North 
American, eventually returning to the Mascot, of which he since has engaged 
as superintendent. While in Indiana he and a partner, A. T. McDonald, 
owned and operated five oil wells; Mr. Ripple contracted rheumatism, which 
forced him to go to the hospital in the efifort to get relief, but he finally was 
obliged to make a change of climate and came to California. Selling his interest 
in the lease to his partner, he brought his family and arrived at Los Angeles 
April 15, 1908. The only person whom he knew in this part of the country 
was Tim Spellacy, president of the Mascot lease, who gave him employment 
on that lease May 15th following, which began his extensive association with 
that well-known lease. 

The marriage of Mr. Ripple took place at Wildwood, Pa., and united him 
with Miss Zelma E. Fishell, by whom he is the father of one daughter, Vio- 
let Lucile. The family were leaders in the movement resulting in the organiza- 
tion of the congregation now worshipping in the Hill schoolhouse, and Mrs. 
Ripple, co-operating and working with Mrs. A. W. Perry, now deceased, 
organized a Sunday school, which numbers seventy-eight pupils. In this work 
she has been enthusiastic and capable, and in addition has been a leader in the 
Ladies' Aid Society. As a trustee Mr. Ripple has been connected with the 
business policy of the church, whose influence in the community he believes 
to be most important. While living in Indiana he was an active worker in the 
Modern Woodmen at Keystone. 

R. E. RANOUS. — Determination of will and force of character have 
enabled Mr. Ranous to surmount obstacles that would have discouraged a 
man of less resolution. From early life destiny led him in devious paths 
of bereavement and adversity. Never to him did Fortune beckon with smil- 
ing face and outstretched hand. The death of his mother when he was three 
years of age and that of his father when he was seven left him dependent 
upon the charity of friends, for the family had possessed very little of this 
world's goods. Four boys were left to struggle against an adverse fate. 
One of these, S. V., blind from childhood, was sent to the Institute for the 
Blind at Jacksonville, 111., and died at the age of twenty-three. An older 
brother, L. P., formerly a farmer of Dakota, went to Alberta during the 
opening of that Canadian province and is now engaged in grain-raising near 
Calgary. Another brother, D. J., a favorite in the family and a young man 
of rare qualities of heart, died in Los Angeles county after an honorable 
service in the Philippines during the Spanish-American war. R. E. was 
born at Prophetstown, Whiteside county, 111., October 2, 1879, and after the 
death of his parents lived with friends in Chicago for a year. From there 
he was taken to the home of Frank Burke, a farmer, three miles from 
Waukegan, 111. During the seven years on that farm he was taught to aid 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1499 

in the care of stock and tilling of the soil. Although not given many educa- 
tional advantages, he was quick to learn and acquired a thorough knowledge 
of the common branches. 

The necessity of self-support took Mr. Ranous out into the world at 
an early age. During 1896 he went to South Dakota, to the home of his 
older brother, and for some time he worked as a farm hand in Grant and 
Beadle counties. Huron, twenty-six miles distant, was the nearest town 
of any importance. At that time wheat-growing was the principal occupa- 
tion and the need of harvest hands in summer was so great that excellent 
wages were paid during the busy season. While in South Dakota he en- 
listed for service in the Spanish-American war. Assigned to Company K, 
First South Dakota Infantry, he went to the Philippines with his regiment 
and took part in all of its engagements and campaigns. The record of the 
First South Dakota is as historic and praiseworthy as that of the First 
Nebraska and its members may well point with pride to the gallantry of the 
command in action, to its skill in military tactics and its achievements on the 
battlefield. At the close of the war the men were ordered back to San 
Francisco and there, October 5, 1899, received an honorable discharge. 

Having seen something of California during his service in the army 
and being pleased with the country, Mr. Ranous returned to the west in 
1901 and engaged in the oil industry. For a time he was a tool-dresser with 
Jewett & Blodgett near Maricopa in the Sunset field. Next he engaged 
as a tool-dresser on the Peerless No. 2 at Coalinga. A later experience in 
the Kern River field developed his talent as a production foreman. During 
1904 he left the Fulton lease in order that he might enjoy a merited vacation. 
December 1, 1905, he returned to the Kern river field, where he was employed 
under William N. Forker. Afterward for a year he had charge of the Coal- 
inga lease of the S. W. and B. Oil Company. Upon returning to the Kern 
river field he remained with William N. Forker from May, 1908, to January 
1, 1909, being eni'^loyed as a driller on the lense of St. Clair & Jastro. From 
that district he came to the present site of Taft, where he drilled wells No. 
1 and 2, section 22, township 32, range 23, and wells No. 3 and 4, section 26, 
township 32, range 23, owned by the Wilbert Oil Company. Upon the 
appointment of William N. Forker as water commissioner by the board of 
supervisors of Kern county, Mr. Ranous succeeded him as superintendent 
of the Wilbert Oil Company and has filled the position with recognized 
efficiency. Since undertaking the supervision of the properties he has drilled 
wells 5, 6, 7 and 8, and now has eight producing wells on section 26, where 
the company has forty acres; also two producing wells on section 22. where 
another forty-acre tract is being developed. On the former lease there is an 
average monthly production of fifteen thousand barrels. The company was 
organized by H. L. Packard and is owned by Bakersfield capitalists, H. A. 
Jastro being president and a large stockholder. 

The marriage of Mr. Ranous and Miss Jessie L. Anson was solemnized 
in Santa Ana, Cal., Mrs. Ranous having removed to that point from Ohio. 
The only child of their union died in June, 1913. Numerous fraternities have 
had the benefit of the co-operation and allegiance of Mr. Ranous, among 
these being the Bakersfield Camp, No. 266, B. P. O. E., and Taft Lodge No. 
426, F. & A. M., also Bakersfield Chapter, R. A. M. Prominent in the work 
of the Odd Fellows, he was honored. May 16, 1913, with the appointment 
as district deputy grand master, and before that he had filled numerous 
offices in the local lodge. As president of the Odd Fellows' Hall Associa- 
tion, he has been a leading factor in the erection of the hall at Taft costmg 
$28,000. The building is substantial, constructed with a concrete basement 
and two upper stories of brick, with a front of pressed brick surface and plate 
glass windows. The corner stone was laid June 21, 1913, with appropriate 
ceremonies. The Taft Hardware and Furniture Company has leased the 



1500 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

first floor for its retail establishment, while the basement has been fitted up 
for a banquet hall and kitchen, and the second floor is finished in offices and 
lodge rooms. Every appointment is up-to-date and the building is a credit 
not only to the Odd Fellows, but to the town itself. 

J. W. HEARD. — The pioneer merchant at Oil Center enjoys the friend- 
ship of the people throughout the entire oil district, for by long association 
they have come to appreciate his sterling integrity of character, his kindly 
spirit and warm-hearted southern temperament. When first he established 
his present store and erected the building he now occupies, he put therein the 
first stock of merchandise in the new town, and from the very beginning 
he has enjoyed a large trade. He is also the senior member of the firm of 
Heard & Painter, owners and proprietors of the largest general store in 
Taft. In addition he has made other investments, so that he has been pros- 
pered in a gratifying degree. 

A member of one of the best families in the south and a direct descend- 
ant in the fifth generation from John Heard, governor of Georgia during 
Colonial days, J. W. Heard was born in Mississippi in 1864. The history 
of the family is associated with the south, but principally with the s:at:e of 
Georgia, to which colony members of the Heard family came from England 
in one of the expeditions of Walter Raleigh. In 1875 the father, who had 
ensaged ^n mercantile pursuits at Va-'den, Miss., tock the family back to 
Georgia, where he lived retired until his death. The son was sent to the 
public schools and Sharon Business College, after which he started out to 
make his own way in the world. Arriving in California in 1883, a stranger 
in a strange locality, he settled in the San Joaquin valley and here has since 
made his home and business headquarters. For a time he worked as a 
clerk in stores, being successively in Fresno, Reedly and Sanger, and finally 
coming to Oil Center at the opening of this oil district. Since then he has 
conducted mercantile pursuits in Oil Center and Taft and has made many 
friends throughout Kern county. Reared in the Democratic faith, he ad- 
heres to that party with stanchness and devotion. In 1898 he married Miss 
Emma C. Clark, of Redwood. San Mateo county, and thev are the parents of 
an only son, John Wilkerson Heard. ]\Trs. Heard is the daughter of Mr. 
and Mrs. William A. Clark, the latter of whom died when the daughter was 
only two years of age. The father, an attorney by profession, now lives 
retired at San Diego. The maternal grandfather of Mrs. Heard was Hon. 
Andrew Teague, a pioneer of 1847 in California, and an early settler of San 
Mateo county, where he not only practiced law, but also served as district 
attorney and at one time was honored with the office of judge of the superior 
court. 

HON. ELIAS JAMES EMMONS.— When the gold excitement in Nic- 
aragua was at its height a young man from Missouri, bearing the name of 
William David Emmons, sought the supposed opportunities of that southern 
district, where he became a prosperous merchant in Greytown. Through his 
marriage to Elizabeth J. Miller, a native of Texas, two children were born, 
namely: Elias James, born at Greytown, Nicaragua, March 1, 1859; and 
.Henry William, who settled in Bakersfield and engaged in the oil business 
in this locality. The withdrawal of the Vanderbilt transit line from Nicaragua 
brought stagnation to every line of business there and proved the financial 
ruin of Mr. Emmons, who, forced to seek a home elsewhere, brought his wife 
and children to California and here died in 1862 at Vacaville, Solano county, 
when thirty-two years of age. In 1864 the widow married again and removed 
to Antioch, Contra Costa county, where her two sons attended the grammar 
school and then began to earn their own way in the world. 

As a clerk in a law office of San Francisco Elias James Emmons gained 
his first insight into the profession which he later entered. During 1882 he 
was admitted to practice at the bar of California and opened an office at 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1501 

Chico, Butte county, where he practiced until January of 1893, the date of his 
removal to Bakersfield. For a time he had as a partner F. M. Graham, later 
had an ofifice alone and in 1902 became a partner of Rowen Irwin, but now is 
the senior member of the firm of Emmons & Hudson, his partner being Judge 
R. J. Hudson. From 1893 to 1897 he served as assistant district attorney of 
Kern county and in the latter year he was elected to represent this county in 
the assembly. Governor Budd appointed him a member of the national com- 
mission for uniformity of legislation and he served as such from 1897 to 1901. 
From 1902 to 1906 he was state senator from the thirty-second district, com- 
prising Kings, Tulare and Kern counties. Many interests have received his 
atten.ion aioiig the line of his proiession and for some years lie has acted as 
attorney for the Bakersfield Merchants' Association in railroad transportation 
matters. Politically he has been a Democrat ever since he attained his ma- 
jority. While living in Chico he married Miss Margaret J. Wooden, a native 
of Vallejo, this state, and they are the parents of two children, Elias Carroll 
and Edith June. 

PIERRE MAYOU was born January 15, 1860, in Oloron, Basses- 
l-'yrenees, France, and was reared on his parents' farm and educated in the 
public school. He came to California when a lad of fourteen years, land- 
ing in San Francisco in June, 1874, having only ^25 in his possession, but 
he had a stout heart and willing hands, so went immediately to work in 
Redwood city and continued there for two years. He then made his way to 
Los Angeles, where he was employed on farms and with a sheep man until 
he had saved sufficient money to buy a small flock of sheep. Bringing them 
to Kern county in 1882, he ranged them on mountain and plain, his head- 
quarters being in Kern (now East Bakersfield). He met with success and 
in 1887 he sold out and purchased land in Cummings valley, upon which he 
began grain-raising and farming, and ultimately acquired a place of seven 
hundred acres. He continued there for fourteen years, when a series of dry 
years proved disastrous and he lost his farm. He then came to McKittrick 
about 1902 and engaged in teaming and heavy freighting and in connec- 
tion w^ith farming has followed it ever since. He is leasing the Santa Fe 
place in the little Santa Monica valley, six miles west of McKittrick, where 
he is raising grain hay. He has lately taken as a partner Peter Brockman 
and they run two eight-mule teams for freighting in the oil fields and on the 
desert. 

Air. Mayou's marriage occurred in Tehachapi, uniting him with Theo- 
dora Ocane, a native daughter of San Francisco, who died in Tehachaoi, 
as did their two children. Mary and Peter. Mr. Mayou has always believed 
in and voted for the principles of the Republican party. 

PETER J. McFARLANE. — Among the young men who have come from 
the east to California and have become fascinated with the opportunities 
ofifered to such an extent as to enter heartily into its local business afifairs, 
we find Peter J. McFarlane, who was born in Peterboro county, Ontario, 
July 24, 1861, the son of D. P. and Catherine (Ferguson) McF'arlane. who 
were of Scotch descent and were pioneers in Peterboro county. Of their 
eleven children, ten of whom are living, Peter J. was the oldest. The father 
died in 1912 and the mother two years before him. Being the eldest of a 
large family Mr. McFarlane very early had responsibilities thrust upon him 
and he was early in life obliged to aid in the farm work, his education being 
obtained in the local schools. He remained home helping his parents until 
1884, wdien he came to California and the same year settled in Kern county. 
After being employed at ranching for a short time he took un a homestead 
of one hundred and sixty acres, one and a half miles from Tehachapi. This 
he improved and lived upon until he proved up on it. afterwards disposing 



1502 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

of it. He became interested in the Oak Creek Luml)er Company, and en- 
gaged extensively in the manufacture of lumber on Oak creek. 

During the gold excitement in Nome, Alaska, Mr. McFarlane made a 
trip to that northern camp, but returned to Tehachapi in about eight months. 
In 1905 he was appointed under the Roosevelt administration as postmas- 
ter of Tehachapi and during his first term the office was made a third-class 
office and he was duly reappointed to the office by President Roosevelt 
Febrary 22, 1909. He has ranch interests in Walker's Basin. 

Mr. McFarlane's marriage occurred in Tehachapi in 1888, uniting him 
with Miss Annie Gates, a native of Missouri, and to them have been born 
two children, only one living, a daughter named Catherine. Mr. McFarlane 
was made a Mason in Keene Lodge, at Keene, Ontario, and after his location 
in the Tehachapi region became affiliated with Tehachapi Lodge No. 313, 
F. & A. M., and served four terms as master and at present is its secretary. 
He is also treasurer and past patron of Tehachapi Chapter No. 188, O. E. S. 
He has always been interested in the welfare of his adopted city, always 
being ready to use his means and time toward its upbuilding. He is well 
and favorably known in the county and has many warm friends who admire 
him for his integrity and sterling worth. 

NATHANIEL R. WILKINSON.— A native of Virginia, Mr. Wilkin- 
son was born in Norfolk, July 10, 1838, and died at Bakersfield, Cal., in 
December, 1902. He attended school and attained manhood at Norfolk. 
While still young he went to sea and was a sailor until he was twenty-one 
years old, as such visiting nearly every port in the civilized world. Then 
he became a landsman and was profitably employed in different ways until 
the outbreak of the Civil war. He entered the Confederate army, yielding 
allegiance to Lee and generals of lesser note, and participated in many hard- 
fought engagements. At Gettysburg he received a wound on :he left side of 
his head which eventually caused his death by paralysis. After the war he 
prospered in the domain of peace, and in 1873 came to Bakersfield. Becom- 
ing a school teacher he taught two terms with such success that he was 
very popular among his fellow citizens, who repeatedly elected him a jus- 
tice of the peace, in which capacity he served with great ability and fidelity 
for many years. He was long well and favorably known as a notary public, 
conveyancer and expert accountant and was called upon from time to time 
to handle pronerty and settle estates until his business became large and 
profitable. Wholly reliable and of the highest integrity, he was trusted in 
every way by everyone who knew him. Politically he was active as a Dem- 
ocrat, as a citizen he was public-spiritedly useful, and .while he was ready 
at all times to aid any church to the extent of his ability he was an out- 
spoken admirer of Col. Robert G. Ingersoll. 

The lady who became the wife of Mr. Wilkinson was Miss Mary An- 
drews and their marriage was celebrated in Bakersfield. She was born at 
Mokelumne Hill, Cal., a daughter of John and Rebecca Parker (Williams) 
Andrews. Her father was born near Edinburgh, Scotland, and was gradu- 
ated from the Lhiiversity of Edinburgh with the degree of C.E. He came to 
California in 1848, around Cape Horn, and prospered in the state as a civil 
engineer until his death, which occurred at Camp Seco. Rebecca Parker 
Williams was a second cousin of the Rev. Theodore Parker, the great Uni- 
tarian preacher, and a school mate in Boston of Charlotte Cushman, who 
became one of the greatest actresses of her time. Ancestors of hers named 
Williams were active participants in the work of the "Boston Tea Party" 
and served the cause of the colonies as soldiers in the Revolutionary war. 
Mrs. Wilkinson died at Bakersfield January 1, 1891. She had long been a 
devout member of the Episcopal Church. Irma Jeannette Wilkinson, only 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1503 

daughter of Nathaniel R. and Mary (Andrews) Wilkinson, was graduated 
from the Kern county high school and the Los Angeles normal school and 
is a successful teacher in the public schools of Bakersfield. 

MYRON W. MORRIS.— Born in Fairfield, Mich., December 5, 1839, 
Mr. Morris grew up on the home farm there, attending the school of the 
locality. He attended the college at Hudson, Mich., and taught school for 
some years there, in 1876 coming west and locating in San Francisco, where 
he began to work at the carpenter trade. In 1877 he came to Bakersfield 
to follow the trade of carpenter and later became engaged in contracting 
and building, which he followed the remainder of his life. He at one, time 
became owner of a ranch, but as farming was not to his liking he later sold 
the property. He was one of the first builders in Bakersfield, and lived to 
see it grow to one of the prosperous, thriving cities of the state. His own 
residence which he himself built is located on Chester Lane near the cor- 
ner of C street, and is a handsome, substantial place. Mr. Morris passed 
away March 3, 1911, greatly mourned by all who knew him. 

In April, 1870, at Morenci, Lenawee county, Mich., Mr. Morris was 
married to Bell Austin, who was born near Avon, Livingston county, N. Y., 
the daughter of William B. and Lucy (Whaley) Austin, both of whom 
were natives of Livingston county, N. Y. Mr. Austin was a farmer in New 
York and there his death occurred. Mrs. Morris' grandfather, James Aus- 
tin, was born in England, and upon coming to the United States settled in 
Livingston county, N. Y., where he ever afterward made his home. Her 
mother's death occurred there also, and after her death Mr. Austin married 
(second) Elvira Sage, born in Wheatland, N. Y., who died in Arkansas. 
Two children were born to this union, one of whom survives, Mrs. Eva 
Craig, now of Bakersfield. 

Mrs. Bell A. Morris is the mother of one child, Charles A., who studied 
pharmacy and was graduated from the San Francisco Pharmaceutical Col- 
lege, later taking up the study of medicine. He graduated from the College 
if Physicians and Surgeons at San Francisco with the M.D. degree and was 
later connected with the hospitals and practiced his profession there. Sub- 
sequently he did graduate work in the east and finally went to Europe to 
continue his studies, upon his return being assistant surgeon at the Belle- 
vue Hospital in New York City. He was duly graduated from the Belle- 
vue Hospital Medical College and then located in Bakersfield, where he is 
engaged in practicing medicine and surgery with gratifying success. The 
excellent work of this young doctor and his ability and unusual fitness for 
the profession he has chosen evidence the fact that it is his natural life 
work. 

Before his death Myron Morris was a stanch Republican, and in fra- 
ternal connection was a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. 
Mrs. Morris is a member of the Order of the Eastern Star. She is a woman 
who is much beloved, and her kindly influence for good is felt by all who 
know her. 

THOMAS M. SPACH.— A position of responsibility with the Southern 
Pacific Railroad Company at Bakersfield has been filled by Mr. Spach with 
such fidelity and intelligence as to win the commendation of superior offi- 
cials and to prove beyond question the adaptability of the man to the task. 
The gratifying advancement he has made in railroading is the more note- 
worthy by reason of the fact that in youth he followed another occupa- 
tion and thus lacked the advantage of having an early start in learning the 
rudiments of railroading. The department of the industry to which he has 
given his entire time and attention is yard work and there he speedily rose 



1504 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

from the humblest task to the heavy responsibilities of yardmaster, in which 
capacity he has given the most efficient service for a number of years. 

Born at Columbus Grove, Putnam county, Ohio, September 23, 1869, 
Thomas M. Spach is a son of the late Leonard L. and Catherine (Swaley) 
Spach, natives of Ohio and lifelong residents of that state. Shortly after the 
opening of the Civil war Leonard L. Spach volunteered in the Union service 
and as he was then under the stipulated age for regular enlistment he was 
made a drummer boy in Company G, Eighty-first Ohio Infantry, with which 
he went to the front and took part in many battles of importance. For a 
period of four years he remained in the army, not relinquishing his duties 
until- the war came to an end in 1865 and he then returned to Ohio to take 
up civic pursuits. Throughout life he followed the trade of a plasterer. The 
interests of his chtsen occupation led him to remove from his birthplace, 
in Tuscarawas county, to the western part of the state, where for a consid- 
erable period he lived in Putnam county. The hardships and exnosures in- 
cident to army life injured his health and shortened his life, which came to 
an end before he had reached old age. 

The only member of the parental family now living in California is 
Thomas M., who after completing high school studies in Ohio came to Cali- 
fornia in 1887 at the age of eighteen years. For two years he served an 
apprenticeship to the trade of a coppersmith in San Diego. During 1889 
he removed to Fresno and found employment at his trade, remaining for 
two years and then going to San Francisco to continue in work as a copper- 
smith. After a time it became desirable for him to relinquish his occupation 
and find other avenues of emplo)''ment ; hence he returned to Chicago and 
began in the railroad business, his first position being that of a switchman 
in the Erie yards. In the employ of that railroad company he held different 
positions in Illinois and Indiana and worked his way forward to be yard- 
master at Huntington, Ind., but resigned the position in 1900 in order to 
return to California. Coming to East Bakersfield, he secured work as a 
switchman with the Southern Pacific Railn ad Company. A week later he 
was made switch foreman. After three months he was promoted to be night 
yardmaster and since 1907 he has served as general yardmaster of the Bak- 
ersfield yards of the Southern Pacific road. Giving his attention closely to 
the many details connected with his position, he has found little leisure for 
participation in public affairs and takes no part in politics aside from voting 
the Republican ticket at national elections. While making his home in In- 
diana he became a member of the Maccabees at Huntington and took a 
leading part in lodge work as long as he remained in that city. Upon com- 
ing to Bakersfield he was accompanied by his wife, whom he had married in 
Kenton, Ohio, and who was Miss Fannie Runkle, a native of Rawson, Han- 
cock county, that state. She was the daughter of Lewis and Angeline (Swo- 
yer) Runkle, natives of Ohio, the former of whom passed away in Rawson. 
Her mother is now living in Findlay, aged seventy-eight years. Mr. and 
Mrs. Spach are the parents of one son, Harold. 

HENRY F. BANKS.— Born April 23, 1858, in Illinois, Mr. Banks was 
brought up in Kansas, as his parents, Willis and Eveline (Thomas) Banks, 
moved to Crawford county, that state, when he was but a year old. He re- 
mained at school there until he was fifteen and then worked on farms 
up to the time he came west. When he arrived at San Francisco, in 1878, 
he was twenty, and having had a good training in matters concerning the 
conduct of a farm he procured employment in Sonoma county at general 
ranching and working there for about a year and a half, then coming to 
Kern county, where he followed farming for two years. He then went to 
Auberry valley, Fresno county, having become familiar enough with the 
enterprise to want a place of his own, and he and his brother J. A. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1505 

bought a hundred and sixty acres of land in that valley. Later on he took 
up a homes :ead of a hundred and sixty acres, and engaged in stockraising, 
general farming and the cultivation of grain. He also contracted to^ do 
teaming and hauling for a short time. In 1900 he decided to return to Kern 
county and accordingly rented eighty acres of land and took up general 
farming there, in 1905 buying the place of twenty acres he now cultivaces. 
For this land, which is located three and a half miles southwest of Bakers- 
field, he paid $100 per acre, and it is now valued at $500 an acre. This 
increase in the value of his property is due to the improvements which he 
has made, and the careful, conscientious handling of the details of con- 
ducing the ranch. 

Mr. Banks married in Fresno, December 22, 1884, Lizzie Bonner, who 
was born in Warren county. 111., April 14, 1861. They had two children, 
Ivory P., a farmer near Maricopa; and Ethel B., who was Mrs. R. L. 
Green, and passed away in February, 1911, leaving a child, Bernardine, now 
with her grandparents. With his wife Mr. Banks is a member of the 
Christian Church in Bakersfield. In fraternal relations he unites with the 
Woodmen of the World, and politically he is a Democrat. 

MRS. MELVINA JOHNSON.— About thirteen miles south of the town 
of Bakersfield, on section nineteen, is situated the home farm of Mrs. Mel- 
vina Johnson, who with the aid of her two sons, John A. and Ray Johnson, 
is conducting the place on such prudent, thorough and painstaking lines as 
to procure the best of products. To a woman of less courage the hardships 
and extreme deprivations to be endured in building up a successful course 
of work would have been most appalling, but Mrs. Johnson has that force 
of character and strong will power which enabled her to be an aid to her 
sons in improving their farm and in the cultivation of their crops. 

The wife of John A. Johnson, she became the mother of ten children, 
all of whom reflect credit upon the excellent training which she has given 
them, and though her duties have been heavy she has found time to devote 
herself to theni^ regardless of her own comfort and giving them the love 
and care which only a mother can give. She is the daughter of R. T. 
Baker, pioneer of California in 1857. Her mother, Mary A. (Bailey) Baker, 
had come to California in 1849 with her father, Peter Bailey. Three children 
were born to Mr. and Mrs. Baker: Melvina, Mrs. Johnson; Frank C, 
engaged in the oil business in Kern county; and Louisa, deceased. 

Mrs. Johnson's ten children are: Laurel, who married Joe H. Brown, 
a farmer of Panama. Kern county; Frank and Monte, both employed in the 
West Side Oil Fields as well drillers ; John A., mentioned below^ ; Lou, the 
wife of W. Bullock, a contractor and builder, residing in McFarland, Kern 
county; Rav, assisting his mother, as mentioned below; Ruth, wife of H. 
Harmon, in West Side Oil Fields ; Katie, Gladys, and William. Of these 
John A. was born March 12, 1891, in Los Angeles county, where his parents 
resided for some time. He was about ten years of age when his parents 
removed to Kern county, and he has proved faithful in his duty to his 
mother, aiding her in the conduct of the farm and being most solicitous of 
her comfort. With his brother Ray, who was also born in Los Angeles 
countv, he is tenderlv caring for her and her interests, and they are men 
who hold the esteem of all who know them for their sterling worth and ex- 
cellent character. In politics they are both Republicans. Their farm con- 
sists of a hundred and- sixty acres, forty of which they own, having rented 
the remainini? hundred and twenty which is located on Kern Island Road. 
G. F, ADAMS. — The twentieth century forms an era of specialization 
and in no avenue of progress has this fact been more apparent than in the 
mechanical arts. There has been an opening for every man possessing 
ability in the handling of machinery and in general mechanical work, hence 
it has not been difficult for a young man with the marked ability exhibited 



1506 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

by Mr. Adams to secure and hold positions of responsibility and trust in 
his chosen sphere of industrial activfty. At this writing, as for some years 
preceding', he is connected with the Sunset Monarch Oil Company at Mari- 
copa and worthily fills an important place as foreman of the machine 
shops, in this position taking in all work pertaining to the various depart- 
ments of the oil company's large business, besides also doing custom work 
for other oil concerns in the iield. 

Born in Youngstown, Ohio, February 12, 1876, G. F. Adams is a son 
of Peter Adams, a lifelong resident of Mahoning county, Ohio, and a 
grandson of Hilgarde Adams, who about the year 1832 left his native land 
of Germany to identify his fortunes with those of the new world. It was 
he who established the family in Ohio and he followed agricuhural pursuits, 
as did also his son, Peter. The latter was the father of ten children, all 
of whom attained mature years and nine still survive. The only one taken 
from the family, Edward Adams, died in 1912 after a prosperous period of 
identification with the wheat-raising industry in Saskatchewan, Canada. 
Those still living are scattered throughout different parts of the United 
States. Two of the brothers are carpenters in Los Angeles. 

At the age of sixteen years G. F. Adams became an apprentice to the 
trade of machinist in Youngstown, where he worked for four and one-half 
years in the American Tube and Iron Works. At the expiration of that 
time he became a machinist with the Smith Brewing Company and con- 
tinued in the employ of that organization for two and one-half years. Upon 
leaving Ohio he went to South Dakota and settled at Edgemont, Fall River 
county. As a machinist in the shops of the Burlington Railroad Company 
he remained for a number of years and from there during 1902 he came to 
California. In this state his first position was in the Bakersfield Iron Works, 
where he remained for four years. Removing to Coalinga in 1906, he en- 
gaged with the Bunting Iron Works and continued in various capacities 
with that concern for two years, his special work, however, being on the 
pumps. From Coalinga he came to Maricopa in 1908 and secured a position 
with the Sunset Monarch Oil Company, in whose employ he remains at 
the present time. 

FRED ABELS. — One of the capable operators in the West Side oil 
field is the superintendent of the La Blanc Oil Company, who although 
young in years has been earning his own way in the world for a goodly 
number of years and has gained popularity and a record for efficiency in the 
oil business. Combined in his character arc the sturdy attributes of 
Teutonic ancestors and the energy so essentiall)'' American. These qualities 
have aided him in his efforts to make good in the Kern county fields, where 
since March 25, 1911, he has been retained as superintendent with the Le 
Blanc Oil Company, an organization operating on section 6. 11-23, where 
two wells have been sunk that produce an average of one hundred and ten 
barrels per day. 

The parents of Mr. Abels were Martin and Emma (Leursen) Abels, 
natives of Germany, but residents of Illinois from early life until about 1886, 
when they removed to the Ozark region of Missouri. At the opening of the 
Civil war the father enlisted as a private in the Thirteenth Illinois Infaniry, 
accompanied his regiment to the front and remained for four years, receiving 
an honorable discharge at the expiration of the war. Later he was ap- 
pointed successivelv to several important government positions. On ac- 
count of the failure of his health he removed to Missouri and settled in 
Texas county, where he was greatly benefited by the pure air of the Ozarks. 
While still living in Illinois he had married ]\Iiss Leursen and all of their 
nine children were born in that state, namely : John, now a farmer in Texas 
county. Mo.; Henry, who holds a very responsible position as secretary ot 
the Franklin Life Insurance Company at Springfield, 111. ; Martin, a printer 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1507 

employed in Oklahoma City; Gus, who is engaged in general farming near 
New Sharon, Iowa; Amelia, who died at the age of four years; Herman, 
an employe of the Franklin Life Insurance Company; Emma, who married 
Walter Jadwin, who is engaged in educational work at Houston, Mo., and 
also owns farm lands in the same locality; Fred, who was born in Spring- 
field, 111., June 12, 1882, and at the age of four years accompanied the family 
to Missouri; and James, who is connected with the Franklin Life Insurance 
Company as an employe. 

At the age of seventeen years, having previously completed the studies 
of the common schools in the Ozark region, Fred Abels began to earn his 
own livelihood. After working for twelve months in Arkansas he spent a 
number of years in Colorado and then made a brief sojourn in Oklahoma, 
whence he came to California, arriving in Bakersfield January 23, 1905! 
His first experience in the oil business was acquired in the Kern river field 
and for a time he worked on the Peerless under the superintendent, Angus 
Crites. The next year found him at Coalinga, but in three months he re- 
turned to Kern county and resumed work on the Peerless. Coming to Mari- 
copa April 3, 1907, he secured work as a roustabout, much of his time being 
devoted to the driving of a team. From that humble position he worked his 
way up until he engaged successively as tool-dresser and driller, and then, 
March 25, 1911, came to his present place as superintendent of the Le Blanc 
Oil Company. At Bakersfield, February 13, 1909, he married Miss Marie 
Mcintosh, daughter of Daniel and Romana Mcintosh, of Ramona, San 
Diego county, Cal. Mrs. Abels is a woman of gracious personality, repre- 
senting on her mother's side an old and honored Spanish family of Cali- 
fornia. Their union has been blessed by a daughter, Barbara Romana. 

J. M. WHYTE. — Large executive ability and unusual powers of organi- 
zation have marked the identification of Mr. Whyte with the Panama Oil 
Company, in which he is a large stockholder and of whose lease in the 
Sunset field he acts as superintendent. The company's lease of sixty acres 
lies on section 30, 12-23, and contains two wells, one of which, drilled by 
Mr. Whyte from the surface down, has produced continuously excepting 
for one month, when extensive repairs had to be made by reason of the 
collapsing of the casing. The head offices of the company are in the H. W. 
Hellman building, Los Angeles, and its officers reside in that city, namely: 
J. B. Hedrick, president; C. F. Spelman, vice-president; J. S. Wallace, sec- 
retary; and A. M. Allison, treasurer. 

Throughout early life Mr. Whyte w^as familiar with gold mining and 
his knowledge of that industry is. thorough and covers many fields. Born 
in Kansas City, Mo., March 22, 1880, he was twenty-four years old when his 
father died. Prior to that he and his three sisters accompanied their parents 
to Colorado, settling at Silver Cliff, where the elder Whyte engaged, in 
gold-mining and where he himself became familiar with such work. In 
the intervals of attendance at school he found employment in the mines 
and gained a comprehensive knowledge of the work. During 1903 he went 
to the Goldfield and Tonopah regions in Nevada, where he bought a number 
of gold mines and for a time prospered in the w^ork. The mines were sold 
to excellent advantage and the money re-invested in other claims. Unfor- 
tunately he met with heavy losses during the panic of 1907 and while he 
was able to meet his obligations it left him without money, forcing him 
to begin anew. It was then that he came to Kern county and began 
to work as a roustabout in the North Midway field. In a short time he 
became an employe of the United Oil Company and by swift degrees worked 
up until he had charge of the production. Meanwhile he attracted the 
attention of C. F. Whittier, of the United Oil Company, who interested 
himself in the young man's advancement, having found him to be alert, 
wise, energetic and capable. During 1910 he became a stockholder in the 



1508 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Panama Oil Company and since then he has acted as superintendent of the 
company's lease, havini^' charge both of the drilling" and the production of 
the wells. 

It is anticipated that the Panama will become one of the best producers 
in the field providing the strong underflowing current of water can be shut 
otf effectually by means of cementing. Eight capable men are employed 
under the supervision of Mr. Whyte, who gives his entire time to the work 
and with his wife, whom he married in August of 1911 and who was Miss 
Josephine Omphalius, of Buffalo, N. Y., he makes his home on the lease 
in the Sunset field. While still living in Colorado he became connected 
with the Elks at Creede, but since coming to California his time has been 
given so closely to the oil industry that he has not been able to participate 
actively in fraternal aftairs. 

J. J. TEAGUE. — No slight responsibility devolves upon Mr. Teague in 
his position as foreman of the refinery of the Sunset Monarch Oil Company 
at Maricopa, the organization with which he has been associated for some 
years ranking among the largest and most important in the entire field. 
Skilled workmen are retained, none of whom, however, are more capable or 
conscientious than Mr. Teague, who with the aid of the twenty men work- 
ing under him manages the refinery with energy, discretion and excellent 
judgment. The cooper shops of the company are also under his immediate 
suT^ervision. When running on heavy oils the refinery turns out fifty-five 
tons of asphalt of the Monarch brand. The output is less when running 
on lieht gravity oil. Aside from asphalt there are two other leading 
products, known as Monarch red engine distillate and Monarch pale oil 
distillate, both of which are shipped out in tank cars.' Every equipment has 
been provided for the making of gasoline also, although the enterprise has 
not yet been made a feature of the business. Eight hundred barrels of 
crude oil are used each da}^ ample facilities for the same being provided 
by a storage tank with a capacity of twenty thousand barrels. 

Born at Winston-Salem, Forsyth county, N. C, August 3, 1885, J. J. 
Teague was third among the nine children comprising the family of Charles 
M. and Sarah (Idol) Teague, natives of North Carolina, where the father 
has followed farming as a life occupation. The son was sent to the public 
schools when his help was not needed on the home farm. At the age of 
eighteen years he came to California and secured employment with the 
Cucamonga winerv in San Bernardino county. For three years he con- 
tinued as ail employe of the California Wine Association. Next he came 
to Kern county during 1906 and began to work with the Sunset Road Oil 
Company at Hazelton (Pioneer postoflfice), where he remained for two and 
one-half years. A visit to his old home in North Carolina was followed by 
a return to California and a resumption of work in the oil fields. After two 
months with the Standard Oil Company at Taft, Kern county, he came to 
Maricopa and secured employment as stillman with the Sunset Monarch 
Oil Company. Later he was made yard foreman and in 1909 he was pro- 
moted to be superintendent of the refinery. While with the Sunset Road 
Oil Company he had learned the distilling of oil and this knowledge proved 
of the greatest benefit to him in later activities. Shortly after New Year's 
of 1912 he returned to North Carolina and there. February 4, he was united 
in marriage with Miss Magdaline Glascoe, a daughter of D. P. Glascoe, 
prominently known among the farmers of Davidson county, that srate. 
The voung couple came to California shortly after their marriage and have 
since established themselves in a comfortable cottage on the Monarch lease, 
fhev have a daufditer. Millicent. 

ALMANDO BANDFTTINI. — When Mr. Bandettini started in business 
at Asphalto, now McKittrick, his was the first building and business; the 
only water obtainable was hauled in from Santa Mona spring, seven miles 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1509 

away, and cost Mr. Bandettini $8 per barrel. Such were the conditions in 
those early days when Almando was mine host at the Old Headquarters 
and made many a heart glad with his cheer and optimism and the comforts 
of life. He was the first set:ler. and business man in McKittrick and became 
well and favorably known among all the oil men. 

Lucca, Italy, is the birthplace of Mr. Bandettini and September 21, 1867, 
the date of his birth. He is the son of Pasquale and Angelina (Ouilice) 
Bandettini, who were farmers there. They now live in a beautiful house in 
the suburbs ot Lucca, a place purchased for them by Almando on his visit 
there in 1911. at a cost of $6,000, and where he provides them with the 
comforts of life. They are now eighty-nine and eighty-four years old, re- 
spectively. 

Of the seven children born to them the subject of this review is the 
third oldest and was brough' up on the farm in Italy and was educated 
in the public schools there. Having heard and read much concerning Cali- 
fornia he became possessed of a keen desire to come to the Golden West. 
Having saved enough money to get to Chicago, in the spring of 1885 he 
started for that city, where a sister was living. Securing employment, he 
laid aside his wages and thus made his way to Kansas Ci'y and thence ta 
Nevada, working mostly on railroads. In September, 1885, he arrived in 
Santa Barbara, where for four months he was employed on Santa Cruz 
Island, then at different points on the coast, ranching. In 18'^2 he came to 
Kern county and entered the emplov of Miller & Lux at the Old Headquar- 
ters, afterwards at Firebaugh. In 1898 he established the Old Headquarters 
Hotel at AsDhalto, now McKittrick, and when the oil business began to 
develop he built shacks and put up tents, cared for the people and furnished 
them accommodations. He is well acquainted with the oil men of Kern 
county. In 1902, when the Southern Pacific started selling lots at their 
new station about a quarter of a mile below his first hotel he purchased 
eight lots and built the new Headquarters Hotel and liverv and feed stable and 
corral and continued doing a very successful business there until 1910, when 
he sold out. 

During these years he has been considerably interested in oil develop- 
ment. Amon? other companies he and H. S. Williams sunk a well on section 
18, in the McKittrick field, and at ten hundred and thirty feet struck oil. sub- 
sequently putting down four more wells and producing oil until thev sold it. 
Mr. Bandettini still owns about two hundred acres of land in the McKittrick 
field and sees a big future for the oil business in California. 

The marriage of Mr. Bandettini and Marguerite Arrighi was celebrated 
in San Francisco April 20, 1903. Mrs. Bandettini was born in Lucca. Italy, 
and came with her parents when four years old to San Francisco, where she 
received her education in Presentation convent school. Thev are the parents 
of two children, Hazel and Edith. In 1900 I^Tr. Bandettini made his first 
trip to the old home in Italy and in 1911 with his wife and children he made 
the second trip, spending about seven months, and durinsf this time purchased 
and improved the comfortable home for his parents, where they are spending 
their declining years in comfort, quiet and peace. Politically he is a staunch 
and ardent Peoublican. 

EDGAR E. SHERWOOD. — One of the best known breeders of fine 
horses in Kern county is Edgar E. Sherwood, of McFarland. Mr. Sherwood 
was born in Shelburn, Sullivan county, Ind., May 3. 1869, and was educated 
in Indiana public schools and at the University of Indiana at Vincennes. 
Living with his parents, he worked on ranches near his boyhood home until 
1897, when he came to California and entered the emoloyment of A. B. Chap- 
man in Los Angeles c( unty. For six months he had charge of the dairy, then 
began his connection with the orange industry. He was eventually advanced 
to the position of superintendent of the Chapman place, in which capacity he 



1510 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

served twelve years, having complete charge of the ranch as well as packing 
and shipping of oranges. During this time he had purchased five acres of land 
in Pasadena. During these years he filled the offices of deputy sheriff and 
deputy constable. Some time later he sold his property in Pasadena and in 
1907 bought four hundred acres at McFarland, Kern county, two years later 
locating on it. This land was the old Benson place, two hundred and forty 
acres of which were then under cultivation, and his purchase included water 
rights. Since purchasing the land he has sunk deep wells and put in a pump- 
ing plant with a capacity of one hundred and twenty-five inches. The cultiva- 
tion of alfalfa occupied his attention. for a time, then he became interested in 
the breeding of Holstein cattle, Poland China hogs and German Coach horses. 
While in Southern California he had begun raising standard horses and im- 
ported a stallion, "Lubins Kanitz," already a prize winner in Germany, which 
has since won important awards in America, notably in Kansas, at Des 
Moines, Iowa, and at the international fair held at Chicago. He breeds par- 
ticularly draft horses and is a member of the McFarland Horse Breeders 
Company who own "Helot," an imported Percheron stallion, Mr. Sherwood 
serving as secretary and manager of the company. Some horses he has 
raised have brought as much as $4,000 each, among them the noted "Be^ssie 
Barnes," and he is at this time the owner of some of the finest stock in Kern 
county, among them "Cresindo B," a full brother to "Capa de Ora" whose 
record is 1.59. 

Mr. Sherwood was one of the organizers of the McFarland Co-operative 
Creamery Company, in which he is a stockholder and director, and he has from 
time to time been identified with other important interests. As a citizen he 
is influential in public affairs and he is ably filling the offices of trustee of 
schools and deputy constable at McFarland. 

Mr. Sherwood was married near Lawrenceville, Lawrence county, 111., 
March 31, 1889, to Miss Florence E. Newell, a native of that county, where 
she was graduated from the Lawrenceville high school. They have three 
children : Adley, who is farming the old place at McFarland ; Harvey and 
Carrie, still at home. Fraternally the father affiliates with the Woodmen 
of the World and was made a Mason in Delano Lodge, No. 309, F. & A. M. 
With his wife he is a member of the Eastern Star, and she is a member of the 
Women of Woodcraft. Mr. Sherwood was one of the organizers and is a direc- 
tor in the First National Bank of McFarland. 

PETER DORAN.— Born in County Down, Ireland, in 1857. until he 
was fifteen years old Peter Doran attended the public schools near the home 
of his childhood. Well grounded in the principles underlying good citizenship 
and instructed in useful labor, he was fairly well fitted to undertake the 
responsibilities of life in a new land, and when he came to the United States 
in 1882 he located in the vicinity of Delano. Cal. At that time the country 
was new and undeveloped and there was not a house within ten miles of the 
present town. After following general farming for four years, in 1889 he 
bought sheep and started in business for himself as a sheep-raiser. Later he 
sold his stock and engaged in the sale of lumber, feed and fuel at Delano, 
which was by that time a thriving village, and his was the first lumber yard 
in the place. Since selling the business to the proprietor of the Union Lumber 
yard he has been variously engaged : At one time draying and teaming com- 
manded his energies; he was interested in an ice plant; he owned a saloon 
and soda fountain ; and is now the proprietor of the Pioneer feed and fuel 
yard, which is located on the site formerly occupied by his lumber yard. At one 
time he owned the land upon which the bank of Delano is now located, and he 
is regarded as one of the largest property owners in his home town. As a 
citizen he has been public-spiritedly helpful to every promising local interest, 
energetically doing everything possible for the upbuilding of the town. In 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1511 

1891 and in 1892 he filled the office of constable. Fraternally he affiliates with 
the Knig-hts of Columbus. 

PHILIP M. DAVIS. — When scarcely old enough to understand the work 
done in the machine shop of his father, he enjoyed no greater pleasure than 
that of watching the men at work. To him the repairing of broken machinery, 
the putting together of different parts, seemed a far more interesting process 
than that of attempting to memorize dry facts in the text-books of the schools. 
His father, Philip Davis, carried on a machine shop in Foxburg, Pa., and 
taught the lad to develop his natural ability, so that at the expiration of an ap- 
prenticeship he had a thorough comprehension of the trade of mechanic. 
Throughout early life he made his home in Pennsylvania, where he was born 
at Parker's Landing, Armstrong county, June 24, 1874, and where he received 
a grammar-school education. The quiet round of attendance at school and 
work in the shop filled the days of youth. 

Upon leaving the east Mr. Davis first went to Arizona and spent two 
years at Winslow as a mechanic in the Santa Fe shops. From that place he re- 
moved to Tucson, in the same state, where he remained for seven years as a 
mechanic in the Southern Pacific machine shops. During 1907 he came to 
California for the purpose of entering the Southern Pacific railroad shops at 
Bakersfield and there he continued for several years. Meanwhile he had 
studied the field and had become convinced that Taft ofifered an excellent 
opening for a machine shop. Accordingly he formed a partnership with an 
acquaintance under the firm name of Davis & Elliott and in 1911 built a 
machine shop in South Taft. During May of 1912 he bought out the interest 
of his partner, since which time he has been the sole owner and with the 
assistance of three skilled mechanics carries on his business in a shop well 
equipped with modern machinery. In the oil fields he is known as a skilled 
mechanic, accurate in workmanship, prompt in the filling of orders and de- 
pendable for efficiency in every contract. Before leaving Pennsylvania he 
was made a Mason in a blue lodge in Pittsburg and later he was raised to the 
chapter and Knights Templar degrees in Arizona, where also he became identi- 
fied with the Shriners of Phoenix. When he came to California he was accom- 
panied by Mrs. Davis, formerly Miss Angle Hutchinson, of Kane, Pa., and 
they have established a comfortable home in Taft, where they have a large 
circle of warm personal friends. 

JOSEPH W. OVERALL. — Prior to the beginning of the Civil war his 
sympathies had been aroused in behalf of the slaves, this feeling on his part 
being an inherited opinion from his mother, Louisana (Duvall) Overall, a 
descendant of French ancestry and of Revolutionary stock. On the other 
hand the father, George Washington Overall, was a slaveholder and in sym- 
pathy with the stand taken by the southern states, although he adhered to 
the policy favored by Henry Clay that Kentucky should establish gradual 
emancipation, that California should be admitted without stipulations con- 
cerning slaverv and that territorial governments should not be restricted by 
any obligations in that regard. The Overall family came from England during 
the colonial era and settled in Virginia, where they migrated across the moun- 
tains into Kentucky and became contemporaries of Daniel Boone in the 
original upbuilding of the Blue Grass state. 

" There were six children in the family of George Washington and Louis- 
ana (Duvall) Overall, namely: James B., who served in the Union army under 
Colonel Pennybaker as a member of the Twenty-seventh Kentucky Infantry ; 
Joseph W. ; Gabriel P., now living in Phoenix, Ariz. ; Annie, who died at the 
age of sixteen years ; Alelinda E., who married Frank C. Parepoint, of Hardin 
county, Ky. ; and Susan C, Mrs. Columbus Clark, who settled near Canton, 
Mo. After the mother of these children had passed away, the father was 
again married and by the second union he became the parent of three chil- 

66 



1512 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

dren. Born near Bardstown, Nelson county. Ky., March 20, 1844, Joseph W. 
Overall passed the years of boyhood in his native locality and had very 
meager educational opportunities. In February of 1863, when a little less 
than nineteen years of age, he enlisted at Louisville, Ky., in Company I of the 
Eleventh Kentucky Cavalry for three years or during the war. His command 
was known at Wc Iford's cavalry and he served successively under Colonels 
Reiley, Graham, Holman and Major Boyle. Following the siege of Knox- 
ville, in which he served under Gen. A. E. Burnside, he was placed under 
George H. Stoneman in the celebrated Stoneman's cavalry under General 
Sherman and took part in the famous march through Georgia to Atlanta as a 
member of the First Brigade, First Division, Twenty-third Army Corps, com- 
manded by General Scofield. While the army was stationed near Kingston, 
Ga., in 1864 Mr. Overall was commissioned sergeant-major and served as 
such during the return from Atlanta to Louisville. From the latter city a 
start was made for West Virginia, where an assault was begun upon the 
Kings salt works, but the Union men, repulsed with severe loss, retreated to 
Louisville via Lexingtcn. Later under Stoneman another attack was made 
on the salt works and this raid proved successful, for the plant was captured 
and destroyed by the Union forces. Following the later return to Louisville 
the young soldier was confined to a hospital through illness and after he had 
recovered and rejoined the regiment he aided in a raid through North Caro- 
lina and Tennessee during April and May of 1865. His last service consisted 
in the auditing of officers' accounts and in October, 1865, he received an hon- 
orable discharge at Louisville. 

The war ended, Sergeant-Major Overall took up any work that ofifered 
an honest livelihood and for seme time he was employed at the trade of a 
carpenter. From Kentucky he went to Kansas during the spring of 1868 and 
settled in Leavenworth, where he worked as a carpenter. Afterward he took 
up a government soldiers' homestead in Harvey county, Kans., and this he 
proved up on during 1873, after which he continued to cultivate the land and 
make it his home until the fall of 1889. Selling out at that time he went to 
Seattle, Wash., and from there in February, 1890, came to California, arriving 
in Bakersfield on the 30th of May. Since establishing a home in this section he 
has made many friends. He has never married and at this writing is keeping 
"bachelor's hall" on his farm of ten acres on Union avenue near Bakersfield, 
where he raises alfalfa and poultry. Since casting his first vote for Abraham 
Lincoln he has never failed to support the candidates of the Republican party 
and is stanch in his allegiance to party principles. Fraternally a master Ma- 
son, he belongs to the Veteran Masonic Association. For years he has been 
identified with ^he Grand Army of the Republic and is now a member of Hurl- 
burt Pest at Bakersfield. 

MARCUS B. THOMAS became a resident of California in 1890, when he 
located at Traver, Tulare county. Unfortunately, on account of the condition 
of the soil, the agricultural and dairy industries did not thrive and he removed 
to Sanger, where for two years he was employed in a warehouse. Then for 
fourteen years he was in the Sanger box factory, his wcrk being principally 
around the engine, thus acquiring the knowledge of stationary engineering. 
He then located in San Francisco, where he followed the trade in which he 
had become proficient, and while thus engaged he also became interested in 
and was proprietor of a hotel e n Folsom street. At the time of the earth- 
quake and fire he was burned out, which caused the loss of all he had. He 
then entered the employ of the Santa Fe railroad as engineer of the pumoing 
plant at San Pablo, afterwards holding the same position at Richmond, 
Angiola and Ellensworth. In 1906 he came to Wasco for the company and 
since then has had charge of this pumping plant. 

Mr. Thomas was born in Fostoria, Ohio, November 5, 1850, and when two 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1513 

years of age removed with his parents to Hudson, La Port county, Ind., where 
he was reared on the farm and received his education in the local schools. 
After he reached his majority he engaged in farming his father's place until 
1890, when he came to California, which has since been the field of his 
endeavors. He was married in Indiana to Miss Ella Barnes, whose death 
occurred in Sanger. Of their union were born two children : Nellie, Mrs. Dyer, 
of Soledad and Berna O., foreman of Madera's box factory in Fresno. Fra- 
ternally Mr. Thomas affiliates with the Knights of Pythias, while in national 
politics he is a Republican. 

LEROY ALFRED DENNEN.— Born in Pottawatomie county, Kans., 
January 14, 1883, a son of C. L. and Mary (Davis) Dennen, when he was quite 
young Leroy Alfred Dennen of Bakersfield was brought to Kern ci unty by 
his parents. He was educated in the public schools of Bakersfield, graduating 
from the Kern county high school in 1904, and worked for his father until 
he was twenty-three years old. On March 4. 1905, he married Arta May Web- 
ster, who was born August 19, 1888, in Henry county, Alo., and who has 
borne him a son, Kenneth. He is the owner of seventy acres of alfalfa and 
grain land and is giving successful attention to general farming. 

In Oxford county. Me., C. L. Dennen was born March 7, 1857. In that 
same year his parents settled in Brown county, Kans., and when he was four- 
teen years old, in 1871, they moved to Pottawatomie county, that state. In 
1876 he married Miss Mary Davis, of the same county, a daughter of pioneers 
who came from Icwa. George B. Davis, her father, died about thirty years 
ago and her mother, who was Miss Catherine Taylor, lives at Santa Ana, 
Cal. After his marriage Mr. Dennen rented a farm three years and then 
became the owner of one which he operated until 1886, when he came to Cali- 
fornia with his wife and five children, with a capital of only $400, arriving in 
Bakersfield in December. He homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of 
land and with B. F. Stoner as a partner engaged in the livery business at 
Bakersfield for seme time. In due time he proved up on his land and he owns 
one-half of it at this time. He rented land and afterwards bought acreage from 
the Kern County Land Company. His first purchase was twenty acres at $1200 
on which he was able to make a payment of only $10. He now owns two 
hundred and sixty acres in one tract and eighty in another and a fine residence 
at No. 1227 G street, Bakersfield, where he is now living retired from active life, 
his ranch being in the hands of his son-in-law, F. W. Silver. 

The following are the eight children of C. L. and Mary (Davis) Dennen: 
Josephine is the wife of James Hosking, living in Union avenue, Bakersfield ; 
Charles Richard, a bookkeeper for A. F. Stoner, Bakersfield, married Libbie 
Hansen, from Placer county ; George Berry married Etta Webster of Bakers- 
field ; Leroy Alfred is mentioned above; A'^illie L. is the wife of F. W. Silver; 
Lewis W. was graduated from the Kern County High School in 1910 and is 
bookkeeper for the Union Oil Company — he married Lucile Sanders ; Alary 
Myrtle is a graduate of the Kern County High School class of 1912 ; Vernon V. 
is at home. L. W. Dennen, father of C. L. Dennen, enlisted in the First Regi- 
ment, Kansas Infantry, and served three years and a half in the Union army. 
Clara B. Andrews, who became his wife, was born in Oxford county. Ale., a 
daughter of Capt. John Andrews. 

PHARES HARRY SHANNON.— The history of the Shannon family in 
America goes back to early Canadian colonization. Phares H. ShanuLU, Sr., 
a Canadian by birth and parentage, became a pioneer of ATichipan and worked 
as a pattern-maker in Detroit up to the time of the Civil war. Throughout the 
entire period of that struggle he served as a member of a Michigan regiment 
of engineers and after receiving an honorable discharge he moved frcm Detroit 
CO Grand Rapids, where he followed his trade. Later he and his wife, who 
was Frances Godfrey, a native of Flint, Alich., established a home at Ovid, 



1514 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Clinton county, Mich., and there a son, Phares Harry, was born September 26, 
1879. The opening- up of vast timber tracts further north in Michigan 
attracted the attention of the father, who decided to take up a homestead. 
With that purpose in view he went to Kalkaska county and secured a timber 
claim, which he cleared of trees and stumps and placed under cultivation. 
There his death occurred in 1910, when he was seventy-five years of age and 
there his widow is still making her home. The farm is now owned by their 
two youngest sons, William and Lewis. The eldest son, Charles, is living at 
Lynchburg, Va., and the second son, Fred, died at the age of twenty years. 

The rigoreus climate and the hardships of pioneering in Michigan did not 
appeal to Phares H. Shannon and after spending two years at Rexton, in the 
northern peninsula (from 1902), where he was in the employ of a large con- 
tracting firm, he came to California. Arriving in Visalia, in May of 1904, in 
the fall of the same year he came to Bakersfield, where since July of 1907 he 
has been an employe of the Kern County Land Company on Kern island. The 
following year he was promoted to be foreman of the ranch, a position he has 
since filled. Politically he votes the Democratic ticket, and fraternally he holds 
membership with Kern Lodge No. 202, L O. O. F., and is also a member of the 
encampment and the local lodge of Rebekahs. 

W. S. SEYMOUR, contractor and builder, with main office at Taft, 
is well known throughout Kern county. Althf ugh engaged in business here 
for only a brief period, Mr. Seymour has established a reputation for trust- 
worthy work ; to his credit also there is a long record for successful work in 
many parts of the country, where he had practical experience in the erection 
of large schoolhouses, substantial government buildings, court-houses and 
other structures. 

An early thorough experience in carpentering came to Mr. Seymour un- 
der the wise training of his father, whose skill is in evidence in a large num- 
ber of houses and bridges at Great Barrington, Mass. That city was the native 
place and early home of W. S. Seymour, whose birth occurred May 25, 1861, 
and whose education was gained largely in the great school of experience and 
hard work. As soon as old enough to use tools he was taught the prin- 
ciples of carpentering. After he had worked in many buildings in his native 
commonwealth, in 1887 he left home to follow his trade in other states. From 
that time until he came to Bakersfield in January, 1909, he visited many states, 
worked in almost every part of the country, and became a thorough master of 
his trade through holding important positions in the construction of large 
public buildings. For three years after his arrival in Bakersfield he engaged 
as construction foreman with C. B. Brown. During 1910-11 he had charge of 
the construction of the substantial Conley grammar-school building at Taft, 
a structure erected at a cost of $50,000 and containing every equipment known 
to the educational world of the present day. .The school building at Fellows 
was also erected under his personal supervision. The Brundage school has 
been erected by him and in addition he had the contract for the erection of a 
grammar-school building in Taft, a brick structure, completed at a cost of 
$25,000 and opened for the fall term of school in 1913. Among the other build- 
ings to the credit of Mr. Seymour may be mentioned the Murphy apart- 
ments on Nineteenth street, Bakersfield. Others might be listed, but these are 
sufilicient to indicate the importance of his contracts and his ability as a 
builder. Outside of building circles, as within, he has a host of warm personal 
friends, for he is genial in temperament, energetic in action and kindly in 
disposition. Fraternally he belongs to the Loyal Order of Moose. 

JOHN WILTON. — The steadfast, reliable temperament that forms one 
of the principal characteristics of John Wilton has been evidenced in his long 
identification with the Kern County Land Company, of which he has been a 
trusted employe for many years and in whose interests he has labored with 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1515 

the same conscientious devotion and unwearied fidelity he would have given 
to his own affairs. His Anglo-Saxon ancestry is apparent in his dignity of 
manner breadth of character and the care with which he discharges all 
duties connected with the position of time-keeper of the Kern Island Irrigation 
Canal Company. Since coming to Kern county he has bought property and 
built a residence at No. 2024 Twentieth street, where with his family he has 
a comfortable home convenient in appointments and modern in equipment. 

The Wiltcn family comes from the south of England. John C. and Ann 
(Hoskin) Wilton were natives respectively of the shires of Cornwall and 
Devon and for many years have made their home upon a farm at Buck- 
fastleigh, where the former, although seventy years of age, is still active in 
the management of his interests. There were six children in the family and 
the eldest^ John, the only one of the six to come to America, was born near 
Plvmouth' Devonshire, England, January 17, 1864. After he had completed his 
schooling he worked as a farmer and became a foreman in agriculture, con- 
tinuing as such until he came to America. Meanwhile he had married in 
Cornwall his wife being Miss Mary Hoskings, a native ot St. Uny. Lelant. 
Cornwall. One of her brothers, James Hoskings, had come to California and 
was living in Kern countv. and this fact induced the young couple to try their 
fortune in the new world'. March 15, 1890, they sailed from Liverpool on the 
Atruria which cast anchor in New York at the end of a pleasant voyage. 

Crossing the continent they proceeded to Bakersfield and settled perma- 
nently in Kern county, where for seven years Mr. Wilton worked on the farm 
owned bv his brother-in-law on Union avenue. At the expiration of the seven 
years he^became a zanjero on the system of the Kern Comity Land Company, 
continuing as such for twelve years, when he was promoted, in March of 1908, 
to be time-keeper of the Kern island canal. The details of irrigation are 
familiar to him and he thoroughly understands all of the work connectecj with 
his department. While giving his time and attention closely to the duties ot 
the position, he does not neglect his duty as a citizen, but aims to keeo p. sted 
concerning all movements for the welfare of city and county In politics he 
votes with the Democratic party. His membership was formerly in the 
Church of England and after coming to the United States he and his wite 
identified themselves with the Episcopal Church. Their family consisted of 
three children, two now living, John Henry and Frederick George^ The only 
daughter, Blanche H., died when five months old. Mr. Wilton holds niember- 
.ship with Bakersfield Ledge No. 202, I. O. O. F., and the Independent Order of 
Foresters. 

GERARD C. La MARSNA.— The name of La Marsna indicates French 
extraction and we find that the family for generations lived in France and 
became established in Canada during the period of immigration from their 
country to the new provinces of America. James Jeffrey La Marsna, who was 
of Canadian birth, grew to manhood in Michigan and at the opening of the 
Civil war offered his services to the Union, w^as accepted and sent to the front, 
where he served as aide-de-camp to his general. During a fierce fight in the 
Cumberland mountains he was wounded by a shot from the enemy and lost his 
left leg, which greatly incapacitated him in his subsequent efforts to earn a 
livelihocd. Finallv the government appointed him as a deposition agent in the 
pension department. About 1888 he came to California and settled on a 
ranch in Tulare countv, where he engaged in the raising of gram and stock 
with more or less success. His death occurred on the ranch in 1907. Surviving 
him is his widow, who was Maria Clough, a native of Massachusetts and now 
a resident of Tulare. 

The parental familv comprised eleven children, but only four ot these 
attained maturity and these four still survive. The youngest son in the family, 
Gerard Chastleline La Marsna. was born at Onaga, Pottawatomie county, 



1516 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Kan., October 14, 1880, and was two years of age at the time of the removal 
of the family to Washington, D. C. In 1885 another removal was made, the 
family going to Ircnton, Lawrence county, Ohio, whence they came to Cali- 
fornia three years later. On the 31st of January, 1888, they arrived at Tulare 
and shortly afterward settled on a ranch near Woodville in the same county. 
The eight-year old boy saw much to interest him in the west and soon became 
familiar with conditions as they then existed in Tulare county, where he 
received a public-school education. He can scarcely recall when he first began 
to help his father. From an early age he was taught to be self-reliant and 
helpful. Much of his work was the driving of a mule-team, but he aided in other 
ways on the home ranch and on other farms. 

At the age <. f about nineteen years Mr. La Marsna began at the bottom in 
the employ of the Mount Whitney Power Company, his first work being in the 
construction department. For almost ten years he continued with the same 
company and at the time of his resignation he was serving as district superin- 
tendent of the Exeter division. During July of 1900 he came to Bakersfield as an 
electrician, to enter the employ of the Power Transit and Light Company, now 
absorbed by the San Joaquin Light and Power Corporation, and with these two 
concerns he has continued up to the present time, having since February 10, 
1910, filled the p^isition of city foreman of construction and has given his time 
closely to his duties. He holds membership with the Woodmen of the World. 
At Porterville, this state, January 8, 1905, he was united in marriage with Miss 
Nellie A. Gibson, by whom he has two children, Fred Gibson and Anna Pauline. 
Mrs. La Marsna was born in Lamar, Barton county. Mo., and is a daughter of 
Benjamin Workman and Sarah (Billings) Gibson, for many years farmers of 
Missouri, but eventually residents of California where Mr. Gibson died at 
Porterville and where his widow continues to make her home. 

A. B. ECHOLS. — Following the trend of migration toward the west, 
A. P. Echols, a native of Georgia, established himself in Texas and earned a 
livelihood as a carpenter, but before he had been able to lay aside any consid- 
erable sum for the support of his family he was taken from their midst by 
death, leaving the little children without means for their education and up- 
bringing. Of the three children the second, A. B., was born in Corsicana, Tex., 
March 7, 1887, and was only five years of age at the passing of his father in 
1892. The mother, who bore the maiden name of Caroline Pettigrew and who 
was a native of Missouri, took the family to Oklahoma in 1904 and is now 
making her home with one of her daughters at Tulsa. 

Between the years of seventeen and twenty-one A. B. Echols served an 
apprenticeship to the machinist's trade with the American Well and Pros- 
pecting Company in Oklahoma. At the beginning he was paid $1 per day. The 
wages were gradually increased until finally he received $3.7S per day. After 
leaving the employ of the Oklahoma concern he came to California in 1908 and 
settled at Coalinga, where he engaged with the Bunting iron works. There, 
as in his former position, he soon proved the value of his work. Leaving 
Coalinga for Taft in 1912, he has since been connected with the General 
Petroleum Company and now fills the responsible position of foreman of the 
machine shoo. His comfortable home in Taft is presided over by Mrs. Echols, 
who prior to their marriage at Fort Smith, Ark., was Miss Hilda Barry. 
During the period of his residence at Coalinga he was made a Mason in the 
blue lodge at that point and in addition he identified himself with the Scottish 
Rite Consistory at Fresno. 

GEORGE DAVIS. — Many of California's most skilled drillers and most 
successful superintendents come from Pennsylvania and that is likewise the 
native commonwealth of the young and energetic foreman of the Reward Oil 
Company, operatinqf a lease on section 26, 31-22. Bradford is his old home 
town and July 26, 1882, the date of his birth. As a boy he became familiar with 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1517 

the enormous development of the Bradford oil fields. He witnessed the excite- 
ment incident to the striking of new wells and felt a personal pride in the con- 
stant increase in production which was the record made by that district in 
the period of its nascent growth. Sharing- the general interest concerning the 
business, he also shared its toil, privations and hardships, and learned every 
phase of its occupative duties. When he came from Pennsylvania to Cali- 
fornia in 1904 he sought the Kern river field, then one of the greatest fields in 
the entire country. For five years he worked on various leases and in various 
capacities. With the early development of the Midway he came to Moron, now 
known as Taft. For six months he worked as a driller on the Mascot lease 
and then went into the service of the Operators Oil Company at McKittrick. 

To take up the work of driller Mr. Davis came to the North Midway in 
1910 and the following year he was made foreman of the Reward, formerly 
the Result Oil Company, which now has connection with the Reward at Mc- 
Kittrick. Drilling was first started on the lease in April, 1910, so that he has 
been connected with the work from the very cutset, and it is a source of 
pride to him that there has been a constant and profitable development and 
that there are now two productive wells, flowing one hundred and seventy 
barrels every twenty-four hours and producing oil of 19.4 gravity. As foreman 
Mr. Davis is expeditious, energetic and justly popular. Fraternally he is iden- 
tified with the Aerie of Eagles at Bakersfield. His marriage in Los Angeles 
united him with Miss Emma Lufkon, of Los Angeles, and they now have a 
comfortable home on section 26, on the company's lease. 

RICHARD A. JOHNSON.— In the Sunset and Midway fields there are 
few operators more pooular or mere experienced than the pioneer driller, 
"Dick" Johnson, superintendent of the Security Development Company, oper- 
ating thirty-five acres on section 15, 31-22. Strangers are always impressed by 
the stature of Mr. Johnson, who measures six feet and three inches in height, 
and whose massive frame and stalwart physique are supplemented by mental 
attributes equally unusual. Other members of his family exhibit the same 
splendid physique and almost gigantic stature. i\n older brother, Albert H., 
who is engaeed in the cattle business and makes his home a: Iron Point, 
Nev.. whose remarkable height of seven feet makes him a man of commanding 
presence. The youngest brother, Charles L., who is now connected as driller 
with the San Francisco Midway Oil Company in the Midway field, weighs 
three hundred pounds and is six feet and six inches in height. 

The parental family comprised six children. The eldest of these. Samuel 
A. Johnscn, is a well-known and wealthy oil operator residing in Bakersfield. 
The second, Albert H.. has been alluded to above. The third, Mary, is the wife 
of C. P. Dorn, of Hollister. The fourth, Richard A., was born in Santa Cruz 
county, Cal., November 4, 1871. grew to manhood in Monterey county, and was 
the first of the family to embark in the oil business. The fifth, Ella, married 
Dr. E. K. Peters, of Fresno, and the youngest, Charles L., is in the Midway 
field, as previously mentioned. The father, Alden S. Johnson, a pioneer of 
1849, crossed the plains with wagon and ox-teams, and settled eventually at 
Grass Vallev, where he married Mrs. E. H. Whi'ing, whose maiden name 
was Miss Clara Swain. She was a daughter of Dr. H. P. Swain, a prominent 
pioneer dentist at that place. Her death occurred about twenty-five years ago, 
while that of Mr. Johnson occurred in 1906. Throughout the greater part of 
their married life they had lived on a ranch. In addition to the members of 
the family named there is a half-brother, E. H. ^^'hiting, now engaged in 
farming at Turlock, Stanislaus county. , 

Since 1893. when he entered the oil business at Coalinga, Mr. Johnson 
has continued steadily in the same occunation and has risen from roustabout to 
superintendent. While with the Petroleum Center Oil Company he learned 
to be a tool-dresser. After remaining with the company for six months he 



1518 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

entered the employ of Hendrickson & Snyder, oil-well drilling contractors, with 
whom he continued for two years, meanwhile learning to be a driller. From 
Coalinga he drifted to P.akersfield and the Kern river field. About 1899 he 
came to the Sunset field to work as a driller. At that time there were only 
three strings of tools running in all this great oil district. A later experience 
as a driller took him to the oil fields at Evanston, Wyo., where he was em- 
ployed for one year. On his return to California he worked successively in 
the Sunset and Coalinga fields. 

With a desire to see something of Mexico Mr. Johnson entered into a con- 
tract to drill in the state of Tabasco for the English firm of S. Pierson & Son, 
and during the year in that connection he prospered financially but lost his 
health on account of climatic and unsanitary conditions, so returned to Cali- 
fornia, where he soon regained his customary strength. In the North 
Midway field he became an employe of the Fox Oil Company, 
which owned one hundred and sixty acres of oil land. Subsequently 
forty acres of the quarter section were sold to the M. & M. Oil Company, 
and eighty-five acres were leased to two other concerns in equal parts, so 
that the original owners had but thirty-five acres left and this is now being 
operated under the title of the Security Development Company, with Mr. 
Johnson as superintendent. There are four wells on the lease and the aver- 
age production runs from five thousand to six thousand barrels per month. 
Fraternally Mr. Johnson holds membership with the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows and with Bakersfield Aerie of Eagles No. 93. With his wife, 
whom he married in 1910 and who was Miss Lynda Ward, of Missouri, he 
makes his home on the company's property on section 15. Of recent years he 
has acquired some interests in oil lands in the Lost Hills, while in addition he 
owns city real estate at Oakland. 

VERNE L. ADAMS.— The Globe division of the General Petroleum is 
operated under the efficient supervision of Mr. Adams, who while one of the 
youngest is also regarded as one of the most dependable superintendents in 
the Midway field. Eighty acres, located on section 15, township 31, range 22, 
comprise the holdings of the said Globe Division whose twenty-four producing 
wells average seventy-five thousand barrels per month. 

That the Globe division is bringing such excellent returns may be attrib- 
uted largely to the resourcefulness and energy of the superintendent, Verne 
L. Adams, who is a member of an old and honored family of the United States. 
While some of the colonial families have become extinct vr have not kept up 
the intellectual standard set by their ancestors, such is not the case with the 
Adams family, which not only maintains the intellectuality of forebears, but 
singularly preserves and presents the rotund, ruddv, high-browed, full-eved, 
vigorous and virile organisms which characterized John and John Quincy 
Adams in the earlier chapters of American history. Unmistakably an Adams, 
with all the physical and mental attributes of that family, Mr. Adams gives 
little indication of Swiss ancestry, although his mother, who bore the maiden 
name of Sophia Lughinbuhl, was born in Switzerland and comes of an old 
family of that mountain republic. His father, Ira Adams, made his home in 
Ohio for Sf me time and Verne L. was born at West Salem, that state, October 
9, 1886. Not long afterward the family removed to Oregon and settled in 
Portland, where the father died about 1892, leaving Verne, a child of six 
years, besides two older children, Blanche and Jay. The mother thereupon 
took the children back to Lima, Ohio, where she went through the most 
arduous struggle in an effort to rear and educate them. The daughter mar- 
ried at seventeen and died a year later. The older son came to California 
and is now engaged in the furniture business in Sacramento, while the 
mother, also coming to the west, is now living with her son, Verne L., in the 
Midway field. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1519 

Few have encountered greater hardships in their struggle to earn a live- 
lihood than has Verne L. Adams, who became self-supporting at an age 
when the majority of boys have ample leisure for play and recreation. At the 
age of twelve he became a newsboy. It was his custom to arise at four every 
morning and to carry papers throughout the town, stopping only when it was 
time to go to school. This work he kept up until he was fifteen, at which 
time he found employment in a grocery. His own efforts aided in the 
j^upport of his mother and enabled him to pay his expenses for six months in 
the Lima (Ohio) Business College. At the age of seventeen he began to work 
in the Lima oil field. For several months he was employed as a pumper for 
Sam Ridenour, the well-known contractor at Lima, and from that work he was 
promoted to be a tool-dresser. During 1905 he came to California with his 
mother and settled at Sacramento, where he engaged in the Southern Pacific 
Railroad shops and in that position became an experienced machinist. January 
of 1909 found him in the Midway field, where he secured employment as a 
pumper on the Sibyl, later was made gang-pusher, next became production 
foreman and is now superintendent, his steady rise indicating efficiency, 
trustworthiness and sagacious judgment. At different times he has purchased 
real estate in Sacramento and Fresno, for with natural thrift and foresight 
he believes in investing in California lands. Since coming to Taft he has iden- 
tified himself with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. While his mother 
is a Christian Scientist, he is in sympathy with all denominations and with 
generous and broad-minded liberality he contributes to movements for the 
uplifting of humanity. 

CHARLES WHITAKER. — Not a few men who have won success in 
California have benefited by valuable experience in the United States Army, 
where discipline and observation go hand in hand in the moulding of character 
and in the broadening of the view. Charles Whitaker, a former cavalryman, 
whose residence is on Baker street, East Bakersfield, is a native of' Wise 
county, Va., and was born May 20, 1863. When he was six or seven years old 
he was taken by his parents to Pike county, Ky., where he was reared to a 
knowledge of farm work and educated in public schools and in a special sub- 
scription school. He remained there until after he was eighteen. In 1882 
he crossed over to Cincinnati, Ohio, and was enlisted for service in the United 
States Army. He was assigned to the Second United States cavalry, as a mem- 
ber of Company M, and came out to Montana that same year. His service con- 
tinued during five years, during which time he was stationed successively at 
Fort Custer, Fort Assiniboine, Fort Klamath and Fort Bidwell. He looks 
back upon the experience of those years with much interest and a pardonable 
pride. He won special distinction in being made a trumpeter and was hon- 
orably discharged in 1887. After a visit to Kentucky and Virginia, he went 
to Denver, Colo., where for about a year he was employed at farming and at 
railroading. In November, 1888, he went to Washington and homesteaded 
land on the Toutle river, which he began to improve and on which he lived 
about three years and a half. After that he kept a hotel for a while at Castle 
Rock, Wash., and from there he moved to the Klamath river country, Oregon, 
and not long afterward he became a citizen of Portland. In 1893 he came to 
California and located at Bakersfield. He had not prospered so well but that 
he needed capital if he were to engage in business. In 1893-94 he worked for 
wages and in 1894 he formed a partnership with Henry Wood in the livery 
business at Kern. Within a year he bought his partner's interest and he has 
since managed the enterprise with satisfactory success. His barn covers a 
ground space of 90x130 feet, has a fine corral, and his stock and rigs are as 
good as are sent out from any stable in the vicinity. His business is the 
oldest of its class at East Bakersfield. Near Buttonwillow is a fine tract of 



1520 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

three hundred and twenty acres in which Mr. Whitaker is interested and on 
which a modern pumping plant is being installed for ranch service and irriga- 
tion of alfalfa land. His attractive residence on Baker street, East Bakersfield, 
was designed by him and erected under his supervision, and he also owns the 
Yorke, an apartment house on Baker street, thus giving him a frontage of 
two hundred and fifty-four feet. 

Politically Mr. Whitaker is a Democrat. Socially he affiliates with the 
Fraternal Brotherhood and with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. 
He filled for one term the office of trustee for the town of Kern and was a 
member of the board when Kern was consolidated with Bakersfield. The lady 
who became the wife of Mr. Whitaker was Miss Druzella Gier, a native of 
Bonham county, S. Dak. They have five children, Charles Elizabeth, Ellen, 
Mildred Mav and Beatrice Thelma. . 

RAYMOND I. WALTERS.— An identification with the industrial activ- 
ities of Bakersfield begun in 1908 and cc ntinued up to the present time, has 
given to Mr. W^alters an intimate acquaintance with the business men of the 
city as well as broad information concerning resources and commercial pos- 
sibilities. As a plumber he is considered unusually skilled and capable and 
since establishing himself in the business he has been awarded many contracts 
of importance. In a building erected under his personal supervision and 
situated at No. 1900 Nineteenth street he started a plumbing shop, but 
afterward he sold the property and remc^ved to his present location at No. 1039 
H street, where with J- T. Smith as a partner and under the firm name of 
Walters & Smith, he does a general business in plumbing lines. Not only 
has he had contracts for putting in of water pipes and other departments of a 
plumber's work, but in addition he has taken contracts for heating and is con- 
sidered an expert authority both in heating and in plumbing. 

The Walters family descends from old eastern ancestry. E. W. Walters, 
a native rf Ohio, removed to Illinois in company with his parents and settled 
in Hancock county, where he engaged in farming. During the Civil war he 
served for more than three years as a volunteer in the One Hundred and 
Fifty-seventh Illinois Infantry and in one of the engagements he received a 
severe wound. Some years after the close of the w^ar he married Miss Mary 
E. Scott, a native of WHieeling, W. Va., and from early life a resident of 
Illinois. Five children, all still living, were born of their union, the yr ungest 
being Raymond I., whose birth occurred July 30, 1884, on the home farm 
near the small village of Burnside in Hancock county. In 1886 the family 
removed to Creston, Iowa, and two years later they came to California, 
where the father entered a homestead in the San Emidio district. The develop- 
ment of the raw land into a productive farm occupied his closest attention 
for a considerable period, but eventually he sold the tract, removed to Bakers- 
field, purchased property in this city and is now living retired. 

After he had finished the grammar grade and had entered the Kern 
county high school, Raymond I. Walters beean to devote his entire vacation 
time to the plumber's trade. As early as 1898 he first became a workman in 
the trade and it was not lone: before he was competent for independent w^ork. 
Upon graduating from the high school in 1903 he g^ave his entire time to the 
business, working in the emnloy of others. In 1904 he went to Santa Cruz 
and found employment at the trade. Later he worked as a journeyman in the 
Bay cities, but returned to Bakersfield in 1908, since which time he has engaged 
in business for himself. As a member of the Builders' Exchange and the 
Master Plumbers' Association, of which latter he acts as treasurer, he is 
identified with two of the leading trade organizations in the city, w^hile in 
addition he has fraternal relations with Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M., 
in which he was made a Mason. The residence which he erected at No. 1920 
Seventh street. Bakersfield, and which is a neat and attractive dwelling, is 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1521 

presided over with kindly hospitality by his wife, whom he married in San 
Jose and who was formerly Miss Grace M. Smith, their union having been 
blessed by a sen, James W. To Mrs. Walters belongs the distinction of being a 
native daughter of the state, for she claims Watsonville as her native city, 
and her parents were pioneers of that part of the state. 

ARTHUR R. WARREN.— The foreman of the Sumner warehouse of the 
Kern County Land Company at East Bakersficld is a member of an English 
family whose first representative in America, David Warren, came from the 
vicinity of Dover and settled in Wisconsin during young manhood. The 
state remained largely in the primeval condition of nature at the time of his 
arrival and the most strenuous exertion was necessary to clear and cultivate 
the land. Searching for a suitable location he traveled northwest from Madison 
and chose Juneau county as the place of his future activities. For many years 
and indeed until his death he devoted himself to agricultural pursuits in that 
section of the state and there he married Luella Wiseman, who like himself 
had been born in the vicinity of Dover, England, and she tco spent her last 
days in Wisconsin. Nine children were born of their union. Five of these are 
still living and the third in order of birth, Arthur R., was born at the old 
homestead near Mauston, Juneau county. Wis., May 4, 1868, also was edu- 
cated in the schools of Juneau county, where he continued to live until he 
started out to make his own way in the world. Meanwhile his older brothers 
had gone to Minnesota and had settled near Granite Falls, Yellow Medicine 
county, where he joined them in 1885, securing work on farms in that section. 
After a time he returned to Wisccnsin and began to work as a carpenter in 
the bridge and building department of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. 
The varying locations and demands of his occupative duties took him to the 
northern and northwestern states from Iowa to the Pacific coast. 

A first trip to the extreme west of our country took Mr. Warren to 
Seattle in 1898 and convinced him of the greatness of this vast western empire. 
During 1900 he made his first trio to San Francisco. Business took him back 
to Nevada, where he was employed for two years, and then, in July of 1902, 
he came to Bakersfield, where ever since he has been connected with the Kern 
County Land Company. Two months were spent in the Bakersfield ware- 
house as a day laborer. In September of 1902 he was promoted to be foreman 
of that department, continuing as such until May of 1906 and then being 
transferred to his present position as foreman of the Sumner warehouse a't 
East Bakersfield. The interests of the company have been promoted by his 
faithful and intelligent service and he stands high in the estimation of the 
officials, who have found him to be energetic, tactful, efBcient and reliable. 
Meanwhile he has become deeply interested in the prcgress of Bakersfield and 
is loyal in every way to the local welfare. His political afifiliations are with 
the Republican party. 

JOSEPH P. COONEY.— The development of the oil fields not only de- 
mands the presence of ooerators and skilled workmen, but in addition invites 
the establishment of agencies for supplies absolutely essential to such work. 
Representative of the latter line of enterprise is the Taft branch of Woods 
& Huddart of San Francisco, Pacific coast agents for the South Chester casing 
and tubing and line pipe manufactured by the South Chester Tube Company, 
of Chester, Pa. As manager of the local branch, maintaining an office with 
the Western Pipe and Steel Company of this city, Mr. Cooney has developed 
a growing business among the oil superintendents of the various leases in the 
Sunset, Midway, Fellows and McKittrick fields. 

From early recollections Mr. Cooney has been familiar with the oil 
industry. His father, W. P. Cooney, now living retired at Sistersville, V. Va.. 
for years was well known in eastern oil fields, took a leading part as operator 



1522 HISTORY OF KERN COUNPY 

and contractor during the period of the Bradford boom, and for a number of 
years engaged as a lease foreman in the Woodsfield district of Monroe county. 
Ohio. By his marriage to Isabel Flannigan (who is still living, but now an 
invalid) he had a family of five children: Joseph P., of Taft ; Ralph P., of 
Santa Maria, now the district manager for the California National Supply 
Company; Helena and Marcella, both living with their parents at Sistersville, 
where the latter is employed as a teacher in :he schools ; and Cletus, a graduate 
of St. Vincent's College at Beatty, Westmoreland county. Pa. The oldest 
son, Joseph P., was born at Eldred, McKean county. Pa., January 9, 1885, and 
was ten years of age when the family left the Pennsylvania farm and removed 
to oil fields in Ohio, where the next five years were passed. At the age of 
fifteen he accompanied the family to West Virginia and settled at Alvy, Tyler 
county. At the age of twenty-three years, having saved up the sum neces- 
sary for such a step, he matriculated in Mountain State Business College at 
Parkcrsburg. W. Va., where he completed the commercial and telegraphic 
courses. 

Immediately after graduation from college Mr. Cooney came to Cali- 
fornia, arriving in the Santa Maria field March 9, 1908. The first work he 
secured was as a roustabout under Superintendent J. C. Knoke, of the Union 
Oil Company. A merited promotion transferred him to the supply department 
of the same company, under Stone Hastain. For a time he was employed as a 
clerk in the store-room of the Union Oil Company, after which he was trans- 
ferred to the pipe-line department under Superintendent H. G. Burrows, of the 
Union Oil Company, at Santa" Maria. As an assistant to Mr. Burrows he aided 
in the building of the line from Cat Canon to Orcutt. Upon resigning the 
position with the large corporation at Santa Maria he came over to Taft in 
1911, to act as bookkeeper for Stone Hastain, the then manager of the Taft 
branch of Woods & Huddart. Upon the resignation of the manager, November 
1, 1912, for the purpose of removing to Los Angeles and engagmg in business 
for himself, Mr. Cooney was promoted from bookkeeper to manager, since 
which time he has efficiently engaged as local representative and agent for the 
South Chester tubing and casing. Since becoming a resident of this city he 
has identified himself with the Petroleum Club. While making Santa Maria 
his headquarters he became a member of San Luis Obispo Camo No. 322. B. P. 
O. E., and the Knights of Columbus No. 1375, at Arroyo Grande. 

CHARLES TOMAIER. — Not lacking occupative training in his native 
land of Bohemia, Charles Tomaier learned to be a practical and experienced 
butcher under his father, who taught him every detail of that business. Nor 
had he lacked an education in his native tongue, for he had been graduated 
from a gymnasium in 1886 and had been reared in habits of frugality and self- 
reliant industry. His father, Joseph, died in 1911 in Bohemia, where the 
mother, Barbara, still makes her home. All of the five children are still living, 
Charles being next to the youngest among the five, and he was born May 6. 
1864, at the old family homestead in Klenec, Bohemia, where he passed the 
uneventful years of childhood and youth. Often as he assisted his father in 
the meat market he heard people tell stories abovit the new world and its 
opportunities and early in life he determined to cross the ocean as soon as 
he could start out for himself in the world. It was during 1886 that the hoped- 
for opportunity came to him and he was enabled to take passage on an ocean 
steamer which brought him to New York. Thence he went west as far as 
Chicago and secured work in a large packing house. 

The years spent in Chicago were filled with the most arduous labor and 
constant hardships associated with the struggle to earn a livelihood, but it 
was not until 1900 that he gave up work with the large beef companies. At 
that time he came to California and settled in Mojave, where he has since 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1523 

remained, meanwhile erecting two cottages and the Mojave lodging house. 
During the first year in this place he engaged in mining. Next he was em- 
ployed in the freight and round-house of the Southern Pacific Company. 
Upon resigning that position he secured the agency for the IMaier Brewing 
Company of Los Angeles, which he still holds, besides which, since November 
1, 1912, he has been agent for the \Vieland Brewing Company. In addition he 
has established and now conducts the Mojave soda works, where he is 
engaged in the manufacture of soda and mineral waters for sale in the town 
and surrounding country. Since coming to Mojave he has been a local 
worker for the Democratic party and has identified himself fraternally with 
the Bakersfield Lodge of Moose. While living in Chicago he was united in 
marriage with Miss Mary Stradel, a native of Bohemia. Four children comprise 
their family, namely : Louis, Mary, Charles and Blanche. 

WILLIAM W. FRAZIER.— Born October 7, 1844, near Abbeville, S. C, 

one of the ni( st historic places in the south, Mr. Frazier comes of old Maryland 

families, of Scottish ancestry. A thorough training in the public schools was 

supplemented by one year's study in the Columbia Military Academy, and 

then for two years he was at the Citadel Military Academy at Charleston, 

remaining there until the arrival of Sherman's army caused the academy to be 

discontinued. Then he was called out to assist in the war, and after seeing 

active service in Major White's battalion of cadets, he was paroled in Barnes- 

ville, Ga., at the close of the war. In 1866 he went to Louisville, Ky., and here 

he began his long career as a teacher, remaining one year in the Louisville 

reform schools as instructor, and in 1867 removed to Omaha, Neb., where 

he was employed in a lumber yard until 1868. He was later employed with 

the Union Pacific Railroad for a year on bridge construction from Cheyenne 

west, and he remained with them until after the golden spike was driven. 

In 1869 he came to California and opened his first school in Stockton, where 

he taught for about a year, then resuming services on the railroad on the 

Shasta route in 1873. Next he worked in San Francisco as instructor in the 

City Industrial School until 1875, on March 18th of that year coming to Kern 

county to teach school at South Fork for a term. In 1876 he opened the Buena 

Vista District school and the following year had charge of the San Emidio 

school. In 1878 he taught in Tehachapi. Two years later he instructed pupils 

in the school of Woody district and in 1882 in White River. The terms 

1883-84 he taught in Cummings valley. After his marriage he discontinued 

teaching to engage in farming, his interests becoming so great that he was 

obliged to relinquish his school work and give his entire attention to his ranch. 

In partnership with Mr. Myers in the year 1878 Mr. Frazier had embarked 

in the enterprise of general farming and stock-raising, Mr. Myers having 

charge of the ranch until Mr. Frazier relinquished teaching. The land had been 

improved somewhat during this time and when they dissolved partnership they 

divided the land, Mr. Frazier's property covering about two hundred and forty 

acres. He has added to this until he now owns four hundred and eighty acres, 

situated nine miles southwest of Bakersfield and known as the "Golden Rod" 

ranch because of the profuse growth of those flowers on the place. The ranch 

is utilized for general farming and stock-raising. All of his land is under the 

Buena Vista canal and is suitable for alfalfa growing, which he raises to a 

great extent. His cattle are the short horn Durham variety, his horses are 

English shire, and he is raising Poland China hogs extensively. 

On June 28, 1883, Mr. Frazier was married in Sacramento to Frances J. 
Gardner, a native of White River, Me., born March 6, 1838. She was inter- 
ested in educational work in Massachusetts and came to California in 1872. 
He has given service to his community in the holding of the office of clerk of 
Buena Vista School District for the'pa.st thirteen years, his experience in 



1524 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

teaching having made him a valued member of the board. He is one of the 
original directors of the Security Trust Company of Bakersfield, and also 
director of the Peoples Mutual Building & Loan Association. Fraternally 
he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Bakersville Lodge 
No. 202. Mr. Frazier's life has covered many walks of life, in all of which he 
has borne a most useful part, in war, in educational life, in the agricultural and 
financial field of this vicinity and as a capable and prosperous ranchman, and 
not the least as an honorable and upright citizen, whose interest is ever for the 
benefit of his adopted state. 

CYRILLE GIRAUD.— Since the year 1884 Cyrille Giraud has been 
identified more or less with the business activities in Kern county. He was 
born in 1865 in France, where his parents both passed away. At the age of 
sixteen he arrived in America, coming west to El Paso, Tex., whence after a 
short time he traveled to Los Angeles and then to Bakersfield, in 1884, and 
he remained in the latter place until 1892, during which time he engaged 
in mining and also farmed to some extent. Later for six years he was in 
San Luis Obispo, then securing a position with the Southern Pacific Rail- 
road at Tehachapi. For four years he was occuoied in the shops of that 
company and at the end of that time purchased the hotel and saloon Avhich 
he is now conducting. 

On April 5, 1902, j\Ir. Giraud was married to Jennie Movnier, a native 
of San Francisco, Cal., and to them were born children as follows: Cyrille 
I., Eugene, l^^artha and Harry, ^^r. Giraud is a Republican in politics, and 
in fraternal circles is an active member of the Woodmen of the World of 
Bakersfield. 

MRS. MARGARET M. BROOM.— Widowed more than fifteen years 
ago, Mrs. Margaret M. Broom found it incumbent upon her to look after her 
own interests, and so well has she done this that she now finds herself com- 
fortably fixed and well able to manage her afTairs. She is the only living 
child of her parents, James '^^. and Susanna (Chance) Pochelle, both of whom 
were born in Tennessee. The father followed farming in Kentucky for a 
while, and then removed to Montgc mery county, Tenn., going from there 
into St. Clair. 111., near Mascoutah. where he farmed for a short period. He 
then removed to Johnson county, Kans., where in 18S1 his death occurred. 

At the age of ten years IN'^rs. Broom removed with her father to Illinois, 
settling in St. Clair county, where she attended public school. She married 
in Illinois Commodore Perrv Broom, a native of Illinois, who was engaged 
in farmine-. They also removed to Johnson county, Kans., and Mrs. Broom 
still owns a tract of eightv acres near Olathe. Kans. T^Tr. Broom had been to 
California in 1851 and had remained until 1854, when he returned to Illinois. 
However, he had a great desire to return to the west, and accordingly, in 
1892, thev arrived in California, and settled in Bakersfield, where ^ ''r. Broom's 
death occurred in 1895. A'^rs. Broom then bought a one-acre tract at the 
corner of Second and Chester avenues, where she built a residence and be- 
came engaged in horticulture and the poultry business. This has proved to 
be a sensible undertaking, as she has since been able to build two residences 
close at hand which she rents. Six children survived the death of l\Tr. Broom. 
Susie F., Mrs. Howe, is a resident of East Bakersfield ; Frances, l^'^'rs. Neidig, 
is also a resident of East Bakersfield; Edward E., and Charles E. are resi- 
dents of Bakersfield; Alice E. resides in San Francisco; and Jesse C. in 
Seattle. 

_ Mrs. Broom is an active member of the l^Tethodist Episconal church, of 
\yhich she is a liberal supporter. Her political interests are with the Repub- 
lican party. She is one of those refined women whose influence for good is 
felt by all with whom she associates, and she has been a most devoted and 
worthy mother. 

JOHN NICOLL. — One of the honored pioneers of Kern county is John 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY ' 1525 

Nicoll, of Weldon, who was the fourth man to settle on the South Fork of 
the Kern river. Of English and Scotch parentage he was born near Perth, 
on the river Thames, in Upper Canada, July 9, 1827, and attended public 
school there until he was thirteen years old, when he was brought by his 
parents to a new home in the United States. The family settled in Hancock 
county, 111., and there he began 'life for himself and prospered. In 1851 he 
started with ox-teams across the plains to California, wintered in Salt Lake 
City, and then came on, arriving in California in March, 1852. He located 
first in Calaveras county and mined until 1857, in February of that year 
settling within the present boundaries of Kern county. His capital in cash 
at that time consisted of only $1.75, but a strong heart and splendid physical 
strength were the elements which' contributed toward his success. He fol- 
lowed mining until he took up a government claim of one hundred and sixty 
acres, a part of his presenl: ranch, where he has lived since 1863. 

During the first three years of his residence here Mr. Nicoll subsisted on 
provisions packed across the JNi^oiave desert except for such game as he was 
enabled to kill in the vicinity of his home. He put his land under cultiva- 
tion, after he had cleared it of sage brush, improving it, and purchased other 
land until he now owns four hundred and eighty acres, all under irrigation, 
one hundred acres of which is in alfalfa, :he rest being given over to grazing. 
He gives much attention to stock-raising, being the owner of two hundred 
head of cattle. His homestead is well improved with good buildings and 
with every appliance for successful operation. He was a member of the 
board of trustees of the W^eldon district for six terms, and was clerk of the 
board for several years. The same spirit of leadership which made him a 
pioneer has kept him at the forefront in all movements for the general good. 

GEORGE W. LOVEJOY.— Born near Rochester, N. Y., March 18, 1840, 
George W. Lovejoy is a son of Josiah B. and Mercy (Stickney) Lovejoy, the 
former born near Andover. Mass., and the latter born at Cape Cod, of Puri- 
tan lineage. There were six children who attained mature years and George 
W. was next to the youngest of these. When three years of age he was 
orphaned by the death of his father, who had been a clothing merchant in 
Boston and later had lived in New York state. The mother went back to 
Massachusetts after the death of her husband and her son was sen: to Phil- 
lips Academy at Andover as soon as he had completed common-school stud- 
ies. At the age of eighteen he was apprenticed to the trade of a machinist 
in Ballard Vale, Essex county, and later he completed his time in Boston. 
In 1861 he enlisred in the First Massachusetts Infantry, and after -the second 
battle of Bull Run he was detached from the regiment and sent to Portsmouth 
Grove, R. I., where he was placed in charee of the steam works. He re- 
ceived his honorable discharge after a service of three years. Later he was 
employed by the Corliss Engine Company of Providence, then worked in the 
Hope marine engine works at the same place and afterward held a position 
as engineer on a steamboat until 1868. when he came via Panama to San 
Francisco. The first year in the west was spent in a sawmill in INTariposa 
county, after which he was engaged in erecting locomotives for the Southern 
Pacific Companv at Sacramento. A year later he entered the employ of the 
Risdon iron works of San Francisco and in the interests of that concern maae 
a number of trips to Mexico, while later he traveled in Washington and 
Oregon erecting pumps for the Worthington Pump Company. 

Upon coming to the Tehachapi region in 1884, Mr. Lovejoy erected the 
first mill that milled ore at the Yellow Aster mine in Randsburg. Much of 
his time has been given to the development of his homestead. After he 
had acquired the title to the land he planted apple and oear trees and began 
to specialize in fruit, and was successful and inaugurated the industrv in the 
countv. The ranch originally embraced a quarter section, but eighty acres 
have been sold, and the remaining tract of eighty is rented to a tenant, Mr. 



1526 • HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Lovejoy himself makiiii^ his home in Tehachapi, where he owns a house and 
other property. In politics he is a Republican. On the organization of 
Garfield Post of the Grand Army in San Francisco he became a charter mem- 
ber. Since coming to his present location he has been identified with Te- 
hachapi Lodge No" 313, F. & A. M., and in addition he has affiliated with the 
Knights of Pythias. He was married in- San Francisco to Miss Isabella 
Robertson, a native of Hamilton, Canada. They are the parents of five 
children: William R., a Southern Pacific conductor, residing in Los An- 
geles; Arthur, of San Francisco; George W., Jr., employed on the Santa Fe 
Railroad with headquarters at Winslow, Ariz. ; Mrs. Adeline Fletcher, of 
Los Angeles; and Mrs. iMuriel Wright, who died in Arizona, her husband 
having been employed at Clifton, that state. 

LAWRENCE HENDERSON.— Far to the north of Great Britain, on 
Shetland islands, was the childhood home of Lawrence Henderson and there 
his parents, Thomas and Ann (Murray) Henderson, lived upon a farm. There 
were eleven children of this union and the father had four children by a 
previous marriage. The youngest of the children, Lawrence, whose birth 
occurred in 1871, became an active helper on the home farm at an age when 
most boys are in school or at play and he continued to do his share until he 
too left the old home to do battle for himself in the great world beyond their 
island home. The parents continued at the old homestead, where the father 
died at seventy-five and the mother when eighty-four years of age. 

A visit back to the old island home on the part of one of the older sons, 
C. M. Henderson, of California, inspired in the mind of Lawrence Henderson 
a desire to come to the far west. Although then only fifteen years of age he had 
been doing a man's work and was able to support himself, so his parents gave 
their consent to his departure. The interesting trip came to an end in Men- 
docino county, where the youth readily found employment in the lumber 
woods and logging camps. After a time he went to Oakland and engaged as 
a gripman on the cable-car system of San Francisco, later working for the 
Piedmont Consolidated Cable Company as a driver for eighteen months 
altogether. Upon his return to Mendocino county he resumed work as a 
lumberman. From that locality he went to Oathill, Napa county, where for 
three years he worked in the employ of the Napa Consolidated Quicksilver 
Mining Company. 

In ICOO Mr. Henderson closed out his interests in NaT)a county and during 
the month of June arrived in the Kern river fields, where he still resides, 
although his residence in this district has not been continuous. For a 
time he was employed as a tool-dresser for the Century Oil Company and 
later he worked as a driller for the same organization, but no oil was found. 
Thereupon he secured work with the Illinois Crude Oil Company as a 
driller under his former superintendent in the Century, who had bought an 
interest in the newer concern. At first all went well, but at the expiration 
of two years prices dropped and the Illinois suspended operations. Mean- 
while Mr. Henderson had married Miss Daisy Ellen Ingle, of Middletown, 
Lake county, and to that locality he removed, buying a tract of land and 
during the seven years of his residence in that county he developed and im- 
proved a farm of four hundred acres. With his wife he was a member of the 
Baptist Church in Middletown, while in the same town he held membership 
with Friendship Lodge No. 150, I. O. O. F. 

Upon leaving Lake county Mr. Henderson spent a year in Coalinga, 
Fresno county, and while there was retained to come to the Kern river oil 
fields, where he had worked with efficiency some years before. The property 
of which he acts as superintendent consists of the Wrenn lease and that part 
of the Traffic Oil Company's holdings composed of the old Alcedes and the 
Kane, Robinson and Wrenn holdings on the southeast quarter of the south- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1527 

east quarter of section 30, township 28, range 28. The property of which Mr. 
Henderson now has charge comprises thirty acres, upon which there are 
fifteen producing wells, with a net monthly production of about eight thou- 
sand barrels. Steady employment is furnished to seven men. With his wife 
and three sons, Andrew Wallace, Spurgeon Raymond and Lawrence Bar- 
clay, Mr. Henderson resides in a comfortable home on the Wrenn property. 

EARL HILLMAN.— Born in Madison county, N. Y., February 20, 1873, 
Earl Hillman at an early age moved with his parents to Hebron, 111., where 
he received his educational training in the public schools. He had always 
taken a deep interest in the west, and it was his intention that if ever the 
opportunity presented itself he would make it his home. Accordingly, in 
1902, upon finding it possible to come to the coast he made his way to 
Randsburg, Kern county, and this has since been his place of residence. 
Upon first coming to this county he worked in the Yellow Aster mine for a 
short period, after which for a year or so he worked at various places until 
in 1904 he bought out the business of A. Gibney and has continued business 
in the towm ever since. Besides this he is interested in mining. He also has 
investments in property in Los Angeles and Richmond, which have proved 
very profitable. 

Mr. Hillman is a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. He is inde- 
pendent in his political views, voting for the man best suited to the offtce, 
and in his interest in all civic afifairs he has aided materially in many of the 
town improvements. 

J. A. DURNAL. — From a very early period in the history of the Amer- 
ican occupancy of the Tehachapi region the Durnal family has been identified 
with local affairs. The first representative of the name to settle in this dis- 
trict was the late John A. Durnal, a native of Little Rock, Ark., but a resi- 
dent of California from the age of nineteen years. Immediately after his ar- 
rival in the state he secured employment at El Monte as a corn-husker at 
seventy-five cents a day. From that place he came to Kern county in 1871 
and worked for wages at Old Tehachapi, but soon took up farmmg for him- 
self and in a short time became engaged in the sheep industry. The drought 
of 1877 ruined him financially. Forced to begin anew, he bought a small herd 
of cattle and turned his attention to that industry, having his ranch and 
headquarters in Bear valley, where with Harvey Spencer under the firm 
name of Durnal & Spencer he conducted operations on a large scale with 
alternate successes and discouragements. When finally he sold the cattle 
he continued in business in Tehachapi and later engaged in business at 
Bakersfield, where he died March 27, 1909. 

After coming to Kern county John A. Durnal met and married Miss 
Lucinda Wiggins, who was born in Red River county, Tex., and during 
infancy was brought to California by her parents. Since the demise of her 
husband she has made her home with her older daughter in Los Angeles. 
Her father, Judge William Wiggins, brought his family across the plains by 
the southern route about 1855, making the tedious trip with ox-teams and 
wagon. At first he settled in El Monte, but soon he went to Kern county, 
where he served as the first justice of the peace in the Tehachapi district. 
To him belonged the distinction of having been the second white man to 
locate in the Tehachapi mountain region, Mr. Brite having been the first. 
After years of intimate identification with this locality he removed to Bakers- 
field and there spent his last days. 

The family of the late John A. Durnal consists of seven living children, 
namely: Renza, a foreman painter in Los Angeles; Cora, wife of C. A. 
WilHams, of Los Angeles ; John A., Jr., familiarly known as Jack ; James E.. 
of Tehachapi; Myrtle, who married M. S. Delanty and lives at Phoenix; 
Perry, of the Palos Verde valley; and Kenneth, living in Tehachapi. The 

67 



1528 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

first eleven years in the life of J. A. Durnal were passed at Old Tehachapi, 
where his birth had occurred July 12, 1883, and where he received his pri- 
mary education. As the school advantages of the district were very meager 
in those days he was taken with the other children to Los Angeles in 1894 and 
there completed the studies of the grammar schools, after which he was sent 
to the University of Southern California. Upon leaving school he embarked 
in the tea and coffee business as proprietor of the Oriental Tea and Coft'ee 
store on W'cst Jefferson street, Los Angeles. Not finding the occupation 
congenial or profitable he left for Arizona and engaged in mining near Bisbee. 
The ill health of his father necessitated his return to Tehachapi and later the 
two opened and conducted a billiard parlor at Monolith. After the death of 
the father the business was sold and since then Mr. Durnal has made his 
home in Tehacha )i. For Scme years he has been a member of the Democratic 
League of Kern county. His marriage took place in San Bernardino and united 
him with Miss Jean A. Gates, a native of Tehachapi and a daughter of L. F. 
Gates, who died during the term of his service as a supervisor of Kern county. 

SIMON DUSCHAK.— The Moron boiler shop, owned and operated by 
Messrs. Duschak and Hurst, has risen to rank among the prosperous and 
profitable enterprises of the oil fields and is favorably known by every lease 
superintendent on the west side. 

Simon Duschak was born in Chicago, III., January 27, 1879, and is a son of 
Paul and Henrietta (Fisher) Duschak, pioneers of Chicago and still residents 
of that city, where through all of his active life the father engaged in black- 
smithing. The family consisted of seven children, namely: Lena, Frances, 
Lizzie, Simon, John, Katie and May. When only eleven years of age Simon 
began to work in the Illinois Central shops at Burnside, and from the age of 
seventeen until he was twenty-two served as an apprentice to the boiler- 
maker's trade. 

Upon C( ming to California in 1901 Mr. Duschak secured employment 
successively at Stockton, Point Richmond, San Bernardino and Los Angeles. 
In the last-named city he was first with the Baker iron works and then with 
the Southern Pacific. The railroad company sent him up to Sacramento, 
but there he resigned and went to Salt Lake City, engaging in the boiler 
shops of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Ccmpany. The same company 
engaged his services in their Denver shops. Returning to Sacramento, he re- 
engaged with the Southern Pacific, which company also emoloyed him as a 
boiler-maVer in San Luis Obispo. Next he was with the Union Oil Com- 
pany as boiler-maker at Orcutt, from which point he came to Taft (then 
Mon n) as early as 1909, prior to the great fire. At once he formed a part- 
nership with Mr. Hurst and secured a ground lease for ten years from the 
Jameson tract in South Taft, where they built a boiler shop and a double cot- 
tage large enough to accommodate two families. Since embarking in busi- 
ness they have built up a large trade extending from Pentland to McKittrick 
and obliging them to keep steadily employed a fcrce of seven skilled workmen. 
Two automobiles also are kept in constant use as well as a horse and buggy. 
While living in Los Angeles Mr. Duschak married Miss Frances Valpey, of 
that city. He is a member of the Petroleum Club. Before leaving Chicago he 
became'a member of the Knights of Pythias and after coming to the west he 
identified himself with the Eagles in Sacramento. 

WILLIS EDWARD HURST.— Since the proprietors of the Moron boiler 
shop. ATessrs. Duschak and Hurst, came to Taft in January of 1909 and 
embarked in business, they have built up a plant remarkable for efficiency 
of service and perfection of product. 

Will-is Edward Hurst was born in Lancaster county. Neb., Jul}^ 20, 1877, 
a son of I. N. Hurst, who for thirty-five years was employed as a locomotive 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1529 

engineer. When less than fifteen W. E. Hurst began an apprenticeship of 
five years in the boiler shops of the Burlington & :\Iissouri Railroad at 
Wymore, Gage county, Neb. After the completion of his time he engaged as 
a boiler-maker with the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company at Pueblo, Colo., and 
later with the Union Pacific Coal Company at Rock Springs, Sweetwater 
county, Wyo. Meanwhile, when only eighteen years of age, he had married 
at Wymore, Neb., Miss Edith Smith, daughter of Abram B. Smith, of Blue 
Springs, Gage county. Neb. They have one son, Edwin Forrest Hurst, now 
a student in local schools. 

Coming to California in 1901 and securing employment with the Santa 
Fe Railroad Company in San Bernardino, Mr. Hurst there formed the acquaint- 
ance of Mr. Duschak, and a friendship was begun that brought into business 
relations two men of unquestioned skill in their trade and of the highest 
reputation for industry and integrity. For a time Mr. Hurst worked with the 
Southern Pacific Railroad Company in Sacramento, for five years was with 
the same road at San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, Sacramento and Bakersfield, 
and from the last city he went to Orcutt as an employe of the Union Oil 
Company. Following the outbreak of the oil excitement at Moron (now Taft) 
he came to the new town and firmed a partnership with Mr. Duschak. 
Since coming to this place he has identified himself with the Petroleum Club. 
In Santa Maria he joined the blue lodge of Masons and while in San Luis 
Obispo he became an active member of the Benevolent Protective Order of 
Elks. 

JAMES T. LAPSLEY. — The manager of the Harvey house at Mojave, 
Kern county, is James T. Lapsley, a native of Harrodsburg, Mercer ciamty, 
Ky., born December 15. 1879, a son of Dr. John B. Lapsley. Dr. and Mrs. 
Lapsley, who are also of Kentucky birth, are highly respected, making their 
home in that state. The son was educated primarily in the public schools 
near his father's home and he helped his parents on the farm. He was duly 
graduated with the degree of A.B. from Centre College, at Danville Ky., with 
the class of 1899, and was a teacher in McAfee Academy for about two years. 
In September, 1901. he came to California, locating for a time at Ventura. 
On December 22, 1901, he began a connection with the Fred Harvey Com- 
pany, proprietors of eating houses along the Santa Fe and other railway lines. 
From Ventura he went to Barstow, where he remained about four months. 
In the spring cf 1902 he made his advent into Mojave, where he filled a 
responsible position as cashier until he was transferred to Los Angeles, still 
in the employ of the Harvey Company. Later he served the company at 
dififerent important stations in Arizona, New Mexico and California and in 
1907 was returned to Mojave as manager of the Depot Hotel, a position which 
he now occupies. 

In Louisville, Ky., November 4, 1912, :\lr. Lapsley married IMiss Mildred 
R. Bailey, also a native of Mercer county, that state. She graduated from 
Beaumont (Ky.) College with the degree of A.B., and also graduated from 
the State Normal schcol at Richmond, Ky. 

R. R. HUNT. — One of the well-informed insurance men of Kern county 
is R. R. Hunt, who until the fall of 1912 was associated with E. P. Hoisington 
in the real-estate business at Bakersfield. Since September 12, 1912, he has 
been a resident of Taft. and since January 1. 1913, he has devoted his attention 
to the insurance business, being a special agent in Taft. where he has built 
up a good business. 

The business career of Mr. Hunt in Kern county has covered a period of 
twelve vears, he having come hither in 1900. He was born March 17. 1881, in 
Plattsburg. Clinton county, Mo., where his childhood was spent and his edu- 
cational training obtained. Upon arriving in Kern county he obtained work 



1530 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

as tool-dresser in the oil fields of the Kern River Oil Company, remaining for 
eight or ten years, during which time he was promoted in his work as his 
abilities became appreciated. For one year he was employed at Taft, in the 
Midway field, and for fourteen months he had charge of the development work 
for the Associated Oil Company. Subsequently he was engaged in the real- 
estate business at Bakersfield, remaining there until he came back to Taft in 
the fall of 1912. 

]\Ir. Hunt is independent in politics, voting for the man best suited for the 
ofifice, and his interest is ever in the welfare of his adopted county and state. 
In 1910 he married Miss Bessie Aston, and they have one child, Thomas A. 

ELIOTT MITCHELL ASHE.— Born in Orange county, N. C, April 17, 
1858, Eliot L M. Ashe attended a private school there until he was ten years 
old, and then was brought to Stanislaus county, Cal., by his parents. Later 
the family moved to Merced county, where they lived until Mr. Ashe was 
seventeen years old, when they took up their residence in Kern county. He 
worked for his father until he was twenty-two years old, and at that time 
bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres which is now under a good state 
of cultivation and is devoted to general crops. For twelve years he was 
associated with his brother in the dairy business and since then he has been 
successful as a stock-raiser and general farmer. 

On December 19, 1883, Mr. Ashe married Christina J. Rutledge, a native 
of Tuolumne county, born March 4, 1859, and she has borne him seven chil- 
dren who are here mentioned in the order of their nativity: Eliza M., Mrs. 
Fred Coutts, of San Diego ; Richard E., a farmer in Panama ; Mary R., teach- 
ing in this county; Henry E., deceased; James S., attending the Kern county 
high school ; Anna L., and George Tilghman, both at home. 

It was in the Old River district of Kern county that Mr. Ashe began his 
independent career as a farmer, and he has been a witness of the development 
of the entire county. As a farmer he has succeeded by hard work and careful 
attention to business, and as a citizen he has invariably come to the aid of all 
movements for the advancement of the community. 

CHARLES H. WYNN.— In 1896 Charles H. Wynn came to Randsburg 
and here he has made his home almost continuously since, engaged in the 
practice of law, and with his sons, Harmon and Wilbur, he is also interested 
in mining. A native of New York state, Charles H. Wynn was born in 
Genesee county, April 23, 1848. Left an orphan when a child, he was taken 
to Danville, 111., to make his home with relatives, and there he attended school. 
On April 1, 1862, when he was less than fourteen years old, he enlisted in 
the Union army, becoming a private in Company I, Thirty-fifth Illinois Vol- 
unteer Infantry, and in the battle of Stone River he was severely wounded. 
At the same time he was also taken prisoner, but was afterward recaptured and 
returned to his regiment, thereafter taking part in several other battles and at 
the expiration of his term he received his honorable discharge. 

Upon returning home from the war, Mr. Wynn settled at Dixon, 111., 
where he attended school, and then entered the State University at Ann Arbor, 
Mich., where he took his law course. In 1870 he began the practice of law, 
following this up to the time he came to Randsburg, Cal., in August. 1896. 
Upon arriving he first established a stage line between Mojave and Rands- 
burg, which was first-class in every detail. As above stated he is interested in 
mining with his sons, owning the Baltic stamp mill and cyanide plant. It is 
worthy of note that the first tungsten discovered in California was taken from 
the Baltic mine, and this w^as the first shipment of tungsten ore from the state. 

JOE D. KERSEY.— When he came to Moron in 1908 the present town 
of Taft was non-existent, so that he has been a witness of the development 
of the place from the very beginning. In partnership with Pat O'Brien and 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1531 

B. H. Sill of Bakersfield he now owns several thousand acres of oil land in 
the Midway, and in Lost Hills and Elk Hills. Being located in the heart 
of the region where the great gassers and gushers have been discovered, 
this land bids fair to become most valuable and to bring fortunes to its owners. 
While he has been living in Kern county since 1892, Mr. Kersey spent 
his early life in the city of Chicago, where he was born in 1875 and where he 
received a fair education. His father, Edward P. Kersey, was born in Ireland 
and when a young man sought the opportunities afiforded by Chicago. Start- 
ing in as a carpenter, he soon began to take building contracts. For many 
years he maintained an office on the corner of LaSalle and Monroe streets, 
where now stands the Woman's Temple. After the great fire of October 9, 
1871, his activities were doubled and he engaged a corps of skilled carpenters 
to assist him in filling contracts. There still stand in Chicago buildings of 
lumber, stone, steel and concrete, that attest to his craftsmanship and indus- 
try. In many respects his personal history is a record of the early material 
growth of Chicago and to the last he remained a devoted citizen of his 
adopted town, although his death occurred at Sacramento during a visit he had 
made to California in the hope of regaining health. In Chicago in 1910 
occurred the death of his wife, who bore the maiden name of A^Cary Donnelly. 
A native of Ireland, she came to the United States in girlhood. There are 
five other children in the family and the most of these are now married and 
engaged in business in the city where they were reared. The one son, how- 
ever, was not content to remain there and in 1890 he made his way to Pueblo, 
Colo., where he engaged in the fish and oyster business. The year 1892 found 
him in the gold mines of the Mojave desert and since then he has been a 
resident of Kern county. Through saving his money and making judicious 
investments in Los Angeles and Kern county real estate, and through the 
purchase of oil lands, he has become well-to-do, but in his growing fortunes he 
is the same genial, public-spirited and open-hearted man as in the days of 
poverty and toil. 

CLARENCE C. CUMMINGS.— Cummings valley, which is situated in 
Kern county, derived its name from George Cummings, and his sons are now 
worthily upholding that name and the honored positfon held by their father in 
this community. 

George Cummings was an Austrian by birth, and came from his native 
country in 1849, arcund the Horn, becoming one of the pioneer settlers of 
California, who after many hard experiences finally became the owner of 
extensive properties. He engaged in mining for some time, subsequently 
engaging in stock-raising and general farming, and became the owner of a 
ranch of five thousand acres. His wife, Sacramento Lopez, was born in Los 
Angeles county in 1860, and now makes her home on South Bonnie Brae street 
in that city. 

Clarence C. Cummings was born in Los Angeles, August 18, 1882, and 
there received his schooling. His parents had removed to that city to give 
their children the best educational facilities possible. With his brothers 
he took charge of the father's ranch which they are now operating, besides 
which they have purchased other land and now have six sections, mostly 
grazing land, about five hundred acres, however, being under cultivation, 
and their success in the business of stock-raising has been most gratifying. 

Mr. Cummings is a young man of ability. He is unmarried, and devotes 
most of his time and attention to his business interests. Capable, energetic 
and persevering, he has mastered the details of this line of work to such an 
extent that he is looked upon as an authority, and with his brothers holds a 
prominent place among the stock-raisers of the community. 

EDWARD G. CUMMINGS. — L'pon first coming to the L^ited States, 



1532 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

George Cummings made his way westward and settled in San Francisco, Cal. 
For about six years he engaged in mining, after which he took up farming, 
going to San Joaquin county, where for fifteen years he was a general farmer 
and stock-raiser. In 1870 he moved to Los Angeles and entered the butcher 
business, following this up to the time he came to the valley that now bears 
his name. By this time Mr. Cummings had learned that with proper water 
facilities the soil in this part of the country would yield good results, and 
accordingly he investigated the territory. Finding a mountain stream he 
decided to locate in the valley and took up a government homestead claim. 
He had about three hundred and twenty head of cattle and his stock-raising 
enterprise was on a profitable basis. Fie relinquished his business to his sons 
and lived retired until his death in 1903. 

The family had returned to Los Angeles in 18/8, George Cummings, 
however, holding his ranch in Kern county, where Edward Cummings, his 
son, was born. The latter received his education in the public and high schools 
of Los Angeles, attending until he had reached the age of eighteen years. He 
then went to work for his father, taking charge of the place and relieving him 
of many arduous duties. At present the family operate the old home and 
together own five sections of land, upon which they follow stock-raising on a 
large scale, and altogether have about five hundred head of cattle, three hun- 
dred head of hogs and a number of well bred horses on the property. They 
have five hundred acres under cultivation, sixty acres in alfalfa, and there are 
about eight acres of apple, pear, peach and apricot trees. The owners have 
made extensive improvements on the ranch in the way of deveLping water 
facilities and in other ways have added to the general value of the place. 
Interested with him in this ranch are his sister and five brothers. 

E. W. RANDOLPH is superintendent of the Boston Pacific Oil Com- 
pany, which owns valuable property in the Midway and Sunset fields, having 
one hundred and sixty acres on section 32, 31-24 in the Midway field and forty 
acres on section 34, 12-24 in the Sunset with four prcducing wells, averaging 
twenty-five hundred barrels monthly. On the first-named lease there is now 
one flowing well with an output of one thousand barrels per day ; in addition 
another well is now being drilled. 

Born in Allen county, Kan., December 3, 1880, and reared on a farm, he 
left the homestead in southeastern Kansas at the age of twenty years and 
afterward worked in many oil fields of his native commonwealth besides those 
of Oklahoma. His first experiences in drilling were gained at Wayside, Mont- 
gomery county, Kan., and in Oklahoma he was employed at Tulsa, Cleveland 
and other fields. Coming from Oklahoma to California in 1908 and stopping at 
Maricopa, Mr. Randolph secured a position as driller on the Muscatine in 
the Sunset field. Later, while drilling for the Standard, he brought in No. 1 
on section 26, the first gas well in the Midway field. After a year with the 
Standard he became connected with other concerns and finally was employed 
as a driller with the Boston Pacific Oil Company. After the first month he 
was promoted to be superintendent and now, with his wife, formerly Miss 
Mabel Uptegrove, a native of Kansas, he makes his home on the company's 
lease in the Midway field. He is a master Mason. 

GEORGE JORGENSEN. — From the age of sixteen years Mr. Jorgensen 
has made California his home, coming thither from the province of Schleswig- 
I4olstein. The Jorgensen family represented some of the very best Danish 
element of the northern part of the province, where Jacob and Annie (Schmidt) 
Jorgensen lived upon a farm at Kettingholz. Some time since the father 
passed away, but the mother still survives, at the age of seventy-three, and 
vv^hen her son, George, visited her in 1911 at her home in Arteberg, Germany, 
he found her well preserved and keenly interested in all the activities of life. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1533 

There were six children in the family who attained years of maturity, namely : 
Peter, Christ, Jacob, George, Cecelia and Andrew. George was born on the 
home farm at Kettingholz April 6, 1881. The eldest, Peter, owns and ope'-ates 
a soda fountain at Oakdale, Cal. Christ is engaged in farming in Stanislaus 
county, this state. Jacob owns large tracts in Merced county. Cecelia remains 
in Germany, making her home at Hamburg, and Andrew is working on the 
Lake ranch as an employe of the Kern County Land Company. 

After having fitted himself for life's responsibilities by acquiring a 
thorough knowledge of the German and Danish languages, George Jorgensen 
came to the L^nited States at the age of sixteen years, starting from Bremen 
December 12, 1897, and landing in New York January 1, 1898. Coming 
directly across the continent to San Francisco he proceeded from that city to 
Merced county, where he found ranch work in the employ of ^Miller & Lux. 
During the several years of his continuance in the same position he studied 
the English language, which he now reads and writes and speaks as well. 
Upon leaving ]\Ierced county he worked on farms in Stanislaus county. Dur- 
ing 1910 he left California for the purpcse of visiting friends in the old home 
land. May 26, 1911, he left Germany where he had formed the acquaintance 
of Miss ^Tary Hoeg, who had promised to share his fortunes in the new world. 
The young couple were married in Fresno in September of 1911 and began 
housekeeping on a ranch of sixty acres in the Weed Patch, where he has 
built a neat house and large barn and divided his land by cross fences. The 
ranch is owned by his brother, Jacob, who has leased the property to him 
with the privilege of buying and meanwhile he is making improvements of 
permanent value to the ranch. In his specialty of alfalfa-raising, he has made 
an encouraging start. In 1913 Mr. Jorgensen helped to organize the Farmers 
Co-operative Creamery in Kern county. In the fall of 1912 he built a good 
barn 62x64 in dimensions, with a capacity of a hundred tons of hay. and there 
is room for forty-two cows and four horses. In the last two years Mr. Jorgen- 
sen has made improvements am( unting to $4,500. With the energy charac- 
teristic of him he is collecting a herd of fine Jersey milch cows. 

JAMES RUSSELL CRAWFORD.— The identification of Mr. Crawford 
with Bakersfield covers a period comparatively brief, yet of sufficient duration 
to give him an adequate comprehension of the possibilities of the city from a 
commercial standpoint, and since he opened a garage at No. 1812 M street he 
has built up a large repair business, also has kept in stock a complete line of 
automobile supplies and has held the agency for the Maxwell car. In con- 
nection with the repair shop he has established and maintained a blacksmith 
and machine shop, which gives him the necessary equipment for repair work 
of all kinds, besides enabling him to do satisfactory work in caring for and 
repairing automobiles. 

Near the line of the Old Dominion, at Wardensville, Hardy county, W. 
Va., James Russell Crawford was born October 9th, 1882. The family of 
which he was a member originally comprised twelve children and eight of the 
number are still living. The parents, Capt. Levi and ]\Iary Ann (Bowers) 
Crawford", were natives of West Virginia and the latter died in Iowa during 
the year 1912. The former, who was a lifelong farmer, gained his title through 
efficient service as the head of a company that remained at the front in the 
Union army throughout the entire period of the Civil war. W^hen peace had 
been declared he received an honorable discharge and returned to West Vir- 
ginia to resume farm pursuits. Some time afterward he married Miss Bowers 
and established a home of his own, continuing in West Virginia until 1889, 
when he removed to Iowa and bought a farm near Montezuma. Now at the 
age of eighty-three years (1913) he is living retired in Iowa. When the family 
settled in the central west James Russell Crawford was a boy of seven years, 



1534 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

hence his education was obtained largely in Iowa and his youth was passed 
on an Iowa farm. Agriculture, however, did not interest him as did work 
with machinery. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to the trade of 
blacksmith at Brooklyn, Iowa, where he remained until the completion of his 
time and later he worked at different places, first in Iowa, then in Washington. 
The year 1909 found him in California, where for a year he engaged as black- 
smith with the Monte Cristo Oil Company in the Kern river field. Since then 
he has been interested in business for himself at Rakersfield, where he has a 
comfortable home, presided over by Mrs. Crawford, whom he married in 
San Diego, and who was Miss Minnie Hartman, a native of Iowa. In national 
politics he votes with the Republican party. With his wife he has been identi- 
fied with the United Presbyterian Church. 

WILLIAM LEWIS HENDERSON.— As one of the proprietors of the 
Bakersfield sheet metal works Mr. Henderson is identified with an important 
local industry and is given a business standing which reflects the highest 
credit upon his own energy and resolution of purpose. The attainment of 
success in life, while one of his earliest ambitions, did not seem possible of 
fruition, for he was orphaned by the death of his father when he himself was 
but a child and afterward poverty prevented him from securing a finished 
education, yet with firmness and industry he has persevered until now the fu- 
ture looks most promising and hopeful. Chicago is his native city and he was 
born February 7, 1875, but from the age of seven years he has lived in Cali- 
fornia. His parents, Charles H. and Mary (Burkhart) Henderson, were 
natives respectively of New York state and Pottsville, Pa., and the former 
was an electrician by occupation. When the father died in 1882 the mother 
brought her four small children, of whom William L. was the eldest, to Cali- 
fornia, establishing a home in San Francisco, where the then small lad worked 
of mornings and evenings in order to aid in securing the scanty livelihood 
of the family. After he had completed the grammar grade he left school and 
found employment in a factory where were manufactured articles of brass, 
steel and German silver. At the age of seventeen he was apprenticed to the 
trade of sheet-metal worker in the Union iron works of San Francisco, where 
he worked successively in the engine, hull and ventilation departments. 

Coming to Bakersfield for the first time during 1897 Mr. Henderson found 
work as a journeyman with C. H. Quincy and when the latter sold out to the 
Western Burner and Fuel Company he continued for one year in charge of 
their sheet-metal department. The business was then sold to the Bakersfield 
Plumbing Company and he returned to San Francisco, where he continued 
to work at his trade. For a time he made a specialty of cornice work. After 
the fire of April, 1906, he embarked in business for himself, continuing until the 
fall of 1908, when he returned to Bakersfield. For a time he followed his 
trade with R. H. Ferguson, later being promoted to the management of the 
sheet-metal department, which in March of 1912 he purchased with James I. 
Waldon as a partner. The Bakersfield sheet-metal works (for by this name 
the business is now known) is located at No. 1807 L street and contains a 
complete equipment for the manufacture of everything in the sheet-metal line. 
The proprietors are men of energy and deserve the growing trade which is 
theirs. In addition to maintaining a close supervision of the business Mr. 
Henderson takes a warm interest in movements for the upbuilding of the 
city, in national politics supports Democratic policies and fraternally is a mem- 
ber of the Woodmen of the World. His first wife, who was Miss Lida H. 
Moon, a native of Bakersfield, died shortly after their marriage; later, at 
Oxnard, this state, he was united with Miss Julia M. Hancock, a native of 
Canada, and by this union there are four children, Selena, Bessie, George and 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1535 

Birdie. They are comfortably located on Arlington street where Mr. Hen- 
derson has built a residence on a tract of ten lots which he owns.' 

A. L. MOSS. — Several successive generations of the Moss family have 
been identified with the agricultural development of the new world and par- 
ticularly with the South. The family records show that the great-grand- 
mother, who was a native of Germany, became a resident of America prior 
to the Revolutionary war and there is authority for the accuracy of the state- 
ment that she lived to be one hundred and twelve years of age. From the 
Atlantic seaboard the family began to drift toward the west. Both William 
Moss and his son, A. L., were born in the state of Tennessee near Jackson and 
the former married Julia Ann Stephens, who was born in North Carolina, but 
passed the years of girlhood in Tennessee. One year after the birth of their 
son, A. L., which occurred March 30, 1857, the parents moved across the Mis- 
sissippi river and settled in Missouri, a center of strife during the Civil war. 
Although the boy was only four years of age when the war opened he remem- 
bers some of the stirring incidents and recalls an unimportant but sanguinary 
contest that took place at Hartville, Mo., between the opposing generals. 
Warner and Marmaduke. The long civil strife impoverished the family and 
defeated his aspirations for obtaining a good education, but observation taught 
him much and enlarged his fund of useful information and from an early age 
he has been self-supporting. Throughout life he has made a specialty of farm- 
ing and gardening. While still living in Missouri he lost his first wife, who 
passed away July 10. 1899, leaving two sons, William and John, both now resi- 
dents of Georgia. 

Coming to California about the year 1900 Mr. Moss immediately settled in 
Kern county. During the first year he engaged in a fruit and grocery business. 
Later he followed other occupations for brief intervals, but here, as in Mis- 
souri, he has given his attention principally to market gardening and general 
farming. His second marriage took place in this county and united him with 
Mrs. Addie Thurlow, the wedding being solemnized in the year 1905, since 
which time they have resided at the home farm situated two and one-half miles 
southeast of Bakersfield and comprising forty acres of very valuable land. 
Fruit of the choicest varieties is raised in large quantities, including peaches, 
plums, apples, pears, blackberries and strawberries. He makes a specialty 
of raising "Irish" potatoes for the early markets, as well as sweet potatoes, 
while in the summer and autumn melons and cantaloupes are raised and sold 
by the wholesale. Industrious in disposition, energetic in temperament, fond 
of the work in which he specializes, he has shown ability in the management 
of the farm and is securing excellent returns from its cultivation. In this task 
he has the sensible, practical co-operation of his wife, whose long residence 
in the west has familiarized her with local conditions and given her an expe- 
rience most helpful to present activities. Born near Perry, N. Y., she was a 
daughter of the late James Rood, of York state, and during young womanhood 
became the wife of Charles Thurlow, a carpenter, whom she accompanied to 
California in 1888 and who passed away in March, 1899, leaving two daughters, 
Madge and Gladys. The older daughter is now the wife of Guy Rodgers, who 
is employed as a stationary engineer at San Francisco. Gladys married W. L. 
Formway, who is employed by the San Joaquin Light & Power Corporation. 
The family attend the Baptist Church in Bakersfield. . He holds strictly to 
Democratic principles and never fails to support the candidates of that partv 
in national elections. Mr. Moss bought thirty-five acres in the vicinity of 
Edison in April, 1913, with the intention of engaging in the market-gardening 
business on a larger scale, making a specialty of early table vegetables. 

VINCENT MON. — The early home of Vincent Mon was in Basses 
Pyrenees, France, where he was born December 12, 1858, and where he spent 



1536 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

the first seventeen years of his life. The family to which he belongs has been 
identified with Southern France from a remote period and his parents, Louis 
Henry and Jane (Larratone) Mon, were lifelong residents of Basses Pyrenees, 
where the father died at the age of eighty-two and the mother a year later 
when past eighty. There were six children in the family and all are still liv- 
ing, the eldest, a half-brother, Gart, remaining in France, while an own brother, 
Jean, is living in Buencs Ayres, South America. Marie is a nun in a convent 
in France. Theresa, wife of Jean Crapuchets, remains on the old homestead 
in Basses Pyrenees. Mrs. Genevieve Mesplou, a widow still living in France, 
has two daughters, namely: Anna, wife of Ira Gerardet, a clerk in a store in 
East Bakersfield; and Jane, who resides with Mrs. Gerardet when she is in 
Bakersfield, but whose permanent home is San Francisco. 

While attending the common schools in his native land Vincent Mon 
heard much concerning America and as soon as he completed the studies of 
the grammar schools he crossed the ocean, Los Angeles being his objective 
point. Shortly after he arrived in that city he chanced to meet Henry Zim- 
merman, who bought and fed sheep for the San Francisco markets. Securing 
employment with him as a drover he continued in the same nlace for three 
years and then engaged in a similar capacity with other sheepmen, making 
Bakersfield his headquarters. Carefully hoarding his wages, he was able to 
embark in business for himself in 1891 and began with four thousand head of 
sheep. It was necessary to carry a heavy debt on the flock and when the 
financial panic of 1894 came it found him unprepared for such an emergency, 
the result being a total loss. Forced to start anew, he began to dip sheep at 
Poso Bridge Station in 1895 and ever since he has given his attention largely to 
such work, but in addition he owns a herd of seventy-five cattle and a flock 
of one hundred of Angora goats. He operates his farm of forty acres at 
Poso, Kern county, and since 1912 has made his home on five acres of land, 
which he bought in that year, on Terrance Way, in the suburbs of Bakers- 
field. 

The marriage of Mr. Mon took place in 1887 and united him with Miss 
Catharine Cazaux, who came from the same province in France as himself 
and who is a woman of thrift, energy and untiring industry, a devoted wife and 
wise mother. Ten children were born of their uni( n and nine are still living, 
namely: Julia, Henry, Eugene, Marie, Irene, Vincent, Jr., Emaline, George 
and Catharine. All are yet at home and the youngest of the number are puDils 
in the common schools. Charles Vincent, second child born in the family, died 
in infancy. The family hold membership with the Catholic Church and are 
devoted to its doctrines. Since he became a citizen of our country he has been 
a Republican. 

DANIEL B. WOODSON.— To the class of self-educated, self-reliant 
citizens who form so vital a part of the population of Kern county belongs 
Daniel B. Woodson, owner of a well-improved ranch lying four and one-half 
miles south of Kern. Flis life has not been filled with the sunshine of ease nor 
made glad by an inheritance of wealth ; on the other hand, the stern necessity 
of self-support deprived him of educational advantages and prevented him 
from enjoying the recreations that render pleasant the memories of youth. 

From Missouri, where he was born in Boone county November 9, 1879, 
Daniel B. Woodson came to California and settled at Bakersfield at the age 
of eleven years. The poverty of the family prevented him from securing a 
thorough education and from the age of fifteen he has been self-supporting. 
For three years he drove a team for the Kern County Land Company. Nine 
months were passed as a helper in the Southern Pacific shops at Bakersfield 
and for eighteen months he was employed in the Bakersfield iron works. 
When he left the last-named plant he secured a position with the Standard Oil 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1537 

Company in Bakersfield. After he had been with the company about seven 
years he resigned from his position as foreman and stationary engineer, in 
which capacity he had been employed along the Point Richmond line, mean- 
while living at various places along the route of his work. 

With his savings of years Mr. Woodson purchased fifty acres lying four 
and one-half miles south of Kern and here he has since remained. Besides 
operating the he me place he rents an adjacent tract of fifteen acres and also 
manages fifteen acres belonging to his wife, so that altogether he farms 
eighty acres in one body. His whole attention is concentrated upon the care 
of the farm. Aside from voting the Democratic ticket at all elections he takes 
no part whatever in politics. Since he came to the farm, January 1, 1911, he 
has made a number of needed improvements and has endeavored successfully 
to increase the productiveness of the soil, thereby also increasing the returns 
from its cultivation. In all of his work he has enjoyed the helpful co-ooeration 
of Mrs. Wocdson, whom he married in 1900 and who was Mrs. Mamie Keough, 
the widow of Daniel Keough and a daughter of Peter McCafifery, one of the 
pioneers of Kern county. They have one child, Florence. 

MQRDECAI FILLMORE PEARSON. — Born near Doylestown, Bucks 
county, Pa., on Christmas Day, 1855, M. F. Pearson is the son of Mordecai 
and Ruth A. (Linburg) Pearson, both natives of Bucks county, of old Penn- 
sylvania families and of English ancestry, descending from members of the 
Society of Friends that migrated from England during the early settlement of 
Philadelphia by William Penn. Mordecai Pearson was a farmer near Doyles- 
town and there both parents passed away, their family consisting of eleven 
children. Nine of these grew to maturity, of whom Mordecai Fillmore is the 
fourth. He attended public school near the home of his youth until he Avas 
eighteen and during the next three years worked for his father. Having 
attained his majority, he made his independent entry into the business world 
as a clerk in a store at Doylestown, but later turned his attention to farming 
the home place. In 1884 he came to California and was employed for two 
years in Los Angeles. From that city he went to Cortland, Sacramento 
county, where he successfully operated a dairy until 1890, at which time he 
purchased forty acres of land in the Rosedale district, Kern county, and began 
general farming and horticulture, setting out a vineyard and orchard. Later 
on he sold his property and took up a homestead of one hundred and sixty 
acres in the Weed Patch, where he sunk a well, built a house, and made other 
improvements, and proved ud on it. This he still owns. He lived on this 
place until 1907, when he came to the original part of his present property. He 
bought twenty acres each year for five years until he had one hundred acres 
which he gradually improved, devoting it to general farming and dairying. 
It is all under irrigation from the Stine canal. 

Meanwhile Mr. Pearson took an interest in gold mining, with special 
reference to operations in the northern part of the state, and he is one of the 
promoters of the business of the Gold Mountain Hydraulic and Dredging 
Company, operating on Willow creek, a tributary of the Feather river in 
Plumas county. He has during recent years been interested in the development 
of an apiary on his ranch. 

The lady who became the wife of Mr. Pearson was Miss Ella A. Ott, 
who was also born near Doylestown, Bucks county, Pa., July 7, 1865, their 
marriage taking place in Doylestown, in 1882. She conies of an old Penn- 
sylvania family of German descent. Two daughters were born to them : Anna 
M., who makes her home with her parents; and Ruth E., who is Mrs. Cornish 
of Lcs Angeles. Politically Mr. Pearson is a Republican. 

PAUL R. FECHTNER. — Upon his arrival in this city during the spring 
of 1910 he opened a machine and repair shop on the corner of Chester avenue 



1538 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

and Twentieth street, but in August of the following year he removed to the 
new Berges building, Nos. 1817-1821 I street, where now he has ample 
quarters for every department of his business. A gunmaker by trade he has 
made a specialty of guns and ammunition. Besides carrying a full line of 
sporting goods and doing repair work he acts as agent for the Appeal, Iver 
Johnson, Crown, Savage, Miami and Racycle bicycles. He has fitted up the 
large basement for a modern machine shop with electric power. 

At Pyritz, Pomerania, in the north of Germany, Paul R. Fechtner was 
born February 22, 1867, being a son of Martin and Ernestine (Schroeder) 
Fechtner, the latter deceased in 1900, the former January 20, 1913. Prior to the 
father's retirement he engaged in the shoe business. There were twelve chil- 
dren in the family and all but two attained mature years, while eight sur- 
vive at this writing. The sixth in order of birth was Paul R., who attended 
the public schools from six until fourteen and then began an apprenticeship 
of three years to the trade of locksmith and gun-maker. At the expiration of 
his time he worked for wages. Later he served for two and one-half years 
in the First Rhenish Heavy Artillery, Eighth Army Corps, of th ^ German 
artillery, in which he was chosen gunmaster. Upon the expiration of his 
period of service he received an honorable discharge and returned to his trade, 
which he followed for a year in Germany and a year in Copenhagen, Den- 
mark. The year 1893 found him working at his trade in Chicago during the 
World's Fair. From that city he made three different trips through the United 
States, traveling from coast to coast and from the gulf to the British posses- 
sions. The expenses of these trips were paid through working at his trade. 
Finally he settled in Seattle, Wash., and opened a machine shop, where he 
made a specialty of electro-plating. After two years he sold the business and 
for a year worked as a machinist in the navy yard at Bremerton, Wash., going 
back from there to Seattle and erecting two residences, one of which he still 
owns. The next change of location brought him to Bakersfield, where he is 
now conducting an important business. While living in Chicago he married 
Miss Wilhelmina Ulrich, a native of Springfield, 111., and by the union there 
are three children, Leona, Wilhelmina and Erna. The family are identified 
with St. John's German Lutheran Church. In politics he votes with the 
Republican party. Besides being a member of the Eagles at Bakersfield, he 
was made a Mason in Alpha Kern Ledge, F. & A. M., in this city, and has 
been a prominent worker in its philanthropic efforts. 

MICHAEL ARGY. — The chief engineer of the court house, who has 
filled the position since December 30, 1912, is of American birth and Irish 
descent. Born in Warren, N. H., in 1855, he was only one year old when his 
parents, Alexander and Kate Argy, removed to Chelsea, Mass. After he had 
completed the studies of the public schools he became an apprentice to the 
trade of machinist and when only nineteen was chosen stationary engineer 
for the Chelsea Gas and Light Company. After he had engaged with that 
concern for six years he was for eight seasons chief engineer for the Point 
Pines Company at Revere Beach, Mass., during the winters being with various 
manufacturing companies, and one winter serving as chief engineer of the 
Magnolia Hotel, in Magnolia, Fla. Coming to California in 1890 he secured 
employment with the Visalia electric light plant and gas works, where he 
remained for six months. A sojourn of six weeks in San Francisco was fol- 
lowed by his arrival in Bakersfield in 1891 and since then he has been a resi- 
dent of this city. At first he was employed as engineer with the Bakersfield 
Gas and Electric Light Company and its successor, at the same time having 
charge of the engines in the fire department, but about the middle of 1898 
he resigned in order to become engineer of Steamer No. 1, Bakersfield fire 
department, and for fourteen and one-half years filled that position. After 
having charge of the engines for nineteen years he finally resigned for the 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1539 

purpose of accepting the position of chief engineer at the new court house. 
For some years he has been connected with the National Association of Sta- 
tionary Engineers No. 1, at San Francisco. 

While living in Massachusetts he married Miss Margaret McKearn, of 
Boston, and they now reside at No. 2029 Q street. When a young man, at 
Revere Beach, he became an experienced oarsman and won many races; he 
was one of a team of four that won the four-oared race at Plympton, Mass., 
m 1872, and for ten years he followed that sport, winning many prizes and 
establishing an enviable record for his skill. Mr. Argy is greatly interested 
in the breeding of standard horses and he has owned and still owns several 
valuable horses. He owned Logonette, with record of 2.11>4, and Flora D, 
with record of 2.283^, Birdie Monroe, 2.28, and also McGregor, Logonette, Jr.^ 
King Edward, King Solomon, Oueenie and Flora. D., Jr., constituting a fine 
string of valuable standard horses, are all the property of Mr. Argy. He sup- 
ports the Democratic party and is a member of Bakersfield Aerie No. 93, Order 
of Eagles. 

JULES GIRARD. — Among the many men who came from the south of 
France to seek their fortune in the land of the Golden West and whose am- 
bition to succeed has been crowned with success we find Jules Girard, who 
came to Kern county. Gal., in 1890, locating in Delano when the country was 
all open plains and range. He was born at Gap, Hautes-Alpes, France, the son 
of Francois and Delphine (Julian) Girard, both natives of that place where 
they were successful farmers and are now deceased. Of their union there 
were born eight boys and one girl, only three of whom are now living, Philip, 
Joseph and Jules, all of Delano. Jules was born February 26, 1872, and grew 
up on the home farm, attending the public schools of his native place. When 
eighteen years of age, in 1890, he came to California, making his way imme- 
diately to Delano, where he was employed in the sheep business by his broth- 
ers who had preceded him. In 1892 he bought a flock of sheep and engaged in 
sheep-raising on his own account, ranging them on the plains and in the 
mountains. His herd increased and he met with merited success, his flock 
at times numbering as many as six thousand head. During this time he 
located a he mestead fourteen miles east of Delano, which he still owns. 

Mr. Girard was married in San Francisco to Miss Theresa Motte, also 
a native of Gap, and they have been blessed with five children, as follows : 
Leon, Louise, Jules, Hilda and Victoria. Believing in protection he is a stanch 
Republican. Since his marriage he has erected a comfortable home in Delano 
where he resides with his family. 

GEORGE E. BURKETT.— Mr. Burkett was born in Marion, Grant 
county, Ind., August 13, 1862, son of Daniel and Henrietta (Owens) Burkett, 
born respectively in Pennsylvania and Indiana. The parents were farmers in 
Grant county for some years, and in 1870 removed to Holton, Jackson county, 
Kans., where they homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres. Until 1897 they 
resided there and then located at Dodge City, where the father and his sons 
became large land owners and successful stockmen. He is now in his eighty- 
eighth year, hale and hearty, and able to fully enjoy the fruits of his earlier 
labors. On his paternal side George E. is of German extraction, while on 
the maternal side his descent is Scotch and Welsh. Eight children were born 
to Daniel Burkett and his wife, all of them now living and proving a credit to 
their early training. 

George E. Burkett was the sixth in order of birth in his parents' family. 
His early life and youth were passed in Kansas on the home farm, and he 
attended the local public schools. When he was fourteen he went to Kan- 
sas City, Mo., where he spent two years at the Armour packing plant learning 
the butchering business. At the end of this time he entered Campbell Uni- 



1540 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

versity at Helton and in 1883 completed his course and was graduated. With 
his brother, R. C. Burkett (now of Santa Ana, Cal.), he then made a trip 
through Iowa, the Dakotas, Indiana and other states, finally returning to Kan- 
sas, where from 1884 to 1886 he engaged in the stock business. On July 4 of 
the last named year he came to California and made his way to San Diego, 
where he became superintendent of the San Diego Bituminous Paving Com- 
pany and two years later went to Fresno to take the position of fruit buyer 
for the Johnson-Locke Mercantile Company of San Francisco. Two years 
later he went to Lcs Angeles in the employ of the Cudahy Packing Company 
and for five years served as foreman in the killing room, at the end of this 
time accepting the superintendency of the Maier Packing Company's house, 
which he carried on for six years. The year 1905 brought Mr. Burkett to 
Bakersfield where he entered the Kern County Land Company's service as 
superintendent of their packing department at Bellevue Ranch, and here he 
has remained. 

In San Diego was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Burkett and Miss 
Olive Harlan, the ceremony taking place in November, 1888. Mrs. Burkett was 
a native of Des Moines, Iowa, and graduated from Drake University, in which 
institution she taught elocution for two years. Seven children were born to 
this couple: Nina, who is the wife of J. M. Wallace, of Los Angeles; Lloyd, 
who died at the age of twelve years ; Clarence, who died at seven years ; Flor- 
ence, who is attending the Kern County high school ; and Everett, Frances and 
Marshall, at home. Mr. Burkett is a member of the Woodmen of the World, 
and pclitically unites with the Democratic party. With his wife he is a mem- 
ber of the Christian Church of Bakersfield. Mr. Burkett is now serving as a 
member of the board of school trustees of Buena Vista district. With his 
wife, who is a refined woman of quiet tastes, he shares in the friendship of 
many of Bakersfield's people and they are much respected and esteemed. 

DICK SHACKELFORD.— Few of those who crossed the plains during 
the memorable year of 1849 remain to recount to rising generations their ex- 
periences in a journey so entirely different from anything possible to the 
twentieth century. Although at the time he made the eventful trip Dick 
Shackelford was a boy of only seven he recalls vividly the dangers of the 
desert, the fear of savage Indians and of wild beasts and the perils, seen and 
unseen, connected with that large expedition traveling with wagons and ox- 
teams. The southern route was followed from Texas through New Mexico 
and Arizona and into California at Fort Yuma, from which the family pro- 
ceeded to San Gabriel Mission to spend the winter of 1849-50. The father, 
Montgomery Bell Shackelford, a Kentuckian by birth, had been a scout on the 
frontier and a member of the Texas rangers. Natural courage and frontier 
experiences qualified him for the safe encompassing of his plans and for a 
later identification with ranching in the west. Taking up a homestead in 
Pleasant valley on the Merced river in 1850, he began a brief connection 
with that locality. Shortly he removed to the vicinity of Snelling on the 
Merced river and there began to raise stock. However, the location did not 
prove satisfactory and he soon removed to Santa Cruz county and engaged 
in farming near Soquel, whence in 1855 he went to El Monte. There he died 
during the same year. Many years afterward at Tehachapi occurred the death 
of hisAvife, Mahala (Thompson) Shackelford, a native of Tennessee. 

The family of the California pioneer consisted of seven children, but only 
four lived to maturity and but two of these survive at the present writing. 
The next to the eldest cf the number, Dick, was born in Grayson county, Tex.. 
September 22, 1842, and was sent to subscription and public schools for a 
short time in boyhood, but the death of his father forced him to become self- 
supporting before his education had been completed. One of his first tasks was 
that of teaming between San Bernardino and Los Angeles. During 1862 he 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1541 

went to the Fraser river and had charge of a pack train to the mines, but the 
work did not prove profitable. In the spring of 1863 he went via Portland, 
Ore., to Merced, Cal., near which place he engaged in farming. As early as 
1856 he had passed through Tehachapi, but it was not until April of 1864 that 
he became a resident of the valley and a pioneer of the cattle industry at that 
point. For a long time he was one of the leading stockmen of the locality. 
Every pioneer was familiar with his brand, a 7 and an L with a capital S inter- 
woven, but he later disposed of this and established the head of a cow for his 
brand. Both brands were original with him. During 1884 he took up a claim 
of one hundred and sixty acres in Brites valley. Later he bought adjacent land, 
so that he had the title to three hundred and twenty acres. There he made 
the headquarters of his cattle and ranch interests. He retired frcm the ranch 
and came to Bakersfield, where since 1901 he has made his home. 

The marriage of Mr. Shackelford took place in Tejon canyon December 5, 
1869, and united him with Miss Mary Frances Smith, who was born near 
Belknap, Young county, Tex., and is a lady of estimable character and a 
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Twelve children were 
born of the unicn, viz.: Charles, a cattleman of Terome, Ariz., who died 
January 2, 1912; jy^arcus, a Santa Fe engineer with headquarters at Prescott, 
Ariz.; Jesse, an orange grower near Lindsay. Cal.; Geors^e. who d-ed at 
Tehachani ; Rowzee. an engineer on the Santa Fe and a resident of Bakers- 
field ; Ivy, ]^/''rs. Freeman, of Hanford ; Eva, who died at Bakersfield; 
Mrs. Ida Wilkes, of Bakersfield ; Grover. who is a brakeman. employed 
bv the Santa Fe Railroad Com-^any at Bakersfield ; Ray, who d'ed at Te- 
hachapi ; Aubrey, now employed as a fireman on the Santa Fe and living at 
Bakersfield ; and Ruth, who remains with her parents at the familv residence. 
During young manhood Mr. Shackelford was made a Mason at El Monte and 
past master- of Tehachani Lodge. F. & A. M. With his w'fe he belongs to 
the Order of the Eastern Star and is past patron of Tehachapi chapter. In 
politics he aUvavs has suDDorted Democratic principles. 

JOHN McCaffrey. — One of three brothers who were pioneers in the 
state of California. John McCaffrey was born in County Fermanagh in March, 
1848. He was reared and educated near his birthplace and came to the L^nited 
States in 1869. Locating in New York, he was employed on the rid horsecar 
street railways, on Third. Sixth and Seventh avenues until 187S, when he 
migrated to California. His brothers, James and Peter, also came early to 
the state, and the latter died near Bakersfield. James served in the United 
States army in Indian wars in Arizona and New Mexico and later located in 
Kern county. He was a farmer and stockman on ]\TcCaffrey sloup-h. but in 
time he sold his property there and passed away in Kings countv. When the 
subject of this notice came to the state and to the county he was for some 
years in the employ of the Kern Countv Land Company. He then bought a 
farm of one hundred and sixty acres which he imoroved and irrigated from 
the Kern Island canal. He has lived at Kern, now East Bakersfield. since 1902 
and has made quite a success of the building and rentine of houses. 

In national politics Mr. McCaffrey has alwavs been Republican. As a citi- 
zen he is public-spiritedly helpful to all worthy local interests. He is a member 
of the Catholic church. He married, in New York City, Miss Delia Owens, of 
Irish birth, who has borne him five children: Margaret E.. now Mrs. Black; 
Peter D., who died in June, 1911; John A.; ]\Iinnie E., Mrs. Roberts, and 
William H.. all residents of Bakersfield. 

WILLIAM W. GUNN.— Born at Saint Kitts. West Indies, on Decem- 
ber 26, 1848, W. W. Gunn was the third eldest of a family of seven children 
born to James Edward and Mathilda (Pencheon) Gunn, the father being a 
native of Scotland. He was the manager of a plantation on Saint Kitts. where 
he and his wife both passed away; Mrs. Gunn was a native of that island and 



1542 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

of English parentage. William W. Gunn attended the public schools near 
his birthplace until he was fourteen years old, then coming alone to Canada, 
where he lived two years. Then crossing the line into the United States he 
went south into Pithole City, Pa., where he made his home until in 1868. He 
then came to California via Panama and located in Fresno county, where he 
worked as a laborer until in 1874. Moving to Kern county and settling in the 
Jerry Slough he took up a homestead of eighty acres, being among the first 
to locate in that vicinity, and here he engaged in farming and teaming. In 
1879 he moved to Bakersfield, where he devoted himself entirely to teaming 
and later he was thus employed in Fresno and San Diego counties. In 1890 he 
bought sixty acres of land of the Kern County Land Company, which had 
been devoted to the production of hops and cotton, but which he changed to 
grain and alfalfa land. He has since bought twenty acres more and has a fine 
homestead of eighty acres eight miles south of Bakersfield under the Farmers 
canal. 

Mr. Gunn once held the office of school trustee. In 1898 he was elected 
justice of the peace for the Panama district and was re-elected to that office 
in 1902 and 1906, serving twelve years continuously. 

JOSEPH ALBERT COCHRAN.— A native of Santa Clara county, Cal, 
born January 15, 1859, who first saw Kern county in 1865 and has lived within 
its borders since 1885, J. A. Cochran attended public schools in his native county 
until he was fifteen years old and afterwards worked on his father's ranches 
until he was twenty-two. He spent twelve years in hunting game for the 
market and was employed from time to time at farming and otherwise. Com- 
ing to Kern county in 1885 he gave his attention to farming and each season 
followed threshing on the coast. In 1887 he took up a homestead of one hun- 
dred and sixty acres back of San Emidio, to which he added a timber claim and 
on which he lived and farmed twelve years. From there he came to his pres- 
ent home ranch of eighty acres, most of which is under cultivation to alfalfa. 
He has given his attention to hog-raising and has one hundred stands of bees. 
Fraternally he affiliates with the Woodmen of the World and the Women 
of Woodcraft in Bakersfield. He was first married to Martha C. Powell, who 
was born in Texas and died in Kern county, leaving four children, Arthur, 
Hugh (now deceased), Esther and Kathleen. His second marriage was to Anna 
M. Replogle, a native of Iowa, and they have two children living, Albert and 
Leslie. As a citizen he has the best interests of the community at heart and 
there is no movement which in his opinion promises to benefit any considerable 
number of his fellow citizens to which he does not respond promptly. 

THOMAS S. FULTZ.— Born in Claiborne county, Tenn., September 7, 
1874, he lived there until he was six years old when his parents, John and 
Martha (Taylor) Fultz, removed to Kentucky. Here he was a student in the 
schools until 1885, when they again moved, this time to Illinois, where he was 
sent to school until he reached the age of sixteen. In 1890 he came west and 
arrived in California. First settling in Santa Ana, Orange county, he worked 
as a clerk for a time and in April, 1893, came to Kern county. His ambition was 
to work on his own account, but he worked for other people for about a year 
before he started for himself. Leasing land on Stine road, a tract of ninety- 
five acres in all, he engaged in general farming for six years and also followed 
dairying on a small scale. In the fall of 1903 he came to the farm where he 
now resides. Purchasing forty acres four miles southwest of Bakersfield, of 
which ten acres were under cultivation, he labored diligently on this land, 
and it is now all under cultivation to grain and alfalfa. He has also an orchard 
of various fruits on the place, and aside from farming he is engaged as a stock- 
raiser, owning a number of fine-bred horses and cattle. 

Mr. Fultz was married January 17, 1900, to Ivy Amburn, who was born 
September 23, 1879, in the state of Kansas, and they have one child, Leta 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1543 

Shirley. He has fraternal connections with the Woodmen of the World and 
the Ancient Order of United Workmen and is a man whose interests are for the 
public welfare. 

FRANK H. CORSETT.— Born November 4, 1855, in Cattaraugus county, 
N. Y., he was there reared to manhood, his parents giving him the benefit of 
an excellent school training, as at the age of seventeen he completed his 
public school course and was sent to Ten Brooks Academy, in Franklinville, 
N. Y., studying there for two years. At the ejtpiration of this period he re- 
turned to his father's place and worked for the latter until he reached his 
majority when he started out for himself. Upon coming to California, in 
1877, he settled in Gilroy, Santa Clara county, where he secured employment, 
but the spirit of travel was strong within him, and he left there to travel 
from one state to another, working at whatever presented itself to him. 
Finally, however, he returned to California, and in 1884 came to Kern county 
and secured a position with the Kern County Land Company, for whom he 
worked for two years. 

Experience and observation had by this time taught Mr. Corsett that 
the most profitable business life was that of being one's own employer, and 
he accordingly decided to gain something tangible by his own efforts. He 
rented a place of a hundred and sixty acres, which .was unimproved, and 
started in the raising of stock and also some general farming. He was obliged 
to rent this place for eight years, when he found himself able to buy his pres- 
ent place of eighty acres at Old River, and thus reaped the fruits of his labor, 
for which he had been striving. He has cleared this tract and has it under 
cultivation of crops which are most profitable, principally alfalfa and grain. 
He engaged in dairying for a short time, but gave it up to devote his time to 
his other affairs. In 1893 he was appointed to fill the vacancy left by the 
death of T. J. Bottoms who was supervisor and in 1904 was elected supervisor 
of the Fourth district on the Republican ticket, his term extending over four 
years, and he gave entire satisfaction in the execution of the duties of that 
office. In fraternal connection he is a member of the Knights of Pythias. 

The marriage of Frank H. Corsett and Josephine St. Mary occurred in 
October, 1891. Her birth occurred in 1856 in Stanislaus county, Cal., where 
her early life was spent. She passed away in 1899, leaving three children. Con 
F., Howard and Beryl, the latter attending the Kern County high school. 
Always interested in the cause of education, Mr. Corsett has served for fifteen 
years as clerk of the board of trustees of the Old River district. 

S. G. TRYON.— In Crawford county, Pa., near the city of Titusville, Mr. 
Tryon was born August 26, 1873, being the son of a farmer of that county. An 
ordinary public-school education was given to him at the age of twenty years 
and he secured employment as a roustabout in the Pennsylvania oil fields in 
Butler county, where he remained for two years, meanwhile learning many 
of the details connected with the industry. For a time he engaged with a 
drilling gang. When twenty-two years old he went to the Ohio oil fields in 
Wood county and became a practical driller in the employ of a company at 
Prairie Depot. The years of his work in Ohio gave him a thorough knowledge 
of the business, so that he was qualified for future responsibilities. Coming 
to California in 1899, he proceeded to the Kern river field and secured employ- 
ment on the Monte Cristo lease, where he drilled a large number of wells. 
Five years of steady work in that connection gave him a reputation for skill 
and also proved financially profitable for himself. After two years at Coalinga 
he was called back to the Monte Cristo holdings in the Kern river field. 

The identification of Mr. Tryon with the Sunset field began in October 
of 1908, when he was appointed superintendent of the Monte Cristo proper- 
ties. He came to his present lease in 1910, since which time he has satisfac- 

68 



1544 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

torily served as superintendent of the Maricopa 36 and the M. and T. Oil Com- 
panies. In the latter organization he is a stockholder and serves as a director, 
while in addition he owns stock in the Maricopa 36. On coming to these fields 
he was accompanied by his wife, whom he had married at Titusville, Pa., and- 
who was formerly Miss Ethel L. Benn. Their union has been blessed with 
two daughters, Beatrice and Kathryn. 

JAMES A. SPENCER. — Prior to coming to California and taking up his 
duties as telegraph operator for the Kern Trading and Oil Company at Kerto 
station, in April, 1912, Mr. Spencer filled responsible positions in telegraphy 
in various parts of the United States and Canada. He is a native of New 
York state and was born in Syracuse March 29, 1884, being a son of the late 
N. H. and Frances (Fowler) Spencer. The father, who died in 1906, had 
engaged for years in buying stock for the Chicago markets and particularly 
for the Cudahy Comoany. The demands of the business toe k him through 
all of the Pacific northwest, although his operations were largely in Montana. 
As a judge of stock he had few superiors. In his estimates of their values he 
seldom erred. His wife, who was born in Missouri and now makes her home 
in San J> se, Cal., is a daughter of Welcome Fowler, a pioneer of California 
during the gold-mining era and once the proprietor of the old Palmyra hotel 
at Orange City. Having a firm faith in the future of the state, he speculated 
in lands in various localities and thus acquired large tracts. 

There were three sons and one daughter in the family of N. H. Spencer, 
namely : Clinton Edgar, who built the Bakersfield street-car system and is 
now chief engineer for the Stockton Street Railway Company ; Lulu, wife 
of William Cole, a broker in New York City; James A.; and LeRoy, an auto- 
mobile painter emnloyed in Buffalo. The second son lived in Syracuse until 
he was thirteen and then went to New York City, where he was graduated 
from the Brcnx high school with the class of 1901. From the high school he 
came to the University of California at Berkeley and there took a course in 
electrical engineering, but at the end of the second year he left the university 
and entered the wholesale house of the Brown Hardware Company. After 
six months in that place he went back to New York City and embarked in 
the stock brokerage business, at the same time specializing in telegraphy. For 
some years he engaged as operator on the Stock Exchange in different cities, 
this being a line of work calling for unusual expertness in telegraphy. For 
brief periods he was stationed at Atlanta, Ga., Jacksonville, Fla., Tampa, Fla., 
Miami, Fla., New Orleans, La., and Dallas, Tex. and thence was sent to 
Havana, Cuba, where he was employed by Moss & Co., a firm later absorbed 
by B. F. Sheffield, of New York. While engaged in the brokerage business 
at Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland, he was connected with 
the firm of Lcgan and Bryan, and also he was with Fred Dorr of San Fran- 
cisco for a time. Meanwhile he had been connected with the Associated Press 
and the Canadian Press and in the latter service he had made brief sojourns in 
Winnipeg, Canada, Toronto, Calgary, Regina, London, Montreal and Quebec. 

PETER CATTANI.— Upon coming to America Mr. Cattani did not 
find the many obstructions toward making his fortune as hard as would some 
who had not experienced his early toilsome life. Born in Piedmont, Italy, 
on December 8, 1869, he spent the first nineteen years of his life there, his 
father being a sawyer and lumber hewer in that locality. At the tender age 
of six and a half years he worked on a farm, at seven years being a goat herder 
in the Alps, and later he herded cows and worked in the woods. He would 
work for an entire year for the small sum of $4 and his board, but as he grew 
older his wages increased. Small wonder then that the lad looked forward 
with fond anticipaticn to the time when he could come to the new country 
and procure more promising results from his hard labors. Sailing from Havre 
to New York he made San Francisco his point of destination, arriving there 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1545 

in November, 1889, and from there he went to Pescadero, San Mateo county, 
where he procured work on a large dairy farm. For seven years he worked 
for wages, but at the time of his marriage in 1896 he rented a dairy and em- 
barked in the business for himself and for the next eleven years ran a dairy 
ranch and cheese factory. He then removed to Merced county, where he 
bought fifty acres of alfalfa land at Walter, which has been steadily increasing 
in value until it is now worth more than $300 an acre. On his dairy farm he 
has over a hundred cows. In 1911 he united his interests with Mr. Rodoni, 
and built and established the now justly celebrated Vineland creamery. Mr. 
Cattani has devo.ed his entire time and attention to this extensive business, 
which is still operated under the name of the Vineland Cheese Factory, 
(although Mr. Cattani has recently bought out Mr. Rodoni.) In November, 
1911, Messrs. Cattani and Rodoni purchased a hundred and sixty acres of land, 
adding to it an adjoining two hundred acres, and here the cows which supply 
the dairy are grazed and cared for. The barn is modern and equipped with all 
conveniences, and under the able management of the proprietor the cheese 
business has developed until it now is one of the most flourishing firms of its 
kind in the county. Since relinquishing his interest in the creamery Mr. 
Rodoni has made his home on a small ranch north of Bakersfield. 

Mr. Cattani married in 1896 Miss Henrietta Guerra, who was born at 
Half Moon Bay, San Mateo county, and they are the parents of five children, 
James, Katherine, William, Arnold and Madeline. Mrs. Cattani has proved a 
helpmeet to her husband and a devoted and loving mother. They are popular 
and well known in their community, and Mr. Cattani holds a high place in 
the esteem of his fellow citizens. 

FRANCIS GUY COLTON.— The late F. H. Colton, an honored pioneer 
of Kern county and the father of Francis Guy Colton, was born in Ashtabula 
county, Ohio, received an education both in the classics and the law, and for 
a time had charge of the public schools of St. Paul Minn. After he had been 
admitted to the bar he practiced law for a time in Kentucky and won consid- 
erable prominence in his profession, but with the growing interest attached 
to the colonization of Kansas he was induced to take up land in that state. 
While living near Minneapolis, Ottawa county, there was born, March 1, 
1871, a son, Francis Guy, to his union with Lydia Ann Tucker. About 
four years later, in July of 1875, he came to California, the change being 
made with the hope of physically aiding him as he was suffering with 
asthma. The day after his arrival in Bakersfield he secured employment 
with the Livermore Company and he continued with the organization 
through its subsequent ownership by Messrs. Carr and Haggin, also when 
finally it was absorbed by the Kern County Land Company, and at the time 
of his death, which occurred in Bakersfield June 9, 1892, he was filling the 
position of superintendent of canals for that concern. Meanwhile many 
responsibilities had been turned over to him. Faithfully and intelligently 
he had superintended construction work in Kern county that had involved 
the expenditure of millions of dollars. Nor was his activity limited to 
his association with the land company, but in addition he had maintained a 
constant interest in educational matters. His own early identification with 
the profession of teaching gave him a critical insight into the needs of the 
educational system of our country. Through a service for years as a school 
trustee and a member of the county board he endeavored to promote the wel- 
fare of the schools of the county and to introduce improvements in the 
matter and manner of instruction. The passing of a man so advanced in 
thought and so patriotic in citizenship was a distinct loss to the city. Mr. 
Colton was twice married, his first marriage, which occurred in 1866 in 
Kansas, uniting him with ]\Iiss Lydia Ann Tucker, by whom he had seven 



1546 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

children. Six of these grew to maturity: Evelyn G. is now Mrs. Joseph 
Morley; her husband is a farmer and dairyman on the Kern Island road, 
Kern county. Francis Guy is second in order of birth. Charles Maxwell 
is in the educational department of the government at Manila, P. I. ; he 
married Mrs. Lena Skillern of San Francisco. Ward Tucker grew up and 
married in Bakersfield Miss Hattie Ripley of Caliente, and by her had one 
child, John H. ; he was killed by being smothered in the San Fernando 
tunnel. Lydia Ann is now the wife of Alfred Clark, an accountant in 
the First National Bank, situated at the corner of C and Sunset street, 
Bakersfield. Albert Sanborn, twin of Lydia Ann, is a graduate of the 
University of California, and is principal of a high school in Siskiyou county. 
The mother of these died in 1878 at the birth of the twins, at Bakersfield, 
Mr. Colton was married (second) to Mrs. Miriam L. Shottenkirk, widow 
of Daniel Shottenkirk and the daughter of Caleb and Elizabeth (Newton) 
Isbister, both natives of Scotland. Ten children were born to the mar- 
riage of Mr. and Mrs. Isbister, Mrs. Colton being the youngest child, born 
at Alleghany City, Pa. She bore her first husband five children, two 
of whom survive, Florence and Jessie. Florence is the wife of Walter 
Abbey, of Wasco, while Jessie is the wife of Dr. D. V. Bower, a dentist 
in Chicago. 

From the age of four years Francis Guy Colton has lived in Bakers- 
field. Attending the public schools until he had completed the regular 
course of study, he then took up the task of earning a livelihood and after 
a time became the proprietor of a feed and fuel business, which seemed 
about to bring him permanent prosperity when the catastrophe of a de- 
structive conflagration forced him to begin again absolutely without means. 
However, since beginning in the transfer business he has again established 
himself upon a stable foundation and there is every prospect for increasing 
success in the future. August 26, 1896, he married Miss Elizabeth Isbister, 
a native of Nevada county, Cal., and by this union there are three children, 
Francis John, Phoebe Louise and Richard Guy. The family hold mem- 
bership with the First Congregational Church of Bakersfield, in which Mr. 
Colton officiates as a deacon and member of the board of trustees. Fratern- 
ally he is connected with the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the 
Woodmen of the World. 

THOMAS EDWIN OWENS.— The memorable era of gold discovery 
in California had not only its tales of triumph and success but also its hun- 
dreds of unwritten tragedies and one of the latter occurred in the Owens 
family, for the father, David Owens, a Welshman by birth, a blacksmith 
by trade and during young manhood a farmer near Hillsboro, Jefiferson county. 
Mo., was one of the courageous men who bade farewell to wife and friends 
and started across the plains during 1849. With ox-teams and wagons 
the expedition wended its way along the tedious route. Finally the placer 
mines were reached and the young Argonaut at once began to mine for 
gold. His letters to his wife were full of hope and cheer. Finally he wrote 
that he had struck two rich claims and now his only desire was to return to 
those he loved, bringing with him his little store of wealth. Never again 
was he heard from and no word ever came as to his fate, but unquestion- 
ably he was murdered for his gold, a tragedy by no means uncommon in 
that lawless period of history. 

Back in the Missouri home there remained the widow who was form- 
erly Mrs. Louisa (Williams) Chandler, and the only child of the marriage. 
Thomas Edwin Owens, whose birth occurred at Hillsboro, Mo., June 17, 
1849. The latter attended subscription schools in boyhood and when not 
in schools he worked on farms for fifty cents per day. During the winter 
months he helped farmers to feed their stock. From his earliest recollec- 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1547 

tions he was interested in California. Often he would read his father's last let- 
ter and always it would arouse his desire to go west, so after he had worked 
for a few years in the Sandy lead mines and also had saved a little money 
through buying and selling horses, in 1873 he had saved an amount sufft- 
cient to pay his expenses to the coast. One of his earliest labors in the state 
was to attempt to find some trace of his father's fate, but the search was 
unavailing and finally was relinquished as hopeless. After he had traveled 
via the Southern Pacific road to Bakersfield and by stage to Caliente, Kern 
county, he found employment in the latter place as a freight handler. Later 
he engaged in mining and teaming at Havilah, where he married Miss Laura 
Reid, a native of Visalia, this state. For some years he and his wife have 
owned and occupied a substantial residence on the corner of L and Twenty- 
fourth streets, Bakersfield. Of their six children four sons are now living, 
namely: Charles, an electrician; Frederick, deputy sheriff of Kern county; 
Dean, a machinist, and Arthur, a printer. Mrs. Owens is a daughter of Col. 
John C. Reid, a native of Virginia, who crossed the plains to California and 
became a pioneer merchant and stockman, who was known as one of the 
cattle kings of what is now Tulare, Kern, Kings and Inyo counties, the other 
men sharing with him in this title being Messrs. Dunlap and Stanford. He 
was county treasurer and tax collector of Tulare county before Kern county 
was organized. He served in the Mexican war as colonel and died in Bak- 
ersfield at the age of eighty. His wife, who was Mary Glenn, a native of 
Tennessee, died in Tulare county. 

Upon coming to the vicinity of Bakersfield in 1876 Mr. Owens pur- 
chased a ranch adjoining Stockdale and later bought property in the city 
which he still owns. For thirty-three years he has engaged in the liquor 
business. One of the early fires burned him out and he had to build again. 
Ever since coming to the west he has been interested in farming and in 
mining, now owns interests in the Amelia district and was among the first 
to strike oil in the Devil's Den country, where he aided in the organization 
of the Pluto Oil Company, the pioneer developer of oil in that region. The 
Democratic party has received his stanch support ever since he cast his first 
presidential ballot, and at one time he was nominated for sheriff on the Demo- 
cratic ticket, but was defeated by only forty-three votes. Fraternally he 
has held membershin and was a charter member of the Eagles. The devel- 
opment of Bakersfield finds in him a champion. His interests are one with 
those of the community. When his services are needed in the aid of any 
project they have been ofifered promptly and it was in such manner that he 
consented to serve as deputy sheriff under "Bill" Bowers, a position that he 
filled efficiently for six years at a time when it was felt that he could thus 
aid the enforcement of the law in his county. 

SAMUEL SWEITZER.— The proprietor of the Sweitzer hotel in East 
Bakersfield ]:)elongs to a family that has been represented in America since 
a perird antedating the war of the Revolution. Both the paternal and the 
maternal ancestors came to this country from Switzerland and the paternal 
grandfather, a Pennsylvanian by birth, lived to be ninety-nine years of age, 
finally passing away in the midst of the scenes in Clarion county that had 
been familiar to his earliest recollections. Agriculture was the occupation 
followed by a majority of the male members of the family, although sev- 
eral engaged in the oil business in the Keystone state, and as a boy Samuel 
Sweitzer, whose birth occurred in Clarion county. Pa., gained a thorough 
insight into the oil industry while living and laboring at Oil City, Venango 
county. The immediate family circle to which he belonged included six 
brothers and two sisters, but all of these have passed to the beyond with 
the exception of himself and the two sisters, Mary Emma and Luella Matilda, 



1548 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

all residents of Bakersfield, the former sister being married to Joseph Everett 
and the latter, unmarried, is a trained nurse. 

The first marriage of Samuel Sweitzer took place in Pennsylvania and 
united him with Miss Frances Wood, while his second marriage was solemn- 
ized at Ventura, Cal., and united him with Miss Emma Pierson, a native of 
Sweden. Of his first marriage there are four sons, Jesse Edwards, Adelbert 
Wood, Harry and Ralph. The first and third sons are living in Los Angeles 
and the second makes his home in Seattle, Wash. Coming to California 
during 1893, Mr. Sweitzer first settled in Los Angeles and engaged in busi- 
ness as a plumber. From the first he has been optimistic concerning the 
west and has entertained a profound faith in its future growth and pros- 
perity. During 1899 he removed to Bakersfield, where he since has bought 
one-half interest in the Majestic at No. 1927 Chester avenue. In addition he 
owns the Sweitzer hotel, the largest lodging hotel in East Bakersfield, and 
his possessions are further enlarged by the ownership of a ranch of forty 
acres situated on the Rosedale road, where he resides. 

One of the chief pleasures Mr. Sweitzer has found in life has been in 
hunting expediti. ns and in travel. Fond of sport of all kinds, he is popular 
among sportsmen and has a host of warm friends among the men who, in 
days past, have been his comrades in his hunting tri^s. His travels have 
taken him as far as the countries of northern Europe and there hangs on the 
walls of the Majestic the mounted head of a large moose. The heads of 
other animals, commejnorating other hunting expeditions, are also to be 
found in the same place and are preserved by him with zealous care. In 
politics he has been stanchly Democratic from ycung manhood. Fraternally 
he has been actively associated with the Owls and Eagles. Frequently he has 
been chosen a delegate to their conventions and is past president of the Eagles 
in Bakersfield. 

JOSEPH ESPITALLIER.— AlthouE^h he left France at a very early age 
and since then has been identified with Kern county, Mr. Esp'tallier has not 
forgotten the sunny climate or the picturesque scenery of that far-distant 
land. There lived and died his narents, Francois and Antoinette (Ducere) 
Esoitallier. humble tillers of the soil at Ancil near Gap, department of Hautes- 
Alpes, and there too he was born March 19. 1877, being the third among 
seven children, all but two of whom are still living. The family were poor, 
the struggle for a livelihood was keen, and hence he had meager chances 
to acquire an education, for he has been self-sup-^orting from early years. 
Coming to America during 1900 and proceeding direct to California, he found 
employment with a sheep-raiser in Kern county. Although the language was 
strange 'o his ears and the customs o^" the peonle different from those of his 
native land, he was adaptable and eager to learn, therefore soon proved 
himself a capable assistant in the sheep business. Dnrino- 1*^04 he bought 
a small flock cf sheep and embarked in the business for himself, afterward 
rangina: the drove in Kern and Invo counties along the mountains and in 
the valleys. The venture proved fairlv successful and he began to prosper 
financiallv. but a desire to have an established home and to escane the hard- 
ships incident to following the range led him to dispose rf his flock in 1910, 
when he bought and named Hotel des Aloes at No. 7'^3 Humboldt street. 
East Bakersfield. Mr. Espitall'er is still engaged in the sheen business. 

The marriage of Mr. Espitallier took place in East Bakersfield October 
9, 1909, and united him with Miss Leah Grimeaud, a native of Hautes-Alpes. 
France, and a lady of skill in the domestic arts, hospitality in the home and 
efficiency as an assistant in the hotel, which under their able management 
has been enlarged and remodeled to meet the demands of the increasinjj busi- 
ness. In fraternal relations Air. Espitallier is connected with the Druids and 
Loyal Order of Moose. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1549 

JEAN EYRAUD. — The second eldest of his parents' children, Mr. 
Eyraud was born May 12, 1863, at LaMotte, in the province of Dauphine, 
France, son of Jean and Appolone (Meyer) Eyraud, the former of whom was 
a shoemaker and farmer there all his life. He spent his early years at home 
with his parents, attending the public schools and aiding his father on his 
farm. But he had heard reports from acquaintances who had gone to America 
that California was a good field and he concluded to come hither. In 1880 
he secured a passport, which was signed by his parents and the mayor, and 
set out. On November 15, 1880, Mr. Eyraud landed at New York, whence 
he came on an immigrant train to California, arriving at San Francisco No- 
vember 30. He then made the trip to Bakersfield, consuming four days in 
the trip. Mr. Eyraud's energy and willingness to work was made evident in 
the fact that on the day of his arrival here he procured employment with 
Tohn Jamison, roadmaster of county roads between Sumner and Bakersfield, 
to chop the sage brush, and he aided in building the first road in the county, 
for which he received a salary of $5.00 per day. He was obliged to sleep 
cutdoors on the ground and pay $2.00 a day for his meals. A short time 
later he entered the employ of a sheepman for a year, and then obtaining on 
credit a lot of sheep valued at $4,030, he engaged in the sheep business on his 
own account. 

In 1883 occurred an enisode in Mr. Eyraud's life which he has never for- 
gotten. Colonel Morrow had come to the town of Lone Pine from Chicago 
to inspect Mt. Whitney and other high peaks, and he engaged Mr. Eyraud 
as guide on his expedition, paying him $500 for ten days' service, and it was 
on Mt. Whitney that Mr. Eyraud drank his first champagne in the United 
States. Returning to his sheep business he continued to make that his occu- 
pation until 1887, when he went to Los Angeles and was married, en April 
19, 1887, to Miss Constance Marin, who was also born in Dauphine, France. 
Mr. Eyraud traveled over Southern CaHfornia looking for a good place to 
locate, but noticing so many nickels and pennies in use he became disgusted 
and returned to Sumner where he bought the lot where he has his saloon 
and restaurant. This olace was nothing more than a shack, but hp immedi- 
ately started to remodel and rebuild it. It is located opposite the depot, on 
Sumner street. His residence is at No. 503 Humboldt street. 

Mr. and Mrs. Eyraud are the parents of two children, Henry and John. 
Mr. Eyraud is a charter member of the Druids, which he joined in 1883, also 
a charter member of the Order of Eagles, and the Foresters of America. He 
is Democratic in political sentiment. 

JEAN PHILIPP. — Coming to America and to Kern county during 1883. 
Mr. Philipp, who was born August 18, 1866, at Gao, Hautes-Alpes, France, a 
son. and youngest of four children, of Fermin Philipp, a farmer, entered the em- 
ploy of a sheepman and for three years worked as a herder in the surrounding 
ranges. In 1886 he brught a small band of ewes and these he ranged near 
Delano. The flock increased in numbers and he was prospered in the work, 
but sold the band in 1889, since which time he has engaged in the hotel 
business in East Bakersfield. At the time of settling here the town was 
called Sumner and later the name was changed to Kern, but finally the present 
title was adopted upon annexation with Bakersfield. During 1889 he erected 
the Universal hotel on Humboldt street near Baker. In 1898 the building 
was destroyed by fire, after which he built the present structure. Among 
traveling men he is very popular as "mine host." Courtesy and afifability 
win for him the good will of those who make his hotel their headquarters. 
His popularity further extends to the members of the Eagles and Druids, .in 
both of which organizations he is a member. Politically he votes with the 
Reoublican party. His first marriage took place in Bakersfield in 1890 and 
united him with Miss Mary Eyraud, who was born in Hautes-Alpes, France, 



1550 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

and died in Kern county, leaving three children, namely : Jean, Jr., Marcellu 
and Auguste. Some time after her demise he was united with Miss Mary 
Louise Bellocq, who was born in Basses Pyrenees, France, and by whom he 
has^ one daughter, Jeannette. Liberal in spirit, enterprising in temperament 
and generous in disposition, he forms a valuable addition to the French-Amer- 
ican element so closely identified with the development of Kern county. 

PERFECTO CORONADO CASTRO.— Born three miles south of Bak- 
ersfield, Kern county, on April 18, 1870, he was the son of Thomas and Con- 
cepcion (Coronado) Castro, pioneers of that county. He was educated in the 
public school at Bakersfield until he was sixteen years old, and he was 
scarcely seventeen when he took up the battle of life as an employe of Mil- 
ler & Lux. In time he was entrusted with the management of the firm's 
sheep-shearing department. Later he worked for a year for the Kern County 
Land Company. For several years, in the sheep-shearing season, he went 
north to various places and worked at his trade, employing himself between 
times to the best possible advantage and acquiring a little capital with which 
he eventually bought a saloon in Bakersfield. This he conducted until 1911, 
when he moved to Lost Hills, where he opened an establishment of the same 
kind which, however, he soon disposed of. He then started the stage line 
between Wasco and Lost Hills, continuing until that was sold, and he is 
now a member of the firm of Jewett & Castro, of Wasco. Mr. Castro was also 
for many years interested in the cattle business on Mount Breckenridge. As 
a citizen he is public-spiritedly interested in every movement which in his 
opmion promises to benefit any considerable number of his fellow citizens. 
He married Annie Rameriz, a native of Los Angeles. Fraternally Mr. Castro 
is a member of the Owls and Moose. 

PETER KOSEL. — The proprietor of the Occidental Hotel and of the 
Hotel Kosel, was born in Vienna, Austria, served in the Austrian army and 
in 1894 came to Bakersfield, where he has become a successful man of afifairs. 
Mr. Kosel's business training in his native land was in merchandising and 
there he was given a thorough education. Coming to Bakersfield for some 
years he ran the old German Hotel. In 1898 he became the proprietor of the 
Occidental Hotel, at No. 1201 Nineteenth street. This popular hostelry, which 
Mr. Kosel personally conducts on the European plan, is provided with all 
conveniences for the comfort of its guests. It contains thirty-two rooms, is 
comfortably furnished, electric lighted, clean and orderly. In 1910 he built 
the Kosel Hotel at Nineteenth and N streets, which is one of the most modern 
buildings in the San Joaquin valley devoted to hotel purnoses. He is the 
owner of much real estate in Bakersfield, including seven fine residences for 
rental, all of which are close in and easily accessible from the business district. 
The Kosel Block, which includes the hotel of the same name, is a three- 
story and basement building, 66x90 feet. While Mr. Kosel gives his personal 
attention to the management of the Occidental Hotel, he leases the Hotel 
Kosel. Fraternally he holds membership in the Royal Arch, Eagles and 
Herman Sons. He is liberal, charitable and enterprising and has alwavs dem- 
onstrated public spirit as a citizen. 

GEORGE W. SEDWELL.— Descended from an old Anglo-Saxon and 
Welsh family, Mr. Sedwell was born in the city of London, England, January 
12, 1851, and is a son of the late Joseph and Emily (Shepherd) Sedwell. The 
public schools of London afiforded him fair advantages and his vacations 
were given over to work under his father, a skilled builder. Having gained 
an excellent knowledge of carpentering, he determined to make his own way 
in. the world. The western hemisphere was his objective location, but he 
lacked the funds for the long voyage. Nothing daunted by the condition of 
his nocketbook, he secured employment on a ship and at the age of seventeen 
landed in New York City, ready to earn his livelihood at his chsoen trade. 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1551 

Drifting west as far as Mount Vernon, Ohio, he worked at carpentering there 
for four years. Later he worked his way toward the west. During 1876 he 
landed in San Francisco, where immediately he found employment as a 
builder. 

The identification of Mr. Sedwell with the Southern Pacific Railroad 
Company dates from the spring of 1879, when he was assigned to the bridge 
and building department, with headquarters at Tulare. From the first his 
skill was unquestioned and his efficiency recognized. After eighteen months 
at Tulare he became a traveling carpenter. The resignation of Walter Yelland 
as tunnel foreman on the hill in 1882 was followed by the appointment of Mr 
Sedwell to the position, which he has since filled with unvarying devotion, 
besides being foreman of bridges and building on the San Joaquin division. 
Sedwell spur at tunnel 12 was named for him. Formerly he owned thousands 
of acres of range land which he had bought while visiting different localities, 
but the larger part of this he has sold. After coming to Kern county he was 
married at Tehachapi to Miss Christine Agnes Elliott, who was born in Nevada 
and died in Los Angeles. Later he was united with Mrs. Mary Quinn, a 
native of Nevada, and to this union a son was born, Joseph Vincent, who with 
■the mother now lives in Los Angeles. Prior to 1906 the family residence was 
at San Fernando but since then Mr. Sedwell has spent his time principally on 
the road and when at leisure has remained with his family in Los Angeles. 
In politics he is a Republican and fraternally is a Mason, belonging to Te- 
hachapi Lodge No. 313, F. & A. M. 

LUTHER A. BATES. — The westward tide of migration which has char- 
acterized the agricultural development of the new world finds illustration in 
the history of the Bates family. Established on the shores of the Atlantic 
ocean in the early period of national colonization, by successive removals the 
family became transplanted to the western coast and now has a goodly number 
of representatives in California, not the least prominent of its members being 
Luther A. Bates, well known of late years as a contractor and builder in 
Kern and Santa Clara counties. Before railroads had been built to facilitate 
travel and render easy frontier development C. B. Bates, a native of New 
York, became a pioneer of Michigan and from there he drove through Wis- 
consin to Minnesota with a "prairie schooner" drawn by oxen. At the time 
the great northwest was undeveloped and savages still lingered within ilis 
borders, so that he encountered many perils and hardships in his agri- 
cultural labors. At one time he enlisted and marched against the Sioux 
Indians when their depredations had become intolerable. For years 
he cultivated land near Mankato. Prior to the building of the railroad he was 
obliged to spend three days in hauling his grain to the market. When finally 
he was able to sell the property at a financial advantage he brought the family 
to California in 1884 and settled in Santa Clara county, where his last years 
were pleasantly passed in horticultural pursuits. During young manhood 
he had married Calista Ackerman, who was born in New York and died in 
California. In girlhood she had accompanied her father, Capt. Mark Acker- 
man, a New Yorker by birth, to Minnesota, where he had for years engaged 
in the lake service as captain of a vessel and upon finally retiring had settled 
near Mankato on a farm. 

There were five sons and two daughters in the family of C. B. Bates and 
all of these are living with the exception of one son. The youngest of the 
family, Luther A., was born near Mankato, Minn., July 14, 1877, and was 
about seven years of age when removal was made to Santa Clara county, Cal., 
where he received his education in the grammar and high schools. At the age 
of eighteen he began to serve an apprenticeship to the trade of carpenter under 
his brothers, C. A. and A. C, practical and skilled workmen in San Jose. 
Upon the conclusion of his time he entered the carpentering department of the 



1552 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

Southern Pacific Railroad and for two years worked between San Luis 
Obispo and San Francisco. Next he returned to San Jose to become foreman 
for the contractor, C. O. Field, with whom he continued for five years, and 
then resigned in order to engage in the building business for himself. From 
1906 until 1909 he erected a large number of buildings in San Jose. Removing 
to Bakersfield in March of 1909, he erected a residence and maintained an office 
at No. 2303 Chester avenue. Much of his work was in East Bakersfield and 
includes the Brown block as well as the residences of Jack Stevenson, L. E. 
Nelson, A. Stramler, Messrs. Kemp, Monon and Strobles, and the Hayes and 
Murray buildings, besides which he has had the contract for the residences 
of Mrs. Ida M. Dixon, James Trail and others in Bakersfield. When the 
Builders' Exchange was established he became a charter member and was 
elected upon the first board of directors. Fraternally he is connected with 
the Woodmen of the World, the Loyal Order of Moose, Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows and the Fraternal Aid. Though not himself identified wnth any 
denomination, he is in sympathy with practical religious work and contributes 
to the Metht dist Episcopal Church, of which his wife is a member. While 
living in San Jose he married Miss Annie Sutherland, by whom he has two 
children, James and Frances, and who is herself a native daughter of the state, 
member of an honored pioneer family. As early as 1852 her father, James 
Sutherland, crossed the plains to California and settled in the San Joaquin 
valley, where he was an influential pioneer. Her birth occurred during the 
residence of the family in Santa Clara county and her education was secured in 
the public schools of that section of the state. 

CHARLES E. DAGGETT.— Mr. Daggett is the great-great-grandson of 
a soldier who fought in the Revolutionary war, and is of English descent, 
other members of the Daggett family having also served in that war. His 
grandfather came from Vermont and settled in Carroll county, Ind., at an 
early day, and here his father, Edward J. Daggett, who was born in Antwerp, 
Ohio, followed farming. Several brothers of Ed Daggett crossed the plains in 
1849, but he himself continued on the home place, his death occurring when 
Charles E. was but seven years of age. The mother, Sarah Barnes, born in 
1835, in Carroll county, Ind., passed away in 1909. She was the mother of 
three children, of whom Charles E. was the youngest. 

Mr. Daggett was born July 30, 1866, in Lockoort, Carroll county, Ind., 
and was brought up on the farm in Indiana, attending the public schools in 
his locality, and the high school in Idaville. At the completion of his course 
he began his railroad career which covered many years of labor, his first 
position being at the transportation department at Vandalia, and from there 
went to Middleburg, Ky., on the railroad construction work there. He then 
took up contracting and later worked on the construction of the railroad in 
Indian Territory, going from there to Chicago to be in the transportation de- 
partment during the Worlds Fair. He remained in Chicago until 1894, when 
he began work on the construction of the Wisconsin and Michigan roads as 
foreman of construction, leaving that work to take up work in the mines at 
Cripple Creek, Colo. From there he went to Grand Forks, N. D., to work as 
foreman on the Great Northern road construction, soon becoming road- 
master, which position he held until 1901, when he took the position of road- 
master of the vSeaboard Air Line at Raleigh, N. C. He then became foreman 
on the building of the railroad between Atlanta, Ga., and Birmingham, Ala., 
and then superintended the building of the Southern & Western roads through 
the Blue Ridge Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina, but was finally 
prevailed upon to return to the Seaboard road as roadmaster at Raleigh, N. C. 
After holding this ofiice for some time he resigned in May, 1909, and came west 
spending several months in Seattle, Wash., and in January, 1910, located in 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1553 

Bakersfield, where in February of that year he opened up a real-estate business 
in East Bakersfield, handling both city and country property. 

Mr. Daggett was married in Minneapolis to Clara E. Mageau, who was 
born there. They are the parents of one child, Lloyd. Mr. Daggett joined the 
Masonic order in Raleigh, N. C, and became a member of Hiram Lodge No. 
40, A. F. & A. M., still retaining his membership, and also belongs to Raleigh 
Chap.er No. 10, R. A. M. He is also affiliated with the Benevolent Order of 
Elks in the Crookston (Minn.) Lodge No. 342. 

H. J. DOVER.— A native sen, H. J. Dover was born in San Luis Obispo 
county, April 30, 1875, and at the age t f thirteen he was brought by his parents 
to Kern county, where they settled in Bakersfield, the father following the 
stock business. They now make their home in Santa Cruz. Bakersfield was 
the home of H. J. Dover until he reached the age of twenty, when he went 
to Randsburg and prospected for gold, found some rich ore and staked a 
claim on Panamint range. He next went to Nevada and was in the Funeral 
range prospecting for copper and gold, and he next worked for about a year 
in a copoer mine in San Bernardino county, meeting with varying success. 
Altogether he spent five years in the mining business and then in 1905 came 
to the Midway Oil Fields where he was one of the original locators of the 
famous secticn 25; later he sold out this interest. At present, with several 
others, he is interested in several sections at Elk Hills which they have 
leased out to the Associated Oil Company, and A^r. Dover is largely interested 
in other oil lands in the district. With Mr. Wilson he has invested largely in 
the Elk Horn Valley Oil Lands, which is unimproved territory but has gi'ven 
good indications of being productive. In 1911 he built a residence in ^Taft, 
but recently removed to Wasco where he and his estimable wife, Lena E. 
(Austin) Dover, make their home. Mrs. Dover was before her marriage a resi- 
dent of Texas. They have one child living, Elsie. In fraternal affiliation Mr. 
Dover is a member of the Order of Eagles. , 

GEORGE J. RICHARD.— A native of Allendale, Canada, Mr. Richard 
was born January 15, 1864, being a son of Hugh Richard, who was reared in 
New York state and from the age of twenty-five until his death engaged in 
the saw-mill business in Ontario. When ten years of age George J. Richard 
began to earn his own livelihood. At first he remained on a farm working 
for his board and clothes. At the age of seventeen he became an employe on 
a government surveying corps in Manitoba, whence he went to Michigan 
and worked in the lumber woods in 1881. In a short time he had learned the 
lumber business in its every department. Returning to Ontario in 1883, he 
resumed work on a farm. During December, 1884, he went to Pennsylvania and 
at Bradford started to work in the oil fields in January, 1885. It was at Brad- 
ford that he became skilled in rig-building. After three and one-half years 
there, a portion of the time with small contractors and the balance with the 
Standard Oil Company, August 17, 1888, he began to work as head rig-builder 
at Taylorstown, Pa., where he continued until May, 1890, when he was sent 
by said company to Oakdale to build rigs in the McDonald field, Allegheny 
county. Pa., meanwhile becoming skilled in every phase of the work. 

When finally resigning an excellent position in Pennsylvania which he 
had held for some years, Mr. Richard came to California, landing at Whittier 
September 25, 1900. The day after he arrived at Whittier he began to work 
as rig-builder- with the Murphy Oil Company, continuing with the concern 
until October 1, 1905. As head rig-builder for the Mexican Petroleum Com- 
pany he had charge of much important work at Ebano, Mexico, but on account 
of the failure of his health due to the hot climate he returned to Los Angeles 
in May, 1906. After a brief period with his former employers, the Murphy 
Oil Company, he came to the ]\Iidway field August 20, 1907, and has since 
had charge of the building department for the Santa Fe. In removing to Kern 



1554 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

county he brought his family, consisting of wife and two sons. Mrs. Richard 
bore the maiden name of Mary E. Cherrie and was born near Oil City, Pa.; 
but their union was solemnized in Buffalo, N. Y. Their older son, Joseph 
Burton Richard, is now employed in Salt Lake City, while the younger son, 
Hugh Clifton, is engaged with Mays Consolidated Oil Company in Kern 
county. In politics Mr. Richard votes with the Republican party. 

MAX GUNDLACH, JR.— Born in San Francisco, January 6, 1867, Max 
Gundiach, jr., was a son of Max Gundlach, a native of Germany. The latter 
came to California more than sixty years ago and for many years was pro- 
prietor of the Gundlach Shoe Company, a prominent mercantile enterprise 
of Bakersfield. His death occurred February 8, 1913. The son was educated 
in public schools in San Francisco and in Alameda. From the time he was 
seventeen until he was twenty he worked for Charles F. Fisher, of Alameda. 
Later he worked at his trade with dififerent employers until he established 
himself in the plumbing business on Santa Clara avenue, Alameda, where he 
prospered five years. In 1900 he began business in Bak-^.rsfield on Twentieth 
street, and from there he eventually removed to his present site at No. 2014 
Chester avenue, a modern shop, fully equipped. Specimens of his handicraft 
are to be found in the Hopkins & Willis buildings, the St. Regis Hotel, the 
Barlow residence, the Hill residence and many other fine homes in Bakersfield 
and vicinity. An important department of his enterprise is the manufacture 
of galvanized iron, water and oil tanks of any capacity up to two thousand 
barrels. These are manufactured under the name of the Gundlach Tank Com- 
pany of which he is proprietor. Besides his extensive local business he main- 
tains branches at Maricopa and Taft, with shops in bo:h towns and a store 
and manufacturing plant in Taft. His residence is at No. 2103 C street. 

When he was only eighteen years old Mr. Gundlach joined Thompson 
Hose Company, of the Alameda Fire Department, and was later made its 
foreman. He became a member of the Bakersfield Fire Department in 1901 
and served two years and a half. In 1907 he was appointed chief of the depart- 
ment, which position he filled four years, and numerous important improve- 
ments looking to the efficiency of the department were made under his adminis- 
tration. He is a past-exalted ruler of Bakersfield Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E ; 
past-Dresident of Alameda Parlor No. 47, N. S. G. W., and affiliates with Aerie 
No. 93, F. O. E., and with Lodge No. 7(i, K. P. of Bakersfield. He married at 
Alameda j\Iiss Gussie Wulzen, a native of that city, and they have one daugh- 
ter, Hazel. 

J. A. JONES.— Born in Boone county, Neb., February 9. 1881. J. A. Jones 
is a son of Paul and Clara (Meade) Jones. The latter died when her son, J. A., 
was twelve years old, leaving beside him four sons and two daughters. By a 
subsequent marriage the father had another daughter. The home of the 
family for years was upon a stock ranch in the central part of Nebraska. The 
surrounding country was soarsely settled and largely undeveloped. The broad 
prairies afiforded excellent range for stock, hence the father made a specialty 
of the cattle industry, although to some extent he also raised general farm 
crops. Eventually he disposed of his lands in Nebraska and came to California 
in 1898, settling in Fresno county, where he began to make a study of viticul- 
ture. Since then he has become known in his community as a very successful 
vineyardist and his tract of forty acres in vines and orchard affords him a neat 
income in return for his care and cultivation. 

After having assisted his father on the Nebraska ranch and the Fresno 
county vineyard, J. A. Jones started out to earn his own livelihood, having 
no preparation for work except a robust constitution, a pair of willing hands 
and an intelligent ability in carrying out orders. There being no available 
opening in business, he started out as a farm hand. For one year he worked 
on a stock ranch in Tulare county owned by E. K. Zumwalt. During the next 



HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 1555 

year he clerked in a grocery and hardware store in Fresno. As a roustabout 
in the employ of M. H. Whitter he came to the Kern river fields to hold down 
a claim, but returned to the store in Fresno for another year. In 1902 he 
again came to Kern county, where he has since remained, with the exception 
of eighteen months at Coalinga, Fresno county. Entering the employ of the 
Associated Oil Company in 1902 as a roustabout, he has since passed through 
every department of the work up to that of principal foreman in the field. On 
September 5, 1907, Mr. Jones was united in marriage with Marie, daughter of 
William F. Funderburk, of Merced county. Fraternally he holds membership 
with the Woodmen of the World in Bakersfield. 

WALTER C. TAYLOR.— The outbreak of the Civil war found thousands 
of the sons of the north ready to enlist in the service of the Union and among 
these was a young man from Indiana, J. G. Taylor, who being accepted as a 
private in the Federal ranks went to the front with his regiment and bore 
arms until the expiration of his term of enlistment. Thereafter he earned a 
livelihood for his wife, Mary, and their family through his labor as a farmer, 
supplemented by his ability as a schoolteacher. During the '80s he took the 
family to Texas and engaged in farming. Later he established a home in 
Texarkana, on the line of Texas and Arkansas. Eventually he and his wife 
removed to Shreveport, La., where they still make their home. Of their nine 
children six are now living, the next to the youngest being Walter C, who 
was born in Indiana February 1, 1877, and received his education in public 
schools in Texas and Arkansas. At the age of sixteen he became self-support- 
ing. As a clerk in a Texarkana store he gained his first experience in business. 
Later he spent a year in El Paso. Coming to California and to Bakersfield in 
1899, he secured a position in a grocery, but in a short time resigned in order 
to become a teamster with the White Star (later the Bakersfield) laundry. 
With the exception of three years, during which he engaged as a driver for the 
San Luis Obispo laundry, he remained with the laundry in Bakersfield until 
1912, and in April of that year started the cafeteria which he operates with 
success in the Moronet hotel building. 

The management of the cafeteria does not represent the limit of the busi- 
ness activities of Mr. Taylor, for he is interested in the Dreamland rink which 
he established in September, 1912, with L. W. Baker as a partner. The 
structure which they erected on the corner of Nineteenth and R streets is 
59x101 feet in dimensions and has a maple floor ideally adapted to the purpose 
for which it has been utilized. The business is managed with tact, skill and 
precision. The highest moral environment gives satisfaction to the most 
critical patrons, who finding that profanity and rowdyism are not allowed 
feel an increased confidence in the ability and high principles of the proprietors, 
and certainly a large degree of credit belongs to Mr. Taylor for his persistence 
in maintaining the high standard of the place. A few years after coming to 
Bakersfield he established a home of his own, his marriage uniting him with 
Miss Minnie Snyder, who was born in Arizona and by whom he has a daughter, 
Helen. 

R. R. MORRIS. — Born at Alexandria, Aladison county, Ind., December 
3, 1888, R. R. Morris is the only child of Frank R. and May Virginia (Zim- 
merman) Morris, the latter still a resident of Alexandria, where the father, 
who was serving as city treasurer, died in 1900. Educated in the local grammar 
and high schools, Mr. Morris was employed in Alexandria for two years after 
the completion of the high-school course, but in 1909 left Indiana for Cali- 
fornia. October of that year found him in the Midway field, where he secured 
employment in the store of the J. F. Lucey Company, and for a time also 
worked in the pipe yard, but since January 1, 1913, he has served as district 
manager of the corporation for the West Side oil fields, being also manager 
of their main store and warehouse in Taft, also superintendent of the branches 



1556 HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY 

at Maricopa, Shale and McKittrick. His family consists of a daughter, Mau- 
rine, and his wife, formerly Miss Mazie Perry, of Indiana. Both are earnest 
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Taft and Mr. Morris holds the 
office of church treasurer. In politics he favors Republican principles. Since 
coming to Taft he has identified himself with the Petroleum Club. 

The success of the J. F. Lucey Company is a source of pride and gratifica- 
tion to Mr. Morris. Besides the stores and warehouses under the direct 
management of Mr. Morris as district manager, the company owns stores at 
Bakersfield and Coalinga and the main office, manufactory and warehouses 
are located in Los Angeles. Representatives have been stationed in South 
America, stores have been opened in Roumania and the Russian oil fields, 
at Tampico, Mexico, Pittsburg, Pa., and New York City and London. A 
recent acquisition was the purchase of a factory at Chattanooga, Tenn., 
known as the Southern well works, whose enormous business included 
stores in all the principal oil fields of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. 


































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